William Lochead

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

MWS (sometimes given as Lochhead; c.1753-1815) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist. He served as the curator of the St Vincent Botanical Garden in 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 ...

from 1811 to 1815, succeeding his friend

Alexander Anderson Alexander Anderson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Alexander Anderson (illustrator) (1775–1870), American illustrator * Alexander Anderson (poet) (1845–1909), Scottish poet * Alexander Anderson (cartoonist) (1920–2010), American car ...

Life

The son of John Lochead, William was born in Paisley in central Scotland around 1753. He graduated MD from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1775 and served as a surgeon in

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

in the

. In 1791 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were John Walker, William Wright and Daniel Rutherford. In 1794 he wrote extensively to Rev Dr John Walker concerning

Guiana The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

and the island of

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...

. He died at St Vincent on 22 March 1815. His post in the Gardens was succeeded by George Caley.

References

Scottish surgeons 1750s births 1815 deaths People from Paisley, Renfrewshire Alumni of the University of Glasgow Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 18th-century Scottish botanists 19th-century Scottish botanists 18th-century Scottish medical doctors 19th-century Scottish medical doctors {{UK-botanist-stub