The Very Rev. Prof. Archibald Hamilton Charteris


1835 - 1908

Influential churchman. Born in the parish of Wamphray (Dumfries and Galloway), the son of the schoolmaster and elder brother of Matthew Charteris (1840-97), Charteris was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he was eventually to become Professor of Biblical Criticism. He is thought to have been responsible for precipitating the heresy charges laid against William Robertson Smith (1846-94). Charteris served as a Minister in the parishes of St. Quivox, New Abbey and at Park Church in Glasgow.

Within the Church, he is credited as having brought the Woman's Guild into being and, in 1879, founded the magazine Life and Work which continues to this day. He argued that the church had a resposibility for social care and re-established the Order of Deaconesses, to work with women in the community, creating Deaconess House and the Deaconess Hospital, to train them. Charteris was appointed Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1892 and served as Chaplain to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII.

He lies buried in Wamphray Kirkyard.


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