exhibition home page

The influence and activity of the members and staff of the WS Society in the wider social and cultural worlds outwith the law itself is little commented upon in the “1890”. However, the contribution of the Society through its people to almost every imaginable milieu has been considerable. Here we consider just a few examples from the many, many candidates whose lives and work have left their mark on the broader life of the world.

Leslie Balfour Melville WS

Leslie Balfour Melville was one of the greatest figures in the pre-1914 Scottish sporting world, and his achievements both as a player (of golf, cricket and rugby) and as an administrator are remembered today. He is the only Writer to the Signet present in the Scottish Sporting Hall of Fame.

Kenneth Sanderson WS

Kenneth Sanderson was one of the most significant figures in the Scottish art world during the first half of the twentieth century, and the growth and success both of the Scottish National Galleries and of the Edinburgh Public Library service owe much to his work.

William Roughead WS

William Roughead was the world pioneer of literary true crime writing and he remains in print today. A friend to Henry James and to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Roughead’s books and articles were published worldwide. He is also remembered for his part in one of the great Scottish miscarriages of history, in which he and Conan Doyle first saved Oscar Slater from the gallows in 1909 and then – after two decades of campaigning – secured his release and compensation in 1928.

Sir Francis Grant WS

Sir Francis Grant was a herald, historian and genealogist of reknown, to the extent that he holds the distinction (alongside Leslie Balfour Melville) of having been commemorated on cigarette cards. At different times he was Lord Lyon King of Arms in Scotland and Secretary to the Order of the Thistle, and wrote more than 60 genealogical works as well as serving as joint editor of a new edition of Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae.

John Philip Edmond

John Philip Edmond was the last of the great sequence of scholar-librarians who graced the Signet Library for a century from 1805 until Edmond’s tragic early death in 1905. The heir to a prosperous Aberdeen bookbinding business, he made himself into one of the leading bibliographical scholars of his time, a man who could count the likes of M.R. James amongst his disciples.