DESPITE many English Tories misguidedly attempting to pretend that it is still extant, and an honours system that bizarrely still uses the name, the British Empire is a thing of the past, not least because Scotland has become increasingly sidelined within the Union.
I have written before of my belief that the Empire project could not have succeeded without massive Scottish input, and this week sees the anniversary of the death of one of the great Scottish figures of the Empire, Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, who died on January 27, 1860.
Brisbane was a soldier first and foremost who then became a colonial administrator in Australia and throughout his life was an astronomer of note – indeed at one point in his life he was more famous for his achievements in astronomy than his other considerable accomplishments.
