Researching Andrew Scott

He was born in Chapelford, Enzie, Banffshire on 15 February 1772. His family had been farmers at Chapelford for hundreds of years. He was ordained to the priesthood on 25 March 1795. and came to Glasgow as a missionary in 1805.

He built St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow (1814–16), which still stands on the River Clyde. In Glasgow, he built schools which could be used as chapels on Sunday, and meeting places during the week. He pursued and won a libel case against a Protestant activist, the case of Scott v McGavin, 25 June 1821.

He was appointed the Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of the Western District and Titular Bishop of Erythrae by the Holy See on 13 February 1827, and consecrated to the Episcopate at St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow on 21 September 1828. The principal consecrator was Bishop Alexander Paterson, Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern District of Scotland, and the principal co-consecrators were Bishop Ranald MacDonald, Vicar Apostolic of the Western District of Scotland and Bishop Thomas Penswick, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District of England.

On the death of Bishop Ranald MacDonald on 20 September 1832, he automatically succeeded as the Vicar Apostolic of the Western District. After John Murdoch was appointed as his Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic (assistant Bishop) on 4 June 1833, Bishop Scott was able to concentrate on the Highland part of the Western District, operating from Greenock. While he had concentrated on schools in the Lowlands and Glasgow, in the western Highlands, he attempted to restore liturgy by building churches. He built new buildings at Badenoch, Bornish, Fort Augustus, Morar and Glencoe.

He resigned on 15 October 1845. The number of practising Catholics in the area increased from 1,000 to 70,000 during his forty-year tenure, largely due to Irish immigration. He died on 4 December 1846, aged 74, and was buried in St Mary's Church, Abercromby Street, Glasgow.

Scott has received various other awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for his role in A Girl in a Car with a Man at the Royal Court Theatre.

Once the holder of several provincial track and field records, Scott abandoned his athletic aspirations to become a visual artist. After attending the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University, he joined Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, and Patrick Pentland in Sloan.

Scott is also the author of ten non-fiction books including a biography of the first Jacobite leader, John Grahame of Claverhouse, Bonnie Dundee which was reprinted in 2000 and will soon be available from the publisher in ebook and POD formats. Andrew has written several other books about the history and culture of the city of Dundee, including Dundee's Literary Lives. A collection of poems titled Dancing Underwater, was published by Cateran Press in September 2009.

He is so far perhaps best known for his biographical work on the writer Alexander Trocchi (1925–84). His biography of Trocchi, The Making of the Monster, first published by Polygon in 1991, was reprinted in paperback in 2012 by Kennedy & Boyd. Scott also edited Invisible Insurrection: A Trocchi Reader, which appeared in tandem with the biography in 1991 and was reprinted in 1996. Both books proved influential in promoting reprints of Trocchi's work and led to a revaluation of his career and reputation, particularly amongst a new generation of Scottish writers such as Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Barry Graham and numerous others. The biography was widely-reviewed by critics and received acclaim from literary alumni such as Colin Wilson, Archie Hind, Edwin Morgan and Martin Seymour-Smith.

Andrew Murray Scott's archives are held by the Archive Service, University of Dundee. The collection includes manuscripts, books and correspondence by Scott from the 1970s to 2007 as well as photographs.

Scott made his senior VFL debut in 1972, when Hawthorn were reigning premiers. He played a total of four games that year and another two the following season.

A former policeman, turned plumber, Scott spent his career as a half forward or on-baller.

After returning briefly to Sorrento in 1974, his original club, Scott joined the Wangaratta Rovers in the Ovens & Murray Football League. He was joint winner of a Morris Medal in 1975, when he polled the equal most votes with Jack O'Halloran of the Wangaratta Football Club. That year he also played in a winning grand final side and he would be a member of three further premierships with the Rovers. Seven months after joining Rovers he was awarded Life Membership under its policy for League B&F winners.

At primary school he played 3 seasons of inter-school football and captained the side in grade 6. At high school he played 6 seasons of inter-school and house (Murray) football, cricket and athletics. On weekends he played football with SFC under 15s and cricket with SCC Colts, the latter winning the MPCA reserve grade premiership of 1965-66. He had to wait another 3 years for his first football premiership.

In 1969, he kicked 2 goals as the youngest member of Sorrento FC's 1st 18 team, defeating Seaford by 27 points at Mornington. Two years later, at the same ground, Mornington denied him another premiership by 8 goals. Several weeks later he had SFC's 1971 - best and fairest medal in his trophy cabinet.

After a 300-plus game football career the wear and tear finally took its toll. In 2015 his left knee was replaced, and 2019 his preferred right-side is scheduled for the same.

Scott made his debut for Durham against Hertfordshire in the 1985 Minor Counties Championship. He played Minor counties cricket for Durham only in the 1985 season, making 6 Minor Counties Championship appearances and 4 MCCA Knockout Trophy appearances. He made his List A debut against Derbyshire in the 1985 NatWest Trophy. He bowled 8 wicket-less overs for the cost of 29 runs in this match, while with the bat he wasn't called upon, with Durham winning against their first-class opponents by 7 wickets. He made a further List A appearance against Kent in the following round of the same competition. In this match, he took the wickets of Mark Benson and Alan Knott for the cost of 45 runs from 10 overs, while with the bat he was dismissed for 7 runs by Derek Underwood, with Kent winning by 79 runs.

He died in Corio, Victoria on 3 September 2006.

Scott was educated at Cannon Lane Primary School, (Pinner); St. Martins School, Northwood; Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood; and the University of London, where he obtained a B.Sc. (Bedford College) and a Ph.D. (Birkbeck College) studying under William Gilbert Chaloner. His thesis concerned the palaeoecology of Carboniferous Coal Measure plants. After a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship at Trinity College, Dublin, he returned to England to take up a lectureship in Geology at Chelsea College, University of London. During this period, his research concentrated on the Lower Carboniferous floras of Scotland including those from the Pettycur Volcanics and the East Kirkton Quarry.

In 1985, the geology departments at Chelsea College and Bedford College merged to form a new department at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was awarded a personal chair in 1996, becoming Professor of Applied Palaeobotany. During the 1990s, he worked on Drawings and Prints in the Royal Library that had been collected by Cassiano dal Pozzo. These were part of a project undertaken by Federico Cesi and Francesco Stelluti, founders of the Accademia dei Linceii. His book on the drawing of fossil woods was launched by Charles, Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle in 2005.

From 1998 to 2006, he was the Director of Science Communication. He was awarded a D.Sc. from the University of London for his published research. In 2003, he was made an Honorary Professor at Jilin University, Changchun, China. He was a visiting professor at Yale University in 2006–2007 and a visiting fellow at Berkeley College. During this period, his research concentrated on the occurrence of wildfire in deep time. He also became involved with the Pyrogeography research group at the University of California, Santa Barbara and published several important papers and a book on Fire on Earth.In 2012 he became a distinguished research fellow and was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship and became the Emeritus Professor of Geology in 2014.

Scott has been involved in many radio broadcasts including In Our Time and was the subject of a BBC documentary about his research on coal for screenhouse productions and the Open University. He has been in writing articles on geology stamps and has had a long-term collaboration with the artist Nick Shrewing working on geological stamp designs for a number of countries including the Solomon Islands, Barbados, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.

Scott is the recipient of several awards including the Presidents Award of the Geological Society of London and the Gilbert H. Cady Award from the Geological Society of America. He is also a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, Fellow of the Geological Society of America, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is a Chartered Geologist.