Background
Thomas Winterbottom was the eldest son of Doctor James Winterbottom and Lydia née Masterman, and was educated by the local Curate.
Thomas Winterbottom was the eldest son of Doctor James Winterbottom and Lydia née Masterman, and was educated by the local Curate.
He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and then the University of Glasgow.
He was appointed physician to the colony of the Sierra Leone Company in 1792, spending 4 years in Africa. He returned to South Shields in 1796 to take over his father"s practice. He wrote an account of his time in Africa which was published in 1803, and which contains the description of African trypanosomiasis (Sleeping sickness), for which he is known.
He noted that slave traders used the sign of neck swelling as an indicator of sleepiness, and would avoid those slaves.
This sign of cervical lymphadenopathy became his eponymous sign. He ran his general practice for 30 years, and published several medical books and papers.
He retained his interest in medicine until his death at the age of 93, at the time the oldest doctor in Britain. The bulk of this bequest was to found the South Shields Marine College, which he had established in 1837.
The college later became South Tyneside College.