Talk by David Rennie: Sir Alexander Ogston - Surgeon, Soldier and Scholar

Surgeon, Soldier, and Scholar: Sir Alexander Ogston, Bacteriologist & Royal Army Medical Corps Co-Founder

A talk by David Rennie as part of the Special Collections exhibition, "Medicine in Wartime" https://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/events/12294/

Aberdeen-born Sir Alexander Ogston, KCVO (1844-1929), is remembered for his discovery of Staphylococcus aureus, better known today as MRSA or hospital “superbug”. Ogston was also a pioneer of military medicine, co-founding the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1898, and serving as a surgeon in the Mahdist War, Boer War, and World War I. Ogston’s career brought him into contact with Queen Victoria, Joseph Lister, and Tsar Nicholas II, and his distinction was reflected in his role as surgeon to the Royal Family and President of the British Medical Association (1914).

About the Speaker

David Rennie completed a PhD in World War I literature at Aberdeen University in 2017. He is editing Scattered Recollections: The Autobiography of Sir Alexander Ogston for Aberdeen University Press. His essays on World War I writing have been accepted by The Hemingway Review, The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, and The Cambridge History of American Literature and Culture in the Great War. He is currently completing a monograph on U.S. World War I literature.

This talk is part of a series accompanying the exhibition "Medicine in Wartime" at the Sir Duncan Rice Library, which includes a selection of Alexander Ogston's journals, photographs and medals from the University of Aberdeen's Museums & Special Collections.

Talk attendees will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition afterwards. https://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/events/12294/