Archibald William Crichton (1791, Edinburgh–1865) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

physician who had a successful career in

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. Archibald was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Crichton and Margaret Lambie. Also he was the nephew of Alexander Crichton. Alexander became the personal physician of Tsar Alexander I of Russia and his mother Maria Feodorovna in 1804, and held that post until 1819. After Archibald qualified as a

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

in Edinburgh in 1810, he accepted an offer of a position in Russia arranged by his uncle. He became a medical supervisor charged with developing a mineral spa resort in the Caucasus mountains. He was successful in controlling an outbreak of the plague there, for which he was granted the knight cross of the Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth class). In 1813 he joined the

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, providing medical care to French

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held in

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. However, following the intervention of his friend –another Scottish doctor in the

– James Wylie, he joined the Tsar's entourage, with whom he travelled on campaign to Paris. In 1816 he was appointed personal physician to Grand Duke Nicholas, brother of Alexander I, and who succeeded him to the throne in 1825 to become Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crichton, Archibald William 1791 births 1865 deaths 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class Physicians-in-Ordinary