W. S. Urquhart

William Spence Urquhart (8 May 1877 – 16 July 1964) was a Scottish religious scholar, Christian missionary and academic in India. He influenced among others one of his college students, the religious leader A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Early life He was born in Annandale, Woolston, Southampton, the youngest of three children of Rev. Robert Urquhart, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Old Meldrum, and Mary Jane Spence. Alexander Urquhart M.D. (1872–1958), father of Roy Urquhart, was his elder brother. His early education was at Old Meldrum parish school.

Urquhart graduated M.A. in philosophy at the University of Aberdeen in 1897, having studied under W. R. Sorley. From 1898 to 1902 he was a theological student at New College, Edinburgh, where Andrew B. Davidson was a significant influence. He spoke good German and attended the University of Marburg (1899) and University of Göttingen (1901), making important contacts for later life, respectively Wilhelm Herrmann and Rudolf Otto.

In 1902 Urquhart became a minister of the United Free Church of Scotland. Under the influence of George Smith, and against the advice of academic contacts, he chose to become a missionary in Calcutta. He struck up a friendship with Basanta Kumar Mallik. In 1913 he took over the management of the periodical Calcutta Review, editing it to 1921.

Urquhart taught at the University of Aberdeen for one year, then at Knox College, University of Toronto for 1938–9, and returned to Aberdeen. He was Croall Lecturer in 1939, and Wilde Lecturer at Oxford 1942–5; he gave the Riddoch Lecture at Aberdeen in 1942 and 1944. She published in 1925 Women of Bengal – A Study of the Hindu Pardanasins of Calcutta, including some discussion of the feminist movement in India; and Amiya, a Bengali Girl (juvenile literature, 1930). William and Margaret wrote together Alexander Tomory: Indian missionary (1910), a memorial for Alexander Tomory, Principal of the Scottish Church College who died that year.