Charles Pringle Finlayson (1911-1985)
Keeper of Manuscripts
Finlayson was born in 1911 in Ecclefechan, Dumfries-shire, the son of postmaster Frederick Finlayson and his wife Mary Spence Pringle. Schooled at Gourock, Glasgow, Kelso and Kirkcudbright, he proceeded to the University of Edinburgh, graduating MA in Classics, 1933. Joining the staff of the Library under Frank Carr Nicholson (1875-1962) in 1935, his career was interrupted by service in the Royal Artillery and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He married Isabella Grubb in Edinburgh in 1939.
Following his return, he was promoted to Keeper of Manuscripts in 1946 (succeeding Lauriston William Sharp (1897-1959), who had become Librarian in 1939). He was succeeded by John Hall in 1978, though Hall's title was Special Collections Librarian. Finlayson died in Edinburgh in 1985.
Selected Bibliography
- Celtic Psalter: Edinburgh University Library MS. 56 (Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing, 1962)
- Clement Litill and his library :the origins of Edinburgh University Library (Edinburgh, Printed for Edinburgh Bibliographical Society and the Friends of Edinburgh University Library, 1980)