Scott, Michael (1789–1835)

Scottish writer. He gives a vivid, unsentimental picture of seafaring life in Tom Cringle's Log, first published in Blackwood's Magazine 1829–31. The Cruise of the Midge 1834–35, based on a real incident, was also published serially.

Scott was born in Cowlairs, Glasgow. He went to Jamaica 1806 and in 1810 entered business in Kingston, which involved frequent sea and overland journeys. He returned to Glasgow 1822.

Scott, Michael (1907–1983)

English Anglican missionary and social and political activist. Working as a missionary in South Africa from 1943 to 1950, he exposed human-rights violations and took the case of the dispossessed Herero people to the United Nations, becoming persona non grata in South African and in the Central African Federation (Nyasaland and Northern and Southern Rhodesia). In 1958 he was briefly imprisoned for his part in nuclear-disarmament demonstrations, and in 1966 he was expelled from Nagaland in northeast India.

During his time in South Africa he brought to light atrocities in the Bethal farming area and in the Transvaal, and defended the Basutos against wrongful arrest. He founded the London Africa Bureau in 1952. His works include an autobiography, A Time to Speak (1958), and A Search for Peace and Justice (1980).

Scott was educated at King's College, Taunton, and St Paul's College, Grahamstown, and served in a London East End parish and as chaplain in India 1935–39, where he collaborated with the communists. He was invalided out of the RAF in 1941 and ceased his associations with communists in the 1940s.

Scott, Michael (1905–1989)

Irish architect, widely regarded as one of the foremost Irish architects of the 20th century. Scott had an immense influence on Ireland's cultural and artistic development. He began his career designing St Ultan's Children's Hospital in Dublin (1928–29) and went on to provide many notable infirmaries, cinemas, and council buildings throughout Ireland, including the celebrated Department of Social Welfare Building, Dublin (1953) which was received with acclaim as the first major post-war building in Ireland.

Scott was born in Drogheda, County Louth, Republic of Ireland. He retired from practice in 1975 after completing the New Abbey Theatre (1966), the ŔE offices, Donnybrook (1960) and designs for University College, Galway (from 1964). In 1964 he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects, presented for the first time by Queen Elizabeth II.