A SKETCH OF THE CAREER OF THE LATE JAMES RICHARDSON LOGAN,
OF PENANG AND SINGAPORE.
BY
J. TURNBULL THOMSON.
In perusing the first number of your publication, I observe the high terms in which my friend the late James Richardson Logan is noticed by your Vice-President, the Ven'ble Archdeacon Hose, M.A. This induces me to forward to you a few reminiscences of him, for, coming from one who knew him from boyhood, and who had the privilege of being his intimate friend for many years when residing in the Straits, what I have to relate, I venture to anticipate, will be of some interest to your readers.
He was the son of Mr. Thomas Logan, of Berrywell, Berwickshire, Scotland, who had married his cousin, also a Logan, and to his mother my friend bore a strong resemblance. His superior intellectual faculties were also inherited from this source, hers being of a high order. His parents belonged to a family which, in their country, were and are eminent as agriculturists, but at the time I first knew him, Mr. Thomas Logan had retired from business.
I met the subject of this notice as a boy when he was attending the Academy of Dunse, conducted by the late Mr. Thomas Maule. He was there what was called an extra scholar, sitting with others at a table in the centre of the school apart from the ordinary classical benches. At the table at which J. R. Logan sat, he and others were brought forward in the several branches of education by special teaching. From this Academy many men of note have emanated amongst those that I can call to memory are the late Professor, Cunningham of Edinburgh, Captain Baird Smith of Bengal, and Dr. Robert Hogg of London.
