John W. L. Spence

John Webster Lowson Spence MD LRCP LRCS (11 August 1870 – 15 March 1930) was a Scottish x-ray pioneer and an early victim of radiation poisoning.

His name is one of 14 British professionals listed on the Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations, which was erected in 1936.

He was born in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire on 11 August 1870 the son of Rev David Brown Spence, a Church of Scotland missionary.

Around 1903 he came to Edinburgh to assist Dawson Turner and William Hope Fowler in their experiments on radiology.

[6] He retired in 1929 due to an inability to continue work and died in Edinburgh on 15 March 1930.