Sir James Turner
- Name : Turner
- Born : c. 1615
- Died : c. 1686
- Category : Music
- Finest Moment : None
Turner, and he had an ironic surname as you will see, was born the son of the minister of Borthwick and Dalkeith. In Germany he served in a Scottish contingent under Gustavus Adolphus, in the Thirty Years' War. It was there that he 'swallowed without chewing.. a very dangerous maxim, that [so] long as we serve our master honestlie, it is noe matter what master we serve'. Ouch! Guaranteed to dig one a troublesome hole that one.
So it was that back in Britain, while others were trying to work out their moral and ethical stances, Turner fought first for, then against, the Covenanting army in the 1640s, then for the Royalists in 1650-1. He then went into exile with Charles II. This did him no harm, as on the Restoration he was both knighted then given a command in south-west Scotland, hunting down the Covenanters. It was there that he was given the striking nickname of 'Bloody Bite-the-Sheep'.
In 1666, his oppressive behaviour was so bad that it caused the Pentland Rising. He was surprised and captured at Dumfries but escaped at Rullion Green. During a brief period of relative calm associated with the Indulgences (when there were a few conciliatory moves towards the more moderate Presbyterians, and also some moves towards isolating the 'phanaticks' amongst them), he was arraigned for his conduct and stripped of his commission.
This of course barely fazed old Sinclair, who went on to write Pallas Armata, a collection of military essays and confessional memoirs.
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Sir James Young Simpson / Medical Pioneers
- Name : Simpson
- Born : 1811
- Died : 1870
- Category : Medical Pioneers
- Finest Moment : Knocking himself out with chloroform
Another young entrant to Edinburgh University, aged 14, Simpson gained his medical degree in 1832, becoming Professor of Midwifery in 1835. At this time childbirth had to be endured without anaesthetic, and Simpson began to look for a suitable method of easing pain. In one famous experiment, using himself and several of his colleagues, he put everyone under the table using chloroform.
Finding a suitable anaesthetic was one thing, overcoming the prejudices of the day was another, and it says much for Simpson's social skills and courage that he persisted arguing the case for chloroform. It was often used as a drug, while many were unhappy with the thought of women being unconscious, even with a doctor present.
In 1847 Simpson was appointed as one Queen Victoria's Physicians in Scotland. This year also, he introduced chloroform as an anaesthetic. In America, the favourite anaesthetic was ether, introduced the year before by Morton, but it was more awkward to use.
The social breakthrough arrived in 1853, when Queen Victoria delivered her son Leopold under anaesthetic.
In 1866 Simpson was the first man to be made a baronet for services to medicine. There is a statue of him in Princes Street Garden. He died in Edinburgh, at 52 Queen Street, where there is an inscription.
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John Balliol / Kings and Queens
- Name : Balliol
- Born : 1249
- Died : 1313
- Category : Kings and Queens
- Finest Moment : Being crowned at Scone, St Andrew?s Day, 1292.
Born in 1249, one of three sons of John Balliol and Devorguilla, daughter of Alan, the last Celtic lord of Galloway (after the death of John Balliol senior, his widow completed his support of several Oxford students, their house being formally chartered as Balliol College in 1282). The Balliol family were originally from Bailleul (Somme) in Normandy. They presumably waxed their moustaches and had a liking for garlic, but this is sheer conjecture.
John Jnr. married Isabella, daughter of the Earl of Surrey. This was a canny move financially. Additionally, several elder brothers died (childless) before him, leaving him a very rich man indeed. Unfortunately money cannot buy one either brains or courage, features which are useful when dealing with a ruthless King Edward of England.
The Scottish throne was open season, due to the recent and premature death of Margaret of Norway. There were various 'Competitors' for the throne, including the Bruce family, and to help stabilise the country, Guardians had been set up. In 1291 Balliol claimed the throne, helped by the cunning Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham. Robert de Bruce of Annandale (grandfather of Robert the Bruce) had at least an equally good claim, and it looked as if civil war loomed. The Scots asked Edward to mount an enquiry. In doing this, they exhibited an unfortunate Scottish trait of overtrust. Naturally he used this for his own ends.
In a great court case, using a total of 104 auditors, the case was debated, coming down, as could be predicted, to a choice of two claimants to the throne, Robert the Competitor, and John Balliol. King Edward in private at first favoured Bruce, but the slimy Bishop of Durham had a word in his ear, reminding Edward that Bruce was such a noble man that were he to be King of Scotland then he would be a formidable enemy. As the Scots could not agree on the rules of inheritance, it fell to the auditors appointed by Edward. Surprise, surprise, they went along with Edward and the laws of England, and Balliol it was.
On 30th November, 1292, he was crowned at Scone; in December he was on his knees before Edward again, rendering homage to his 'superior lord.' His humiliation would not take long to complete, as within a few months Edward was busy breaking the Treaty of Birgham (whereby no Scottish lawsuit should be dealt with outside the Kingdom). In October 1293 Balliol's humiliation was complete, as Edward had him summoned south to another court case where he was treated miserably.
The other Scots, the real Scots, were becoming tired of this abuse of their legal ruler, and had by now resumed talking to their auld pals in France. This came to a head in 1295, when Edward demanded Scots troops to fight in France. The Scots persuaded Balliol to resist, and when Edward invaded Scotland, sacking poor old Berwick (redecoration was an art in that city), Balliol fled. He made a cringing appearance before Edward at Stracathro, Montrose in July 1296, where Edward publicly stripped off his royal insignia. This lead to his immortal nickname of Toom Tabard, 'empty coat'.
Slammed, inevitably, into the Tower of London, he was eventually released into Papal custody, before being released in 1299 and making his sad way back to the family home in Bailleul, Picardy, to wax his moustache, eat garlic, and think on his not so good old days back in Scotland. And there he died, blind and forgotten, in 1313.
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John Boyd Dunlop / Scientists and Inventors
- Name : Dunlop
- Born : 1840
- Died : 1921
- Category : Scientists and Inventors
- Finest Moment : Sorting his son's tricycle, 1887.
'The name Dunlop became synonymous for tyres, but he never made any money from them'
Dunlop was born in Dreghorn, Ayrshire. He was a veterinary surgeon who in 1887 devised a rubber tyre for his son's tricycle. Unfortunately for his bank balance however, the rubber pneumatic tyre had been invented already, some 43 years' earlier in fact, by Robert Thomson. He sold his patent rights early on and did not capitalise on either his name or the tyre. Perhaps he had no wish to.
He died in Dublin at the good age of 81.
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