John McVail

Dr John Christie McVail FRSE LLD (1849-1926) was a Scottish physician and public health expert. He helped to establish the National Health Insurance system in Britain.

Life

He was born on 22 October 1846 in Kilmarnock the second son of James McVail and his wife, Jean Christie. His older brother was David (later Sir David) McVail. He was educated at Kilmarnock Academy then studied Medicine first at Glasgow University then at St Andrews graduating MB Chb in 1873. He became a GP in Kilmarnock and gained his doctorate (MD) in 1875.[1]Inspired by Henry Littlejohn in Edinburgh he developed an interest in public health and the application of statistics to public health. In 1885 he gained a Diploma in Public Health from Cambridge University and succeeded Dr Borland as Medical Officer of Health for the Kilmarnock area also becoming a Physician at Kilmarnock Infirmary. In 1891 he left Kilmarnock to become MOH for Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire. From 1887 he was President of the Sanitary Association of Scotland.[2]

In 1890 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposers being Joseph Bell, Andrew Wilson, Andrew Douglas Maclagan, and John Brown Buist. He resigned from the Society in 1908.[3]In 1907 the British Medical Association awarded him the Jenner Medal for his work on smallpox.He retired to Golders Green in London in 1922 and then moved to Torquay on the south coast where he died on 29 July 1926.[4]

Family

In 1877 he married Jessie Schoolbred Rowat. They had two sons and two daughters.His son John Borland McVail married the daughter of his friend Dr John Glaister.

Publications
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References
  1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: John McVail
  2. British Medical Journal: obituaries 7 August 1926
  3. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  4. British MedicalJournal: obituaries 7 August 1926


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