William John Bishop

William John Bishop FLA (190327 July 1961) was a British librarian, the first editor of the journal Medical History, and a prolific writer. With his friend Frederick Noël Lawrence Poynter, he wrote about John Symcotts, a medical attendant of Oliver Cromwell in A Seventeenth Century Doctor and his Patients: John Symcotts, 1592?–1662.

After completing his early education from Sir Walter St John's Grammar School for Boys, he became a librarian assistant at the London Library and then assistant librarian to Arnold Chaplin at the Royal College of Physicians. He subsequently read papers to the History of Medicine Section and later joined the library of the Royal Society of Medicine.

In 1946 the Wellcome Historical Medical Library appointed him as their librarian. Five years after publishing the book on Symcotts, he became the first editor of the journal Medical History. He wrote several other books and in retirement continued to contribute as librarian of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

He was elected to both the fellowship of the Library Association and honorary membership of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Early life and career William Bishop was born in London in 1903. He was educated at Sir Walter St John's Grammar School for Boys in Battersea .

He began a career in librarianship as a junior assistant at the London Library, under the supervision of Sir Charles Hagberg Wright. Four years later he became assistant librarian to Arnold Chaplin, the Harveian Librarian at the Royal College of Physicians, where he also became acquainted with Sir Humphry Rolleston. He retired in 1951 but continued to contribute as librarian of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The book was described as particularly welcome for dealing with the type of everyday medical practice of a merciful but "not very exalted" physician for whom there had previously been no memorial.

He wrote Notable Names in Medicine and Surgery (1944) and The Early History of Surgery (1960), contributed to the Dictionary of National Biography, was involved in a project pertaining to Florence Nightingale and planned a compilation titled Dictionary of British Medical Biography. He left an estate of £10,202, administration of which was granted to Joan Margaret Bishop, spinster, and John Clive Bishop, estate agent. His bio-bibliography of Florence Nightingale and calendar of her letters were completed after his death by Sue [M.] Goldie.

Selected publications Notable Names in Medicine and Surgery. 1944. (2nd edition 1946, 3rd edition 1959) Medicine and Science in Postage Stamps. Harvey & Blythe, 1948. (With Norman Murdoch Matheson) A Seventeenth Century Doctor and his Patients: John Symcotts, 1592?–1662. John Symcotts, Streatley, 1951. (Edited with F.N.L. Poynter) Catalogue of the Library up to 1850. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Manchester, 1956. (Compiler) Bibliography of International Congresses of Medical Sciences = Bibliographie des congrès internationaux des sciences médicales. Blackwell, Oxford, 1958. (Compiler) The Early History of Surgery. Hale, London, 1960. (Reissued as Knife, Fire and Boiling Oil: The Early History of Surgery, 2010) A Bio-bibliography of Florence Nightingale. Dawsons for The International Council of Nurses, London, 1962. (Completed by Sue Goldie)