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Joseph Bell's RCSEd Gown

This month we are looking at objects in the collection associated with Joseph Bell, a fellow of the College more commonly known as the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. These particular robes belonged to Joseph Bell, the last of the Bell medical dynasty which started with Benjamin Bell in 1771. Joseph Bell was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University where he graduated MD in 1859. He was the first surgeon to give systematic instruction to nurses, the first surgeon to the newly created Department of Surgery in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1887 and was editor of the Edinburgh Medical Journal from 1873 to 1896. He was the College’s Honorary Secretary and Treasurer for eleven years until 1887, when he became President.