Rev George Murray Davidson Short was born on 21 December 1890, the son of John Short, a watchmaker from Bartleholm, Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was a student at the University of Glasgow from 1907-1912 and graduated MA in 1912 having studied Latin, Greek, Mathematics, English Literature, Logic, History, Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Economy and Hebrew. During his studies he lived in Partick, Glasgow, and was, by 1916, a Church of Scotland minister. In 1924, he moved from Glasgow to work in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland. From 1925 he was a missionary minister in Kalcutta, India, and became Chaplain of the Indian Ecclesiastical Establishment. During his time there he was Secretary of the Bangalore Missionary Conference which invited Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), to address them. In 1927, while ministering at St Andrew's Church, Bangalore, India, Short had a private discussion with Gandhi in his home. In 1944, Short returned to Scotland to the parish of Largo, Fife. Short's ministry finally took him to Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, in 1954, where he lived until his death in 1978.
From the guide to the Papers of George Murray Davidson Short, 1890-1978, arts graduate and missionary, Glasgow, Scotland, 1927, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
