Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buist, George
BUIST, GEORGE, LL.D. (1805–1860), Anglo-Indian journalist and scientific observer, was the son of the Rev. J. Buist, and was born at Tannadice, Forfarshire, on 22 Nov. 1805, and after studying at St. Salvador's College, St. Andrews, at St. Mary's College, and Edinburgh University, was licensed in 1826 as a preacher. He preached irregularly for six years, delivered a course of lectures on natural philosophy at St. Andrews town hall in 1832, and in the same year became editor of the ‘Dundee Courier’ (afterwards the ‘Constitutional’). Having separated from this paper in 1834, he established the ‘Dundee Guardian’ on his own account, and also the ‘Scottish Agricultural Magazine.’ His energy and success as an editor brought him numerous applications from proprietors of newspapers to take command of their offices, and on such an invitation he undertook the editing of the ‘Perth Constitutional’ in 1835. After a visit to London in 1837, and two years' management of the ‘Fifeshire Journal,’ he accepted, in 1839, the post of editor of the ‘Bombay Times,’ with which his name is most intimately connected, and for twenty years devoted himself with exceptional zeal and success to the development of this important paper. His bold repudiation in its columns of the policy of retaliation after the Kábúl massacres of 1842 compelled the admiration of all parties, and the government showed its confidence in the unflinching journalist by giving him an opportunity of reviving the scientific studies of his early life in the capacity of unpaid inspector of the astronomical, magnetic, and meteorological observatories of Bombay, the efficiency of which he so increased that he was able to report that 300,000 observations had been made, recorded, corrected, and prepared for publication during the two years and a half in which he conducted the work. The loss of his wife in 1845 induced him to seek change in England for a few months, during which he busied himself with drawing up the ‘Bombay Observatory Report for 1844,’ which contained records of 170,000 observations. In January 1846 he was back again at the office of the ‘Bombay Times,’ where he continued his editorial labours, with one brief intermission, until within a year of his death. In 1859 he retired to take up a government appointment at Allahabad, but died at Calcutta on 1 Oct. 1860. He contributed many scientific papers to the ‘Journal’ of the Bombay branch of the Asiatic Society, and before leaving Scotland had written, for the Highland Society, some topographical and geological articles on the counties of Perth and Fife. He also compiled a useful ‘Index to Books and Papers on the Physical Geography, Antiquities, and Statistics of India’ (Bombay, 1852). During his absence in England in 1845 he obtained special grants from the government for improving agricultural machines and rural economy in India, and for establishing twelve observatories from Cape Comorin to the Red Sea for meteorological and tidal research. He also formed the geological collection for the museum of Elphinstone College, Bombay.
In 1837 Buist received from the Highland Society of Scotland a prize of fifty guineas for a paper on the ‘Geology of the South-eastern portion of Perthshire.’ In 1846 he was appointed to the honorary position of sheriff of Bombay. In 1847 he projected, and in 1850 founded, the Bombay Reformatory School of Industry for the reformation and education of native children, of which he was superintendent, under the patronage of the governor, Lord Elphinstone.
[G. Buist, Memoir with Testimonials, Cupar, 1846, where the date of birth is misprinted 1803; Annual Reg. 1860; Proceedings of Bombay Branch Asiatic Society, 1860.]