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Born to a large family in
1818 in Dumfriesshire, Robert Gunning studied medicine in Edinburgh and was
licensed by the Royal College of Surgeons. He pursued a career in academic
medicine, teaching anatomy at Aberdeen and then Edinburgh to great renown.
He was part of a small group that pioneered the use of chloroform on
patients, and was associated in Edinburgh with a number of prominent
‘divines’, including Thomas Chalmers who laid the foundation stone to New
College in 1846. In 1849, he and his wife emigrated to Brazil because of the
warmer climate, where they remained for 33 years, and among other things
managed a gold mine, oversaw the construction of a railway in Rio de
Janeiro, and financed various schemes to alleviate poverty.
On his return to Edinburgh, Gunning set up several prizes and lectureships
around the city, not only to New College but also to the Royal Society, the
Royal College of Surgeons, and the Royal Society of Antiquaries. Displaying
a particularly progressive attitude for his day, he set up bursaries for
women to study medicine and financed a plaque in St Giles cathedral to
commemorate Jenny Geddes who threw her stool at the Dean in protest at a new
liturgy.
Robert Halliday Gunning
(Wihipedia pdf)
HIS EXCELLENCY
ROBERT HALLIDAY GUNNING, M.D., LL.D. EDIN.
ROBERT HALLIDAY
GUNNING, who died on March 22nd, aged 81 years, was educated at Edinburgh
and became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, in
the year 1839 and took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the University in
1846. In the year 1887 the degrees M.A. and LL.D. were conferred on him.
Whilst he was at Edinburgh the use of chloroform was first introduced by Sir
James Simpson and Gunning was present at the first public administration of
the new ansesthetic. The period of his studentship was one of great
theological perturbation, for at that time Dr. Chalmers was in the
ascendant, and Gunning was one of his early supporters.
He continued for the rest of his life to hold strong theological views and
he never ceased to care for the welfare of the University and the city of
Edinburgh. In the University of Edinburgh he founded the Victoria Jubilee
prizes, 11 in number, of the value of £50 each, and he showed his interest
in theological and political matters by erecting in St. Giles’s Cathedral a
brass plate on the site from which Jeanie Geddes is traditionally supposed
to have thrown a stool at the priest as a protest against the form of prayer
which was being used.
More recently he originated the movement which led to the erection of a
memorial to the Marquis of Argyle which has been recently put up in the same
cathedral. A great part of Dr. Gunning’s life was spent in Brazil where he
gained the confidence of the late Emperor, who created him a Grand Dignitary
of the Order of the Rose. As one of the most distinguished Britons in Brazil
Dr. Gunning naturally saw the more interesting of his countrymen who visited
the empire, while his country house was practically open to any Englishman
who wished to visit him. Dr. Gunning was twice married but leaves no family.
During the last few years of his life he was completely blind, an affliction
which he bore with exemplary patience. He was an extremely hospitable man,
and his death will be felt by a large number of people who always found a
welcome at his house, and an eager listener to any news which they might be
able to bring, for nearly to the end of his long life he took the keenest
pleasure in hearing about all passing events; and although he held strong
views he was always ready to hear anything which could be urged against
them.
WILLIAM CHAPMAN GRIGG |
