Doctor David Maclagan FRSE was a prominent Scottish doctor and military surgeon, serving in the Napoleonic Wars.
Background
He was born in Edinburgh on 8 February 1785, the son of Robert MacClaggan (d1785), surgeon, and Margaret Smeiton, his second wife. His father changed his name to Maclagan some time before David was born, to disassociate himself from various Jacobite connections.
Education
Too young to join the army as a surgeon, he travelled to London and studied and practiced at Street George’s Hospital there.
Career
He served as President of both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He served as Surgeon in Scotland to Queen Victoria. David trained as a doctor and surgeon at Edinburgh University, graduating Doctor of Medicine in 1805.
He was admitted into the Royal College of Surgeons in 1807.
In 1809 he served as a military surgeon with the 91st Regiment during the Walcheren Campaign within the Napoleonic Wars. This action saw huge injuries, and Maclagan"s experience would have increased exponentially from this experience.
From 1810 to 1813 he served in various military campaigns, including the attack on Badajos during the Peninsular War, the Battle of Salamanca, the Battle of Vittoria, the Battle of the Pyrenees, the Battle of Nivelle and the Battle of Nive. On return to Britain he became a practicing surgeon in Edinburgh in 1815, partly working for the New Town Dispensary on Thistle Street, which he co-founded in that year.
In 1823 he lost out to George Ballingall in the choice for Edinburgh University"s chair in Military Surgery.
He was Consultant surgeon/physician at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary from 1848 until retiral. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1828, his proposer being Sir John Robison. He died at home, 129 George Street, in Edinburgh on 6 June 1865.
He is buried in Dean Cemetery.
The substantial grave lies against the north wall of the original cemetery (backing onto the northern extension). President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 1826
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (Scotland) 1826
President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society 1840
President of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts 1846-1847
President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1856-1858
Deacon for Edinburgh Town Council
Surgeon to the Queen in Scotland
Physician to the Army in Scotland
Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan FRSE Doctor of Laws (1812-1900), physician and toxicologist
Philip Whiteside Maclagan Doctor of Medicine (1818-1892)
General Sir Robert Maclagan FRSE (1820-1893), soldier and engineer
David Maclagan FRSE (1824-1883) manager of the Insurance Company of Scotland
William Dalrymple Maclagan (1826-1910), Archbishop of York
John Thomson Maclagan (1828-1897)
James McGrigor Maclagan Doctor of Medicine (1830-1892)
Robert Craig Maclagan FRSE (1839-1919), physician and anthropologist
Sir Eric Robert Dalrymple Maclagan Federal Security Agency (1879-1951), art historian
Rev Canon David Whiteside Maclagan
Michael Maclagan (1914-2003).