Dr Hector Gavin MD (29 August 1815 – 21 April 1855) was a Scottish physician and sanitarian.

Life

He was born in August 1815 the eldest son of Marion Walker (b.1795) and Hector Gavin, an engraver at 150 High Street on the

Royal Mile The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...

Edinburgh's Old Town The Old Town ( sco, Auld Toun) is the name popularly given to the oldest part of Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh. The area has preserved much of its medieval street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with the 18th/19th-cent ...

. The family home was destroyed in the

Great Fire of Edinburgh The Great Fire of Edinburgh was one of the most destructive fires in the history of Edinburgh. It started on Monday, 15 November 1824, and lasted for five days, with two major phases. Sequence of events The fire broke out around 10pm on 15 No ...

in 1824 and they moved to 8 North Bridge before going to the characterful Croft-an-Righ next to

Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinbu ...

, the home of his late grandfather. He was educated in Edinburgh then studied medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

specialising in military surgery,https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0025727300035948 winning a prize in a government-sponsored contest for the best essay on feigned diseases. He moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1836 and gained his doctorate (MD) there in 1838. In London he worked at the London Orphan Asylum, the British Penitent Female Refuge, and the

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the common land, Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heat ...

Workhouse. During this time he also lectured in forensic medicine and public hygiene at

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approximately five miles east, in central Lond ...

. Prior to his position in the Crimea he worked in London,

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. He was the author of several publications, including ''Sanitary Ramblings''. At the request of

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

and

Lord Panmure Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie, (22 April 18016 July 1874), known as Fox Maule before 1852, as The Lord Panmure between 1852 and 1860, was a British politician. Ancestry Dalhousie was the eldest son of William Maule, 1st Baron Pan ...

, Gavin with Dr John Sutherland and

Robert Rawlinson Sir Robert Rawlinson KCB (28 February 1810 – 31 May 1898) was an English engineer and sanitarian. Early life He was born at Bristol. His father was a mason and builder at Chorley, Lancashire, and he himself began his engineering education ...

headed a Sanitary Commission sent to the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

to improve sanitation in the war hospitals. The Sanitary Commission members arrived in March 1855 However, on 21 April 1855 Gavin died in the accidental discharge of a

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

, caused by his brother William Gavin of the 17th Lancers, a veterinary surgeon, who shared his tent. The gun (Hector's service revolver) apparently went off as he handed it to his brother, grip-first, and his brother grabbed it touching the trigger, and firing into Hector's body. He is memorialised on his family's grave in

Old Calton Cemetery The Old Calton Burial Ground is a cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It located at Calton Hill to the north-east of the city centre. The burial ground was opened in 1718, and is the resting place of several notable Scots, including philosopher ...

. The grave lies immediately north of the distinctive cylindrical tomb of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...

, behind the Scottish-American War Memorial. He has a memorial in the Western part of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

where his wife and son are buried.W.Justyne. 1865. A guide to Highgate Cemetery. London

Family

In December 1837 he married Margaret Greenfield, daughter of James Greenfield.

References

External links

''On feigned and factitioius diseases'', 1835–1836, by Hector Gavin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavin, Hector 1815 births 1855 deaths Medical doctors from Edinburgh Civil servants from Edinburgh 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Firearm accident victims Accidental deaths in Ukraine Deaths by firearm in Ukraine Sanitary commissioners