Maxwell , A Kirkpatrick , 1884-1975 , medical artist

A. Kirkpatrick Maxwell was born in Annan, Scotland, and studied drawing at evening classes run by Glasgow City Art School. He was asked to contribute some articles by a natural history lecturer at Glasgow University and built up a reputation as an illustrator. After the outbreak of war in 1914 he travelled to France to make over 1000 surgical illustrations of war wounds and diseases, many of which were published in the British Journal of Surgery. The original illustrations were kept at the Royal College of Surgeons of England but were destroyed during the Blitz. After the war, Maxwell worked as an ilustrator for University College and for the Cancer Research Institute, publishing his own articles on cancer. During the Second World War he was asked by Sir Cecil Wakeley to again sketch wounded servicemen.