ARCHIBALD
SLOANA SON of Samuel Sloan, of Ulster descent, and of Martha Fleck, of an old Ayrshire family, Dr. Archibald Sloan was born in Glasgow in the forties. After leaving school he entered as a pupil teacher, and, passing through all the grades, obtained his diploma as a certificated master. The subject of special interest at the F.C. Training College, where he was trained, was mathematics, and his first appointment as a teacher was that of Mathematical Master in Newcastle Grammar School, under the Rev. James Snape. Changing his views of a profession, however, he entered Glasgow University as a medical student, graduated in 1874, and has since then practised in Glasgow. In 1881 he became a Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and he is also a member of several medical associations in Glasgow and London. For some years he held the post of Casualty Surgeon in one of the Police Divisions of the City. He was also Physician for Diseases of Women to Anderson's College Dispensary and Glasgow Central Dispensary, and for the full term of nine or ten years served on the staff of the Glasgow Maternity Hospital. Early in his career he became associated with public bodies, and after his presidential address to the F.C. Training College Association he was pressed by the leading members of the teaching profession to contest a seat in the School Board. He accepted the invitation, and in 1894 was elected a Member of the Glasgow School Board, and was returned at every succeeding election by a large majority till 1909. He took an active share in all departments of the Board's work, but naturally identified himself specially with the interests of physical education. As Convener of the Committee on this subject he devoted a great deal of thought to it, and was chiefly instrumental in building up for the youth of the city a carefully graded and scientific system of physical training. The value of this system may be judged by the extent to which it anticipated the findings of the recent Royal Commission on Physical Training in Schools. He is a strong advocate of the movement for the medical examination and supervision of schools and scholars, and he has all along taken a deep interest in the education of blind and deaf mutes, and of mentally and physically defective children.
Dr. Sloan has been for some years representative of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons on the Western Infirmary Board, and was also representative of the School Board on the City Education Endowments Board, St. Mungo's College, and Anderson's College Medical School. He is also a Director of the Broomhill Home for Incurables. He is unmarried, and his recreation is golf.