Ogilvie, Alan Grant, 1887-1954 (Scottish geographer)

Dates

• Existence: 1887 - 10 February 1954

Created For

Biography

Scottish geographer after whom the University of Edinburgh's Ogilvie Chair in Human Geography is named.

Alan Grant Ogilvie was born in Edinburgh in 1887. He was the son of Sir Francis Grant Ogilvie, Principal of Heriot-Watt (now University), and was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and at Westminster School. He then studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. He also studied at Imperial College and at the universities of Berlin and Paris.

Ogilvie served with the Royal Field Artillery between 1911 and 1919 and was mentioned in despatches. He attended the 1919 Peace Delegation to Paris. Wartime had interrupted his career which began as a Demonstrator in Geography at the University of Oxford, 1912-1914. After the war he became a Reader in Geography at Manchester University, 1919-1920.

Between 1920 and 1923 Ogilvie was Chief of the Hispanic American Division of the American Geographical Society of New York, 1920-1923. In 1923 he became a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, and a Reader in 1924. In 1931 he was appointed Professor of Geography at Edinburgh. During the Second World War he was a Captain in the Home Guard, 1941-1944.

His publications include Some aspects of boundary settlement at the peace conference (1922), and Geography of the central Andes (1928). He was President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society from 1946 to 1950 and President of the Institute of British Geographers from 1951 to 1952.

Professor Alan Grant Ogilvie died on 10 February 1954.

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