Robert Dick, MD, FRCS, IMS: a Biographical Note by His Grand-Nephew Sir John Megaw

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The Ulster Medical Journal, Volume 58, No. 1, pp. 89- 90, April 1989. Historical Note Robert Dick, MD, FRCS, IMS: a biographical note by his grand-nephew Sir John Megaw

Dr John Weaver and Sir Peter Froggatt in their recent 'Wild geese' vignettes' included an appreciation of my uncle, Sir John Megaw, KCIE, MB, DSc (hc), whose career culminated as Director -General of the Indian Medical Service and as Medical Adviser to the Secretary of State for India. A note on his medical uncle, Robert Dick, who preceded him into the IMS, seems apposite. Robert Dick, born in 1831, was a brother of Sir John's mother, Ellen Dick, the Dicks being long established in Garry, Ballymoney, County Antrim, where Robert's father, also Robert, was an extensive farmer. After schooling at Ballymoney, the young Robert entered Queen's College Belfast in October 1849 (one of the 195 students - 55 in medicine2- who constituted the first batch of entrants to the newly opened College) where he had an outstanding career.3 He was a Scholar in each of his four years, was Class Prizeman in Practical Chemistry in 1851 and leading Class Prizeman in Anatomy and Physiology in 1852, and graduated MD (the primary degree of the Queen's University in Ireland) in September 1853 with a prize medal.8 Dick took the MRCS (Engl) in 18549 and was appointed from 24 January 1855 Assistant Surgeon to the 'Queen's and [East India] Company Forces in the East Indies, etc., etc.'" He saw service in the British-Persian war of 1856-7 and the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and became a member of the IMS when it was formed in 1858, and for a while was stationed at Poona.'" On 13 June 1867 he took the FRCS (Engl) by examination 12 and on 3 July was promoted 'Surgeon to HM Forces' retroactive to 24 January.'3 He retired in or about 1872 with the rank of Surgeon-Major in 'the Bombay Army'.14 In 1874 he returned to Garry where he lived for some 40 years. He took a keen interest in the educational development of the children of his sister, Ellen Megaw, in Ballyboyland. He died in 1913 and was buried on 16 October in the Old Church Burying Ground in Ballymoney. He never married. Dick was a shy and reserved man and these qualities, his campaign experience, particularly in the Indian Mutiny, and his deteriorating health probably determined his early retirement from the IMS after less than 20 years' service. His close attention to the education of his nephew, John, no doubt influenced John's decision to make medicine his career and to follow that career in the IMS of which he was to become in 1930 Director-General.

Sir John Megaw, PC, CBE, TD, Lord Justice of Appeal (retired).

NOTES

1. Weaver JA, Froggatt P. The 'wild geese'. Ulster Med J 1987; 56 (suppl): S31-S56. 2. Moody TW, Beckett JC. Queen's, Belfast 1845-.1949. Vol ii. London: Faber & Faber, 1959: App II. 3. Among fellow entrants was James Cuming, later to be Professor of Medicine (1865 - 1899) and the first Catholic medical professor of QCB. Froggatt P. Medicine in Ulster: the Belfast School. In: O'Brien E, Crookshank A, Wolstenholme G, eds. A portrait of Irish medicine: an illustrated history of medicine in Ireland. Dublin: Ward River Press, 1984: 183.213. I am indebted to Sir Peter Froggatt for his research which has brought to light particulars of Dick's academic and service career. 4. The Belfast Queen's College Calendar 1850. Belfast: Henry Greer, 1850: 40. 5. Ibid, 1851. Belfast: Simms and McIntyre, 1851: 67, 72. 6. Ibid, 1852. Belfast: Alexander Mayne, 1852: 78, 79, 82. 7. Ibid, 1853: Ixi, lxiv. 8. QUB Library, Miscellaneous Papers MS1/88, MD diploma. The medal is the property of his grand -niece, Dr Helen Dick Megaw, who has contributed much of the material in this memoir. MS1/88 contains five documents on Robert Dick which were lodged in 1938 by my father, Robert Dick Megaw. 9. The Medical Directory. London: J & A Churchill. 10. QUB Library, MS1/88, certificate of appointment. The certificate is in the name of Sir William Maynard Gomm, KBE, C-in-C Queen's and Company Forces in the East Indies, and is dated in Bengal 24 December 1855, i.e. 11 months after the operative date of appointment. 11. Obituary notice. Lancet 1913; 2: 1219. This was supplied by the 'Lancet's own correspondent in Ireland'. 12. QUB Llbrary, MS 1/88, Fellowship certificate. 13. Ibid, certificate of appointment signed by George, Duke of Cambridge, Field.-Marshal, and by Edward Cardwell, later (1868) Secretary for War. 14. The Medical Directory for 1876. London: J & A Churchill, 1876: under name in the Indian Medical Service and Mercantile Marine section.

) The Ulster Medical Society, 1989.