William Walker (6 November 1813 – 16 August 1885) was a Scottish surgeon who specialised in ophthalmic surgery. He was Surgeon Oculist in Scotland to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and President of the

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located o ...

. He was a keen amateur photographer, whose calotypes were displayed in photography exhibitions.

Early life

William Walker was born on 6 November 1813 in

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, son of Margaret Walker (née Burnside) and William Walker, a Dumfries merchant. His mother was the daughter of Reverend William Burnside DD (1751–1806), minister of St Michael's Church, Dumfries and a friend of the poet

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. His father William Walker of Kelton Mains, Dumfriesshire, who had been a West Indies trader, died in November 1820 when his son was 7 years old. When his schooling was completed in Dumfries, his mother took the family to Edinburgh where they lived at first at 54 Northumberland Street in the New Town.

Career

He studied medicine in Edinburgh, taking the Licentiate of the

qualification (LRCS) in 1836. He had attended the clinics conducted by

John Argyll Robertson Dr John Argyll Robertson FRSE PRCSE (12 August 1800 – 7 January 1855) was a Scottish surgeon who specialised in ophthalmic surgery and became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1848. Early life John Argyll Robertson w ...

at the Edinburgh Eye Dispensary, the charitable institution at 405 Lawnmarket, and after qualifying he became associated with the Dispensary.The late Dr. William Walker. ''The Scotsman'' 17 August 1885. p4 By 1842 he was giving a course of twenty lectures on diseases of the eye at Surgeons' Hall as part of the

Edinburgh Extramural School of Medicine Extramural medical education in Edinburgh began over 200 years before the university medical faculty was founded in 1726 and extramural teaching continued thereafter for a further 200 years. Extramural is academic education which is conducted o ...

. He qualified FRCSEd in 1851. When John Argyll Robertson retired, Walker became the senior surgeon at the Edinburgh Eye Dispensary and in 1855 he was the first surgeon to be appointed to the ophthalmic surgery department of the

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often (but incorrectly) known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest v ...

in Infirmary Street.Obituary. William Walker. Edinburgh Medical Journal.1885: 399-400 Until that time several surgeons, including

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and John Argyll Robertson, had undertaken ophthalmic operations as there was no specialist department of ophthalmology. In 1862 the Eye Dispensary, of which he was a Trustee, moved from the Lawnmarket to purpose-built accommodation at 54 Lord Cockburn Street. In 1867 Douglas Argyll Robertson was appointed as assistant ophthalmic surgeon at the Royal Infirmary with Walker as his chief.

Photography

Walker was a member of the Edinburgh Photographic Exchange Club and a founder member of the Photographic Society of Scotland. So too was his friend Thomas Keith, a fellow surgeon who was a gifted photographer and was his neighbour at 58 Northumberland Street. Walker experimented with photographic technique and equipment and in 1856 published his design for a portable camera. When processing calotypes he showed a surgeon's concern with both care in the manipulation of the paper and 'the strictest attention to cleanliness...' He believed that 'the best prints were obtained from an unwaxed negative as the...half tints were much more delicate.' He exhibited regularly at the Photographic Society of Scotland and in 1859 at the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Walker was a member of the

Edinburgh Botanical Society The Botanical Society of Scotland (BSS) is the national learned society for botanists of Scotland. The Society's aims are to advance knowledge and appreciation of flowering and cryptogamic plants, algae and fungi. The Society's activities includ ...

and at a time when plants still had an important role in medicine he took photographs of medicinal and uncommon plants. Such was the importance of photography in his life that when his presidential portrait was commissioned by the RCSEd, he elected to be portrayed with a photograph in his hand rather than the more usual surgical book or instrument.

Honours

Walker was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for the years 1871-1872. In 1870 after the death of William Mackenzie, he was appointed Surgeon Oculist in Scotland to Queen Victoria. When the Ophthalmological Society (later the

Royal College of Ophthalmologists The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, founded in 1988, is an independent professional body and one of the Medical Royal Colleges. They set the standards and examinations for medical doctors aiming to become ophthalmologists, and provide surgical ...

) was founded by

Sir William Bowman Sir William Bowman, 1st Baronet (20 July 1816 – 29 March 1892) was an English surgeon, histologist and anatomist. He is best known for his research using microscopes to study various human organs, though during his lifetime he pursued a succes ...

in 1880, Walker was elected Vice President.

Later life and death

Walker did not marry. He died at home in 47 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh on 16 August 1885.Scotland's people. Statutory Death Records 1885. 685/2495.https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/view-image/nrs_stat_deaths/2710449

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, William 1813 births 1875 deaths People from Dumfries Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Scottish ophthalmologists Scottish photographers Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh