William Hope Fowler CVO

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". ...

FRCSE (14 March 1876 – 4 October 1933) was a Scottish medical doctor and pioneer of radiology. He was co-founder of the Edinburgh School of Radiology.

Life

He was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 14 March 1876, the son of Robert Fowler, an accountant. His early years were spent at 81 Cumberland Street in Edinburgh's New Town. He was educated at Daniel Stewart's College them studied medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, graduating with an MB ChB in 1897. He went to work as resident house surgeon at the

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Comi ...

on Lauriston Place. He showed a keen interest in the use of electricity to treat disease and was particularly interested in the newly discovered x-ray process. In 1901 he became the infirmary's Assistant Radiologist under

Dawson Turner Dawson Turner (18 October 1775 – 21 June 1858) was an English banker, botanist and antiquary. He specialized in the botany of cryptogams and was the father-in-law of the botanist William Jackson Hooker and of the historian Francis Palgr ...

. In 1907 they were joined by John W. L. Spence. In 1911 he was promoted to Chief Radiologist alongside Archibald McKendrick. In the same year he became Honorary Radiologist to the Admiralty. At this time Fowler was living at 21 Walker Street in Edinburgh's West End. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he was a member of the War Office's X-Ray Commission. In 1933 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 Sir Harold Stiles, Robert Wallace, James Pickering Kendall and George Freeland Barbour. In June 1932 his right arm was amputated due to the effects of x-ray radiation. He died of radiation-related cancer on 4 October 1933 aged 67 at his home on Midmar Drive in south-west Edinburgh. He was buried in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...

on 7 October 1933, following a ceremony at St Georges Church, West, on

Charlotte Square file:Charlotte Square - geograph.org.uk - 105918.jpg, 300px, Robert Adam's palace-fronted north side Charlotte Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland, part of the New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site ...

. The gravestone lies towards the west end of the first north extension on a north–south path and is carved with a distinctive

Viking longship Longships, a type of specialised Viking ship, Scandinavian warships, have a long history in Scandinavia, with their existence being archaeologically proven and documented from at least the fourth century BC. Originally invented and used by th ...

. He is listed on the ''

Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations The Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations (also known as the X-ray Martyrs' Memorial) is a memorial in Hamburg, Germany, commemorating those who died due to their work with the use of radiation, particularly X-rays, in medicine. ...

'' in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. His name (together with his mentor Dawson Turner and assistant JWL Spence) is one of the 14 British names of the total of 169 sadly losing their life due to their wish to advance the science of radiology.Taming the Rays, by Geoff Meggitt

Family

He was married to Julia Cant (1874–1932) daughter of James Cant of Orebridge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, William Hope 1876 births 1933 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Medical doctors from Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish medical doctors X-ray pioneers