David Maclagan

David MacLagan, shown wearing his Campaign Medal with six bars, from the Peninsular War

David Maclagan's grave, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh

Dr David Maclagan FRSE (1785-1865) was a prominent Scottish doctor and military surgeon, serving in the Napoleonic Wars. He served as President of both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He served as Surgeon in Scotland to Queen Victoria.

Life

He was born in Edinburgh on 8 February 1785, the son of Robert MacClaggan (d.1785), surgeon, and Margaret Smeiton, his second wife. His father changed his name to Maclagan some time before David was born, to disassociate himself from various Jacobite connections. David trained as a doctor and surgeon at Edinburgh University, graduating MD in 1805. Too young to join the army as a surgeon, he travelled to London and studied and practiced at St George’s Hospital there. He was admitted into the Royal College of Surgeons in 1807.

In 1809 he served as a military surgeon with the 91st Regiment during the Walcheren Campaign within the Napoleonic Wars. This action saw huge injuries, and Maclagan's experience would have increased exponentially from this experience. From 1810 to 1813 he served in various military campaigns, including the attack on Badajos during the Peninsular War, the Battle of Salamanca, the Battle of Vittoria, the Battle of the Pyrenees, the Battle of Nivelle and the Battle of Nive.

On return to Britain he became a practicing surgeon in Edinburgh in 1815, partly working for the New Town Dispensary on Thistle Street, which he co-founded in that year. In 1823 he lost out to George Ballingall in the choice for Edinburgh University's chair in Military Surgery. He was Consultant surgeon/physician at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary from 1848 until retiral.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1828, his proposer being Sir John Robison.

He died at home, 129 George Street, in Edinburgh on 6 June 1865. He is buried in Dean Cemetery. The substantial grave lies against the north wall of the original cemetery (backing onto the northern extension). His wife and many of his children and grandchildren are buried with him.

Positions of note

• President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1826
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (Scotland) 1826
• President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society 1840
• President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1856-1858
• Deacon for Edinburgh Town Council
• Surgeon to the Queen in Scotland
• Physician to the Army in Scotland

Family

With his wife, Jane Whiteside (1790-1878), he had an equally illustrious family including:

• Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan FRSE LLD (1812-1900), physician and toxicologist
• Philip Whiteside Maclagan MD (1818-1892)
• General Sir Robert Maclagan FRSE (1820-1893), soldier and engineer
• David Maclagan FRSE (1824-1883) manager of the Insurance Company of Scotland
• William Dalrymple Maclagan (1826-1910), Archbishop of York
• John Thomson Maclagan (1828-1897)
• James McGrigor Maclagan MD (1830-1892)

His grandchildren included:

• Robert Craig Maclagan FRSE (1839-1919), physician and anthropologist
• Sir Eric Robert Dalrymple Maclagan FSA (1879-1951), art historian
• Rev Canon David Whiteside Maclagan

His great grandchildren include:

• Michael Maclagan (1914-2003)