394 GLASGOW MEDICAL JOURNAL

Dr. JOHN SOUTTAR McKENDRICK. OBITUARY.

JOHN SOUTTAR McKENDRICK, M.D., F.B.F.P.S.G., F.R.S.E., J.P.

It is with deep regret that we record the death in a Nursing Home of Dr. J. Souttar McKendrick on 31st October, 1946. The announcement must have come as a sudden and unexpected surprise to his many patients and friends as he was active and apparently in good health shortly before his illness which so soon proved fatal. Dr. McKendrick belonged to a notable family. His father was the late John Gray McKendrick, LD.D., E.R.S., Emeritus Professor of Physiology, among whose colleagues and intimate friends were many great men renowned in the fields of Science and Medicine. Dr. McKendrick was thus fortunate in being brought up in an atmosphere so favourable for one entering the medical profession and the same may also be said of his brother, the late Dieut.-Col. Anderson Gray McKendrick, two years his junior, who on his retiral from the Indian Medical Service became in 1920 Superintendent of the Laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. Dr. McKendrick himself had a distinguished career. He was born on 5th March, 1874, was educated at Kelvinside Academy and after gaining certain bursaries, graduated in Medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1896, obtaining M.B., C.M. with high commendation. Three years later he took the M.D. with first-class Honours and a University Gold Medal. Shortly afterwards he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. After holding Resident appointments in the Western Infirmary and the Maternity Hospital he was appointed to the Dispensary staff of the Western Infirmary in 1900, and in 1909 was promoted to the position of Assistant Physician. While on the Dispensary staff he assisted Sir Thomas McCall Anderson, then Professor of Practice of Medicine in the University. Meanwhile Dr. McKendrick was gradually developing a large practice in the West-end of the city which, with hard work and increasing experience, brought him much success and a great reputation. He resigned his post of Assistant Physician at the Western Infirmary in 1922. Among the many duties of a busy life, however, he found time to be interested in many schemes and institutions devoted to the advancement of medicine and the welfare of the community. He joined the Board of Governors of the Western Infirmary in 1926, and three years later 395 396 GLASGOW MEDICAL JOURNAL became Convener of the Medical Committee, a position which he continued to occupy till the date of his death. He was also a director of the Royal Mental Hospital, Gartnavel, and the Montrose Maternity Hospital, Go van. During the first world war (1914-18) he acted as Visiting Physician to the Bellahouston Red Cross Hospital. In 1937 Dr. McKendrick was appointed Visitor and two years later President of the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, a position which he held for one year instead of the customary period of two years owing to temporary illness. He was a member of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow, and of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Dr. McKendrick had an engaging personality and was endowed with a frank and genial disposition. He endeared himself to his patients and his numerous friends and was ever ready to assist anyone who required his aid. He was a good companion and with his friends enjoyed motoring, a fishing holiday and a game of golf. We extend our deep sympathy to his widow, his close associate and support in all his work, and to his family of whom there are four daughters and one son (Dr. John Wellesley McKendrick) who, after release from war service, is now settled in practice in the South of England. R. B. N.