Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/621

 general interest in affairs induced him in 1864 to act as a war correspondent in the Danish-German war, when he was arrested as a spy. But he was already busy with useful compilations for the schoolroom. Between 1862 and 1866 he issued 'An Essay English Grammar for Beginners, being a Plain Doctrine of Words and Sentences' (Manchester, 4 parts). For some years he published his schoolbooks for himself in Paternoster Square. In 1869 he issued (jointly with Adolf Sonnenschein) 'The English Method of Teaching to Read,' and this was followed in 1870 by 'The Fundamental Error in the Revised Code, with Special Reference to the Problem of Teaching to Read.' In 1874 Meiklejohn's educational energy was rewarded by his appointment as assistant commissioner to the endowed schools commission for Scotland. To the report of that commission he contributed valuable educational suggestions. In 1876 Dr. Bell's trustees instituted a chair of the theory, history, and practice of education in St. Andrews University, and Meiklejohn was appointed as the first professor. In his new capacity Meiklejohn from the outset exerted much influence on educational ideas at a time when the national system of education was undergoing complete reconstruction. He was a frequent contributor to the 'Journal of Education' and was a fair and humorous controversialist. Meanwhile Meiklejohn steadily continued to compile and edit school textbooks on history, geography, and literature. His works, apart from numerous school texts and reading books for Blackwood's educational series (1883-7) and the like, included 'The Book of the English Language' (1877), 'The English Language: its Grammar, History, and Literature' (1886), and 'The British Empire: its Geography, Resources, Commerce, Land-ways, and Water-ways' (1891). His numerous geographical manuals adapted to modern use the work of [q. v. Suppl. II]. Meiklejohn's series of school books, which was inaugurated in 1894, included a book on Australasia (1897) and 'The Art of Writing English' (1899; 4th edit. 1902). There followed 'English literature: a New History and Survey from Saxon Times to the Death of Tennyson' (posthumous, 1904). Meiklejohn did much to raise the standard of school books in use throughout the country. A keen politician, he unsuccessfully contested the Tradeston division of Glasgow as a Gladstonian liberal in 1886.

He died at Ashford, Kent, on 5 April 1902, and was buried there. He married Jane Cussans or de Cusance. Of his sons and daughters. Lieutenant H. B. Meiklejohn, R.N., died on 18 May 1908.

Besides the works mentioned Meiklejohn was author of 'An Old Educational Reformer, Dr. Andrew Bell' (Edinburgh, 12mo. 1881), and he edited the 'Life and Letters of William Ballantyne Hodgson' (Edinburgh, 1883).



MELDRUM, CHARLES (1821–1901), meteorologist, born at Kirkmichael, Banffshire, in 1821, was son of William Meldrum, farmer, of Tomintoul, Banffshire. Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was lord rector's prizeman, and graduated M.A. in 1844. In 1846 he was appointed to the education department, Bombay, and two years later was transferred to the Royal College of Maruitius as professor of mathematics. There later (Sir) [q. v. Suppl. II] was a colleague and intimate friend. In 1851 Meldrum founded the Mauritius Meteorological Society, which he served for many years as secretary.

In 1862 he was appointed government observer in charge of the small meteorological observatory then maintained at Port Louis. Here he devoted himself to the examination of ships' logs, and worked out the laws of cyclones in the Indian Ocean, work of great practical benefit to navigators, which brought considerable credit to the Mauritius observatory. The site at Port Louis was unsuitable for a meteorological observatory, and with the support of Sir E. Sabine he was able to obtain the erection of a new station at Pamplemousses—a site unhappily marshy and fever-stricken. Here the foundation stone of the Royal Alfred Observatory was laid in 1870 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The principal work of the observatory was as before the study of the movement of storms, but from 1880 photographs of the solar surface have been taken daily to supplement the series made at Greenwich and Dehra Dun for a continuous record of the number of spots on the sun.

In 1876 Meldrum was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in the same year the degree of LL.D. was conferred en him by the university of Aberdeen. He was made C.M.G. in 1886, and was a member of the governor's council from 1886 until his retirement from service in 1896, when he returned to England, settling at Southsea.