James Clark

Sir James Clark, 1st Baronet, KCB (14 December 1788 – 29 June 1870) was a Scottish physician who was Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria between 1837 and 1860, and was previously physician to poet John Keats in Rome.

Early life and career Clark was born in Cullen, Banffshire, Scotland, and was educated at Fordyce School. He studied at Aberdeen University, where he took an arts degree intending to study law, and graduated as a M.A., before discovering a preference for medicine. He then went to Edinburgh University, and in 1809 became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

He then entered the medical service of the Royal Navy. He served at the Royal Hospital Haslar, in Hampshire, until July 1810, when he was appointed assistant surgeon aboard . After the ship was wrecked in 1811 south of Sandy Hook in New Jersey, he returned to Great Britain, where he was promoted to the rank of a surgeon and served successively on HMS Colobrée, which was also wrecked, as well as on Chesapeake and Maidstone.

In 1822, while in Rome, Clark published Medical Notes on Climate, Diseases, Hospitals, and Medical Schools in France, Italy, and Switzerland, comprising an Inquiry into the Effects of a Residence in the South of Europe in Cases of Pulmonary Consumption. He also made contact with members of the European royal families and aristocracy, among them Prince Leopold, later King of the Belgians, as well as English aristocrats travelling in Europe. At Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary), Prince Leopold found Clark examining the waters and was struck with the desire to learn their uses. On his return to England, he appointed Clark as his physician. The effect upon his practice was immediate; it was years before it passed off, and was never wholly obliterated.

Retirement and death He began a process of gradual retirement in 1860, and moved to Bagshot Park, Surrey, which the Queen had lent him for life. His wife, Barbara Stephen, known as Minnie, whom he had married in 1820, died in 1862. They had one son, John Forbes Clark. Sir James Clark died at Bagshot Park in 1870, aged 81, and was buried at Kensal Green.