George Murray Humphry

Sir George Murray Humphry, (18 July 1820 – 24 September 1896) was an English professor of physiology and anatomy at the University of Cambridge, surgeon, gerontologist and medical writer.

Life

He was born at Sudbury in Suffolk on 18 July 1820, the third son of William Wood Humphry, a barrister. He was educated at the grammar schools of Sudbury and Dedham, and in 1836 he was apprenticed to John Green Crosse, surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. In 1839 he left Norwich and entered as a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he came under the influence of Peter Mere Latham, William Lawrence, and James Paget. He passed the first M.B. examination at the London University in 1840, obtaining the gold medal in anatomy and physiology; but did not present himself for the final examination.

He was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 19 November 1841, and on 12 May 1842 he became a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. In the same year three of the surgeons at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, resigned their posts, and on 31 October 1842 Humphry was placed third out of six candidates in a contested election for the vacant posts. This appointment made him the youngest hospital surgeon in England.

He began to give clinical lectures and systematic teaching in surgery. In 1847 he was invited to act as deputy to the professor of anatomy, and he gave the lectures and demonstrations on human anatomy from 1847 to 1866. He entered himself a fellow-commoner at Downing College, Cambridge in 1847, graduating M.B. in 1852 and M.D. in 1859. After the retirement of William Clark, professor of human and comparative anatomy, in 1866, the duties of the chair were recast, and Humphry was elected professor of human anatomy in the university. He held this office until 1883, when he resigned it for the newly founded but unpaid professorship of surgery.