Background
Souter was born in Perth, and studied at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge.
Souter was born in Perth, and studied at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge.
While at Cambridge he studied under J. East. B. Mayor, whom Souter would cr with influence on his later scholarship.
He subsequently became a Latin assistant at Aberdeen. In 1903 he was appointed professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Mansfield College, Oxford. In 1911 he moved back to the University of Aberdeen, succeeding William Ramsay as Regius Professor of Humanity, in which position he remained until his retirement in 1937.
Upon his retirement, Souter moved back to Oxford, where he became editor-in-chief of the proposed Oxford Latin Dictionary.
The outbreak of World World War II prevented its completion within his lifetime, but Souter did publish a smaller work borne of this endeavor, Glossary of Later Latin, Anno Domini 150–600. Souter married Elizabeth Barr Anderson, daughter of Aberdeen Photographer William Blair Anderson.