William Chester Minor

William Chester Minor (1834 to 1920) was an American army surgeon who is remembered less for his medicine than for what happened to him afterward. Born in Ceylon to New England missionary parents, he was sent to the United States as a boy, studied at the Yale School of Medicine and graduated in 1863 with a specialization in comparative anatomy. He then served as a surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war his mental health failed and he was admitted to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington. In 1871 he went to London, and in 1872 he fatally shot a man he wrongly believed had broken into his room. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, he was held at Broadmoor asylum, where his army pension bought him comfortable quarters and books. From there he became one of the most effective volunteer readers for the Oxford English Dictionary, supplying quotations that showed how words had been used. He was released in 1910 and died in Connecticut in 1920, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia.