SMJ 2003: 48(2): 54-57
Author
and address for correspondence:
Thomas
W. Baillie, MD, FRCA
Hof
van Cambridge 29
7007
GN Doetinchem
The
Netherlands
Telephone
(ex UK) 31 314 39 49 04
e-mail
t.w.baillie@hccnet.nl
SUMMARY
More
than a century after the death of Robert Halliday Gunning, a large number of
lectureships and prizes bearing his name continue to be awarded by scientific
bodies and learned institutions in Scotland.
Most of these awards were endowed in H.M. Queen Victoria’s Jubilee year
(1887-88) and bear the additional qualification ‘Victoria Jubilee’.
An
account of the life of Robert Gunning and his various endowments is complemented
by an analysis of the factors which determined the nature of his benefactions.
Keywords:
Gunning, Victoria Jubilee, Medical Fellowships and Awards.
For
more than a century, prizes and fellowships bearing the title ‘Gunning
Victoria Jubilee’ have been awarded by the University of Edinburgh, the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal
College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Remarkably, the founder of these fellowships has not enjoyed any
prominence in the literature; candidates for the various awards seeking
biographical briefing on the benefactor have to rely on the little information
afforded by the obituaries published following Gunning’s death in London on 22
March 1900.1-4 In
addition to providing a short but authentic account of the life of Robert
Halliday Gunning, this paper relates the factors which played a significant role
in determining the nature of his benefactions.
FORMATIVE
YEARS
Robert
Gunnion, later known as Robert Halliday Gunning, was born at Wood House in
Ruthwell parish, Dumfriesshire on 12 December 1818 as eighth of the ten
children of James Gunnion and Elizabeth Affleck McWilliam.
In 1822 the family removed to Kirkbean on the opposite bank of the Nith
estuary, later to New Abbey and ultimately to Dumfries. Robert attended the
Parochial School of Ruthwell as a boarding pupil and became dux of that school
prior to pursuing further education at Dumfries.
Gunning
and two contemporaries at Dumfries Academy, William Fraser and William Scott,
subsequently embarked on the study of medicine
and all three made significant contributions to the annals of medical history,
Scott and Fraser, both born at Dumfries in 1819, being credited with the first
operation under ether anaesthesia in the Old World at Dumfries & Galloway
Royal Infirmary on 19 December 1846 5,6.
All three became Licentiate of
the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Scott and Gunning in 1839 and Fraser
some months later in 1840.
Robert
Gunning was reared in one of Scotland’s most progressive medical societies of
the nineteenth century. In 1835,
following an initial period of study in Edinburgh, he returned to Dumfries to
serve an apprenticeship at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary, the third
purpose-built hospital to be erected in Scotland (1776).
James Fraser, father of the above William Fraser, was at that time one of
several surgeons in Dumfries but had the distinction of being “entrusted with
the preparation of young men for the qualifying examinations of the Universities
and the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, not a few of whom, by their
conduct and abilities, acquired high credit in after-life”.7
The period spent at the local hospital made a lasting impression on the
young Gunning and prompted him on his return from Brazil to endow a bed at the
Infirmary 8 (vide infra).
Figure 1. Robert Halliday Gunning (1818-1900)
On
11 August 1847 he married Eliza Meikle of Springfield House, Govan, daughter of
a deceased Dublin solicitor and took up residence at 43 George Square, Edinburgh
9. Eliza died in
1889, seven years after their return from Brazil, without issue.
Gunning, already losing his eyesight, remarried in London on 10 June
1890, the second bride being the thirty years younger Mary Agnes Winwood Hughes,
daughter of a baronet and also widow of a baronet.
There were no children of the second marriage.
Robert
Halliday Gunning died at 12 Addison Crescent, Kensington on 22 March 1900 at the
age of 81 years but was brought to Edinburgh for burial next to his first wife
at Grange Cemetery. The funeral
procession left from the West Port Church, for more than fifty years an object
of his beneficence.
Figure 2. Grave at Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh
EDINBURGH
The
apprenticeship at Dumfries was followed by study in Edinburgh and Robert
Gunning’s record of University Attendance has been preserved.
These documents are also interesting in that they are the earliest known
records on which his second Christian name Halliday appears.
The clinical studies extended from 1836 to 1839 and in the latter year he
was registered as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Having decided to pursue a career in academic medicine, he went to
Aberdeen in 1840 as assistant and later demonstrator in anatomy with Dr Allan
Thomson at Marischal College. Both
gentlemen returned to Edinburgh a year later, Thomson becoming professor of
physiology and Gunning taking charge of the anatomy rooms under Alexander Monro
tertius. Gunning’s reputation as a teacher gained widespread
recognition and his extra-academic classes attracted students from all parts of
Great Britain and the Empire, among them Sir William Tennant Gairdner, Sir
William Priestley and Sir Henry Duncan Littlejohn (Dr. Watson of Conan Doyle’s
Sherlock Holmes).
Seven
years after being licensed by the Royal College of Surgeons he took the
Edinburgh MD. Not unreasonably, the
question might be asked why, already established as a teacher of anatomy and
physiology at the University, Gunning should present himself at such a late date
as a candidate for this qualifying degree.
There are indications that he had intentions at the time of pursuing an
academic career and the Doctorate of the University in which he was teaching
would have been a valuable asset. Moreover,
in 1846 he was running for the Presidency of the Royal Physical Society and may
well have been under pressure from colleagues supporting his candidature.
Whatever the reason, the statement on the examination record that this
final examination was restricted to oral questioning “by special permission”
lends weight to the argument that extraneous factors probably played a role.
Having submitted a thesis on The Nature and Treatment of Pulmonary
Consumption, he was examined on 24 July 1846 on surgery by Professor James Syme
and on midwifery, general pathology, practice of medicine, materia medica and
medical jurisprudence. At the end
of the day he was awarded the degree on payment of £20.16s.00d.
Thanks
to his academic qualities and mounting recognition of his teaching ability,
Gunning was in fact elected President of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh
for the period 1846-1848 when only 28 years of age.
CHLOROFORM
James
Y Simpson’s first public administration of chloroform was reported in the
December 1847 issue of the Monthly Journal of Medical Science and his subsequent
dominance of this particular chapter of anaesthetic history overshadows the
contributions made by other colleagues in Edinburgh.
One of the several doctors who witnessed the successful administration of
the drug was Robert Halliday Gunning who at that time was studying the effects
of chloroform on rabbits in the physiology laboratory at the University.
At
a meeting of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh on 17 May 1848, Gunning
delivered a paper On the Physiological Action of Chloroform which included a
description of his animal experiments and an account of his personal
observations.10 The
lecture concluded with the remarkable assertion that his studies indicated that
the anaesthetic properties of chloroform were attributable to a modified form of
asphyxia. Understandably, this
initiated an immediate verbal conflict with James Y Simpson which continued
throughout the remainder of the gathering.
However frail Gunning’s arguments for reaching the conclusions he did,
his defiance of the autocratic yet convincing Simpson in debate demonstrated a
certain strength of character.
Gunning’s
work has to be regarded as the first attempt to define by laboratory experiment
the pharmacological action of chloroform. Despite his statement during the above
meeting that he (JYS) had “successfully chloroformed several of the lower
animals”, mentioning specifically earthworms and fish, Simpson had to admit
that he had not yet conducted any systematic experimental work on the agent.
Gunning lost no opportunity in labouring the point that Simpson, however
extensively he had used the drug, had nevertheless “paid little attention to
the modus operandi of chloroform”.
There
is no known report of experimental studies by Simpson in which allusion is made
to early laboratory work on chloroform by R H Gunning; indeed, no mention of Gunning has been found in any of Simpson’s writings.
All credit is due to the professor of midwifery who first dared to employ
chloroform and who spared no effort in promoting its anaesthetic virtues, but it
cannot be denied that he did not indulge in extravagant acknowledgment of the
contributions of others. In this
respect, Robert Halliday Gunning joined company with David Waldie, who first
recommended chloroform as an anaesthetic agent, and others who failed to receive
due recognition from the pen of James Young Simpson.
CHALMERS
AND CHRISTISON
Once
established in Edinburgh, Robert Gunning became identified with a group of
prominent citizens in the town. His
association with two of these, the Scottish divine Thomas Chalmers, DD
(1780-1847) and the eminent toxicologist Sir Robert Christison, MD (1797-1882)
cannot be divorced from the nature of his benefactions during the years in
Brazil and following his return to Great Britain.
Gunning’s
Edinburgh was rocked to the foundations by the resignation from the Church of
Scotland in 1843 of no fewer than a third of the ministers and church members. The leading figure in the Disruption on 18 May of that year
was Dr Thomas Chalmers, a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church
of Scotland who became first Moderator of the newly formed Free Church. Early in
his sojourn in Edinburgh, Gunning became an admirer of Chalmers’ vision of
practical evangelism, a concept which involved the building of schools, social
work among the destitute and missions at home and overseas. That the seed of
Chalmers’ preaching should fall on fertile soil is hardly surprising, the
ground having been prepared by Gunning’s study of the works of the 18th
century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790). These and the writings of the sociological critic Thomas
Carlyle (1795-1881), born at Ecclefechan only a few miles from Gunning’s own
birthplace, had left their imprint so indelibly that Gunning in his latter years
commissioned the sculpture of a bust of both men11.
Gunning
found in the churchman not only an impressive orator but a stimulating
conversationalist. After being
licensed as a preacher in 1799, Chalmers had studied mathematics and chemistry
at St. Andrews and later became assistant professor of mathematics at that
university. Even after his
ordination to Kilmany in Fife, he continued to conduct classes in mathematics
and chemistry.
Robert
Gunning became a member of Thomas Chalmers’ church in the West Port, an
impoverished area of Edinburgh, and was an elder in that same church at the time
of the latter’s death in 1847. He
continued to donate considerable sums of money to West Port Church throughout
his 33 years in Brazil and identified himself with the ongoing work of the
deceased Chalmers by purchasing a tenement building adjacent to the church for
conversion into a model lodging house. In
recognition of his munificence, Robert Gunning was invited to participate in the
laying of the foundation stone of the new West Port Church on his return to
Great Britain in 1882.
The
current conflict of religion contra science was a cause very close to
Gunning’s heart and in propagating his views he gained the support of Sir
Robert Christison. Thomas Chalmers
had impressed on Gunning how the Church ought to concern itself not only with
purely religious work but should become involved in the practical issues of the
day such as education and the alleviation of poverty.
He had also instilled into Gunning the belief that there were
opportunities for ministers who, in addition to their theological education, had
made a study in one or more of the natural sciences.
Gunning agreed with Chalmers that there ought to be room in the divinity
course for inclusion of such sciences and found Christison willing to assist him
by disseminating these views among his influential friends at the University.
The
way was thus paved for Gunning’s 1889 endowment to finance lectureships in the
Faculty of Divinity of the University of Edinburgh, the terms of which required
that the funds be used “to promote the study of Natural Science among
candidates for the ministry, and to bring out among ministers the fruits of
study in Science, Philosophy, Language, Antiquity and Sociology”12.
BRAZIL
Robert
Gunning’s academic career in the Scottish capital, however successful, came to
an abrupt end in 1849 when the recently wed couple decided to emigrate to
Brazil. Without divulging any details, he stated that he was obliged
to seek a warmer climate for health reasons.
Many years later he related, “The great improvement of my health in
Brazil, and the prospect of easy and lucrative medical practice, induced me to
remain there for thirty-three years” 13.
Throughout
his stay in Brazil, Gunning maintained regular contact with Edinburgh and with
Robert Christison in particular. Early
correspondence relates how Gunning procured ipecacuanha plants for shipment to
Christison in Edinburgh. The two
evolved a plan to cultivate ipecacuanha plants in India at a time when the drug
was being employed on a large scale in the treatment of dysentery.
Remarkably
little is known of Gunning’s activities in Brazil between 1849 and 1882.
He described his practice in Rio de Janeiro as “lucrative” but the
exact nature of his work has not yet been determined. It is nonetheless clear that he became an influential member
of Brazilian society. In a letter
to Prof. J. Duns he referred to “friendly correspondence with members of the
royal families of Brazil and Portugal”. After
several years in Rio de Janeiro he was “offered and accepted a responsible
position in the management of a gold mine” and between 1872 and 1878 resided
at Palmeiras in a gold-mining area of the north-eastern highlands14.
The
Swiss palaeontologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807-1873) is known to have
been a guest at the Gunning home in Brazil.
On one occasion, during studies of the gulf stream, he interrupted the
voyage south to spend a few days with Robert and Eliza Gunning and while there
collected fresh water fishes from a nearby river.
Agassiz was one of the most vociferous scientific opponents of Darwinism
at that time and gained the financial support of similarly thinking
philanthropists and intellectuals throughout the globe.
It is not suggested that funding of his expeditions was the (only) reason
for Agassiz’ visit but there can be no doubt that his host lent a sympathetic
ear. In a letter to Sir Robert
Christison describing his eminent guest’s visit, Gunning wrote, “ …
telling Agassiz my disgust with the modern caricature of the doctrine of the
production (spontaneous generation) and reproduction (evolution and development)
of living beings, he thought well of my idea to help research for the solution
of these problems”.
Robert Halliday Gunning (about 1899)
Gunning
also became involved in the construction of railways15, including the
Rio de Janeiro street railways, an unusual sideline of medical practice. However successful in professional and business life, he
never abandoned his ‘Chalmers’ principles and put these into practice in the
land of his adoption. His
activities in Brazil, in particular his efforts to promote the education of the
poorer classes, were recognized and rewarded by the Emperor Dom Pedro II16.
Just prior to the Emperor’s own expulsion from Brazil, Gunning was
created a Grand Dignitary of the Empire of Brazil in the exclusive Order of the
Rose17, the highest honour available to anyone outside the diplomatic
service. In a holograph addressed
to H.M. Queen Victoria, Emperor Dom Pedro requested that Gunning’s rank should
also be recognized in Great Britain. The
request was granted and, accordingly, Dr. Gunning received a letter from Lord
Salisbury intimating the fact18.
Henceforth he should rightly be addressed as His Excellency.
However large his frequent donations to the West Port Church in Edinburgh and the cost of financing his various schemes for the benefit of the poor in Brazil, he nevertheless amassed a not inconsiderable fortune and, on his return to Great Britain, possessed the resources which enabled him to make the numerous gifts and endowments bearing his name.
THE
VICTORIA JUBILEE ENDOWMENTS
Numerous prizes were founded at Edinburgh University, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The awards all bore the name Gunning Victoria Jubilee in commemoration of the 50 years of H.M. Queen Victoria’s reign. The title was also indicative of Gunning’s gratitude to the Queen who had granted him, as Grand Dignitary of the Empire of Brazil, permission to use the title ‘His Excellency’ on his return to Great Britain in 1882.
The
bequest to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1887 was to be awarded triennially
by the Council of the Society to “men of science resident in or connected with
Scotland ….. in recognition of original work in Physics, Chemistry, or pure or
applied Mathematics”. The
remarkable nature of this bequest from a medical man reflects the influence on
Gunning of his two close acquaintances, Thomas Chalmers and Robert Christison.
The
first Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh was
awarded in 1887 to Sir William Thomson, PRSE, FRS (Lord Kelvin)
for his publications on ‘Hydrokinetics, especially on Waves and
Vortices’. The benefactor was on corresponding terms with the first
recipient19 and doubtless derived considerable pleasure from this
particular award.
The
Gunning Victoria Jubilee Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
was founded by an endowment of £1,000 “to enable experts to visit other
museums, collections, or materials of archaeological science at home or abroad,
for the purpose of special investigation and research”.
It was inaugurated in H M Queen Victoria’s Jubilee year 1887-88 by the
appointment of Dr Joseph Anderson and Mr George F Black “to visit and report
on local museums in Scotland”. In
the years preceding Gunning’s death money from these funds was used to enable
archaeological surveys to be carried out on early sculptured stones in Scotland.
A catalogue of these and of other Scottish antiquities was published in
the Proceedings of the Society20-24.
No
fewer than eleven post-graduate prizes of £50 were founded in the Faculty of
Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and a considerable number of Gunning
Victoria Jubilee Bursaries and Prizes are available to this day, many bearing
the names of former eminent professors and teachers.
These include:
the
Alison Prize for Community Medicine; (William Pulteney Alison 1790-1859,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, later Professor of Practice of Medicine;
first physician to the Queen in Scotland);
the
Bell Prize for Physiology (John Bell 1763-1820 and his brother Charles Bell
the
Joseph Black Prize for Chemistry (Joseph Black 1728-1799, Professor of
Chemistry);
the Christison Prize for Pharmacology (Robert Christison 1797-1882, Professor of Pharmacology and life-long friend of Robert Gunning);
the
Edward Forbes Prize for Zoology (Edward Forbes 1815-1854; Regius Professor
of Natural History);
the
Gregory Prize for the Practice of Physic (James Gregory 1753-1821, Professor
of Medicine);
the
Hutton Balfour Prize for Botany (John Hutton Balfour 1848-1930, Professor of
Medicine and Botany);
the
Lister Prize for Surgery (Joseph Lister 1827-1912, Professor of Surgery at
Glasgow, subsequently Professor of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh and at
King’s College, London);
the
Maclagan Prize for Forensic Medicine (Douglas Maclagan 1812-1900, Professor
of Medical Jurisprudence);
the Monro Prize for Anatomy (Alexander Monro primus 1697-1767; Alexander Monro secundus 1733-1817; Alexander Monro tertius 1773-1859);
the
Thomson Prize for Pathology (John Thomson 1765-1846, first Professor of
Pathology at Edinburgh);
the
Simpson Prize for Obstetrics (James Y Simpson 1811-1870); and
The largest single gift of this kind took the form of the donation of £11,000 to endow a Cullen Victoria Jubilee Prize in commemoration of Queen Victoria and in memory of Dr William Cullen (1710-1790), co-founder of the Medical School at Glasgow (1744) and one of the most eminent professors of the practice of physic in the history of the University of Edinburgh.25
The
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh received a gift of £1,000 to endow a
prize to be awarded every four years to a Fellow or Licentiate of the College
“for the greatest benefit done to practical surgery during the quadrennial
period prior to the award”. This
particular Prize was named the Robert Liston Victoria Jubilee Prize indicating
Gunning’s personal admiration for the late Professor of Surgery at University
College in London. It is uncertain
whether the two men knew each other personally although Robert Gunning commenced
his pre-clinical studies in Edinburgh in 1834, the year prior to Liston’s
departure for London.
At
a time when major discrepancies existed between the opportunities for male and
female students, in particular with regard to admission to medical schools,
Gunning showed an enlightened attitude by including among his many other
benefactions the sum of £1,000 for the Association for University Education of
Women.
In
1889 the Faculty of Divinity benefited from a gift of £5,000 for the endowment
of a series of Gunning Victoria Jubilee Lectures.
As noted above, the conditions of the endowment stipulated that the funds
be used to promote the study of Natural Sciences among candidates for the
ministry.
DUMFRIES
INFIRMARY
Allusion
has already been made to Robert Gunning’s apprenticeship at Dumfries
Infirmary. As a token of appreciation of the “valuable clinical instruction
received” he bequeathed a bed at that hospital shortly before his death.
One of the hospital governors from 1895 until 1901 was John Gunning of
Victoria Road, Dumfries, a cousin of Dr Robert Gunning, but there is no
suggestion that he in any way played an influential role regarding the bequest.
An account of the correspondence with the benefactor is recorded in the Minute
Book of the Board of Governors of Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary26.
“The
Chairman read two letters from His Excellency R.H. Gunning, MD, LLD, FRSE …..
expressing his desire to endow a bed at the cost of £1,250 on such conditions
as may be hereafter arranged, preference being given to patients from the
Parishes of Ruthwell and Newabbey ……. The following is the inscription
suggested by the Donor:
‘In recognition of the valuable clinical instruction received in 1835-36 and in benefit of the poor of Ruthwell and Newabbey. Endowed by Robert Halliday Gunning, MD, LLD, FRSE etc, Grand Dignitary of the Empire of Brazil, by permission of Her Majesty the Queen.’
The
Treasurer was instructed to procure a bed ….. to be placed in No.1 Ward and
also to instruct the appropriate inscription to be placed on the wall opposite
it”.
The
benefactor’s warm interest in his native parish was expressed in a variety of
ways, including the addition of a library to the McFarlan Hall in Clarencefield,
the provision of paraffin street lighting in the same village and erection of a
sports pavilion near Brow Well. He
also took a particular interest in the Ruthwell Cross, one of the world’s most
discussed mediaeval monuments. That
this should attract his benevolence is hardly surprising: the original
restoration of the severely damaged cross, vandalized by post-Reformation
fanatics, had been conducted by the supervisor of Gunning’s old school at
Clarencefield and founder of the world’s first savings bank at Ruthwell, the
Rev Henry Duncan DD. Visitors to
the Savings Banks Museum in the latter village have the opportunity of
inspecting there examples of Gunning school and Sunday School prizes which form
part of a permanent exhibition.
ST
GILES CATHEDRAL
There
must be few Scottish children who are unable to relate how Jenny Geddes, during
the riot in St Giles’ on 23 July 1637, threw her stool at the Dean in
opposition to the imposition of a new liturgy.
To commemorate the incident, a brass plaque was placed on the floor of
the Moray Aisle of St Giles’ bearing the inscription devised in 1886 by Lord
Glencorse, Lord Justice General of Scotland27:
CONSTANT
ORAL TRADITION AFFIRMS THAT NEAR THIS SPOT A BRAVE SCOTCH WOMAN JANET GEDDES ON
THE 23 JULY 1637 STRUCK THE FIRST BLOW IN THE GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM OF
CONSCIENCE WHICH AFTER A CONFLICT OF HALF A CENTURY ENDED IN THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Plaque in St. Giles’ (from a rubbing by Merilyn Smith)
Not
generally known is the fact that this plaque was financed by Robert Halliday
Gunning who also initiated the erection in the cathedral of the memorial to
Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyll who was executed outside St Giles' in
1661. This memorial in St Eloi’s
aisle was unveiled in the spring of 1895.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mrs
A Anderson, curator, The Savings Banks Museum, Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire first
aroused my interest in RHG and I am grateful to her and to Mr D T Ayres of
Applecross, Western Australia, great-grandson of RHG’s youngest brother John
McWilliam Gunnyon, for their enthusiastic support and for providing me with much
of the information incorporated in the text.
The
earlier photograph of RHG by A L Henderson of London is reproduced from an
original in possession of Mr D T Ayres.
The
illustration of the plaque on the floor of the Moray Aisle at St Giles’
Cathedral features in Dr Murdoch Lothian’s The Cutty Stool , published by
Hughson Gallery, Glasgow. It is
reproduced in this paper by courtesy of Merilyn Smith.
I
am indebted to the librarians at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and
at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh whose assistance facilitated the
conduct of this research from abroad.
REFERENCES
AND NOTES
1
Obituary, Caledon Med J 1900; 204-206
2
Dumfries & Galloway Standard 1887; Aug. 6
3
Duns J, Proc Roy Soc Edinb 1901; xiii: 489-497
4
Obituary, Lancet
1900; March 31: 973
5
Baillie TW, From Boston to Dumfries 1966 and 1969; Dumfries: Dinwiddie
6
Baillie TW, The Dumfries Ether Diary 1966; Dumfries: Solway
7
Dumfries & Galloway Courier 1848; Dec. 19
8
Minute Book, Board of Directors of Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary 1899;
July 10
9
Edinburgh Directory 1848-1849
10
Gunning RH, On the Physiological
Action of Chloroform, Mon J Med Sci 1848; 47-49
11
David Watson Stevenson’s bust of Adam Smith was presented to the National
Wallace Monument in Stirling in 1899; Amelia Hill’s sculpture of Thomas
Carlyle stands in Carlyle’s house at Ecclefechan
12
Edinburgh University Calendar 1889-90; 251 and 520
13
Gunning RH, Letter to Professor J Duns 1899, cited by Duns J, Proc Roy Soc Edinb
1901: 489
14
Medical Directory 1878
15
Gunning RH et al. Memorandum on the Railways to Emperor Dom Pedro II 1872.
16
Dumfries & Galloway Standard 1900; March 28
17 The Imperial Order of the Rose was instituted by Emperor Dom Pedro I in 1829 and awarded in six different classes, in descending order Grand Cross, Grand Dignitary, Dignitary, Commander, Officer and Knight. Of 15,334 honours bestowed between 1829 and 1889, no fewer than 13,188 were conferred in the two lower classes. RHG was one of only 84 to be designated Grand Dignitary during that period of 60 years
18
Ayres DT, Anderson A, Baillie TW. Robert
Halliday Gunning: Philanthropist
19
Gunning RH. Correspondence with Sir William Thomson 1887-1892; Cambridge
University Library MSS. Add. 7342: G.202, 1887, August 27; G.203, 1890, March
24; Pr.200, 1892, January 1
20
Proc Soc Antiqu Scot 1887-88; xxii: 331
21
Proc Soc Antiqu Scot 1889-90; xxiv: 510
22
Proc Soc Antiqu Scot 1890-91; xxv: 422 and 484
23
Proc Soc Antiqu Scot 1892-93; xxvii: 347
24
Proc Soc Antiqu Scot 1899-1900; xxxiv: 139
25
Craig WS. History of the Royal
College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1976; Oxford: Blackwell: 981
26
Minute Book, Board of Directors of Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary,
1900; Dec 3
27 Lothian M. The Cutty Stool 1995; Glasgow: Hughson Gallery: 33