The College Library and Archive contains a wide variety of resources for helping to trace a medical ancestor in Glasgow and the West of Scotland and beyond. You are welcome to come and visit to view any of the sources listed but please arrange an appointment by first emailing archive@rcpsg.ac.uk. For dentists see the Dental Archives page.
The main sources for tracing a surgeon or physician are:
- The Medical Register - published annually from 1859 as a consequence of the Medical Act of 1858 which made registration with the Medical Council compulsory for those wishing to practise medicine and surgery in the United Kingdom. The Medical Register records details of practitioners' qualifications and place of practice. The College Library holds copies from 1859.
- The Medical Directory - available in the College Library from 1853. Entries are fuller than the Medical Register and may well include details of the practitioner's publications and medical career.
- Trade Directories - The College Library has a run of Post Office Directories of Glasgow from 1848-1849 (one for 1834-35) to 1923-1924 and reprints of Tait's Directory of 1783-1784.
It is possible, by using the Medical Register and the Medical Directory, to track a person's career and likely time of death (when their entry no longer appears). Obituary notices can then be sought in the Glasgow Medical Journal (from 1828), the Edinburgh Medical Journal (from 1805), the Lancet (from 1823) and the British Medical Journal (from 1853). All these volumes are available in the College Library.
It is important to remember that the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow has changed its name over time. By the end of the seventeenth century the medical corporation founded by Maister Peter Lowe in 1599 was known as the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. This title remained until 1909 when the Faculty was allowed to add the prefix 'Royal' to its name, and in 1962 a further change resulted in its present title of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
- Fellows and Members
A list of members 1599-1850 is given in Alexander Duncan's Memorials of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow , James Maclehose and Sons,1896. Fellows of the Faculty were created in 1850, replacing the title of "member." Registers and printed lists of Fellows can be found in the College Archive.
- Licentiates
The grade of "licentiate" was instituted in 1785 to allow the admission of country practitioners. Details about such licentiates may be gained from the Register of Single Licentiates, 1815-1959 in the College Archive.
- The Double and Triple Qualifications
During the latter part of the nineteenth century the Scottish medical colleges began to offer joint medical and surgical qualifications. The Double Qualification in Medicine and Surgery was established between the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1859. Recipients were listed in the Medical Register as having the letters "Lic.R.Coll.Phys.Edn., Lic.Fac.Phys.Surg.Glasg." The Triple Qualification came into being in 1884 and was offered by the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh and the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. It resulted in extremely long letters after the qualifying person's name. In the Medical Register for 1891, for example, Robert Brooks Popham, is listed as "Lic.R.Coll.Phys.Edin, 1886. Lic.R.Coll.Surg,Edin, 1886. Lic.Fac.Phys.Surg.Glasg., 1886."
Graduates of Glasgow University are listed in A Roll of the Graduates of the University of Glasgow, 1727-1897 compiled by W. Innes Addison, Glasgow, 1898. If you find that your ancestor is a graduate of Glasgow University then Glasgow University Archives may be able to provide further information.