George Buist (journalist)

His paternal uncle was Rev George Buist, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1848.

He preached irregularly for six years, delivered a course of lectures on natural philosophy at St. Andrews town hall in 1832.

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.

[9] He returned took charge of the Bombay Times, but a Parsi shareholder Fardoonji Naoroji wanted him to change his pro establishment editorial policy particularly in background of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

During his time in England in 1845 he obtained special grants from the government for improving agricultural machines and rural economy in India, and for establishing 12 observatories, from Cape Comorin to the Red Sea, for meteorological and tidal research.

In 1847 he planned, and in 1850 founded, the Bombay Reformatory School of Industry for the reformation and education of Indian children, of which he was superintendent, under the patronage of the governor, Lord Elphinstone.

[5] In 1837 Buist was awarded a prize by the Highland Society of Scotland for a paper Geology of the South-eastern portion of Perthshire.

He also compiled an Index to Books and Papers on the Physical Geography, Antiquities, and Statistics of India (Bombay, 1852).