Userboxes This user is a resident of Scotland. This user is a member of WikiProject Edinburgh This user is a member of the Guild of Copy Editors. This user has access to the Wikipedia Library. What did you do? This user includes edit summaries in their contributions and thinks that everybody should use them as well.

Hello and thank you for visiting my User page.

I started out as a Wikipedia editor in April 2020. It took me a long time to learn my way round this vast system. After three years I have just about got the hang of it although I still don't always do things correctly. As at April 2023, I have made around 1200 edits to some 300 articles.

As a former journalist and editor, I tend to notice text that needs copy-editing in some way: spelling errors, bad grammar, tautologies or language that simply needs tidying up. I try to correct these when I can. I have also been able to add substantial new material to several articles, and have written a number of articles from scratch.

My interests

• History, especially Scottish.

• Edinburgh, its history, politics and culture.

• Science and technology.

• Modern languages.

Some recent contributions

• Henry Littlejohn: A 19th Century pioneer in public health who made enormous improvements to the health and well-being of the inhabitants of Edinburgh.

• Marchmont: A residential district which was named in my honour.^[1]

• Morningside: Another residential district in my part of the world.

• Sciennes: Yet another residential district.

• Stuart Harris: An Edinburgh historian whose works have proved very useful to me (and to many others).

• Corstorphine Hill: A local nature reserve where there are lots of trees, some interesting wildlife and a Cold War nuclear bunker.

• Swanston: A delightful village at the foot of the Pentland Hills; of interest to fans of Robert Louis Stevenson.

• Duncan Napier: A Victorian botanist who did much to establish herbalism as a recognised branch of medicine.

• Assassination of Nikolay Bobrikov, which took place in Helsinki when Finland was a grand duchy within the Russian Empire.

• John Hope: another interesting person from 19th Century Edinburgh.

• London's last tram week, which I published on the 70th anniversary of the event in question.

• Cannonball House. An interesting 17th-century town house on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

• George Washington Browne. A prolific architect who worked on nearly 300 projects around Scotland.

• Mayfield Salisbury Church. A 19th century building in my part of the world with a varied history.

• James Thin. A 19th century Edinburgh bookseller who built a business that survived for five generations of his family.

• Roger Croucher. A man of the theatre. He was involved at various times with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court Theatre and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

• Waverley Steps. A short documentary film about Edinburgh. If you know the city — and especially if you remember it from the mid 20th century — you'll almost certainly recognise most or all of the places where it was filmed.