William Campbell Maclean, professor of military medicine, Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, 1861-1885.

He went to Edinburgh Medical School, then at the height of its fame as the most important in the world. He passed out as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons there in 1833 and graduated in medicine the next year. Having two brothers serving in the Bengal Army in India, he wanted to join the Army from a young age. His parents objected, as they did not think his health was strong enough to endure the Military life of India. Undeterred, William Maclean joined the Madras Army in 1838 and remained in India, a Medical Officer of the Indian Army, until 1850. He had a brief return home in 1855 until 1857 at the time of the Indian Mutiny. He told of having to leave all his children, except for the youngest boy, behind in Inverness in the care of an Aunt of his wife’s and a governess. ‘The parting was very bitter to us – it was, and is, the severest penalty of life in India, as thousands of parents know too well’ (1).