Author: Wadd, William
Biography:
WADD, William (1776-1829: ODNB)
Pseudonym Unus Quorum
He was born on 21 June 1776, probably at Bevois Court, Basinghall Street, City of London, and baptised on 29 Aug. at St. Michael Bassishaw, the eldest of five children of Solomon Wadd (1745-1821), surgeon, and Charlotte Anne Gibbons (1754-1842), who had married in 1775. His father practised at Basinghall Street, London, for more than fifty years. He entered Merchant Taylors’ school in 1784 and was then apprenticed to a surgeon, Sir James Earle, in 1797 and became a pupil at St. Bartholomew’s hospital. He was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1800 and established a practice in London’s West End at Park Place, St. James’s. He married Caroline Mackenzie (1774-1857) on 5 July 1806 at Old St. Pancras, Somers Town. They had two children. He was appointed one of the surgeons-extraordinary to the Prince Regent in 1817 and then surgeon-extraordinary to George IV in 1821. He served on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1824 and was appointed to the court of examiners in 1829. He was also a Fellow of the Linnean Society and an associate of the Société de Médecine of Paris. He died in Ireland on 29 Aug. 1829 after jumping out of a runaway post-chaise on the road from Killarney to Mitchelstown. He was buried at St. Mary’s, Killarney, where there is still a gravestone. Although he seems to have left substantial property to his family, his widow was awarded £50 by the RLF in Nov. 1829. His son, William, had drowned the previous year in Mauritius. His medical works were noted for his fine draughtsmanship and included Practical Observations on the Nature and Cure of Strictures in the Urethra (1809), Cases of Diseased Prepuce and Scrotum (1817) and a compilation, Comments on Corpulency, Lineaments of Leanness, Mems on Diet and Dietetics (1829). His most popular work, Nugae Chirurgicae . . . Illustrative of a Collection of Professional Portraits (1824) consists of brief historical sketches of surgeons from many countries. His only volume of verse, Nugae Canorae (1827), consists of poetic epitaphs and brief biographies of physicians, surgeons, oculists, apothecaries, and quacks. (ODNB 19 Sept. 2023; DNB; ancestry.co.uk 19 Sept. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 19 Sept. 2023; RLF 660, GM July 1806, 675, and Feb. 1821, 184, and Dec. 1829, 562-3.) Allister J. Neher, “William Wadd’s clinical studies and portraiture,” Journal of Medical Biography 29.2 [2021], 79-84) AA