James Warburton Begbie

He was born on 19 November 1826, and was the second son of Dr James Begbie, The family lived at 18 Albany Street in Edinburgh's Second New Town.

After 1863 Begbie ceased to teach or hold hospital appointments, though busily occupied in his profession; and in 1869, on the death of his father, he limited himself to consulting practice.

The incessant calls made upon him for consultations in the country, involving wearying railway journeys, taxed his strength very severely, and doubtless contributed to the breakdown of his health.

In 1875, at the meeting of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh, he was entrusted with the delivery of the address on medicine, and at the same time his own university paid him the compliment of conferring upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.

Begbie was well fitted, physically, morally, and intellectually, for the work of his profession, and was, in the highest sense of the word, remarkably successful, not only in relieving the bodily ills of his patients, but in winning their confidence and affection.

They are chiefly accounts of cases with copious comments discussing in almost every instance the views and discoveries of others, without any important original contribution of his own.

In his later life Begbie lived at 16 Great Stuart Street on the Moray Estate in Edinburgh's fashionable West End.