James Hodsdon

Sir James Hodsdon

The grave of Sir James Hodsdon, Dean Cemetery

Sir James William Beeman Hodsdon KBE PRCSE (1858-1928) was an eminent Scottish surgeon who served as president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1914-1917.

Life

He was born the son of Francis Eve Hodsdon and Adelaide Horne Ingham (d.1916). James was raised in Bermuda.^[1] His later education was at Sherborne School in England. He studied Medicine at Queen's College, Belfast and Edinburgh University, graduating MD around 1880. He did further postgraduate studies in London, Vienna and Paris.^[2]

For most of his adult life he lived and practiced in Edinburgh, working as Consultant Surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and living latterly at 6 Chester Street in Edinburgh’s West End.^[3] He also lectured in Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh University. In 1914 he was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh^[4] In 1917 he stepped down and acted simply as Vice President until 1919.^[5] This period (during the First World War) also saw him concurrently serving as a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, based in Edinburgh at the 2nd Scottish General Hospital (now Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital).^[6]

In later life he acted as Examiner in Surgery for Edinburgh University, Durham University and Queen's College, Belfast. He was knighted in 1920.

He died in a sleeping car of a train travelling from London to Edinburgh on 28 May 1928.^[7] He is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh with his wife and mother, on the south path of the northern Victorian Extension, towards the east end, backing onto the original cemetery.

Family

He was married to Joan Turnbull Raffin (d.1947) in 1889.^[8]

Artistic Recognition

His portrait by Walter Stoneman is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London.^[9]

References