Quick Facts
Biography
Dr Robert Craig Maclagan FRSE FRCPE (1839-1919) was a Scottish physician and anthropologist from the eminent Maclagan family. He was co-founder of the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women.
Life
He was born in Edinburgh on 6 March 1839 the son of Andrew Douglas Maclagan and his wife Elizabeth Allan Thomson. He lived his early years at 129 George Street in Edinburgh’s New Town. He was educated at the Edinburgh High School then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University graduating MD in 1860.
In 1869 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Sir Robert Christison.
Alongside his medical career he was a keen military volunteer and held the rank of Colonel with the 5th Battalion Royal Scots. In a further disconnected field (other than through writing) from 1873 he was Partner and Chairman of A. B. Fleming & Co, one of the world’s largest ink manufactures, based in Granton in northern Edinburgh.
He died on 12 July 1919 at home at 5 Coates Crescent in Edinburgh’s West End, where he had lived for at least 40 years. He is buried with his family in Dean Cemetery in west Edinburgh. The grave lies on the north wall of the original cemetery, backing onto the first north extension.
Publications
- The Arsenic Eaters of Styria (BMJ 1864)
- The Clan of the Bell of St Fillan (1879)
- Scottish Myths (1882)
- The Games and Diversions of Argyleshire (1901)
- Evil Eye in the Western Highlands (1902)
- Our Ancestors: Scots, Picts and Cymry (1913)
- Religio Scotica
Family
He was father to Douglas Philip Maclagan WS (1867-1948).