Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/185

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Doherty
D.N.B. 1912–1921
Donaldson

branch of the Royal Naval Reserve, and it is possible that his hard work in the service hastened the breakdown of a constitution that had always been delicate. He died 11 August 1919, after a long illness.

The Dohertys will be remembered as two of the greatest players of lawn-tennis, and perhaps as the two greatest artists at the game that have yet appeared. If the brothers Renshaw were the pioneers, the Dohertys brought the game to the highest pitch of perfection. In size they were a contrast. Reginald Doherty was tall, very thin, and yet very graceful in all his movements. He had supreme control over the ball, a fine service, and every kind of stroke. His anticipation was wonderful, and he seemed to cover the court with no difficulty. As a master of the game he was possibly greater than his younger brother, and his style came near to perfection. Lawrence was below medium height, but well knit though lightly built. He, too, had command of every stroke. He was a better match player than his brother, and thought out the game more thoroughly. In doubles they were an ideal pair, and so good that they could play with success from unorthodox positions. They were as expert on covered courts—as at Queen’s Club, Kensington, where some of their best games were played—as they were on grass. Indeed, it may be said that every gift for the game of lawn-tennis was theirs, except good health. Had they been more robust and had they continued to compete, their supremacy might have lasted over a longer period; for at the time that he retired from the championship, H. L. Doherty was only thirty years of age. Wherever they went, and they travelled much, to play lawn-tennis, the brothers Doherty were as popular figures as they were successful exponents of the game.

[R. F. and H. L. Doherty, On Lawn-Tennis, 1903.]

E. B. N.


DONALDSON, Sir JAMES (1831-1915), educationist, classical and patristic scholar, was born at Aberdeen 26 April 1831. Of humble parentage, he owed his education at the grammar school and university of Aberdeen to the discernment of friends who noted his early promise, and his subsequent career was due entirely to his own determination and to his genuine love of learning. After the completion of his university course he studied for some time at New College, London, with a view to entering the Congregationalist ministry; but he soon abandoned that intention and proceeded to Berlin, where he continued his classical and theological studies, devoting his attention at the same time to the psychology of education as represented by Herbart and Beneke. The impression produced upon him by German ideals of scholarship and by the systematic organization of school and university instruction in Prussia remained strong with him to the end of his life, and is reflected in his Lectures on the History of Education in Prussia and England (1874).

On his return from Germany Donaldson became assistant for two years to John Stuart Blackie, professor of Greek in the university of Edinburgh, and in 1854 was appointed rector of Stirling High School. In 1856 he returned to Edinburgh as one of the classical masters in the High School, and, after serving ten years in that capacity, was appointed rector, a position which he held till 1881. It was during his twenty-five years at the High School that most of his literary work was done. His most important book, A Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine from the Death of the Apostles to the Nicene Council appeared in three volumes (1864–1866). Marked by sound scholarship and impartial insight, this comprehensive survey was immediately recognized as a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of Christian thought during the period in question. There was, indeed, at that time nothing in English to compare with it, and a second edition of the first volume, The Apostolical Fathers, was called for in 1874. Another piece of work in the same field was the translation of the Ante-Nicene fathers in twenty-four volumes—‘The Ante-Nicene Christian Library’ (1867–1872)—which Donaldson edited along with Professor Alexander Roberts [q.v.].

During these years also Donaldson became widely known throughout Scotland as an educationist of enlightened views. He took an active part in the movement which resulted in the Education Act of 1872, establishing primary education in Scotland on a national and compulsory basis, and he contended warmly, both then and later, for an improvement in the status of the teachers as the foundation of a sound educational policy. In 1881 he became professor of humanity in the university of Aberdeen, and five years later (1886) he was appointed principal of the United College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard in the university of St. Andrews. On the passing of the Scottish

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