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Elected to serve as president when he was only 28, George Frederick
Holmes is distinguished as the University's youngest president, its
first president-- and its most transitory president. He served only five
months, due to illness in his family and difficulties in maintaining
discipline on campus. Born in 1820 in Georgetown, British Guyana, Holmes
was reared in England but journeyed to Canada and the United States in
his late teens to teach and practice law. President Holmes was a
prolific writer; many of his essays were published in the Southern
Quarterly Review before he was 25. He taught briefly at Richmond
College and the College of William and Mary before coming to The
University of Mississippi in 1848. Holmes helped inspire and organize
the University's Hermaean Literary Society, which existed until 1946.
