Andrew Halliday (physician)

Sir Andrew Halliday, also spelt Hallidie, was a Scottish physician, reformer and writer, born on 17 March 1782 at Copewood in the parish of Dryfesdale, Dumfriesshire, and dead on 7 September 1839 in Dumfries. He earned his own living as a boy and became a schoolteacher before studying at the University of Edinburgh, where he turned from training for the ministry to medicine and graduated MD in 1806. In 1807 he became a surgeon in the 13th Light Dragoons and served in the Napoleonic Wars, including the Battle of Waterloo. He later served as domestic physician to the Duke of Clarence, who became William IV, and brought knowledge of the medical uses of iodine to Britain in 1819. He was the first physician to the Seamen's Hospital Society, helped to establish King's College London, and publicized the poor state of British and Irish insane asylums. He wrote Annals of the house of Hanover and a book on the West Indies.