Young Donald MacAlister - Senior Wrangler at Cambridge in 1877 Sir Donald MacAlister of Tarbert (1854-1934) was born in Scotland. He was a native speaker of Gaelic. He rose in life from humble beginnings via school at the Liverpool Institute for Boys (founded 1825, closed 1985) to become Senior Wrangler (top mathematician) at Cambridge University in 1877. He then pursued a medical and administrative career at Cambridge and was Honorary Physician to Addenbrooke's Hospital, 1882-1904.
MacAlister was a contemporary at St. John's College, Cambridge of the first Japanese graduate of Cambridge named Kikuchi Dairoku and they were lifelong friends. MacAlister also assisted Inagaki Manjiro with a petition to the Council of the Senate to allow Japanese students to obtain exemption from the study of Latin and Greek for entrance examinations.
Donald MacAlister was later principal of Glasgow University, 1907-29. See here.
Reference
- MacAlister, Edith F.B. Sir Donald MacAlister of Tarbert, London, 1913
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