Gilbert Blane

Sir Gilbert Blane, baronet, was born on 29 August 1747, the son of Gilbert Blane of Blanefield in Ayrshire, and died on 27 June 1834. Intended for the church, he turned to medicine and studied five years at Edinburgh, then took his doctor of medicine degree at Glasgow in 1778. He sailed with Lord Rodney as private physician and was soon appointed physician to the fleet, work that earned him a pension from the Crown. Back in London he became physician to St Thomas's Hospital in 1783 and later one of the physicians in ordinary to the king. As a commissioner for the sick and wounded he arranged supplies of lemon juice for fleets on foreign stations and made it a regular part of the diet, after which scurvy was soon banished from the fleet. His report on the mortality among troops at Walcheren led to the abandonment of the island. He was created a baronet in 1812 and was a fellow of the Royal Society from 1785.