William Scovell Savory

He was born in London, the son of William Henry Savory, and his second wife, Mary Webb. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital as a student in 1844, becoming M.R.C.S. in 1847, and F.R.C.S. in 1852. From 1849 to 1859, he was demonstrator of anatomy and operative surgery at St Bartholomew's, and for many years curator of the museum, where he devoted himself to pathological and physiological work.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Savory, Sir William Scovell|volume=24|page=253}} In June 1858, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his papers on "the structure and connections of the valves of the human heart – On the development of striated muscular fibre in Mammalia – Phil Trans 1855 [and] on the relative temperature of arterial and venous Blood".{{cite web | url=http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27savory%27%29|title = Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher = The Royal Society| accessdate = 11 October 2010}}

In 1859, he succeeded Sir James Paget as lecturer on general anatomy and physiology. In 1861, he became assistant surgeon, and in 1867 surgeon, holding the latter post till 1891; and from 1869 to 1889 he was lecturer on surgery. In the College of Surgeons he was a man of the greatest influence, and was president for four successive years, 1885–1888. As Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology (1859–1861), he lectured on General Physiology and the Physiology of Food. In 1884, he delivered the Bradshaw Lecture (on the Pathology of Cancer) and in 1887 the Hunterian oration to the Royal College of Physicians.

File:William Scovell Savory, by Walter William Ouless.jpg, 1893)]]

In 1879, at Cork, he had declared against Listerism at the meeting of the British Medical Association, the last public expression, it has been said, by a prominent surgeon against the now accepted method of modern surgery. In 1887, he became surgeon-extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and, in 1890 he was made a baronet. Savory, who was an able operator, but averse from exhibitions of brilliancy, was a powerful and authoritative man in his profession, his lucidity of expression being almost as valuable as his great knowledge of physiology and anatomy.

File:Grave of Sir William Savory in Highgate Cemetery.jpg]]

On 30 November 1854, he married Louisa Frances Borradaile (1821–1867).{{cite journal|title=Obituary. Sir William Scovell Savory, Bart., F.R.S.|journal=British Medical Journal|date=9 March 1895|pages=564–565|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293014241990;view=1up;seq=652}} They had an only son, Borradaile Savory. In 1884, he bought a country property called The Woodlands, Hollybush Hill, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire.Framewood Road Conservation Area Character Appraisal report (19 July 2011).South Bucks District Council

He died on the 4 March 1895, aged 68, in London and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.

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{{s-ttl|title=Baronet
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Category:1826 births

Category:1895 deaths

Category:19th-century British surgeons

Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

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Category:Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital

Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery