William Sharpey

William Sharpey FRS FRSE LLD (1 April 1802 – 11 April 1880) was a Scottish anatomist and physiologist. Sharpey became the outstanding exponent of experimental biology and is described as the "father of British physiology".

Early life Sharpey was born in Arbroath on 1 April 1802, the youngest son of the five children Mary Balfour and Henry Sharpy (sic), a shipowner from Folkestone who died before Sharpey was born. In 1818, he moved to the medical classes, learning anatomy from Professor John Barclay, who then was lecturing in the extra-academical school.

In 1821, Sharpey graduated with an MB ChB and was admitted a member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons. He then went to London to broaden his anatomical experience in the private school of Joshua Brookes in Blenheim Street. He went to Paris in the autumn, and remained there for nearly a year, learning clinical surgery from Guillaume Dupuytren in the wards of the Hôtel Dieu, and operative surgery from Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin. Here he made the acquaintance of James Syme, with whom he kept up a correspondence until Syme's death in 1870. In 1835 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh.

In July 1836 Sharpey was appointed to the chair of anatomy and physiology in the University of London in succession to Jones Quain. In this capacity Sharpey gave the first complete course of lectures on physiology and minute anatomy. His lectures then continued for 38 years. Sharpey was appointed in 1840 one of the examiners in anatomy at the university of London, and he was also a member of the senate of the University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 9 May 1839. In 1846 he described the skeletal loadbearing fibres that now bear his name, Sharpey's fibres. He was made a member of its council in 1844, and was appointed one of the secretaries in place of Thomas Bell in November 1853, an office which he held until his retirement. He was also for 15 years, from April 1861, one of the members appointed by the Crown on the general council of medical education and registration. Sharpey was also one of the trustees of the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.

In 1859 he received the honorary doctorate (LLD) for his literary works from the University of Edinburgh.

His pupils included Michael Foster, George Oliver, and Burdon Sanderson.