Charles Bell (1774-1842)

Charles Bell, discoverer of Bell's Palsy.

Charles Bell was a renowned surgeon, anatomist and artist, who discovered Bell's Palsy and produced many anatomical drawings and watercolours, some of the most important of which were produced while he was working as a medical officer at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He was born in Scotland and came to London in 1804. He built up a private teaching practice and then bought the Great Windmill Street School of Anatomy founded by William Hunter. His association with The Middlesex began in 1814 when he was appointed surgeon there. This was followed by appointments as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1824, and then as Professor of Surgery at the new University of London (now University College London). Bell left the University in 1830 and was instrumental in establishing a Medical School at The Middlesex Hospital in 1835. In 1836 Bell went back to Edinburgh to take up a post of Professor of Surgery, and died in 1842.

George Eastman (1854-1932)

George Eastman was a New York bank clerk who was an early pioneer in photography. He developed modern camera film, simplifying the process of taking photographs, and founded the Eastman Kodak Company to market his invention. He gave a large proportion of his fortune to philanthropic causes, and the Eastman Dental Clinic in London was one of a number of dental clinics founded with his money in the US and Europe. Eastman died in 1932 at the age of 77 when he shot himself, as he became increasingly plagued by ill-health.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917)
Elizabeth Garrett was determined to train as a doctor, despite the fact that this was not then a career open to women. Her attempts to train at The Middlesex Hospital failed when she was forced to leave, but she finally managed to exploit a loophole in the rules of the Society of Apothecaries to gain a certificate from them as an apothecary licensed to practice medicine. She finally managed to obtain her medical degree from the University of Paris in 1871, and in the same year she married James George Shelton Anderson. In 1874 she was a leading figure in the establishment of the London School of Medicine for Women, along with Sophia Jex-Blake. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson retired in 1902, and became mayor of Aldeburgh, the first female mayor in England. She died in 1917.

The London School of Medicine for Women eventually became the Royal Free Hospital Medical School, as the students there obtained their clinical training in the wards of the Royal Free. The School merged with UCL in 1996 to form the Royal Free and University College School of Medicine. For further information about the London School of Medicine for Women, contact the Royal Free Hospital Archives Centre.

Robert Liston (1794-1847)

Robert Liston was born on 28 October 1794 in Ecclesmachan, Linlithgow. He went to Edinburgh University aged 14 and intended to join the Navy as a surgeon, although he never did this and instead became dresser in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 1814, completing his training in London between 1816 and 1818. He then qualified as a surgeon and became a Member of Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh, returning to Edinburgh until 1834, when he was invited to become surgeon to the newly-established North London Hospital (University College Hospital). It was here that he performed the first major operation under anaesthetic. He died on 7 December 1847 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Patrick Manson (1844-1927)

Patrick Manson was born in Aberdeen in 1844. He studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, before moving to China in 1866, and spending 23 years working and conducting research into his interests in tropical medicine. He lived in Formosa (now Taiwan) until 1871, when he moved to Amoy on the Chinese mainland. His final move was to Hong Kong in 1883, and he returned to Britain in 1889. In 1892 he was appointed Physician to the Seamen's Hospital Society and worked at the Albert Dock Hospital: it was at this hospital that the London School of Tropical Medicine was established in 1899. Manson died in 1922.

Protheroe Smith (c 1809-1889)

Protheroe Smith trained as a doctor at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, specializing in obstetrics and gynaecology, and in 1842 decided that there was a need in London for a hospital which focussed exclusively on the treatment of women's illnesses. Having established the Hospital, he worked there as a surgeon until his retirement in 1885.