John Carruthers Beattie was born on 21 November 1866, in Dumfriesshire. He attended St John's Boarding School in Workington and Moray House in Edinburgh. He entered the University of Edinburgh and obtained a degree in Chemistry, Botany and Mathematics before furthered his studies in Physics at Munich, Vienna, Berlin and Glasgow. In 1896 he was awarded a Doctorate of Science from the University of Edinburgh for his thesis entitled The Behaviour of Bismuth Plates in a Steady Magnetic Field. He married Elizabeth Paton in 1898. He died in Cape Town in South Africa.
University career
In 1897 Beattie was appointed as Professor of Applied Mathematics and Experimental Physics at the South African College in Cape Town. Beattie’s research included the influence of X-rays, ultra-violet light, and the rays from uranium on the electrical conductivity of gases, and the leakage of electricity from charged bodies at moderate temperatures. During the Anglo-Boer War in February 1899, he and others demonstrated the application of wireless telegraphy by transmitting signals over a distance of 120 metres on Cape Town's Grand Parade using equipment imported from Britain. In 1901 he began a magnetic survey of South Africa with Prof John Todd Morrison. Starting in 1908 he extended the survey through central Africa to Egypt, arriving in Cairo in December 1909. Beginning in 1904 there was a movement to obtain a charter for both the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch. Alfred Beit, a mining magnate and one of Cecil John Rhodes' collaborators, died in 1906 leaving a bequest of £200 000 for the creation of a university in Johannesburg. The then government though had a preference for Rhodes's idea of establishing a university in Cape Town on his former estate. The Beit trustees were then persuaded to allow the Beit Bequest to rather be used to pursue Rhodes's dream and additionally to contribute a further £300 000. Establishing a new university adjacent to South African College would then have inhibited its further development. Seeing an opportunity, Beattie became involved in the ‘audacious bid’ to develop South African College into this new national university. He succeeded, despite strong opposition from people in Johannesburg who wished to establish the university there, and the Beit's Bequest was subsequently used to establish the University of Cape Town. Beattie in 1917 was appointed Principal of the South African College, abandoning his academic research. In 1918 he was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town, which he held till his retirement at the end of 1937. He was responsible for the establishment of the campus on the slopes of Table Mountain. The move to the present-day campus took place between 1928 and 1929. This helped establish the reputation of the university, opening of new departments and greatly increasing in the number of students from about 600 in 1918 to 2200 in 1938.
