John Farquhar

The University of Aberdeen has produced leading figures in the UK, Scottish, and foreign governments, including the Lord Chancellor George Gordon, former Counsellor of State William Barclay, the former Secretary of State for Scotland, Alistair Carmichael, former Secretary of State for Scotland, George Mackenzie, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, the former Paymaster General, Tessa Jowell, the former Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party, Angus Robertson, the former Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Kezia Dugdale, the former Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, Murdo Fraser, the former Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Nicol Stephen, the former leader of the Scottish Green Party, Robin Harper, John Rose, former Finance Minister and Solicitor General of Canada, Sylvester Douglas, former Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Cosmo Gordon, politician and co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Aberdeen has also produced numerous politicians, Lords, MPs, MSPs, and cabinet members. The former Chief Constable of Police Scotland and Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Steve House, and the former Chief Constable of Police Scotland, Iain Livingstone. Additionally, businessmen such as Stephen Carter, founding CEO of Ofcom and Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting under Gordon Brown, David Reid, former chairman of Tesco, Sir Thomas Sutherland, the founder of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), and Will Whitehorn, former president of Virgin Galactic, and Donald Cruickshank, former chairman of the London Stock Exchange. Prominent alumni in law include former Lord President Duncan Forbes, Lord Advocate George Mackenzie, Lady Dorrian, the current Lord Justice Clerk in the Court of Session, William Grant, former Master of the Rolls, Frank Mulholland, former Lord Advocate and Solicitor General, Andrew Skene, former Solicitor General and co-founder of the Bannatyne Club, Priyantha Jayawardena, current Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Bertha Wilson, the first female Pusine Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Cosmo Innes, former Principal Clerk of the Session and historian, Bruce Allan Clark, prominent Canadian lawyer and First Nations activist, James Stephen, abolitionist lawyer who drafted the Slave Trade Act 1807 for William Wilberforce, and Alexander Asher, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. Aberdeen has also produced numerous Senators of the College of Justice: Alastair Campbell, Alexander Seton, Francis Grant, James Ferguson, Morag Wise, Lord Woolman, and Lord Sandison. Aberdeen is well known in historical, philosophical and theological circles, and it was an important centre in the Scottish Reformation and the Scottish Enlightenment. John Erskine, a religious reformer who ranks only after John Knox in importance of those who made the Scottish Reformation happen, John Lesley, Roman Catholic Bishop of Ross, historian, and counsellor to Mary, Queen of Scots, and Florentus Volusensus, a Renaissance humanist. The six Aberdeen Doctors, under the tutelage of Patrick Forbes, who opposed the National Covenant of 1638 and whose opposition was important in instigating the First Bishops' War. Thomas Reid, the founder of the Scottish common sense realism, Thomas Blackwell, John Gregory, James Beattie, James Macpherson, George Campbell, and Alexander Gerard, were all significant figures in the Scottish Enlightenment.