William Overend Priestley

Sir William Overend Priestley (24 June 1829 – 11 April 1900) was a British physician and Conservative Party politician.

He moved to London in 1856, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and was knighted in 1893 in recognition of his medical services.

[2] Priestley acted as the private assistant of Sir James Young Simpson for some time after his graduation, but in 1856 he came to London and gave lectures at the Grosvenor Place School of Medicine.

These posts he resigned in 1872, and he was then appointed consulting obstetric physician to the hospital, becoming an honorary fellow of King's College and a member of the council.

[1] Early in his career he was attracted to politics in connection with professional subjects, and on 12 May 1896 he was elected without opposition as the parliamentary representative of the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews in the Conservative interest, on the elevation of Sir Charles Pearson to the Scottish bench.

[1] An image of his armorial bookplate: Priestley's works were: He also edited, with Horatio Robinson Storer, the Obstetric Writings and Contributions of Sir James Y. Simpson, Edinburgh, 1855–6, 2 vols.