Sir William Reid FRSE FIME DSc DCL (20 June 1906 - 2 October 1985) was a 20th century Scottish businessman and mining engineer. He served as President of the Mining Institute of Scotland 1951/2 and as President of the Institute of Mining Engineers 1956/7. He was Chairman of the Durham Division of the National Coal Board.[1]
He was born on 20 June 1906 the son of Sir Charles Carlow Reid (1879-1961), a mining engineer and author of the "Reid Report" on British mining, and cousin to mining entrepreneur Charles Augustus Carlow.[2]
William was educated at Dollar Academy. He studied mining and metallurgy at the University of Edinburgh graduating with a BSc in 1929 and gaining a doctorate (PhD) in 1933.
In 1956 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Robert McAdam, Sir Edmund Hirst, James Pickering Kendall, and Hugh Bryan Nisbet. He received honorary doctorates from Heriot-Watt University in 1967 (DSc) and from Durham University in 1970 (DCL).[3]
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.
He died on 2 October 1985 is buried with his parents in Beath Cemetery in Cowdenbeath in Fife.[4]
He was married to Sheila Janette Christiana Davidson.