William Dawson Lamont, 1901-1982, Lecturer in Moral Philosophy, University of Glasgow, Scotland

William (Bill) Dawson Lamont was born on King Edward’s Island, Canada, in 1901. He was the fourth son of his parents Murdoch Lamont, a Church of Scotland Minister and Euphemia Ann Hume, his cousin. Lamont attended the University of Glasgow from 1919 and attained an MA in 1925. He studied Logic and History in his first year (1919-1920), English, Moral Philosophy and Geology in his second (1920-21), AND Higher Moral Philosophy, Political Economy in his third (1921-1922) for 4th year. He won the Edward Caird medal and was Euing Fellow and Ferguson scholar in 1924 and graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1925. He went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford and was awarded his DPhil in 1930.

He returned to the University of Glasgow as an assistant in Moral Philosophy in 1926 and was made a full lecturer in 1929. He remained with the Moral Philosophy department until 1939. He served with Clyde River Patrol and as a Naval Intelligence Liaison Officer from 1939-42, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cairo from 1942-1946. Lamont then accepted a position through the British Council as the Principal of Makerere College, Uganda (1946-49). In 1949 he returned to GU to Moral Philosophy Department as a senior lecturer, was promoted to reader, and retired in 1968.

Anne Fraser Christie Lamont was born in Glasgow on 20 Dec 1900 to David Christie (MB CH Univ. Glas.) and Isabella Grant Fraser Christie. Anne studied forestry at the West of Glasgow Agricultural College, and went to work for the Forestry Commission. Although she enjoyed the work Anne was advised that it would be difficult for her to progress in the Commission, as most employers would prefer to hire a man. The District Forestry Commissioner advised her instead to go into research.

Anne went on to St. Hilda’s college, Oxford where she gained a diploma in Forestry, then a BSc. The title of her thesis was: ‘The ecological relation of certain insects to the ash’. She was only the second woman to be awarded a BSc from Oxford University.

After completing her degree, Anne worked for the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London as a Bibliographer in the Entomology of Stored Products. During this time she also studied theology at Kings College, London and thought for a time of entering the church.

Anne met Bill in Oxford in 1926, and they married in Iona in 1930. After their marriage the Anne gave up her work in London as the couple settled in Glasgow where Bill was now a lecturer in Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. Anne returned once again to Forestry work after 1942, when Bill went out to Egypt as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cairo.

Bill and Anne retained their links with East Africa. When Makerere College became part of the University of East Africa, and gained the power to confer their own degrees, Lamont was the first to be awarded an honorary DPhil. He and his wife Anne remained in the west end of Glasgow, close to the University for the Remainder of their lives. Bill Lamont died on 9th November 1982 in Glasgow.