With a number of Irish Olympic medals in the bag from Rio 2016 and (fingers crossed) more medals to be brought home by those competing in the Paralympics , we thought it was time to look at some medals housed in the RCSI Heritage Collections . Sir William Thomson (1843-1909) Recently the College acquired a set of four medals belonging to Sir William Thomson PRCSI 1896. Thomson was born in Downpatrick, Co. Down on 29th June 1843. He undertook his medical education in Queen's College, Galway and Queen's University, Belfast receiving his M.D. and M.Ch in 1872. By 1873 he was Visiting Surgeon to the Richmond Hospital and Lecturer in Anatomy in the Carmichael School of Medicine. Thomson became a Fellow of RCSI in 1874 being unanimously elected as President two years later. Further distinctions rapidly followed; Surgeon to the Lord Lieutenant, Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria and Honorary Surgeon to King Edward VII. Thomson was Chief Surgeon to the Irish Hospital in...