The Swiney Prize, a British award made every five years by the Royal Society of Arts with the Royal College of Physicians, was set up by the will of George Swiney, an English physician who died in 1844.
New cups were designed, after an initial stable period when a pattern by Daniel Maclise was reused.
Having retired from practice, he settled in London, lived a secluded life, and acquired a reputation as an eccentric.
He spent much time on his will and died at Grove Street, Camden Town, on 21 January 1844.
He bequeathed £5,000 to the Society of Arts, to found a quinquennial prize for the best published essay on jurisprudence, the prize to be adjudicated jointly by the Society of Arts and the London College of Physicians[5] Swiney also left £5,000 to the British Museum to found a lectureship in geology, the lecturer to be an M.D.