Professor of Scottish History and Literature University of Oxford. In 1929, Rait was appointed Principal of the University. He remained in post as professor for a year, publishing a "History of the Union Bank of Scotland" in 1930, but resigned later that year, succeeded by John Duncan Mackie, previously Professor of Modern History at Bedford College (predecessor institution of Royal Holloway), who had initiated the teaching of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews on being appointed a lecturer there at only twenty-two years old. His publications whilst in the chair included "Andrew Lang and the House of Stuart" (1935) and "The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558"
Royal Observatory, Greenwich the present-day Maritime Museum, was the birthplace of both Henry VIII and his daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I; the Tudors used Greenwich Castle, which stood on the hilltop that the Observatory presently occupies, as a hunting lodge. Greenwich Castle was reportedly a favourite place for Henry VIII to house his mistresses, so that he could easily travel from the Palace to see them. The establishment of a Royal Observatory was proposed in 1674 by Sir Jonas Moore who, in his role as Surveyor General at the Ordnance Office, persuaded King Charles II to create the observatory, with John Flamsteed