James Walker Dawson (1870–1927)

Excerpt

James Walker Dawson was born in India in the year 1870. As a young man, he studied at the Edinburgh Institution and then enrolled into Edinburgh University Medical School in 1888 [1]. However, he subsequently suffered from tuberculosis and in 1891 started a prolonged hiatus which lasted over a decade. No longer enrolled after recovering, he traveled abroad mainly spending time in the United States, India, and then New Zealand. Toward the end of his travels, he worked as a shepherd and lumberjack before returning to Scotland in 1896 [2]. Initially unable to re-enroll, he worked for the University instead and served as his brother’s caregiver as he was battling a severe illness, almost succumbing to a case of pneumonia. Yet he persevered, and in 1903, he was able to resume medical school to complete his medical degree in 1904 [2]. This non-traditional path of his medical journey, in part, led him to work in a histology laboratory at the Royal College of Physicians (RCoP)—in which he was underpaid for his work, living at the threshold of poverty for most of his life [2]. Nonetheless, in this laboratory, he began studying neuropathology under an influential mentor—Alexander Bruce. He went on to produce publications with Bruce [3] and collaborated with other prominent scholars. Bruce died in 1911, but Dawson continued their unfinished scholarly pursuits. Due to poor health, he was unfit to enlist during World War I, and instead taught pathology at Edinburgh University and the Royal Infirmary. Although many offers of appointments were made—both at home and abroad—he declined on grounds of health and preferred committing to his work at the RCoP laboratory [1]. …