Author: Walsh, Edward
Biography:
WALSH, Edward (1756-1832: DIB)
The elder son of John Walsh, merchant of Ballymountain House in Waterford, and his wife Hanna Gibson, he was born in Waterford. His early education was in Waterford where he founded a literary society and he later studied medicine at the Universities of Glasgow (MD 1791) and Edinburgh. He worked on a West Indies packet before joining the 29th Regiment of Foot in 1797 and serving as physician to the British forces in Ireland during the 1798 rebellion. He took part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799 and published his Narrative of the Expedition to Holland in 1800. In 1801 he was at the Battle of Copenhagen with the 49th Regiment; it may have been there that his hand was shattered. He was sent to serve in Canada and remained for six years; while there he was involved in introducing vaccination against smallpox to the native population, met Tecumseh and Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), and made sketches for a natural history of the region. (The history was never completed but his sketch book survives in the Clements Library at the University of Michigan.) On his return to Europe, he served in the Peninsular War and was present at the ill-fated Walcheron campaign of 1809 and at Waterloo. Subsequently he was appointed President of the Medical Board at Ostend. On his retirement he moved to Summerhill in Dublin. He died at home on 7 Feb. 1832. A lengthy memoir of him was published in the Dublin University Magazine; most likely it was written by his brother, Robert Walsh, who was an author. (DIB 17 Dec. 2021; ODNB 17 Dec. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 17 Dec. 2021; Dublin University Magazine [1832]; GM 102 [1832]; United Service Journal [1832]; Clements Library Catalogue, University of Michigan)
Other Names:
- E. Walsh