Robert Halliday Gunning
Robert Halliday Gunning FRSE PRPSE FSA LLD (12 December 1818 – 22 March 1900) was a Scottish surgeon, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
He was born Richard Halliday Gunnion on 12 December 1818 at Wood House in Ruthwell on the southern coast of Dumfriesshire.
In 1822 the family moved to Kirkbean on the opposite side of the River Nith and later to New Abbey before settling in Dumfries.
Gunning paid for these extra lectures at his own expense, making it hard for the University to refuse.
Following in the footsteps of Robert Mortimer Glover, the more recognised James Young Simpson, and the overtly practical Francis Brodie Imlach, Gunning undertook experiments on the use and safety of chloroform during 1847/8.
In May 1848 he presented his findings to the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh and was critical of Simpson's advocacy of human use.
As a combination of these factors, and apparent health problems, he and his new wife left Britain and emigrated to Brazil for a different life.
He kept in regular written contact with his friend Robert Christison, and sent him supplies of Ipecacuanha from Brazil, this being the basis of a drug used to treat dysentery.
He also began investing in various ventures including gold mines and creating a railway system across Brazil (mainly on the coast-line).
He donated a large sum to the Society to fund the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize.
His body was taken to Edinburgh for burial in the Grange Cemetery with his first wife, Eliza, following a memorial service at West Port Church.
He was married twice: firstly in 1847 to Eliza Meikle (died 1877) of Springfield House, Govan; secondly, in old age in 1890, to Lady Mary Agnes Winwood Hughes, 30 years his junior.
These are often erroneously assumed to be founded by the persons after whom they are named, but all are founded by Gunning: Gunning paid for various works in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh including the plaque to Jenny Geddes in 1886 and the magnificent faux-medieval tomb to the Marquess of Argyll (erected 1895).
