Dr Andrew Whyte Barclay

Identified in the Silvy daybooks as ‘Dr Banlay,’ this is possibly the Scottish physician Andrew Whyte Barclay (1817-1884), a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a consulting physician at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner.

Born at Dysart in Fife, he was educated in Edinburgh and studied at Edinburgh University. After visiting Berlin and Paris, he continued his studies at Caius College, Cambridge, graduating MB in 1847 and MD in 1852. From 1862 to 1882 he was a physician at St George’s Hospital in London, devoting much attention to the interests of the medical school and lecturing on medicine. According to his entry in the DNB, ‘[h]e was shrewd and cautious as a physician, concise and polished as a writer.’

In 1862 he was living at 23A Bruton Street, London. His butler there, William Thomas Dairy, aged 58, was prosecuted for stealing a silver salver worth £60 and other articles. He had also stolen wine from his master’s cellar and run up debts in his master’s name. He received three years’ penal servitude (Morning Chronicle, 7 January 1862).

Doctor Andrew Whyte Barclay, F.R.C.P., died on 28 April 1884 at his residence, Whitney Wood at Stevenage in Hertfordshire, He left an estate valued at £13,878. The Illustrated London News (17 May 1884) described him as ‘consulting physician at St George’s Hospital, and late president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, aged sixty-eight. He was the author of several medical works of repute.’

Photographed on 30 August 1861 by Camille Silvy of London.