Signet Library Assistant 1912-1968, Librarian 1961-1968

James Christie was the only individual to work his way up through the ranks from Third Assistant to the Signet Librarian’s post itself, and he was the first internal appointment to a WS Society postholder role not to be a Writer to the Signet.

Christie was born in Portobello in 1894, and began his career at the Advocates’ Library, joining the Signet Library in 1912 as a temporary assistant to work on an expanded subject catalogue. He enlisted not long after the outbreak of the Great War, and served in Ireland and India. After the return of peace, he returned to the Library and continued with the catalogue until 1920, when he was promoted to Third Assistant.

Over the course of his career, Christie became well-known within scholarly Edinburgh, contributing both knowledge and his skill as an indexer to a wide range of publications and projects, most notably the Scottish National Dictionary. His indices to UK Government Reports and to the WS Society’s Reports and Papers are still in use.

By the end of the 1950s the then Signet Librarian Dr. Charles Malcolm was elderly and much of the background work during the first round of Sotheby’s sales fell to Christie: it was Christie who travelled to London to recover pamphlets of Scottish interest that had been sent south in error. Christie was increasingly taken on much of the Signet Librarian’s role and when Malcolm retired in 1961 Christie was considered his natural successor. Christie spent his seven years in the role leading the Library through difficult years of reorganisation and redecoration before finally retiring in 1968.

Christie’s service to the Signet Library did not end there, and much of the research and work that went into the third iteration of the Register of Members of the Society of Writers to HM Signet (Constable, 1983) was his.