| Description Of Item | Oil on canvas, 101 x 81 cm
A son of the manse, Andrew Rae Gilchrist was educated at George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with a MB ChB in 1921. After resident posts in Cambridge and London, he returned to Edinburgh in 1924 as house physician to Professor Jonathan Meakins at the Royal Infirmary.
Research fellowships in Edinburgh and at the Rockefeller Hospital, New York were followed by appointments, first as clinical tutor and later as assistant physician to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in 1930. In 1928 he established an antenatal cardiac clinic in the Royal Maternity Hospital, a cardiac clinic for school children in the Royal Infirmary and was the first person in Scotland to have his clinical diagnosis of coronary thrombosis confirmed at autopsy. He was also a pioneer in the investigation and treatment of hypertension and in anticoagulant therapy for myocardial infarction. He established cardiology in Edinburgh as a major specialty with an international reputation.
Artist: Henry Raeburn Dobson |