Background
Farquhar was born in 1738, the son of Robert Farquhar, the minister at Garioch. His mother was Katherine (née Turing), the daughter of another minister.
Farquhar was born in 1738, the son of Robert Farquhar, the minister at Garioch. His mother was Katherine (née Turing), the daughter of another minister.
University of Aberdeen.
Born in Garioch, Farquhar abandoned his medical studies at King"s College, Aberdeen to join the British Army as a surgeon during the Seven Years" War. He later worked as an apothecary in London and qualified as a physician, becoming popular with royalty and politicians and receiving a baronetcy for his services. Farquhar took a degree at King"s College, Aberdeen and began to study medicine under James Gregory.
In 1760 however he abandoned his medical studies in Edinburgh and Glasgow and joined the 19th Regiment of Foot in the British Army as a surgeon.
In 1761, the regiment was sent to Belle Île and subsequently to Gibraltar, where it remained at the end of the conflict. Farquhar left the regiment at Gibraltar and spent 18 months travelling and studying medicine in France, working with Claude Nicolas le Cat in Rouen.
Farquhar"s practice gradually developed a steady clientele and he became a physician, awarded his Doctor of Medicine from King"s College, Aberdeen in 1796. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a licenceate of the Royal College of Physicians in the same year.
Among Farquhar"s clients were many prominent figures of the period, including the Prince of Wales, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and prominent politician Lord Melville.
This patronage led to him being awarded a baronetcy in 1796 and was soon appointed physician-in-ordinary to the Prince of Wales. With his reputation secured, Farquhar ran a very successful business until his retirement in 1813 with health problems. Farquhar died in London in March 1819 and was buried at Street Martin-in-the-Fields in Westminster.
In 1821 he was awarded a baronetcy separate to that of his father.
Although Sir Walter Farquhar was a very successful physician of his day, he did not publish or develop any medical knowledge and thus he had no lasting impact on British medicine.
