McGrigor, Sir James (1771-1858)

The volumes comprise McGrigor's holograph autobiography. Written on the rectos only. These MSS. roughly agree as to text with the printed Autobiography, published in 1861, as far as Vol. IV, fol. 139, line 12. The remainder of the volume contains an account of events down to 1816 or slightly later. The paper bears watermarks dated 1830 and 1833.

c.1835

4 volumes Manuscript, bound. 4to. 22 x 181/2 cm., 24 x 201/2 cm. Original half-calf bindings. Vols. I and IV are of slightly smaller size.

Purchased from A. Brandon, November 1933

James McGrigor was born in 1771 and entered the Army as a Surgeon in 1793. He served in Flanders, the West Indies and India. In 1801 he was Superintendent Surgeon in Egypt, in 1809 Inspector-General of Hospitals, and in 1811 Chief of the Medical Staff of Wellington's forces in the Peninsula. From 1815 to 1851 he was Director-General of the Army Medical Department. He died in 1858.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).