Cantlie , Sir , James , 1851-1926 , Knight , surgeon

Sir James Cantlie was born in 1851 in Banffshire. He took his first degree at Aberdeen University and carried out his clinical training at Charing Cross Hospital, London. In 1877 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital; in 1886 he became Surgeon at Charing Cross. In 1888 he resigned to take up a position as Dean of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (where the future Chinese leader Sun Yat Sen was one of his pupils), combining his work here with private surgical practice. His work during these years included investigations into leprosy and into various tropical diseases; in 1894 he encountered an outbreak of plague in Hong Kong. In 1897 he returned to London, where he was involved in the setting up of the Journal of Tropical Medicine in 1898 and of the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1899. He was President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. During the early years of the twentieth century and particularly during the First World War his work centred on the provision and training of ambulance services. He died in 1926.