Sir George Macdonald: A Bibliographical Supplement

Extract

By the death of Sir George Macdonald on 9th August, 1940, the Roman Society and its Journal have lost a pillar of strength. As a Vice-President of the Society since its foundation, and as President for five years after the last war, when a fresh impetus was needed, he rendered very valuable service, and as a member of the Editorial Committee from the outset he worked silently but untiringly to ensure the maintenance of the high standard of scholarship which the Journal has consistently displayed. Among his qualifications for editorial work was a notable gift for proof-reading, which made it for him a sort of diversion: typographical errors, bad punctuation, oversights, omissions, obscurity of language or of thought on the author's part—nothing escaped his vigilance. A personal notice of him is not contemplated here; he would not have thought it in place, nor could it be limited to what primarily concerns members of the Society, his contributions to our knowledge of antiquity, which were but a by-product of a busy life of which the later stage was spent in the public service. But it will be generally recognised as appropriate to complete the bibliography of his writings which was prefixed to the papers dedicated to him in 1932, in celebration of his seventieth birthday (JRS xxii, 1). All that he wrote exhibited the qualities of a great scholar, mastery of the evidence, a sure touch, sound judgment, and fine historical insight. Such work is of lasting value, and the author's attractive style makes it pleasant to read.