| Authorised form of name | McCormick; Sir; William Symington (1859 - 1930); scholar; educational administrator |
| Dates | 1859 - 1930 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Dunbar Terrace, Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 29 April 1859 |
| Place of death | At sea |
| Date of death | 23 March 1930 |
| Occupation | Scholar and educational administrator |
| Research field | Science education |
| Education |
| Activity | Education:
Dumfries high school; Glasgow University; Göttingen; Marburg
Career:
Assistant lecturer in mathematics, Glasgow; assistant to John Nichol, professor of English literature, Glasgow; led the department of English language and literature (1893); chair of English literature at University College, Dundee (1890); lecturer in English at the University of St Andrews; prepared a report for the General Medical Council on preliminary examinations for medical students (1900); Secretary of the Carnegie Trust; departmental committee of the University of Wales and the Welsh colleges (1907); member of the royal commission on university education in London (1909-1913); chairman of the Board of Education (1911), which in (1919) became the Treasury University Grants Committee (UGC) and McCormick became its first chairman, holding the post until his death; chairman of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (1915).
Honours:
Kt 1911; GBE 1929
|
| Membership category | Statute 12 |
| Date of election | 21/06/1928 |
| Age at election | 69 |
| Proposer | John Charles Grant Ledingham |
| Albert Seward |
| Edgar Douglas Adrian |
| Archibald Edward Garrod |
| Grafton Elliot Smith |
| Charles Tate Regan |
| Francis Arthur Bather |
| James Walker |
| Arthur Lapworth |
| Thomas Ernest Stanton |
| Frederick Alexander Lindemann |
| Francis William Aston |
| Richard Tetley Glazebrook |
| David Prain |
| James Hopwood Jeans |
| Ernest Rutherford |
| Relationships | Parents: William McCormick, ironmonger and maker of agricultural implements in that town, and Agnes Ann, daughter of the Revd William Symington, professor of divinity in the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and niece of Andrew Symington.
Spouse: (m. 1897) Mabel Emily Cook, daughter of Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, second baronet, head of the firm of Cook, Son & Co., warehousemen, St Paul's Churchyard, London.
Children: One son and two daughters. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc Series A 1931 vol 130 pp xv-xxiii, plate, signed by R T and H T T |
| Code | NA988 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1928/18 | McCormick, Sir; William Symington: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/002863 | McCormick, Sir William Symington | nd |
| NLB/53/213 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir William McCormick, FRS | 29 May 1916 |
| NLB/54/119 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Dr. [Arthur] Schuster, Secretary of the Royal Society | 13 February 1917 |
| NLB/56/226 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir William [Symington] McCormick, FRS | 19 December 1918 |
| ACS/1/2/2/7 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to [Professor] W. C. Clinton | 12 January 1927 |
| ACS/1/2/2/15 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to Sir William [Symington] McCormick, 43 Frognal, Hampstead, N. W. 3. | 14 February 1927 |
| ACS/1/2/2/60 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to Sir William [Symington] McCormick, M. A., LL. D., 43 Frognal, Hampstead, N. W. 3. | 21 January 1927 |
| ACS/1/2/2/163 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to Professor W. C. Clinton | 23 February 1927 |
| ACS/1/2/4/40 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to [Harold Langton] Tyson Wolfe [Eslquire] | 28 January 1929 |
| ACS/1/2/4/48 | Letter from [Alan Archibald Campbell] Swinton, to [Harold Langton] Tyson Wolfe [Esquire] | 20 January 1929 |