William Ivison Macadam

Professor W. Ivison Macadam was ahead of his time in the teaching of women and encouraging them to participate in courses and degrees, particularly at Surgeons Hall and the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, in spite of women being banned from attendance at his or other's university lectures and from taking academic degrees at most universities and colleges in Great Britain (most professors and all-male student classes objected to their participation in the academic professions at the time).

Edinburgh with its famous Medical School became a centre of controversy over medical education for women and Macadam championed the women's cause. At the time women were not admitted to either theoretical or practical classes at Edinburgh University although they could sit for examinations. To overcome these difficulties the pioneer of medical education for women Sophia Jex-Blake established the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in Surgeons' Square in 1886. Professor Macadam took over the teaching of chemistry there before starting his own classes for women at Surgeons Hall in 1887. The first set of women medical students he taught in this pioneering role included a number going on to be medical missionaries. He also taught chemistry at the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women which had been established in Chambers Street by John Inglis and his daughter Elsie Inglis. These classes were in addition to his large classes of male medical and dental students at Surgeons Hall for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and for Edinburgh University. Later he appointed his daughter Elison Ann Macadam, who he had taught, to be an assistant to him in Surgeons Hall so there was a woman assistant and not only his male assistants to make his classes seem more welcoming to women and also show that it was not just men who were qualified for the work (Elison Macadam, after his death, went on to become the first woman to graduate from King's College, London).[9]

He also became Professor of Chemistry at the New Veterinary College. A woman student in due course presented herself. The college authorities were worried about permitting women to take classes but he helped persuade them that she should.[10] This first woman he encouraged and taught there was Aleen Cust, who became the first woman veterinary surgeon in Great Britain[11](who went on to practice in Ireland), and was his student[12] at the New Veterinary College.[13] She completed her veterinary studies in 1897, winning the Gold medal for Zoology. However, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London had disagreed in their allowing women admission to the college and would not agree to a woman taking the final examination. They consequently refused to admit and licence her. This was challenged in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, seeking to overturn the decision of the RCVS examination committee, but the court declined to rule on the basis that the RCVS was not domiciled in Scotland.

Nevertheless, with recommendations from the New Veterinary College faculty she joined a new practice in Ireland, which after the death of the principal she assumed responsibility for. After her voluntary service on the front with the British armed forces in the First World War attending wounded, maimed and lame war horses and the enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 she was finally presented with her diploma by the President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London on 21 December 1922 thus officially becoming the first woman Veterinary Surgeon in Great Britain in spite of over twenty years of having already practiced.

Professor Macadam also encouraged and initially taught his own daughter Elison Ann Macadam (1862-1965), later FIC, at Surgeons Hall and she became one of his student Assistants there. She later became the first woman to graduate in Chemistry at King’s College London,[14] in spite of their rule against women.[15] After her graduation Elison worked in the chemical laboratory as Assistant to Professor A. K. Huntington, Professor of Metallurgy at King's.[16](Later her daughter Rosalind Desch (1913–1994) carried on this tradition of educating women and went on to build The Study School into a leading all-girls school in Wimbledon, London and it was through her that many thousands of women received an important early education. Before her death, she saw that its future was protected by making it over into a charitable education foundation so that the school would continue).

His funeral was reported to have been one of the largest seen in Edinburgh at the time with over 1000 troops, many carriages and tens of thousands of people turning out. The papers covered the funeral extensively.

The Scotsman reported The Late Colonel Ivison Macadam: Imposing Public Funeral "With military honours befitting his rank … the funeral was an extraordinary demonstration of public sympathy … From the house the coffin was carried by eight sergeants to a gun carriage provided by the Edinburgh City Artillery and drawn by six horses with riders. On the coffin was placed the deceased hat and sword. It was a four-mile procession from his house at Lady Road to Portobello Cemetery "to the solemn strains of the Dead March from "Saul" heard swelling in the distance… as the escort … proceeded in slow step..."[37]

The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch reported Edinburgh Tragedy: Funeral of Colonel Macadam: Thousands of Spectators. "…the public turn[ed] out in such numbers as they did today to witness the last tribute of respect … of Lieutenant-Colonel Macadam. The crowd could be counted not by the thousands but by the tens of thousands. They poured down Newington Road and Old Dalkeith Road in a long continuous stream one and a half hours before the time fixed for the funeral [2pm], some on foot, some in cabs and some in cable cars. Such a throng … that the police on the scene found considerable difficulty in coping with it.

The Royal Scots monument to Colonel Macadam was unveiled at Dalmeny Street Drill Hall, Leith on 21 December 1903. On its demolition moved to present site at Hepburn House Army Reserve Centre, 89 East Claremont Street, Edinburgh. (See Memorials section)

They had to clear the one end of Lady Road entirely … Marching in came a big representation of … the colonel’s own regiment … carrying their rifles reversed … the coffin saluted everywhere … by the crowds waiting for its passing. Behind the gun carriage, which was drawn by six horses, was led the officer’s charger, which he rode only a few days ago at the inspection in Holyrood Park, while behind it again came several mourning coaches … Thousands of people—men women and children, many in working dress, some in holiday attire, a considerable number in mourning, followed the procession all the way to the Portobello Cemetery. Through the entire [four mile] route, crowds by the wayside allowed the cortege to pass and then fell in and swelled the procession."

The Coronation of Edward VII, postponed owing to the king's emergency appendicitis, meant the coronation decorations were up along most of the funeral route: “All sort and conditions of people were there and it seemed the sad nature of the ceremony fell in with their mood on a day when the Coronation festivities and the intercessory services [for the king] were strangely intermingled." When the procession had traversed the four-mile route and reached the cemetery "… the Volunteers lined the walks, and the general public crowded every other inch of space"[38]

The Scotsman concluded, “Amid the solemn silence the clergyman [finished]. Then in the stillness, the voice of Colonel Sir John Clarke rang out – “Present arms; the escort will fire three volleys; ready.” For a second there was the irregular clicking of rifles being loaded, and then almost simultaneously with the word “Fire” rang out the report of 500 rifles, followed by a brief wail from the pipes. Two more volleys were fired, and the military honours concluded with … The Last Post.” ...”[39]

Macadam was buried with full military honours beside his late father and other family in Portobello Cemetery. A very large crowd watched this spectacle. The grave stands in the south-east section of the original cemetery near the south end of the eastmost path.

The subsequent trial of the assailant on 17 and 18 September 1902 was covered by The Scotsman at length over the two days of the trial. M’Clinton was charged with double murder. He had a long service (21 years) in the Army Volunteers and was “a most efficient and faithful servant.” He was a good marksman and it was not thought unusual for an Army Volunteer to turn up at Surgeons Hall with his rifle and military cartridge bag before the shooting. (His wife when he returned home to fetch them thought he was going for target practice).

However, his wife, friends and close army colleagues testified he had been having delusional fears for some time, imagining people following him who were out to get him, he believed his friends and neighbours across the street were watching or following him; that people were plotting against him. He thought his wife was telling people about him. He thought two detectives were shadowing him and planning to trap him. When visited by friends "he would watch and nobody knew when to speak to him. He muttered and pulled his moustache". He had had these delusions for variously over a year to two years and they grew more intense. A number of friends had suggested that medical help was needed but it was deferred.

While he had been charged with double murder, which was then a capital offence, his Defence pleaded "Not Guilty as a result of Insanity" (These symptoms are what today would likely be readily recognised and diagnosed as a not uncommon form of mental illness.)

The judge in his Charge to the Jury had instructed them "Accused persons were always presumed to be sane until the opposite was proved. Accordingly it was for the defence to establish that the prisoner was suffering, not only from insanity, but from insanity of such a kind and quality that he could not be held morally responsible for his acts, before the defence in the present case could succeed."[40]

There was no apparent motive for murder and while there had been overwhelming testimony of a disturbed mind, the jury obviously were not convinced that the defence had established the last form of insanity. So the jury convicted him of the other verdict available to them of Culpable Homicide and life in prison.

He married Sarah Maconochie Macdonald, 28 March 1879. She was born on 10 July 1855 at Stewart Hall, near Rothesay, Bute. She died 4 April 1941 in Edinburgh.[41]

She was the daughter of John Barkly Macdonald, of Stewart Hall, Bute where he farmed and was an owner of properties on the Island of Grenada, West Indies.[42] He was born in Glasgow 22 August 1808 and died 26 December 1855,[43] a few months after his daughter Sarah was born. After his return to Scotland from Grenada he had married for a second time on 5 July 1844[44] in Rothesay, Mary McConechy—aged 33 who had been born at Windy Hall, Bute. His parents were John and Sarah Macdonald of Trinidad and Grenada who were living at their Claremont Square, London house at the time of his father's death.[45]

William Macadam and his family first lived at 6 Brighton Crescent, Portobello and later at “Slioch” on Lady Road in the Craigmillar Park area on the south side of Edinburgh.[46][47][48]

He was a keen fly fisherman, shot and outdoorsman.[49]

W. Ivison and Sarah had six children (one dying in infancy):

Mary Janetta Macadam, known as Myra (Born: 3 February 1880 at Stanley Road, Portobello. Died 5 April 1948 and buried at Kirkby Cemetery Frinton, Essex).[50]

Elison Ann Macadam (Born, 6 May 1882 at 6 Brighton Crescent, Portobello. Died in 1965 at Wimbledon, London. Married January 1909 Dr. Cecil Desch (1874–1958)[51]

Stevenson Macadam (Born 24 April 1884 at 6 Brighton Crescent, Portobello. Died an infant 22 November 1884 at Portobello).

John Barkly Macadam, known as Barkly, (Born 15 November 1885 at 6 Brighton Crescent, Portobello. Died 10 April 1968 at Guildford, Surrey). Married on 3 October 1912 Jane (Janie) Butler Babbage (Born 25 June 1888 at Fremington, Devon. Died 5 April 1985 at Crowthorne, Berkshire).[52]

Sarah Constance Macadam (Born 29 January 1889 at 6 East Brighton Crescent, Portobello. Died 1964 at The Chantry Ely. Married Robert Wheatley (1888–1968) on 27 January 1917 at St John’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.[53]

Ivison Stevenson Macadam (Born 18 July 1894 at Slioch, Lady Road, Edinburgh. Died 22 December 1974 at 16 Upper Belgrave Street, Westminster, London). Married 1 January 1934 Caroline Ladd Corbett at 01600 SW Greenwood Road, Dunthorpe, Multnomah Co., Portland, Oregon US (Born 20 September 1910 at Portland, Oregon US. Died on 28 August 1989 in East Runton, Norfolk).[54][55][56]

William Ivison Macadam by William Grant Stevenson

The grave of William Ivison Macadam, Portobello Cemetery, Edinburgh

A mural monument with a bronze medallion portrait of Colonel Macadam in semi-relief with inscription plate was unveiled at the Royal Scots Dalmeny Street Drill Hall, Leith at the entrance to the building by Sir John Macdonald, Lord Kingsburgh on 21 December 1903.[57] Among those present at the ceremony were Sir Charles Tucker, K.C.B., Commanding the Forces in Scotland and numerous army officers and men as well as Mr. Barkly Macadam, the eldest son of the deceased.[58] The memorial was designed by W. Grant Stevenson RSA (illustrated above opposite Funeral).[59]

Sir John Macdonald said in his address that he felt it a hard task to speak. Colonel Macadam was one of his oldest friends and there was no man he remembered with greater regard. During the latter years of his life he was in closer association with him in practical work than any other man … he should never forget the energy and zeal he displayed and the extraordinary work he went through … if all the young recruits and all associated with the battalion in future looked on that monument with the earnest desire that they might do their duty as Volunteers with the same energy and zeal and ability … the corps would be sure to thrive and be an example to all Volunteer corps in the kingdom …Sir John then unveiled the monument, amid applause and handed it over to Colonel Salvesen, representing the battalion.[60] (This Memorial to Colonel Macadam was moved to Hepburn House Army Reserve Centre, 89 East Claremont Street, Edinburgh (New Town)—formerly The Royal Scots TA HQ, East Claremont St—when Dalmeny Street Drill Hall was closed).[61]

On the following day, 22 December 1903, a monument in Portobello Cemetery was unveiled by Sir John Halliday, M.D., vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons, at the Colonel’s grave. This with a bronze likeness of Colonel Macadam is in grey stone and was also designed by the colonel's friend W. Grant Stevenson RSA[62]

A third memorial was a fund for an annual prize to be given at Surgeons Hall.

These three memorials were provided in Colonel Macadam’s memory through a subscription.[63]

W. Ivison Macadam was survived by his widow, Sarah (aged 46) and the five children known as Myra (aged 22), Elison (20) Barkly (15), Constance (13) and Ivison (7).