James Drever (psychologist, born 1873)

Sir James Drever was born on 8 April 1873 in Balfour, on Shapinsay Island, Orkney.

Drever was gifted with the ability to learn and memorize things rapidly as well as retain the information.

Drever went on to study medicine for two years but exhaustion and financial difficulty halted his education.

[6] Between 1907 and 1913 Drever was the Assistant to the Professor of Education in Edinburgh and conducted research on the German methods of training both primary and secondary teachers.

[4] During these years he also assisted in urging his chief, Professor Darroch, to institute a postgraduate degree in education.

The main reason for these visits to Germany was that they wanted to institute a new course in present-day educational systems and problems at the University of Edinburgh.

[4] In the summer of 1913 Drever paid one more visit to Germany, and spent a few weeks in Meumann's laboratory in Hamburg.

[3] The labs primary function was to introduce the more advanced students to the application of experimental methods to educational problems.

[4] Work was done on fatigue in schools, children's vocabulary, and the analytical study of reading and writing.

[10] He was heavily involved in organising this congress, which met in Edinburgh, but was unable to attend his presidential ceremony due to illness.

[10] His interest in the influence of Scandinavian language on the Orcadian dialect led to his being made a Knight of the First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav.

[13] The younger James Drever was also a noted psychologist, BPS President, and was the first Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dundee.