Black History Month

For Black History Month Louise Neilson, Access Officer, Lothian Health Services Archive, shares an introduction to Dr George Rice, a black American surgeon who graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1874, and later became a House Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), working under the pioneer of antiseptic treatment, Joseph Lister.

While we have records detailing Rice’s appointment at the Infirmary, we sadly don’t have records to show what daily life was like. We do know that Rice was the subject of a racist portrait by the poet William Henley (1848-1903) suggesting Rice's time at the hospital may have been difficult.

As one of Lister’s patients (1873-1876), Henley wrote 28 poems, a few of which were published in The Cornhill Magazine as ‘Hospital Outlines: Sketches and Portraits’. The poems are impressions of those around him; fellow patients, staff, and the general atmosphere of the hospital. In his poem, ‘The Student’, Henley insults Rice’s appearance, dismissing his skills as a doctor and his intelligence, and by doing so, he challenges Rice’s position at the Infirmary as a university-educated and promising young doctor.

This poem is missing from later editions of the poems perhaps because of this letter written by Lister to Henley in which he reprimands the poet for publishing ‘so severe a picture’.

You can read more about George Rice in Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA)’s blog, and find out about the RIE’s links to the Atlantic Slave Trade on the NHS Lothian website: 

Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA)’s blog : Dr George Rice (1848 – 1935) at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Atlantic Slavery and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Image: George Rice (middle) during his time as House Surgeon at the RIE. Image from 'The Student' Vol V, 1901. Reference: EUA IN20/PUB/1

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