James Peck

Sir James Wallace Peck CB FRSE (3 May 1875 – 3 February 1964) was a British civil servant and local government officer. Early life, education, and career Peck was born in Glasgow, the son of W. Edwin Peck, who worked for Andrew Walker, a linen and cotton merchant. The family lived at 146 Holland Street, a sloping street in Glasgow city centre. He was educated at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and Christ Church, Oxford. From 1899, he lectured in mathematical physics at Glasgow University for four years before becoming an inspector of schools in Scotland in 1903. In 1904, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Andrew Gray, Magnus Maclean, William Jack, and George Alexander Gibson. Local government and civil service career In 1905, he was appointed principal assistant to Sir Robert Blair, director of the London County Council Education Service, and in 1910 returned to Scotland as clerk to the Edinburgh School Board. In 1912, he became chief inspector of National Health Insurance in Scotland.