Life @ EA

We are proud to congratulate Accie, Richard McLauchlan (EA 1992-2005), on his collaboration with John Campbell on the recent publication of HALDANE: The Forgotten Statesman Who Shaped Modern Britain. This publication strikes particular significance with the Academy due to Haldane himself being an Academical.

The book explores the remarkable life of the philosopher-statesman Richard Burdon Haldane (EA 1866-72), who created the British army that fought in WWI, and laid the foundation stones of MI5, MI6, the RAF, LSE, Imperial College, the 'redbrick' universities and the Medical Research Council. The book has been the subject of the lead review by Max Hastings in the Sunday Times and has been warmly received by the likes of the FT, The Daily Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.                                        

Haldane was one of six brothers to have attended the Edinburgh Academy, including the extraordinary J. S. Haldane, who invented the first gas mask. But the book's connections with the school go further than that. Richard McLauchlan is a Director on the school’s Court and we are pleased to say he will be writing the second volume of the Academy's history to accompany Magnus Magnusson's The Clacken and the Slate for the bicentennial celebrations in 2024. 

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Information on Page Gallery

1. Haldane inspecting the Officers’ Training Corps, which he himself had created as Secretary of State for War, on a visit to his old school in 1909. (credit: Edinburgh Academy)

2. Haldane, standing fourth from left, in Geits at the Edinburgh Academy, 1866 (credit: R. W. Haldane’s collection; photograph by Justin Piperger)

3. Haldane entering Parliament Square from Whitehall, 1914. (credit: R. W. Haldane’s collection; photograph by Justin Piperger)