RCSI Heritage Collections

The Robert Smith that springs to a lot of people's minds when the words 'The Cure' are mentioned is probably this chap.... Being the blog of the RCSI Heritage Collections you can imagine that the lead singer of the 1980s gothic rock band is not who pops into our minds. Instead the man being referred to here is Robert William Smith, FRCSI. A surgeon so revered that his obituary from The Lancet on 8 November 1873 begins with the sentence 'Not Dublin only, but every medical school throughout the country has sustained a severe loss by the death of this able and highly accomplished pathologist'.   Robert William Smith was born in Dublin on 12 October 1807. His father died when Smith is still quite young but his mother, Isabella, went to great lengths to ensure her son's education. Smith began his medical studies in Trinity College Dublin graduating with a B.A in 1828 and an M.A in 1832. He continued his studies by being apprenticed to Richard Carmichael ...

This being the day of Samhain, when the doorways to the Otherworld open allowing spirits and the dead to come back to our world for one night, I thought a ghost story would be most appropriate. Dr. Richard Carmichael was born on 6th February 1776 in Bishop Street in Dublin. He began his studies in the RCSI under the indenture of Robert Moore Peile in 1794. On the 15th September 1795 at the tender age of 20 he passed the College examinations qualifying him to act as a surgeon's mate. In May 1803 he became a Licentiate of the College and was elected a member that November. Carmichael became President of the College for the first time in 1813 at the age of 34. Dr. Richard Carmichael (1776-1849) Carmichael went on to have an eminent career being appointed to such positions as Surgeon to St. George's Hospital and Dispensary in 1803; Surgeon to the House of Industry Hospitals in 1816; President of the RCSI for a second time in 1826; running his own very successful practice...