James Haig Ferguson
James Haig Ferguson FRSE FRCPE PRCSE LLD (18 December 1862 – 2 May 1934) was a prominent Scottish gynaecologist. He served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1929-31. He chaired the Central Midwives Board of Scotland. He was also a manager of Donaldson's School for the Deaf.[1] In 1929 he was a founder of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
In 1899 he founded the Haig Ferguson Memorial Home for unmarried mothers to give birth without chastisement. It was originally called the Lauriston Home and was renamed following his death; it closed in 1974.[2]
Life
He was born on 18 December 1862, in the manse at Fossoway (now known as Crook of Devon) being the son of Rev. William Ferguson, the local minister, and his wife Elizabeth Haig of Dollarfield.[3] He was sent to the Collegiate School in Edinburgh and graduated MB CM from Edinburgh University in 1884.
He then worked as a Resident Surgeon under Claude Muirhead at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place, also spending time at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, before beginning to specialise in gynaecology. From 1896 he was the official Assistant Gynaecologist at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.[1] In 1904 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir William Turner, Alexander Crum Brown, Sir Patrick Heron Watson (his father-in-law), and Sir John Halliday Croom.[4]
He was then living at 7 Coates Crescent in Edinburgh’s fashionable west end.[5] From 1921 he headed the Gynaecological team at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He retired in 1927.
In 1828/9 he conducted an extended exchange of correspondence with the Russian gynaecologist Vasily Stroganov in Leningrad. These concerned translation of Stroganov’s book The Improved Prophylactic Method in the Treatment of Eclampsia (published New York, 1930).[6]
He suffered from ill-health through most of his retiral and died at home in Coates Crescent on 2 May 1934. His funeral service took place on 4 May in St George’s Church on Charlotte Square (now West Register House). He is buried in Dean Cemetery.[7]
Publications
- Handbook of Obstetric Nursing (1889) with Dr F W N Haultain
- A Combined Textbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (1923) (co-author)
Family
In 1889 he married Penelope Gordon Watson (1863-1944), daughter of Patrick Heron Watson. They had one son, William Haig Ferguson (1891-1928), and three daughters.
References
- 1 2 British Medical Journal, obituaries< 12 May 1934
- ↑ LHSA (2 May 2016). "Haig Ferguson Memorial Home collection summary".
- ↑ The Dollar Magazine, September 1915
- ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
- ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1905-6
- ↑ "gb1538-s71 - Papers of Professor Haig Ferguson - Archives Hub".
- ↑ Charles Sale. "Gravestone Photographs Resource Countries index page".