Biography of William Guthrie Gardiner

William Guthrie Gardiner (c1848-1935) was one of the University's most generous benefactors. With his younger brother Sir Frederick Crombie Gardiner, he endowed the Gardiner chairs of Music (founded 1928), Physiological Chemistry (1919 - renamed Biochemistry in 1958), Bacteriology (1919, renamed Immunology in 1990)), Organic Chemistry (1919, the restriction removed in 1942 and the Chair simply named the Gardiner Chair of Chemistry) and the Gardiner Chair in the Pathology of Diseases of Infancy and Childhood (1928). The brothers had endowed a lectureship in Organic Chemistry in 1898. The cost of building the Gardiner Institute of Medicine, which opened in 1938, was met from their bequests.

Gardiner was a shipowner who founded James Gardiner & Co with his brothers Frederick and James c1880. They sold their company at the end of the First World War. Gardiner lived in Stirling, where he supported several local charities and served as a President of Stirling Royal Infirmary. He bequeathed £10,000 to the University to fund research scholarships in science and medical subjects.

Summary

William Guthrie Gardiner
Shipowner
Born 1848.
Died 1935.
University Link: Benefactor
GU Degree:
Occupation categories: shipowners
Record last updated: 28th Nov 2007

University Connections

University Roles

• Benefactor

Academic Posts

Professorships:

• Biochemistry (Gardiner Chair)
• Chemistry (Gardiner Chair)
• Immunology (Gardiner Chair)
• Music (Gardiner Chair)

Lectureships:

• Gardiner Lectureship in the Pathology of Diseases of Infancy and Childhood

Buildings

• Gardiner Institute of Medicine

Honours

• Commemoration Day

On This Day Entries

• Gardiner Institute (September 28 1938)