Wilmot Herringham

Wilmot Parker Herringham
Sir Wilmot Herringham
Born	17 April 1855 Guildford
Died	23 April 1936 Lymington
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Major-General
Unit	Royal Army Medical Corps
Battles/wars	World War I

Sir Wilmot Parker Herringham KCMG CB (17 April 1855 – 23 April 1936) was a British medical doctor, academic and author. He was one of the first doctors to investigate the effect and treatment of poison gas in World War I.

Wilmot Parker Herringham was born at Guildford on 17 April 1855, the son of William Walton Herringham and Matilda Anne Parker. His father was a Prebendary of Wells Cathedral. He was educated at Winchester College. He then matriculated at the University of Oxford in 1873 as a member of Keble College, studying classics. Whilst at Keble, he rowed for the college 1st VIII, played football for the 1st XI and captained the cricket team. He obtained a second-class degree in classics in 1877, and then studied medicine, obtaining his medical degrees in 1882.

He started his medical career at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and was appointed consultant physician in 1904; he held this post until 1919. He was knighted in 1914, and advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1919; he was also made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1915.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Herringham was a lieutenant-colonel in command of the medical unit of the London University OTC. Between 1914 and 1919, he was consultant physician to the British Forces in France in the Royal Army Medical Corps, initially as a Colonel and rising to the rank of Major-General in 1918., Herringham was already sufficiently well known that his army appointment was reported in the New York Times under the headline "Famous Doctors to Front". He was mentioned in dispatches.Sir Douglas Haig records in his diary a visit to a casualty clearing station where "I saw Sir Wilmot Herringham with his coat off, setting a fine example, by washing and attending to the slightly wounded cases". Herringham was among the first doctors to examine the victims of the use of poison gas at the second Battle of Ypres. He was one of the contributors to a report to Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War five days after the initial attack. He continued to take an interest in the treatment of poison gas victims for the rest of the war. In his war memoirs, Herringham admitted that he learned more medicine during his time in France than in any other five-year period.