Leonhard Schmitz

Leonhard Schmitz FRSE (1807 – May 1890)[1] was a Prussian-born classical scholar and educational author, mainly active in the United Kingdom.

He attended gymnasium in Aix-la-Chappelle to the east (now called Aachen and within modern day Germany).

[2] Schmitz moved to Scotland in 1846 to serve as rector of the Royal High School in Edinburgh from that year until 1866.

In his induction speech he expressed the hope that his appointment would be "the means of strengthening and increasing the intellectual sympathy which has so long existed between this country and Germany".

[1] He married an English woman, Eliza Mary Machell, and moved to England in 1837;[1] around 1840 they had a daughter, Leonora Schmitz, who would become a noted music critic.