| AdminHistory | Logan, Sir Douglas William (1910-1987), was born in Liverpool, the younger son and youngest of three children of Robert Logan, cabinet-maker, of Newhaven, Edinburgh, and his wife, Euphemia Taylor Stevenson, of Kirkcaldy. He was educated at Liverpool collegiate school and at University College, Oxford, where he was a classical scholar and took firsts in classical honour moderations (1930), literae humaniores (1932), and jurisprudence (1933). In 1933 he was awarded an Oxford University senior studentship and the Harmsworth scholarship at the Middle Temple. During 1935-1936 he held the Henry fellowship at Harvard, and in 1936-1937 he was an assistant lecturer in law at the London School of Economics (LSE). In 1937 he was called to the bar (Middle Temple) and elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (until 1943).
During the Second World War, Logan worked as a temporary civil servant at the Ministry of Supply from 1940 until 1944, when he was appointed clerk of the court of London University. In 1948 he became principal, a post which he held until 1975. Logan spearheaded the acquisition or construction of seven university halls of residence and the purchase of an extensive site in Bloomsbury on which important new university buildings could be erected.
Logan also sat for many years on committees dealing with scholarships and grants for students from both Britain and overseas, including Athlone fellowships and Marshall scholarships. He was a member of the board of the National Theatre (1962-1968), a governor of the Old Vic (1957-1980), and a trustee of the City Parochial Foundation (1953-1967). He was knighted in 1959 and received honorary fellowships from LSE (1962), University College, Oxford (1973), and University College, London (1975); honorary degrees were conferred upon him by universities from Melbourne to British Columbia. He was a chevalier of the Lgion d'honneur, and an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple (1965). |