James Hodsdon

Sir James William Beeman Hodsdon KBE, FRCSEd (1858-1928) was an eminent Scottish surgeon who served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1914-1917.

Sir James Hodsdon
The grave of Sir James Hodsdon, Dean Cemetery

Life

Hodsdon was born and raised in Bermuda, the son of Adelaide Horne Ingham (d.1916) and Francis Eve Hodsdon.[1] His later education was at Sherborne School in England.[2] He studied Medicine at Queen's College, Belfast and the University of Edinburgh, graduating MD around 1880. He did further postgraduate studies in London, Vienna and Paris.[3]

For most of his adult life he lived and practiced in Edinburgh, working as Consultant Surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and living latterly at 6 Chester Street in Edinburgh’s West End.[4] From 1886 to 1909 he also taught in the Edinburgh extramural school of medicine, lecturing in surgery in the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women.[2] He also lectured in Clinical Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. In 1914 he succeeded Francis Mitchell Caird as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.[5] In 1917 he stepped down and acted simply as Vice President until 1919.[6] This period, during the First World War, also saw him concurrently serving as a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, based in Edinburgh at the 2nd Scottish General Hospital at Craigleith (now Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital).[7]

In later life he acted as Examiner in Surgery for the University of Edinburgh, Durham University and Queen's College, Belfast. He was knighted in 1920.

He died in a sleeping car of a train travelling from London to Edinburgh on 28 May 1928.[8] He is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh with his wife and mother, on the south path of the northern Victorian Extension, towards the east end, backing onto the original cemetery.

Family

He married Joan Turnbull Raffin (d.1947) in 1889.[9]

Artistic Recognition

His portrait by Walter Stoneman is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.[10]

References
  1. Sale, Charles. "Gravestone Photographs Resource grave details page". www.gravestonephotos.com. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  2. "SIR JAMES HODSON, K.B.E., M.D., F.R.C.S.Ed". Br Med J. 1: 1003–4. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3518.1003. PMC 2455985. PMID 20773936.
  3. Who Was Who 2016
  4. Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1911-12
  5. A Famous and Flourishing Society: The History of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, by Dr Helen Dingwall
  6. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  7. "Second Scottish General Hospital Craigleith - Archives Hub". Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  8. Exeter and Plymouth Gazette: 30 May 1928
  9. Who Was Who 2016
  10. "Sir James William Beeman Hodsdon - Person - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
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