Born in
Edinburgh on 11 July 1830, he was son of John Meiklejohn, an Edinburgh schoolmaster, and was educated at his father's private school at 7 St. Anthony Place, Port Hopetoun. He graduated with an MA from the
University of Edinburgh on 21 April 1858, when he was the gold medallist in Latin. At an early age he devoted himself to German philosophy, and became a private schoolmaster, first in
Bowdon in 1858 and then in 1874 in
Orme Square, London. He also lectured and took up journalism, in 1864 acting as a war correspondent in the
Second Schleswig War, and being arrested as a spy. 22 December 1864 he married Jane Cussans (1841–1922), daughter of T. Cussans late
HEIC, at St Luke's Church, Kings Cross. London. They had (at least) five sons and three daughters. Among their sons were
Maury Meiklejohn (1870–1913), who won the Victoria Cross during the Boer War, and
Arnold Meiklejohn (1874–1932). The fifth son Lieutenant Hugh Bernard Meiklejohn,
Royal Navy, died on 17 May 1902, aged 26. In 1874 Meiklejohn was appointed as assistant commissioner to the endowed schools commission for Scotland, and made educational suggestions in its report. In 1876
Andrew Bell's trustees instituted a Chair of the theory, history, and practice of education at the
University of St Andrews, and Meiklejohn was appointed as the first professor. There he influenced educational ideas at a time when the national system of education was undergoing a reconstruction. Meiklejohn unsuccessfully contested the
Glasgow Tradeston parliamentary constituency as a
Gladstonian liberal in 1886. He died at
Ashford, Kent, on 5 April 1902, and was buried there. ==Works==