James Haig Ferguson

Dr James Haig Ferguson, a son of the manse, was born in 1862. His father was the parish minister of Fossoway near Kinross and, through his mother, he was distantly related to Field Marshal Earl Haig, the Commander in Chief of the British Armies on the Western Front during the First World War. After attending the now defunct Collegiate School in Edinburgh, he entered the Medical Faculty of Edinburgh University from whence he graduated MB CM in 1884. Throughout his time as a student, he was an enthusiastic member of the Royal Medical Society and in his graduation year he became one of its junior Presidents.

After 18 months in resident hospital posts he became private assistant to Dr John Halliday Croom (q.v.) who was then establishing his illustrious reputation in obstetrics and gynaecology and it was this association which determined Haig Ferguson’s future career. Dr Croom had a large general practice which he was gradually relinquishing in order to devote himself entirely to his chosen specialty and in due course his assistant fell heir to this.

In 1887 Haig Ferguson became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (MRCPEd) and two years later he was elected a Fellow (FRCPEd). In 1890 he followed this by gaining from the University the degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD) with honours.

For 20 years Haig Ferguson conducted a large general practice in which he built up an ever increasing reputation for obstetrical expertise and during this period he gradually made the transition from general practitioner to specialist and consultant - a change almost unthinkable nowadays but which, at that time, was not excessively rare. In 1898 he was appointed gynaecologist to Leith Hospital and assistant physician to the Royal Maternity Hospital one year later. He began to appreciate that gynaecology was becoming increasingly surgical in its practice and in order to establish his surgical credentials he obtained the Fellowship of the College by examination in 1902 at 40 years of age.

In 1906 Haig Ferguson was appointed assistant gynaecologist to the Royal Infirmary and being now totally committed to a specialist career, he gave up his general practice. During the 1890s and the early years of the 20th century, he had been responsible for the teaching of obstetrics and gynaecology in the extramural School of Medicine of the Edinburgh Royal Colleges but, because of his greatly increased clinical responsibilities, he also gave this up. Nevertheless, he retained a keen interest in the extramural School and at the time of his death, he was Chairman of its Board of Governors and represented the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on the Scottish Triple Qualifications Committee of Management.

Haig Ferguson did not succeed to charge of wards in the Royal Infirmary until 1919 but within a few years of being appointed assistant gynaecologist he had become a very well known figure in his specialty with a large and expanding private practice extending far outwith the confines of Edinburgh. The demands of this were never allowed to curtail his involvement in a wide variety of educational and philanthropic activities. He served on the governing bodies of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Donaldson’ Hospital, Merchiston Castle School and the Queen’s Institute of District Nursing, but his most important public service was as a member of the Central Midwives Board for Scotland and as its chairman for 13 years up to the time of his death. He devoted much of his time to the work of the Board and guided its affairs with great wisdom. He vigorously promoted the Board’s monumental survey of maternal mortality and morbidity in Scotland and was actively engaged in this work when stricken by his last illness. He also did a vast amount of work unobtrusively on behalf of the Lauriston Home for Unmarried Mothers and it would be fair to regard him as the mainspring of the activities that ensured its maintenance.

Haig Ferguson was, for 50 years, a member of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society and the Society’s Transactions contain many interesting papers which he presented at its meetings; his election as President of the Society for two separate terms of office gave him great pride and pleasure.

After ten years service on the College Council he was elected President in 1929 for what was then the statutory term of two years and in that same year he retired from his charge in the Royal Infirmary. He welcomed the establishment of the British College (later the Royal College) of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was proud to become one of its foundation Fellows.

He was not a great public speaker and he derived little or no satisfaction from delivering formal systematic lectures, but as a clinical teacher of small groups of students at the bedside or in the outpatient clinic, he had few equals and no superiors; nor was he a prolific writer, but he made major contributions to the early editions of the famous “Combined Textbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology”. He was also co-author of the “Handbook of Obstetric Nursing” which enjoyed wide popularity.

As a gynaecological surgeon, his calm, deliberate, unspectacular technique achieved consistently good results but it was as a supreme master of the art of obstetrics that he made his reputation and 80 years after his death he is remembered by modified obstetric forceps which are extensively used and which bear his name.

Haig Ferguson’s multifarious commitments left him little time for recreation but he greatly enjoyed fishing and climbing. He was a member of the Monarch’s Bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, and on one occasion won the King’s Prize for Archery.

At the time of his retirement his academic and professional distinction were recognised by the Royal Society of Edinburgh which elected him to its Fellowship (FRSEd) and by Edinburgh University which conferred upon him the Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD).

Haig Ferguson had a most gracious personality in which energy and determination combined with courtesy, sincerity, generosity of spirit and deep compassion to make a profound impression on all with whom he came in contact.

“His patients loved him and for them his mere presence at the bedside was a source of confidence and courage.” So wrote his colleague and obituarist, Professor R W Johnstone(q.v.) and an obstetrician could surely have no finer epitaph.