James Wardrop FRCSEd FRCS (1782 – 1869) was a Scottish surgeon.
Wardrop was born the youngest son of James and Marjorie (née Marjoribanks) Wardrop in Torbane Hill, Linlithgowshire (now in West Lothian) but at four years of age moved with the family to live in Edinburgh where he attended Edinburgh High School. In 1800 he was apprenticed to a firm of surgeon apothecaries which included his uncle Andrew Wardrop, first president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. [1]
He later moved on to train in London in 1801, then Paris and Vienna in 1803. He became an Ophthalmic surgeon in Edinburgh 1804–08; London 1809–69; and gained his MD degree at St Andrews University in 1834.
Wardrop taught surgery from 1826 at the Aldersgate Street medical academy with Lawrence and Tyrrell, and published surgical treatises.[2] Wardrop, an excellent surgeon, was early appointed surgeon-extraordinary by the Prince Regent, the future George IV. This infuriated his rivals in London, and he found the doors of the large hospitals closed to him. In retaliation he founded the West London Hospital for Surgery near the Edgware Road, and invited general practitioners to watch him operate. Further royal honours came, but he declined a baronetcy (in lieu of royal fees) and moved out of royal circles. His social gifts, a knowledge of horseflesh and marriage to a wife with aristocratic connections brought him popularity. [3]
Wardrop was associated with Thomas Wakley in the founding of The Lancet in 1823, for which he first wrote savage articles and, later, witty and scurrilous lampoons in his column 'Intercepted Letters'. The letters, under the pseudonym 'Brutus', were thinly disguised as by leading London surgeons, 'accidentally' revealing their nepotism, venality and incompetence. There was enough truth in them to make the parodies sting.
He was later rehabilitated with the College of Surgeons, becoming a Fellow in 1843. [4]
In 1813 he had married Margaret, daughter of Col. George L Dalrymple of East Lothian and the widow of Captain Burn. They had four sons and a daughter. On his death he was buried in Bathgate Old Kirk.