Alexander Bryson

Alexander Bryson FRSE FGS FRSSA FSAScot FRPSE (12 October 1816 – 7 December 1866) was a Scottish biologist, geologist and horologist who served as president of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts (1860–61) and as president of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh (1863).[2]

Alexander Bryson
Born12 October 1816
5 South Bridge, Edinburgh[1]
Died7 December 1866 (1866-12-08) (aged 50)
Hawkhill House, Edinburgh
NationalityScottish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
Scientific career
InstitutionsPartner, Robert Bryson & Sons, Clock and Watch-Maker, Edinburgh
Notes
The Bryson family grave, New Calton Cemetery

Life

He was born on 12 October 1816 in Edinburgh, the son of Janet Gillespie (1788-1858) and Robert Bryson FRSE (1778-1852), a watchmaker.

He attended the High School in Edinburgh then trained as a watchmaker and entered the family business, then renamed Robert Bryson & Son.[3]

With his first wife, Elizabeth Waterstone Gillespie (possibly a cousin) he had two children who died in infancy, and a daughter and son (William Alexander Bryson) and died 10 April 1855 aged 44.

His second wife, Catherine McDonald Cuthbertson, also died young in September 1859, aged 32. Together they had a son. With his third wife, Jane Thomson, he had another son, Leonard Horner Bryson, who survived him and remarried.

He was President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1860-1861. He was President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh in 1863. He was also a member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Geological Society.

In 1858 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was President of the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts 1860-61.[4]

He died on 7 December 1866 at Hawkhill House, a country villa between Leith and Edinburgh. He is buried in New Calton Cemetery with his two wives next to his parents.

Works
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • On a Method of rendering Baily's Compensation Pendulum insensible to Hygrometric Influences (1854)
  • On an improved method of preparing siliceous and other fossils for microscopic investigation: with a description of a new pneumatic chuck (1856)
  • On a new method of measuring watch-glasses (1860)
  • Memoir of Rev. John Fleming, D.D., F.R.S.E. (1861)
  • Memoir of General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, G.C.B., & C. president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1861)
  • Notes of a trip to Iceland in 1862 (1864)

References
  1. "Obituary". The Scotsman.
  2. Waterston, Charles D; Macmillan Shearer, A (July 2006). Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002: Biographical Index (PDF). I. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. http://www.rssa.org.uk/history/past-presidents.shtml


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