Thomas Walmsley

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(1889–1951) was a 20th-century Scottish anatomist who became Professor of Anatomy at

Queen's University, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

Life

He was born in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

the first son of Thomas Walmsley, a Scottish officer in the

Royal Indian Navy The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British Raj, British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the British Indian Army, Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the ...

. The family returned to

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in his youth (around 1899), living at 59 South Street. His father is then listed as a "marine engineer". He was educated at

Greenock Academy The Greenock Academy was a mixed non-denominational school in the west end of Greenock, Scotland. It was founded in 1855 and was originally independent, later a grammar school with a primary department, and finally a Comprehensive school only fo ...

. He studied Medicine at

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

graduating MB ChB in 1912. He was first employed as a Demonstrator in the Anatomy classes under Prof

Thomas Hastie Bryce Prof Thomas Hastie Bryce LLD FRS FSA FRSE (20 October 1862 – 16 May 1946) was a Scottish anatomist, medical author and archaeologist. He was Regius Professor of Anatomy at the University of Glasgow 1909 to 1935 and also Curator of the Hunteri ...

. In 1914 he took on the additional role as House Surgeon at

Glasgow Western Infirmary The Western Infirmary was a teaching hospital situated in Yorkhill in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland, that was managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It was opened in 1874 and closed in 2015. History After the University of Glasgow moved f ...

under Sir

William Macewen Sir William Macewen ( ; 22 June 1848 – 22 March 1924) was a Scottish surgeon. He was a pioneer in modern brain surgery, considered the ''father of neurosurgery'' and contributed to the development of bone graft surgery, the surgical treat ...

. At the university he began lecturing in Surgery. He received his doctorate (MD) in 1916, also receiving the Bellahouston Gold Medal for his thesis on joints. He then replaced James Fairlie Gemmill as Lecturer in Anatomy and

Embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

at the university. In 1919 at the relatively youthful age of 30 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at

, replacing Prof Johnson Symington. In 1920 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

Diarmid Noel Paton Diarmid Noël Paton (19 March 1859 – 30 September 1928), known as Noël Paton, was a Scottish physician and academic. From 1906 to 1928, he was the Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow. Personal life and education Pat ...

Frederick Orpen Bower Frederick Orpen Bower FRSE FRS (4 November 1855 – 11 April 1948) was an English botanist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1891. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society in 1909 and the Darwin Medal of the Ro ...

, and Robert Muir. In 1929, he published his classic anatomical monograph ''The Heart'' as Vol IV (Part III) of ''Quain's Elements of Anatomy''. At Queen's, he developed its first science degree in anatomy (B.Sc.), combining morphology with embryology, neuroanatomy and anthropological approaches. He retired due to ill-health in 1950 and was succeeded by John Joseph Pritchard. He died at his home in

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

following a long struggle with

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...

on 12 November 1951 aged 62.

Family

He was married to Denzil Kirk (sic). They had one son and one daughter. He was older brother to Robert Walmsley who held a similar position at

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

Publications

*''A Manual of Practical Anatomy'' London: Longmans Green. 3 vols (1918) (second edition 1934). *''"The Heart" - Quain's Elements of Anatomy, Vol IV part III'' (1929) London: Longmans Green.

References

1889 births 1951 deaths Scottish anatomists Alumni of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Glasgow Academics of Queen's University Belfast Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Greenock Walmsley family British people in colonial India {{Scotland-scientist-stub