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Concept
Watson Cheyne
Summary
Rear admiral Sir William Watson Cheyne, 1st Baronet, (14 December 1852 – 19 April 1932) was a Scottish surgeon and bacteriologist who pioneered the use of antiseptic surgical methods in the United Kingdom.
Cheyne was born at sea off Hobart, Tasmania. His father, Andrew Cheyne, was the eldest of two illegitimate children born to James Cheyne, who was the youngest brother of John Cheyne, the Laird of Tangwick (Northmavine, Shetland). His father grew up at the Tangwick Haa, and went to sea around the age of twelve, rising to command a brig in the Far East at the age of 22. His mother Eliza, the daughter of the Rev. William Watson, died in 1856, leaving Willam Cheyne to be brought up by his grandfather, the Rev. William Watson, and latterly by his aunt and uncle-in-law, in Fetlar.
In 1864, he was sent to Aberdeen Grammar School, and he remained there until 1868 when he went to King's College, Aberdeen to study for an Arts degree, which he did not complete. His uncle and aunt wished him to train for the ministry, but like his father, his own inclination was for the sea. With the idea that if he became a doctor he could join the navy, he entered the University of Edinburgh to study medicine in May 1871. He completed his degree in medicine and surgery in 1875. Two years later he won the Syme Surgical Fellowship for his thesis, "Record of some work done during the winter session 1876-77".
Cheyne became the house surgeon to Joseph Lister, the British founder of antiseptic medicine, in 1876. Bacteriology had been much researched in France and Germany in the 1870s and 80s, but little work was done in the field in Britain. Lister was one of the few pioneers of its study in Britain. In 1877, the two took positions at King's College Hospital, where Cheyne served as an assistant surgeon, and later as a surgeon from 1880 to 1917 and also as a professor of surgery from 1891 to 1917. He was a devoted follower of Lister and his antiseptic surgical methods.
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