Rector of the University of St Andrews

John Cleese as Rector of the University in 1970

The Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is a university official chosen every three years by the students of the University of St Andrews. Seldom referred to as Lord Rector, he or she is more commonly known simply as the Rector, the office having been created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when it passed the Universities (Scotland) Act 1858, which regulated academic governance and provided for the election of a Rector at all of the universities in existence at the time in Scotland. To this day it is only the four ancient universities of Scotland: University of St Andrews, University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen, and University of Edinburgh, as well as the University of Dundee, that elect a rector, whereas modern universities do not.

List of Rectors

• 1859-1862 Sir Ralph Anstruther, 4th Bt.
• 1862-1865 William Stirling-Maxwell, M.P.
• 1865-1868 John Stuart Mill
• 1868-1871 J.A. Froude
• 1872-1874 Lord Neaves
• 1874-1877 The Very Rev. Dr. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster
• 1877-1880 The 1st Baron Selborne
• 1880-1883 Sir Theodore Martin
• 1884-1886 The 11th Lord Reay
• 1886-1889 A.J. Balfour, M.P., Chief Secretary for Ireland and former Secretary for Scotland
• 1889-1892 The 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, British Ambassador to Italy and former Viceroy of India
• 1892-1898 The 3rd Marquess of Bute
• 1898-1901 James Stuart, M.P.
• 1901-1907 Andrew Carnegie
• 1907-1910 The 1st Baron Avebury
• 1910-1913 The 5th Earl of Rosebery, former Prime Minister
• 1913-1916 The 7th Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (until February 1915) and former Governor General of Canada
• 1916-1919 Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig
• 1919-1922 Sir James M. Barrie, 1st Bt.
• 1922-1925 Rudyard Kipling
• 1925-1928 Fridtjof Nansen
• 1928-1931 Sir Wilfred Grenfell
• 1931-1934 Field Marshal Jan Smuts, a former (and a later) Prime Minister of South Africa
• 1934-1937 The Marchese Marconi
• 1937-1938 Lord MacGregor Mitchell
• 1938-1946 Sir David Munro
• 1946-1949 Sir George Cunningham, Governor of the North-West Frontier Province
• 1949-1952 Lord Burghley
• 1952-1955 The 28th Earl of Crawford
• 1955-1958 The 1st Viscount Kilmuir
• 1958-1961 The Baron Boothby
• 1961-1964 Sir Charles P. Snow
• 1964-1967 Sir John Rothenstein
• 1967-1970 Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, Kt.
• 1970-1973 John Cleese
• 1973-1976 Alan Coren
• 1976-1979 Frank Muir
• 1979-1982 Tim Brooke-Taylor
• 1982-1985 Katharine Whitehorn
• 1985-1988 Stanley Adams
• 1988-1991 Nicholas Parsons
• 1991-1993 Nicky Campbell
• 1993-1999 Donald Findlay
• 1999-2002 Andrew Neil
• 2002-2005 Sir Clement Freud
• 2005-2008 Simon Pepper
• 2008-2011 Kevin Dunion
• 2011-2014 Alistair Moffat
• 2014- Catherine Stihler

External links

• The Rector of St Andrews University