Samuel James Cameron (7 January 1878 – 29 October 1959) was
Regius Professor of Midwifery at the
University of Glasgow
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from 1934 until 1942. The son of
Caesarean Section
Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or mo ...
pioneer Prof
Murdoch Cameron
Murdoch Cameron (31 March 1847 – 28 April 1930) was Regius Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Glasgow), Regius Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Glasgow from 1894 to 1926. He was a pioneer of the Caesarean sect ...
, S.J. Cameron was a foundation Fellow of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929, and for many years a member of the Gynaecological Visiting Society. A lifelong champion of the reputation of the founder of professional
midwifery in the British isles,
William Smellie, Cameron both named a maternity hospital at
Lanark, Scotland, after him and saved Smellie's library from permanent loss.
Professional life
Sam Cameron graduated from the University of Glasgow MB Ch.B, with commendation, in 1901. Among his professional appointments he spent a year as house-surgeon at the Chelsea Hospital for Woman, in London, working under the pre-eminent British surgeons, Sir John Bland-Sutton, Victor Bonney and Sir Comyns Berkeley, forming enduring friendships with all three. Later he became head of the gynaecological wards at Glasgow's
Western Infirmary and in 1920 was appointed head of a gynaecological unit at the
Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital. In October 1934 he succeeded to his father's former position, replacing
John Martin Munro Kerr
John Martin Munro Kerr (5 December 1868 – 7 October 1960) was Regius Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Glasgow), Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Glasgow from 1927 to 1934. A scholar and surgeon of international acclaim ...
in the chair of Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Glasgow.
A popular teacher, Cameron was famous for his notably quick surgical technique. He published four medical textbooks, including ''A Manuel of Gynaecology: For Students and Practitioners'' (1915). After his retirement in 1942 Cameron was awarded an honorary LLD by the University of Glasgow.
William Smellie
Throughout his professional life Cameron championed the reputation of the father of modern midwifery in the British isles,
William Smellie. In October 1956 he gave the first William Smellie lecture to the Glasgow Obstetrical Society having previously led the campaign for the renovation of Smellie's tomb and having played the decisive role in the efforts to salvage Smellie's library at Lanark.
In 1929, in his Presidential address to the Glasgow Obstetric and Gynaecological Society Cameron said of Smellie: ‘Looking backwards, I see Smellie’s figure towering above all other’s
€¦As the founder of the modern practice of obstetrics, this plain, blunt, and indefatigable Scot has left a memory, to be cherished by all interested in this special department of medicine’.
[
In honour of the plain and indefatigable Scot Cameron, instrumental in the foundation of a maternity hospital at Lanark, named it the William Smellie Memorial Hospital.
]
Personal life
A lifelong art collector, Sam Cameron's collection at his country residence at Stobieside, near Drumclog
Drumclog is a small village in South Lanarkshire, Parish of Avendale and Drumclog, Scotland. The habitation is situated on the A71, between Caldermill and Priestland in East Ayrshire at a height of 196.7m and about 5 miles west of Strathaven.
...
, Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland.
Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...
included works by the Scottish painters Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to:
*Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet
*Allan Ramsay (artist) or Allan Ramsay the Younger (1713–1784), Scottish portrait painter
*Allan Ramsay (diplomat) (1937–2022), British diplom ...
and Sir Henry Raeburn
Sir Henry Raeburn (; 4 March 1756 – 8 July 1823) was a Scottish portrait painter. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland.
Biography
Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith: a fo ...
. Cameron also commissioned Denis Peploe, son of the Scottish painter, S.J. Peploe, to sculpt a statue of mother and child, which he gave to the William Smellie Memorial Hospital.
In 1908 S.J. Cameron married Marion Lean, daughter of Daniel Lean the wealthy Scots muslin manufacturer, the value of whose estate ranked him fifth in the top ten wealthiest Scots to die in 1898.[ Samuel James Cameron died at Stobieside in 1959.
]
Bibliography
* ''A Manuel of Gynaecology: For Students and Practitioners'', 1915, London, Edward Arnold.
* ''A Glasgow Manual of Obstetrics'' (co-authored with John Hewitt, Archibald N McLellan, Robert A Lennie and John Hewitt), 1924, London, Edward Arnold.
* ''Difficult Labour'' (co-authored with John Hewitt), 1926, London, Edward Arnold.
* ''Uterine Haemorrhage'' (co-authored with John Hewitt), 1926, London, Edward Arnold.
References
Bibliography
* ''The Glasgow Herald'', Glasgow, 30 October 1959.
* Peel, John (1976) ''The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: 1929–1969'', London, Heinemann Medical Books.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Samuel James
Scottish obstetricians
Academics of the University of Glasgow
20th-century Scottish medical doctors
1878 births
1959 deaths