Medical Edinburgh and Empire

A lecture exploring Edinburgh's medical communities and colonial legacies.

Scotland was disproportionately involved in the expansion, enforcement and administration of the British Empire. Scottish institutions and individuals profited from imperial exploits, gaining wealth and opportunity.

When the Edinburgh Medical School was established 1726, it became the Empire’s main educator for colonial medical personnel. On one hand, the connection provided an opportunity for students from countries living under imperial rule to train in Edinburgh. On the other, large numbers of graduates used their medical training to enforced imperial health policies and to maintain the health and economic viability of an enslaved workforce.

Join us at the Physicians’ Gallery as our three speakers – Simon Buck, Roger Jeffery, and Theeba Krishnamoorthy – present on three aspects of Edinburgh, medicine and colonial legacies.

Chaired by Professor Catherine Labinjoh

Dr Simon Buck

Dr Simon Buck is an historian of slavery and medicine in Scotland and the Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has worked with NHS Lothian, the University of Edinburgh, and the Scottish Episcopal Church on major public history projects concerning Scotland’s legacies of slavery and empire. He has published widely, including recent articles in Social History of Medicine and the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and is co-editor of a fo