David Wilkie (surgeon)
| Sir David Wilkie | |
|---|---|
 Sir David Wilkie | |
| Born | 1882 |
| Died | 1938 |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Fields | medicine |
| Institutions | University of Edinburgh |
| Known for | surgery |
Sir David Percival Dalbreck Wilkie MD FRCSE FRCS FACS OBE FRSE (1882–1938), known to friends and colleagues as DPD, was among the first of the new breed of professors of surgery appointed at a relatively young age to develop surgical research and undergraduate teaching. At the University of Edinburgh, he established a surgical research laboratory from which was to emerge a cohort of young surgical researchers destined to become the largest dynasty of surgical professors yet seen in the British Isles.[1] He is widely regarded as the father of British academic surgery.[2]
Life
He was born on 5 November 1882 in Kirriemuir, the second son[3] of David Wilkie, a wealthy jute manufacturer[4] and his wife Margaret Lawson Mill. He attended Edinburgh Academy 1896 to 1899 and then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University graduating MB ChB in 1904, and being given his doctorate (MD) in 1908.[5]
He was initially employed from 1910 as a surgeon at Leith Hospital, in the harbour area of Edinburgh, and in 1912 moved to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, as House Surgeon under Harold Stiles.[6] At the oubreak of the First World War he became Surgeon Commander to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in the Mediterranean. He served on the hospital ship St Margaret of Scotland, first in the Mediterranean and then in Salonika.[7]
Following the war, in 1924 he was appointed Professor of Systematic Surgery at Edinburgh University, in place of Prof Alexis Thomson, and held this post until death. In 1925 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Lorrain Smith, Arthur Robertson Cushny, George Barger, and David Murray Lyon. In 1936 he served as President to the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.[8]
In 1930, when J. M. Barrie became Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, their common root in Kirriemuir brought them together as friends.[9]
He lived at 56 Manor Place in Edinburgh's West End (previously the home of Henry Cotterill.[10]
He was Vice President of the British Empire Cancer Campaign.[11] Ironically, he died of stomach cancer[12] whilst on a trip to London on 28 August 1938, aged only 55, and is buried on a prominent corner of the northern Victorian extension to Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh.
Family
In July 1911 he married Charlotte Anne Erskine Middleton (d.1939), daughter of Dr James Middleton of Stow. They had no children.
References
- ↑ Dudley, Hugh, ‘Sir David Percival Dalbreck Wilkie(1882–1938)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36898
- ↑ Macintyre, Iain (2007). "Sir David Wilkie (1882-1938): surgeon, scientist and philanthropist". Journal of Medical Biography 15 (4): 206–12. PMID 18172560.
- ↑ http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E004776b.htm
- ↑ https://library.rcsed.ac.uk/docs/gd26_papers_of_sir_david_wilkie.pdf
- ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
- ↑ http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E004776b.htm
- ↑ http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E004776b.htm
- ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
- ↑ https://library.rcsed.ac.uk/docs/gd26_papers_of_sir_david_wilkie.pdf
- ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory, 1911-12
- ↑ http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E004776b.htm
- ↑ http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E004776b.htm
Further reading
Macintyre, Iain (November 2007). "Sir David Wilkie (1882-1938): surgeon, scientist and philanthropist". Journal of Medical Biography 15 (4): 206–12. PMID 18172560.