Thomas Wilkinson King

Thomas Wilkinson King (1809 – 26 March 1847) was an English pathologist and anatomist. He has been called "the father of endocrinology" because of a landmark paper he wrote about the thyroid gland while working at Guy's Hospital.

Early life and education King was born in 1809 and was educated in London and Paris. He became a doctor like his father, who practised in Dover, and began training at Guy's Hospital as a teenager in 1824. He was appointed curator of the Guy's Hospital museum, a position previously held by Thomas Hodgkin, in 1837, and three years later became a lecturer in comparative anatomy and comparative physiology. He also lectured in anatomical pathology and wrote prolifically in the Guy's Hospital Reports, particularly about cancer.

Later life and death King was one of the original Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England upon its establishment in December 1843. At that time, he was living and practising at 36 Bedford Square in London. He died of tuberculosis in 1847.