Donald Smith

Donald Smith was born in 1756 in Scotland, the younger brother of Rev John Smith of Campbeltown, who wrote and translated in Scottish Gaelic. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1785 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1803. He was a surgeon in Crieff and an army surgeon with the Breadalbane Fencibles at Enniskillen, Ireland, before settling in Edinburgh. Smith was well known as a Gaelic scholar and owner of manuscripts. Along with his brother, he argued for the authenticity of the Ossian poems. A respected authority on Celtic and Gaelic literature, Smith wrote a 'Disquisition on the Ancient Celts' and an 'Ancient History of the Scots', neither of which was published. He died in Edinburgh on 22 May 1805.