Alexander Souter
Alexander Souter was a Scottish biblical scholar and university professor.
Biography
Souter was born in Perth, and studied at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge. He subsequently became a Latin assistant at Aberdeen. While at Cambridge he studied under J. E. B. Mayor, whom Souter would credit with influence on his later scholarship.In 1903 he was appointed professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Mansfield College, Oxford. In 1911 he moved back to the University of Aberdeen, succeeding William Ramsay as Regius Professor of Humanity, in which position he remained until his retirement in 1937.
Upon his retirement, Souter moved back to Oxford, where he became editor-in-chief of the proposed Latin Dictionary">Latin language">Latin Dictionary. The outbreak of World War II prevented its completion within his lifetime, but Souter did publish a smaller work borne of this endeavour, Glossary of Later Latin, A.D. 150–600.
Souter married Elizabeth Barr Anderson, daughter of Aberdeen Photographer William Blair Anderson. They had three daughters, Isabella Elsie Souter born in 1900, Elizabeth Barr Anderson Souter born in 1903 and Alexandra Margaret Souter born in 1908. His brother-in-law was William Blair Anderson, who was Kennedy Professor of Latin at Cambridge University and a leading Latin scholar of his day. A portrait of Souter by his brother John Bulloch Souter is held by Aberdeen University.