John William Turner

John William Turner MD FRSE (1790–19 November 1835) was a 19th-century Scottish physician who served as Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh.

From around 1805 he studied Surgery under Professor James Russell[1] and received his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 1809, aged 19.

His pupils included future major names in British surgery such as Samuel Alexander Pagan, Andrew Wood, Robert Omond, Andrew Douglas Maclagan and Patrick Newbigging.

From 1831 to 1833 he went to Paris to improve his health, where he acted as a private physician to Henry, Lord Holland.

[5] On the evening of 25/26 October 1835, he was called out during a heavy storm to tend to a patient at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Drummond Street.

Portrait. Credit: Wellcome Collection