REV DR GEORGE RAPHAEL BUICK MA, LLD, DD
1841-1904
Born at Rose Cottage, Glenhugh, Ahoghill in 1841, George Raphael Buick was educated locally and at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen’s College, Belfast. He graduated in 1861 as Bachelor of Arts with first class honours and the gold medal in Experimental Sciences. In 1862 he gained his Master of Arts degree with first class honours and the gold medal. He undertook his theological course in the Assembly’s College, Belfast he was ordained in February 1868 to the ministry of Cuningham Memorial Presbyterian Church, Cullybackey.
Interested in the history of the area he was a keen antiquary and wrote numerous articles which were published in The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaelogical Association of Ireland, The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and The Ulster Journal of Archaeology on souterrains, forts and other early remains to be found around the district. Some of these finds were held in his own home. A member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, he had an extensive library on historical and theological interest.
Aside from his archaeological interest Dr Buick wrote verse, his best known works “Beside the Maine” and “In Praise of Slemish.” An acknowledged leader he was elected as Moderator of the General Assembly and in 1896 was appointed convenor of the Jewish Mission of the Presbyterian Church. He set out in 1904 to visit stations of the Mission in Syria. The climate was too much for him and he died on 28th April 1904 in Damascus. The monument erected in his memory in the Cuningham Memorial states that he died in the discharge of his duties of the Church and was “faithful unto death.”