| Authorised form of name | Cheyne; Sir; William Watson (1852 - 1932); bacteriologist and surgeon |
| Dates | 1852 - 1932 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | At sea, off Hobart Town, Tasmania, Australia |
| Date of birth | 14 December 1852 |
| Place of death | Holloway Sanatorium, Virginia Water, Surrey, England |
| Date of death | 19 April 1932 |
| Dates and places | Memorial service was held for him at the chapel of King's College Hospital, London (25 April 1932). |
| Occupation | bacteriologist and surgeon |
| Research field | Pathology |
| Bacteriology |
| Surgery |
| Medicine |
| Activity | Education:
Aberdeen grammar school; King's College, Aberdeen; MB; CM (Edin)
Career:
Attended lectures given by Joseph Lister (FRS 1860); became Lister’s dresser; studied under A.C Theodore Billroth in Vienna and Freidrich Daniel von Recklinghausen in Strasbourg; returned to England and became house surgeon to Lister; began bacteriological research and was awarded the Syme bacteriological scholarship (1877); demonstrator of anatomy in Edinburgh (1877); passed the examinations for the membership od the Royal College of Surgeons (1879); awarded the Jacksonian prize by the College for his dissertation on antiseptic surgery 1881); appointed assistant surgeon at King's (1880) afterwards becoming surgeon (1887), professor of the principles and practice of surgery (1891), and professor of clinical surgery (1902); travelled to Berlin to work in Koch's laboratory (1886); Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology (1892); appointed civil consulting surgeon to the forces in the South African War (1899); appointed surgeon-in-ordinary to the king (1910); he was made consulting surgeon to the navy and he served in the Dardanelles with the fleet (1914); served as MP for the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews (1917-1922); gazetted lord lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland (1919-1930).
Honours:
CB 1899; Bt 1908; KCMG 1915
Memberships:
FRCS (Eng) ; court of examiners; Council; President 1914-1916
Awards/Medals:
Lister medal 1924 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 07/06/1894 |
| Age at election | 42 |
| Proposer | George Murray Humphry; Daniel John Cunningham; Edward Emmanuel Klein; Frederick William Pavy; Thomas Henry Huxley |
| John Simon; William Bowman; James Paget; John Scott Burdon Sanderson; Jonathan Hutchinson; John Tyndall; Thomas Lauder Brunton; George Johnson; Joseph Lister; Samuel Wilks |
| Relationships | Parents: Andrew Cheyne (d. 1867), of Ollaberry, Shetland, captain in the merchant navy, and Eliza (d. 1856), daughter of William Watson, minister of the united parishes of Fetlar and North Yell.
Spouse: 1) Mary Emma (d. 1894), daughter of the Revd William Servanté, of Plumstead, Kent (29 January 1887); 2) Margaret (d. 1922), daughter of George Smith, of Lerwick, Shetland (1894).
Children: 1st marriage) two sons and a daughter who died in infancy; 2nd marriage) one son and two daughters. |
| Published works | RCN 13866
RCN 1306 |
| General context | Pioneered the use of antiseptic surgical methods.
Instrumental in establishing the science of bacteriology in Britain.
Vascular surgical instument "Watson Cheyne Dissector" has been named after him. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Image | 
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| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1932-1935 vol l pp 26-30, plate, signed by W B |
| Royal Society code | NA1316 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| IM/Maull/000833 | Cheyne, William Watson | nd |
| NLB/10/192 | Copy letter from Theodore E James, to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 18 October 1894 |
| NLB/23/2/244 | Copy letter from Sir Michael Foster, to Professor William Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 23 July 1902 |
| NLB/22/165 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [William] Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 15 March 1901 |
| NLB/24/239 | Copy letter from Sir Michael Foster, to Professor William Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 9 April 1902 |
| NLB/24/136 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to William Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 10 March 1902 |
| NLB/41/434 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 13 December 1909 |
| NLB/41/391 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir William Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 6 December 1909 |
| NLB/45/348 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Sir W [William] Watson Cheyne Bart CB, FRS | 17 February 1912 |
| MC/27/63 | Letter from [William] Watson Cheyne, 75 Harley Street, Cavendish Square, W, to Robert Harrison, Burlington House, W | 26 March 1912 |
| NLB/45/538 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Sir W [William] Watson Cheyne Bart FRS | 23 March 1912 |
| NLB/66/309 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir [William] Watson Cheyne, Bart., FRS | 7 April 1924 |
| NLB/67/700 | Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to P. Thompson Esq.; Essex Museum of Natural History, Romford Road, E.15. | 18 February 1925 |
| IM/000834 | Cheyne, William Watson | nd |
| RR/17/197 | Referee's report by William Watson Cheyne, on a paper 'The rôle of the various elements in the development and regeneration of bone' by William Macewen | [March 1907] |
| NLB/37/77 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Professor W [William] Watson Cheyne FRS | 21 January 1908 |
| NLB/36/839 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Professor William Watson Cheyne, Fellow of the Royal Society | 27 December 1907 |
| EC/1894/09 | Cheyne, Sir William Watson: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| MC/17 | Volume 17 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1897-1899 |
| MC/27/62 | Letter from [William] Watson Cheyne, 75 Harley Street, Cavendish Square, W, to Robert Harrison, Burlington House, W | 20 February 1912 |
| NLB/45/365 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Sir W [William] W [Watson] Cheyne, Bart, CB, FRS | 23 February 1912 |
| MC/27/227 | Letter from [George] Cooper, The Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine, Chelsea Gardens, Chelsea Bridge Road, London, S.W, to The Assistant Secretary, The Royal Society, Burlington House, W | 28 March 1912 |
| MC/31/68 | Letter from [William Bate] Hardy, The Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W, to Sir [William] Watson Cheyne, [Royal Society] | 2 March 1916 |