George Beatson

Colonel Sir George Thomas Beatson KCB KBE DL (1848 – 16 February 1933) was a British physician. He was a pioneer in the field of oncology, developing a new treatment for breast cancer, and has been called "the father of endocrine ablation in cancer management." The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre and the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute are named for him.

Beatson was born in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, which was then part of the British Empire and known as Ceylon. His father was George Stewart Beatson, Honorary Physician to Queen Victoria and Surgeon General to the Indian Army. Beatson moved to Scotland as a boy, and grew up in Campbeltown. He was educated at King William's College, on the Isle of Man, and went on to Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1871. In 1874 he graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He then studied medicine, examining the links between ovulation, lactation and cancer for his thesis. He graduated MD in 1878. He then spent time working for Joseph Lister, the pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who was then the University's Professor of Surgery.