Norman Macleod

Norman MacLeod, known in Gaelic as Caraid nan Gàidheal ("friend of the Gael"), was a Church of Scotland minister, poet, and writer. He was Chaplain to Queen Victoria and Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland. Life He was the son of the Rev. Norman Macleod, D.D. (1745 – 1824), and father of the Rev. Norman Macleod (1812 – 1872). MacLeod was a distinguished minister of the Scottish Church, and studied at Edinburgh. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Mull in 1806. He became one of the most distinguished ministers, and most popular preachers of his Church, becoming Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1836. He was Dean of the Chapel Royal and a trusted friend of Queen Victoria. He preached to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during their second visit to Scotland in 1844. He was an enormously influential writer of Gaelic prose, founding and editing two of the earliest Gaelic periodicals, An Teachdaire Gaelach (The Highland Messenger) (1829–32) and Cuairtear nan Gleann (The Traveller of the Glens) (1840–43), as well as later contributing to Fear-Tathaich nam Beann (The Mountaineer) (1848) edited by his son in law, the Rev. Archibald Clerk. He was an enthusiastic proponent of Gaelic education and the welfare of Highlanders. As a smooth operator in church politics he secured the support of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for a Highland education scheme in 1824, with the purpose of teaching the people of the Highlands and Islands to read the Bible, catechism and other material in their native Gaelic. Within a few years these schools had an attendance in excess of 22,000, while other Gaelic Schools Societies and the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) were similarly bringing literacy in Gaelic to many more.