Biography

James Dunbar was a pioneer of State education in Scotland and New Zealand. He was born at Garthead, Arsallary, parish of Lochlee, County of Angus, Scotland on 1 December 1839 and died in Otago on 6 November 1922. He was the curriculum leader and first head teacher of the newly built Portree Secondary School, Isle of Skye, Scotland from September 1876 until he immigrated to New Zealand in November 1882. After teaching in Otago schools, he was appointed Lecturer in Greek at the University of Otago in 1907. Also interred here are his wife Jane Ann née Fairweather born County of Angus, Scotland on 12 October 1858. She died on 4 May 1925 at 1 Church Street, Monifieth, Angus, while visiting relatives in Scotland. She was cremated in Scotland and her ashes buried with her family here.

Also buried here are their sons David John Malcolm Dunbar born in 1884 in New Zealand and died of pneumonia in October 1908 and William Joseph Dunbar born in 1885 in New Zealand and drowned on 19 January 1906.

This plaque was erected on the initiative of a group of representatives from Scotland and New Zealand. It was unveiled at a ceremony on 6 November 2022 to mark the renovation of the Dunbar family lair and to commemorate James Dunbar’s labours in both countries.

Semper in memoria vivis.
(Your memory lives on)

Composed by Professor Norman Macdonald, Portree, Isle of Skye.