William Tennant Gairdner

Sir William Tennant Gairdner (8 November 1824 – 28 June 1907) was a Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow.

William Tennant Gardiner was the son of Dr. John Gairdner, a physician in Edinburgh, and was born there on 8 November 1824. He was the elder brother of the historian James Gairdner. He was educated at the Edinburgh Institution and then in his father's profession at the University of Edinburgh, graduating as M.D. in 1845. He was taught surgery by Prof Monro and Dr Robert Halliday Gunning.

In 1870 he married Miss Helena Bridget Wright, of Norwich, Norfolk who survived him. He had four sons (William Henry Temple, Hugh Montgomerie, Eric Dalrymple, Anthony Philip) and three daughters (Helen Christian, Ailsa Bridget, Dorothea). Dr. Douglas Montagu Temple Gairdner was his grandson.

In 1850 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; and a year or two later was appointed physician and pathologist to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He filled these offices until 1862, when he accepted an invitation to take the professorship of medicine in the University of Glasgow, together with the post of physician to the Western Infirmary. In the following year much attention was directed in Glasgow to the insanitary state of the city; and Dr. Gairdner, at considerable pecuniary sacrifice, undertook the duties of medical officer of health, which he discharged for ten years in such a manner as brought about a total change in the conditions which he found existing. From this time forward he devoted himself to the duties of his professorship and to his increasing consulting practice.

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