William Ramsay Smith

William Ramsay Smith (27 November 1859 – 28 September 1937),

Career At 20 years of age Smith was appointed headmaster of Invergordon Public School, in Easter Ross, but, due to an interest in physiology, he returned to Edinburgh University to study arts and science. He then won an entrance scholarship for Medicine of £100 a year for three years. On completing his medical course in 1885 Smith was appointed assistant-professor of natural history, senior demonstrator of zoology at Edinburgh University. He graduated BSc (natural sciences) in 1888.

In 1889 'Illustrations of Zoology' was published which he had prepared in collaboration with J. S. Norwell. He graduated MB ChM in 1892. For two years Smith was demonstrator of anatomy at Edinburgh, and served as examiner at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. During this period he lived at 4 Grange Loan in the south of Edinburgh.

Australia In 1896 Smith travelled to Australia at the request of the Government of South Australia to fill a pathology position at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Smith was expelled from the British Medical Association and banned from the association in 1897 after internal conflict with hospital staff (who accused him of incompetence), but was exonerated by an open enquiry by the Hospital Board. In 1899 he was appointed physician to the infectious diseases unit at the hospital, Adelaide City Coroner, Inspector of Anatomy and chairman of the Central Board of Health. including that of well-known and popular local identity, Tommy Walker. A board of inquiry headed by James George Russell found that Smith's actions had been "indiscreet" and he was dismissed from his position as coroner. He was reinstated as coroner and head of the health department and his research praised, but had to resign from his hospital and other duties.

In 1913 he published Medical Jurisprudence from the Judicial Standpoint, for which he received the degree of MD from Edinburgh University. Authorship of the book, which at the time was criticised as dominated by "white thinking" has now been properly attributed to Unaipon and republished under his name as Legendary tales of the Australian Aborigines . Smith has also been accused of sales of Aboriginal artefacts for profit.

Anthropological collection Smith was responsible for the bulk of Edinburgh University's physical anthropology collection, some 500 to 600 individuals.

From Smith's writings, it is clear that he was aware of Indigenous funerary customs."After death no reference is made to the deceased, nor is his name mentioned. Relations by the same name find a substitute. A mother would not give [me] a lock of her child’s hair because she has been taught that if the child dies, its spirit will find no rest if that lock of hair survives." As desecration of human remains was illegal, he used his position as Adelaide's coroner to illicitly dissect and collect human remains, many being individuals of unusual pathologies or disease, most of which he presented to Edinburgh University. His writings indicate that he also robbed graves and it is believed he had once destroyed five graves to obtain one good specimen. Witnesses also record that he practiced his marksmanship with a .303 rifle on corpses at the mortuary of Adelaide hospital. While he did not receive payment for the remains, he was rewarded for his "donations" with Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (upon the proposal of Sir William Turner, Daniel John Cunningham, Alexander Crum Brown and Cargill Gilston Knott) and an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Anthropological Institute. He was an honorary member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.

He was responsible for the collection of human remains of Indigenous Australians, including remains stolen from burial grounds at Hindmarsh Island, some of which were shipped to overseas institutions. At his death in 1937, 182 skulls were found in his Adelaide home.

In addition to numerous books, Smith also published pamphlets and contributed largely to scientific journals and Chambers Encyclopaedia. He was interested in literature, philosophy and music, and earned a reputation as an authority on Aboriginal Australians.