William Newbigging

Sir William Newbigging FRSE PRCSE FRGS (1772-1852) was a Scottish surgeon who served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1814 to 1816. He was a keen amateur geographer.

He was born in Lanark in 1772. He studied Medicine at Edinburgh University and was apprenticed to Dr Forrest Dewar at Hunters Square (just off the Royal Mile) around 1790.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1799 and served as their President in 1814. He became a member of the Harveian Society in 1815 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1824, his proposer being Robert Jameson. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1838.

He lived with his wife and family at 29 Heriot Row, a large and fashionable Georgian townhouse in the Second New Town in Edinburgh.

He died on 23 October 1852 and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in central Edinburgh in the western extension close to the grave of his colleague Dr John Gordon.

He was married to Lilias Stewart (d.1882). There many children included Patrick Newbigging and John Steuart Newbigging.

He was painted by Sir John Watson Gordon in 1838. The painting hangs in the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. The painting was engraved by George Baird Shaw for multiple reproduction.

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