William Smith Syme


Dr William Smith Syme FRSE was a Newfoundland-born surgeon who came to fame in Scotland

Life

He was born in Newfoundland in 1870. He was sent to Edinburgh in Scotland in 1887 to study Medicine and graduated MB ChB in 1891. After graduation he worked briefly in Crewe then moved to Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire. He received his doctorate in 1898.
In 1903 he moved to Glasgow, living at 3 Northbank Terrace in the Kelvinside district. Here he was a surgeon at Glasgow's Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, also consulting to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Soon after arrival he founded the Scottish Otological and Laryngological Society
He was President of the Ruskin Society of Glasgow.
In 1912 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Thomas Hastie Bryce, Arthur Logan Turner, Ralph Stockman and Robert Jardine.
In 1922 he was living at 1 Lynedoch Crescent in north-west Glasgow.
He died on 14 August 1928 whilst on holiday in Abersoch in North Wales

Family

His son William Smith Syme Jr followed his career fairly exactly and the two are often confused. William Jr won the Military Cross in the First World War.

Publications