UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Prescott Gardiner Hewett, 1812-1891

Nationality: English
Date of Birth: 1812.07.03
Place of Birth: Bilham House, near Doncaster
Date of Death: 1891.06.18
Place of Death:

Identity:

Sir Prescott Gardiner Hewett was the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, as well as a landscape painter and watercolourist. He was the son of William N. W. Hewett of Bilham House, near Doncaster. On 13 September 1849 he married Sarah Cowell, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Cowell of Todmorden, Lancashire. They had one son and two daughters.

Life:

Hewett had an illustrious career. He was regarded as one of the best anatomists and lecturers in London, and published many papers on hernia, aneurysm, injuries of the head, and pyæmia.

Hewett became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1836, and was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at St George's Hospital and curator of the museum at St. George's Hospital about 1840. In 1843 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He became a lecturer in anatomy in 1845, assistant surgeon in 1848, full surgeon in 1861 and consulting surgeon in 1875. From 1854 to 1859 he was Arris and Gale professor of human anatomy and physiology, and from 1867 to 1883 he was a member of the council, becoming chairman of the board of examiners in midwifery in 1875, vice-president in 1874 and 1875, and president in 1876.

He was elected president of the Pathological Society of London in 1863, of the Clinical Society in 1873 and fellow of the Royal Society in 1874. He was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to the queen in 1867, serjeant-surgeon-extraordinary in 1877 and serjeant-surgeon in 1884. From 1875 he was also surgeon to the Prince of Wales. He was made a baronet in 1883.

At his retirement Hewett returned to water-colour painting. His paintings were bequeathed to the nation and exhibited at the South Kensington Museum in 1891.

Hewett was among those invited to a dinner in May 1889 in the Criterion, organised by William Christian Symonds, to celeberate JW being made an honorary member of the Royal Academy in Munich. However, he had to decline (#02134).

Bibliography:

D'A. P., 'Sir Prescott Gardiner Hewett', 1901, Dictionary of National Biography Online, Oxford, 1997 (accessed 4 March 2004).