Physician to the King

Last updated January 02, 2024

Physician to the King (or Queen, as appropriate) is a title (as postnominals, KHP, QHP) held by physicians of the Medical Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Part of the Royal Household, the Medical Household includes physicians, who treat general conditions, and extra physicians, specialists who are brought in as required.

Postholders

Royal households before 1901

Balthasar Guersye (died 1557), Physician to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon ^[1]
Matthias de Lobel, Physician to King James I ^[2]
Martin Schöner (died 1611), Physician to Anne of Denmark.^[3]
Sir Richard Croft, Physician to King George III, King George IV and Princess Charlotte Augusta.
Sir Andrew Halliday, Physician to King William IV ^[4] and to Queen Victoria ^[5]
Dr Cornwallis Hewett, Physician Extraordinary to William IV ^[6]
Dr John Forrest (1804-1865), Honorary Physician to Queen Victoria ^[7]
Sir William Henry Broadbent, Bt., KCVO, MD, Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria (1896–1901)^[8]
Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet, FRCS (1820–1904), Physician to Queen Victoria^[9]
Sir Thomas Grainger Stewart, FRSE, FRCPE (1837–1900), Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen in Scotland from 1882^[10]
George Steward Beatson (–1874) Honorary Physician to the Queen
Sir Alexander Nisbet (d. 1874), Honorary Physician to the Queen^[11]
John Davidson, appointed Honorary Physician to the Queen in 1874^[11]

Royal Household of King Edward VII

Physician-in-Ordinary to His Majesty

Sir William Henry Broadbent, Bt., KCVO, MD 29 March 1901 – 1907^[12]
Sir James Reid, Bt., GCVO, KCB, MD 29 March 1901 – 6 May 1910^[12]
Sir Francis Laking, Bt., GCVO, KCB, MD 29 March 1901 – 6 May 1910^[12]

Physicians Extraordinary to His Majesty

Surgeon-General Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bt., KCSI, MD 29 March 1901–?^[12]
Sir Richard Douglas Powell, Bt., KCVO, MD 29 March 1901–?^[12]
Sir Edward Henry Sieveking, MD 29 March 1901 – 1904^[12]
Sir Felix Semon, MD 29 March 1901–?^[12]
John Lowe, MD 29 March 1901 – 1904^[12]

Honorary Physicians-in-Ordinary to His Majesty in Scotland

Sir William Tennant Gairdner, KCB, MD 29 March 1901–?^[12]
George William Balfour, MD 29 March 1901 – 1903^[12]

Honorary Physicians-in-Ordinary to His Majesty in Ireland

Sir John Thomas Banks, KCB, MD 29 March 1901–?^[12]
William Moore, MD 29 March 1901–?^[12]

Royal Households 1910–1973

Bertrand Edward Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn, GCVO KCB KCMG PC FRCP (1864–1945), Physician to King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI .
Sir Thomas Peel Dunhill, GCVO CMG FRCP (1876–1957), Extra Physician to King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
Thomas Horder, 1st Baron Horder, GCVO (1871–1955), Extra Physician to King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir John Weir GCVO & Chain CMG MD (1879–1971), Physician to King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir Arnold Stott KBE FRCP (1885–1958), Extra Physician to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.
Sir Edward Mellanby (1884-1955), Honorary Physician to King George VI^[13]
Andrew Best Semple (1963–1965), Honorary Physician to Queen Elizabeth II^[14]
Air Marshal Sir Sidney Richard Carlyle Nelson (1961-1967), Honorary Physician to Queen Elizabeth II.^[15]
Air Vice-Marshal Frederick Charles Hurrell CB, OBE, Honorary Physician to Queen Elizabeth II.^[16]
Professor Kenneth Gordon Lowe CVO FRCP MD, Queen's Physician in Scotland.^[17]

Royal Household post-1973

see Heads of the Medical Household.

Related Research Articles

The Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King/Queen is responsible for the financial management of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The officeholder is assisted by the Deputy Treasurer to the King/Queen for the management of the Sovereign Grant, currently Sally O'Neill.

The Master of the Household is the operational head of the "below stairs" elements of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. The role has charge of the domestic staff, from the Royal Kitchens, the pages and footmen, to the housekeeper and their staff.

The Medical Household is the medical part of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

The Serjeant Surgeon is the senior surgeon in the Medical Household of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The origin of the post dates back to 1253. Early serjeant surgeons were military surgeons who followed their king into battle.

The Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) was instituted in 1864 as a memorial to Prince Albert, who had been President of the Society for 18 years. It was first awarded in 1864 for "distinguished merit in promoting Arts, Manufactures and Commerce". In presenting the Medal, the Society now looks to acknowledge individuals, organizations and groups that lead progress and create positive change within contemporary society in areas that are linked closely to the Society's broad agenda.

Sir William Henry Broadbent, 1st Baronet was an English neurologist who was a leading British authority in the field of cardiology and neurology. He also performed research involving diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer. In 1881 he was elected President of the London Medical Society and in 1887 President of the Clinical Society of London. Broadbent was a Physician-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria and Physician-in-Ordinary to King Edward VII and the Prince of Wales.

Sir Francis Henry Laking, 1st Baronet, was an English physician who was Surgeon-Apothecary in Ordinary to Queen Victoria, and Physician-in-Ordinary to King Edward VII and King George V.

Sir William Tennant Gairdner was a Scottish Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow.

The 1937 Coronation Honours were awarded in honour of the coronation of George VI.

The Coronation Honours 1911 for the British Empire were announced on 19 June 1911, to celebrate the Coronation of George V which was held on 22 June 1911.

Sir James Reid, 1st Baronet, was a British doctor who served as physician-in-ordinary to three British monarchs, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V.

The Royal Households of the United Kingdom consists of royal officials and the supporting staff of the British Royal Family, as well as the Royal Household which supports the Sovereign. Each member of the Royal Family who undertakes public duties has his own separate Household.

The 1902 Birthday Honours were announced on 10 November 1902, to celebrate the birthday of Edward VII the previous day. The list included appointments to various orders and honours of the United Kingdom and the British Empire.

The 1935 Birthday Honours for the British Empire were announced on 3 June 1935 to celebrate the Birthday and Silver Jubilee of King George V.

The 1909 Birthday Honours for the British Empire were announced on 28 June, to celebrate the birthday of Edward VII.

The 1905 Birthday Honours for the British Empire were announced on 30 June, to celebrate the birthday of Edward VII on 9 November.

The 1902 Coronation Honours were announced on 26 June 1902, the date originally set for the coronation of King Edward VII. The coronation was postponed because the King had been taken ill two days before, but he ordered that the honours list should be published on that day anyway.

The King's Birthday Honours 1929 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King. They were published on 3 June 1929.

The Royal Households of the United Kingdom consist of royal officials and the supporting staff of the British royal family, as well as the Royal Household which supports the Sovereign. Each member of the Royal Family who undertakes public duties has their own separate household.

References

↑ "GUERSIE, Balthasar | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
↑ Schaap, E.B. (1994). Bloemen op tegels in de Gouden Eeuw: van prent tot tegel (in Dutch). Becht. p. 21. ISBN 978-90-230-0858-3 . Retrieved 1 May 2019.
↑ Raymond Lamont Brown, Royal Poxes and Potions: The Lives of Court Physicians, Surgeons and Apothecaries (Sutton, 2001), p. 76.
↑ Cook, GC (August 2004). "Andrew Halliday, Kt FRCPE (1781–1839): service in the Napoleonic Wars and West Indies, and first physician to the Seamen's Hospital Society". Journal of Medical Biography. London: Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd. 12 (3): 125–6. doi: 10.1177/096777200401200302 . ISSN 0967-7720. PMID 15257343. S2CID 29214979.
↑ Kahn, Edgar Myron (June 1940). "Cable Car Inventor – Andrew Hallidie – 1873". San Francisco: California Historical Society Quarterly. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 8 May 2010.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
↑ Rolleston, Humphry, Sir (1932). The Cambridge Medical School: A Biographical History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 205–07. Retrieved 7 August 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Edinburgh Gazette (6937). Edinburgh: The Stationery Office. p. 1143. OCLC 500343919 Edinburgh Gazette. Retrieved 23 August 2023
↑ "Munks Roll Details for William Henry (Sir) Broadbent". Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
↑ Imber, J.B. (2008). Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine. Princeton University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-691-13574-8 . Retrieved 1 May 2019.
↑ Coyer, M. (2016). Literature and Medicine in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 1817–1869. Edinburgh Critical Studies in Romanticism. Edinburgh University Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-1-4744-0562-1 . Retrieved 1 May 2019.
1 2 "Naval Medical Appointments". British Medical Journal. 25 July 1874. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "No. 27300". The London Gazette . 29 March 1901. p. 2194.
↑ "No. 34463". The London Gazette . 14 December 1937.
↑ "Andrew Semple obituary". The Guardian. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
↑ CB Order of the Bath Retrieved 29 March 2023
↑ Obituary for Air Vice-Marshal Freddie Hurrell – The Telegraph – 15 October 2008
↑ "Obituary: Professor Kenneth Lowe". The Scotsman. 22 August 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2019.