John Robert Hume (c.1781–1857) was a Scottish surgeon and physician. He is cited as an example of a 19th-century medical career that arrived at a high position in the profession, without early qualifications.[1]
Early life and military service
Born in
Renfrewshire in 1781 or 1782, he was the son of Joseph Hume, a medical practitioner at
Hamilton. He studied medicine at Glasgow in 1795, 1798, and at Edinburgh in 1796–7. He entered the medical service of the army as a hospital mate, was in Holland in 1799, and joined the
92nd Regiment of Foot as assistant surgeon in 1800. He was in Egypt in 1801.[2][3][4] In that campaign he served as surgeon on
HMS Ceres.[5] Some of his journals for his visit to
Cyprus (including
Larnaka and
Limassol) were printed.[6]
The
University of St Andrews conferred on Hume the degree of M.D. on 12 January 1816, and on 22 December 1819 he was admitted a licentiate of the
Royal College of Physicians.[2] On his own account, he had previously been in France with the Duke of Wellington.[14] From half-pay, he was made an Inspector of Hospitals in 1820.[15]
Settling in London, Hume became personal physician to the Duke.[2] His patients included Marianne Patterson in 1824, shortly to marry the Duke's brother Richard.[16] He travelled with the Duke to
St Petersburg in 1826,[17] and was present at the Duke's duel with the
Earl of Winchelsea, fought in 1829 as part of the
Catholic Emancipation controversy.[18][19] He was made a commissioner for the licensing of Middlesex asylums in 1828.[20]
Hume was created D.C.L. at Oxford on 13 June 1834, the Duke being then chancellor of the university. He was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians on 9 July 1836, and on the following 1 September was appointed one of the metropolitan
commissioners in lunacy.[2] Following the resignation of
William Frederick Chambers, Hume at this period also became Examining Physician to the
East India Company.[21] He was sufficiently well known to feature in the early writings of the
Brontë family.[22]
Hume was attacked and defended in The Lancet of the later 1840s, with other commissioners of lunacy, accused of being bedridden with gout, and a "
sinecurist"; though he was active in inspections.[23][24] He subsequently became inspector general of hospitals, and was made C.B. 16 August 1850. He died at his house in
Curzon Street, Mayfair, London, on 1 March 1857, aged 75.[2]
Family
Hume married Elizabeth, daughter of David Limond, at Ayr on 1 July 1804.[25] Their daughter Elizabeth married Archibald Campbell of Glendaruel.[26]