Dr. William Lyon
William Lyon died 25th February 1874 aged 75 at his home in Brandon Place, West George Street, Glasgow.
This man had a remarkable career. Dr Lyon qualified by gaining his licence from the then Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1816 aged 17 (Probationary essay; ‘On Delirium Tremens’) and became a Fellow in 1828.
He started his practice in the country some miles to the east of Glasgow moving his practice to the city and becoming Surgeon to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1839. He held this office for many years and was Lecturer of Surgery at the Portland Street Medical School between 1841 and 1843. He was the first Medical Officer appointed by the Barony Parochial Board in connection with Barnhill Poorhouse and on the second outbreak of Cholera there he received the Superintendentship under the Board of Health.
He was also President of the Glasgow Medical Society and of the Medical-Chirurgical Society and was connected with every medical institution of a public nature in the city.
He held a prominent position as a consulting surgeon in the West of Scotland and was awarded an honorary MD from the University of Glasgow in 1859. He made several contributions on surgical subjects to the periodicals, including one in the London and Edinburgh monthly journal of Medical Science. The paper described a caesarean section carried out by Lyon and two colleagues in 1845 at a time when this was a very risky procedure. The child was born alive and the mother survived for 36 hours. He was long one of the best-known medical men in Glasgow and was president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow from 1860 to 1862.
Also buried in the Glasgow Necropolis in Compartment Sigma with William Lyon are his wife, Jane (Patterson) Lyon who died on 27 June 1847 aged 45 and daughters Matilda and Jessie Lyon who died in 1887, aged 59 and 1898, aged 65 respectively.
Information from Obituary in The British Medical Journal April 4 1874
https://heritage.rcpsg.ac.uk/items/show/880
THE MEMORIAL IN THE GLASGOW NECROPOLIS
Base with an oval shaped step. Because of defragmentation, the design of the monument is compromised. It comprises a combination of various symbolic objects – a scroll of paper, [symbol of scriptures] with the inscription is placed on a rock [symbol of St. Peter – the rock of faith] surrounded with an anchor [symbol of hope].
As you can see from the photograph the Scroll needs to be re-erected on the base. Thanks to a generous donation for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow we will be able to repair this in 2025.
Inscription on the memorial:
To the memory of
WILLIAM LYON M. D.
President of Faculty of
Physicians and Surgeons
from 1860 to 1862
Surgeon & Lecturer
to the Royal Infirmary
for 24 years
died 25 Feb 1874 aged 75
and to
JANE PATERSON his wife
who died 27 June 1847 aged 45.