Thomas Wakley

Thomas Wakley (11 July 179516 May 1862) was an English surgeon. He gained fame as a social reformer who campaigned against incompetence, privilege and nepotism. He was the founding editor of The Lancet, a radical Member of Parliament (MP) and a celebrated coroner. Early life He was born in Membury, Devon, to a prosperous farmer, Henry Wakley (175026 August 1842), and his wife, Mary née Minifie. His father inherited property, leased neighbouring land and became a large farmer by the standards of the day and a government Commissioner on the Enclosure of Waste Land. He was described as a "just but severe parent" and, with his wife, had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters. Thomas was the youngest son, and attended the grammar school at Chard (now Chard School), then Taunton Grammar School. When he was eleven, he sailed on a ship captained by a family friend to Calcutta. He joined the ship on 7 March 1807 as one of six midshipmen. He was discharged on 18 August 1808. When he returned, he attended school at Wiveliscombe, Somerset. At fifteen, he was apprenticed to a Taunton apothecary and then later to surgeons in Beaminster and Henley-on-Thames. Young Wakley was a sportsman and a boxer: he fought bare-fisted in public houses. In 1815, he then went to London, where he attended anatomy classes at St Thomas's Hospital, and enrolled in the United Hospitals of St. Thomas's Hospital and Guy's. The dominant personality at these two hospitals was Sir Astley Cooper FRS (1768–1841). He also studied at a private anatomy college on Webb Street, run by Richard and Edward Grainger. Wakley qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) in 1817.