John G. S. Coghill

John G. S. Coghill was born at Windsor in 1834, the son of John Coghill (1806–1882) and Alexandrina MacKay (d.1880).^[1] The family moved to Edinburgh in 1844 where his father ran a store at 10 Rose Street, with the family living over the shop. His father is also listed as a sergeant in the Royal Midlothian Yeomanry Cavalry.^[2]

John grew up in Edinburgh where he attended the Royal High School.^[3] Both of Coghill's parents were from Caithness but as John G. S. Coghill's father, John Coghill, served in the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards the family moved around.^[4] J G. S. Coghill attended the Medical School at the University of Edinburgh and in 1857 he was awarded his MD which is now publicly available on the University's website.^[5] In the middle of his studies the Crimean War broke out and he volunteered as a surgeon's mate in the Royal Navy, he sailed out on HMS Conflict, part of the Baltic fleet, mostly operating between Memel and Riga.^[3] Coghill was a decorated war hero, having seen some action in the Baltic sea he received: the Baltic medal 1854–55, (engraved John G.S.Coghill, H.M.S. "Conflict"); and a miniature Baltic Medal.^[6] On his return from the conflict he continued his studies and was academically successful, especially in anatomy, midwifery and medical jurisprudence, receiving various awards for his studies.^[6] He was able to secure an apprenticeship with Sir James Young Simpson, with whom he lived for two years, to further his studies in obstetrics, before moving to Glasgow in 1859.^[3]

In 1861, whilst living at 17 Newton Terrace^[7] in Glasgow John G. S. Coghill married Agnes Darling. The Coghills went on to have twelve children, seven of these children were born in China and sadly only four of their children survived infancy; one son and three daughters. Three of these surviving children also pursued a career in medicine:

• Mary Stuart Sinclair Coghill-Hawkes (1862– : Born in Shanghai in 1862, she survived the diseases which had affected her family.^[3] She gained entry to the London School of Medicine for Women and took the Triple Qualification (LRCPE, LRCSE, LRFPSG) in 1896. Four years later she graduated MD at Brussels and shortly afterwards married Dr Lewis Hawkes who had also trained at Edinburgh and had been a medical officer at RNHC Ventnor, where her father worked.^[3] She became registrar and anesthetist at the Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women and in 1904 she founded the Swedish Institute, in London.^[8]
• Agnes Irene Sinclair Coghill (1872–1904): Mary's younger sister was born in Thurso, Caithness. She attended the Medical College for Women at Minto House, Edinburgh where she did well, gaining a distinction in gynecology. She graduated MB CM in 1897. The following year she married Mr Percy Coghill of Liverpool.^[3]
• Harold Sinclair Coghill (1880–1919): the youngest son of the Coghills, was born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Following his father to Edinburgh University, he graduated MB ChB in 1905 and immediately showed an interest in going East, preparing himself well by taking the Certificate of the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1908 and the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at Cambridge in 1911. After serving as a senior demonstrator at the London School of Tropical Medicine he joined the West African Medical Service and was an assistant at the Medical Research Institute at Lagos, Nigeria. He was then sent to Sekondi in the Gold Coast as a member of the special commission investigating yellow fever and other non-malarial fevers. He returned to the UK in 1919 and died that year at Guildford at the early age of thirty-eight.^[9]

In 1869 the Coghills left China and returned to Edinburgh, potentially having been influenced by the death in infancy of five children and by Agnes Coghill's ill health.^[3]

In 1859 Coghill moved to Glasgow working at the University as a demonstrator in anatomy under Professor Allan Thomson. He lectured on his MD thesis subject and published his work in seven parts in The Lancet.

In 1861 he and his wife departed for China where he became municipal medical officer of Shanghai and consulting physician to the General Hospital there. The annual report of this hospital for 1864 records that ‘cholera raged during the hot season with a daily mortality of between 700 and 1,200'.^[3]

In 1865 and 1869 Coghill visited Japan not long after their isolationist foreign policy had ended.^[3]

In 1868, he undertook a journey to the Great Wall of China, a trip of considerable length and difficulty and which he did write about later: ‘I left Peking at noon of the 12 October 1868 by the Ta-ling Mun or north-west gate with a party of friends mounted on the excellent native ponies with three double mule carts containing our servants and baggage.’ After a three day journey he continues: ‘Thursday we were astir early anxious to gain a closer inspection of the Great Wall which we had had in sight most of the previous day . . . We then toiled up on the top of the wall to the highest mountain peak above the town. The view was superb and the noble wall with its frequent towers could be traced with the glass for miles following the highest ridge of the mountain range east and west.’ He comments particularly on ‘the beauty of its materials and workmanship and the extraordinary engineering feats overcome in its construction.^[3]

In 1869, on his return from China, Coghill was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. To the Proceedings of this Society he contributed two papers and to the Society itself donated items from his travels in the East, namely, a complete suit of Japanese armour, an iron bell from a pagoda near Peking and a brick from the Great Wall of China.^[3]