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CodeDS/UK/132
Dates1813-1885
Person NameGilchrist; James (1813-1885); medical practitioner
SurnameGilchrist
ForenamesJames
Epithetmedical practitioner
ActivityBorn in the small village of Collin, in the parish of Torthorwald outside Dumfries on 21 June 1813, Dr Gilchrist did not originally seek a career in the medical field. He began as an apprentice draper in Dumfries then was a tutor in Birkenhead. He then studied Arts at the University of Glasgow, before going on to the Divinity Hall of the United Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh. His studies were interuppted for a time by ill health, after which he began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1846. He graduated in 1850 at the age of 37, and in the same year he was appointed medical assistant at the Crichton Royal Institution, working in Southern Counties Asylum in the first instance. Dr Gilchrist's main outside interests lay in the subjects of botany, geology and music, on which he gave talks and lectures during his time as a medical assistant at the Crichton. In 1853 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of Montrose Royal Asylum where he remained until 1857, when he was appointed as Dr W. A. F. Browne's successor at the Crichton Royal Institution. There he continued Dr Browne's approach to treatment through occupation and amusements, while also fostering his outside interests, again giving lectures and also organising field trips and establishing a private museum in his residence at Crichton House. Patients attended lectures at his residence where he held Omnium Gatherum Society events. He was a founding member of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society in 1862, and served as their President between 1874 and 1878. As a result of ill health Dr Gilchrist retired in 1879 remaining in Dumfries, where he died on 7 December 1885.
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