William Peddie

William Peddie was born on Papa Westray on 31 May 1861. After attending Kirkwall Grammar School, he graduated from Edinburgh University in 1887 with a BSc in Natural Philosophy and was awarded a DSc the following year. After working as an Assistant to Professor Peter Guthrie Tait in the university’s Natural Philosophy department, he became a lecturer there in 1892.

The previous year, the first edition of his ‘Manual of Physics’ was published. It became one of the most widely used text books of its time. In the same year he married Jessie Isabella Dott.

In 1907, Peddie was appointed to the Harris Chair of Physics at University College, Dundee, which was then part of St Andrews University. He remained there until 1942. His First Year course at Dundee, which was attended by all Science students, looked at science from a philosophic point of view.

In 1909 he published ‘Elementary Dynamics of Solids and Fuels’, which also became very popular. He had several other publications, including ‘Colour Vision’ in 1922 and ‘Molecular Magnetism’ in 1929 In Dundee he oversaw the building of the Carnegie Physics Laboratory - which still stands in the Geddes Quadrangle on campus.

In 1887 he had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, having been proposed by Peter Guthrie Tait, Sir Thomas Muir, George Chrystal, and Alexander Crum Brown. He became Vice-President of the Society in 1919-22 and was awarded the Society’s Makdougall-Brisbane biennial prize in 1896-8, for his work on the torsional rigidity of wires. He later received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews.

He joined the Edinburgh Mathematical Society when it was formed in 1882 and was elected President in 1896 and again in 1933, when he presided at its Golden Jubilee Dinner.

Robert Watson-Watt, creator of the first workable radar system, graduated from University College in 1912 and was invited by Peddie to assist in the laboratory. Peddie is credited with encouraging his interest in radio waves.

Peddie died at his home, "The Weisha," Ninewells, on June 2nd, 1946. His obituary in Edinburgh Mathematical Notes, said, “All who came in contact with Peddie will agree in paying the highest tribute to his personal qualities. To have his friendship was a privilege…His conversation was always stimulating and his personality communicated a sense of peace and calm. He was the gentlest, the kindest and most delightful of men.”