// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's James Cosh? Cosh he's a big deal?
James Cosh (27 June 1838 – 20 September 1900) was a Scottish-Australian missionary and academic.
Early life and education
[edit]James Cosh was born on 27 June 1838 at Whitleys near Stranraer, Scotland.[1][2]
He studied at the University of Glasgow (M.A., 1861), where he received prizes in classics, and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he studied medicine and physiology.[1][2]
Career
[edit]Cosh was ordained on on 4 October 1865 by the Presbytery of Paisley (Reformed Presbyterian Church) after completion of his studies.[1][2]
Cosh served for four years on Efate in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). He translated the Biblical books of Genesis and John into the local language.[1]
In 1870, Cosh moved on to Australia and served as a theological lecturer, before being appointed to the Hunter Baillie chair of Oriental and Polynesian Languages in St Andrew's College, University of Sydney, in 1899.[3]
In 1881 he was the General Assembly delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council at Belfast; later that year he became Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales.[2]
J. Graham Miller suggests that Cosh's "devoted and distinguished service in Australia revealed the permanent value of those few brief years of missionary work on Efate."[4]
Personal life
[edit]On 31 January 1866 James Cosh married Janet Frame (1843–1904).[3]
They had four children, the eldest of whom, James, became a Presbyterian preacher.[1][2] Second son Thomas Frame Cosh became a well-known architect, who, mainly through the firm Spain & Cosh, designed many commercial buildings around Sydney.[3]
Honours and legacy
[edit]In 1892, he received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the University of Glasgow.[3]
There is a memorial window at St Andrew's College Chapel at the University of Sydney in his honour.[5]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 Dougan, Alan (1969). "James Cosh (1838–1900)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
This article was published: in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, 1969; online in 2006
- 1 2 3 4 5 "James Cosh (1838–1900)". Australian National University, Obituaries Australia. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 "Cosh family further papers, 1966-1998". State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
- ↑ J. Graham Miller, Live, Volume 2, p. 80.
- ↑ "James Cosh (1838–1900)". Australian National University, People Australia. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
| International | |
|---|---|
| People | |
- 1838 births
- 1900 deaths
- People from Stranraer
- Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
- Scottish Presbyterian missionaries
- Presbyterian missionaries in Vanuatu
- Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
- Translators of the Bible into Oceanic languages
- Academic staff of the University of Sydney
- 19th-century Scottish translators
- British expatriates in Vanuatu
- British missionary linguists
- 19th-century biblical scholars