Sir William Church, 1st Baronet

Sir William Church

Sir William Selby Church, 1st Baronet, KCB, M.D., LL.D., D.C.L., D.Sc. (4 December 1837 – 27 April 1928) was a successful British physician, and president of the Royal College of Physicians from 1899 to 1905.^[1]

Biography

Church was born in 1837, the son of John Church. He was educated at Harrow School, Oxford University, and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was appointed a Physician to the St Bartholomew's Hospital and to the Royal General Dispensary.

He was elected President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1893 to replace Sir Andrew Clark, who had died in office. ^[2]

He was created a Baronet, of Woodside in the Parish of Bishop's Hatfield in the County of Hertford, of Belshill in the Parish of Barnborough in the County of Northumberland, and of Harley Street in the Borough of Saint Marylebone in the County of London, on 28 June 1901,^[3] and made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1902.

He received the honorary degree Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from the Victoria University of Manchester in February 1902, in connection with the 50th jubilee celebrations of the establishment of the university.^[4] Two months later, in April 1902, he received the degree D.C.L. from the University of Durham.^[5]

From 1908 to 1910, he was elected President of the Royal Society of Medicine, which the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society had become since his previous brief presidency in 1893. ^[2]

Family

Church married, in 1875, Sybil Constance Bigge, daughter of Charles J. Bigge. They had at least two sons, the eldest John William Church (b.1878) died before his father, and he was succeeded as 2nd Baronet by his second son Geoffrey Selby Church (1887–1979).

References

1. A. E. Garrod, ‘Church, Sir William Selby, first baronet (1837–1928)’, rev. G. C. Cook, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 6 June 2013 Sir William Selby Church (1837–1928): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32412
2. "The College of Physicians in the nineteenth century" (PDF). ClinMed. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
3. The London Gazette: no. 27328. p. 4331. 28 June 1901.
4. "University intelligence" The Times (London). Saturday, 1 March 1902. (36704), p. 12.
5. "University intelligence" The Times (London). Monday, 28 April 1902. (36753), p. 12.