Thomas Keith

Who was Thomas Keith?

Thomas Keith MD, LL.D., FRCS, was a Victorian surgeon and amateur photographer from Scotland. He was one of seven sons of Rev. Dr. Alexander Keith, one of the ministers who broke away to form the Free Church of Scotland; his mother, Jane Blaikie, was the sister of Sir Thomas Blaikie, the Scottish magistrate. Three of Thomas Keith's brothers entered the medical profession.

Thomas Keith was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, then studied Art at Marischal College and in 1845 became a medical apprentice - the last in Edinburgh - to Sir James Young Simpson. Keith produced innovations in both surgery and photography. He qualified in surgery at the University of Edinburgh after which he moved to Turin as House Surgeon to Sir William Abercromby in the British Embassy, returning to Edinburgh in 1851.

Thomas shared a practice in Great Stuart Street with his brother George Skene Keith - both were members of Sir James Young Simpson’s team that pioneered the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic. George was also a founding member of the Photographic Society of Scotland. Their surgery flourished and Keith became a prominent gynaecologist and a specialist in ovarian and uterine disorders. Thomas became a close friend of Joseph Lister and was one of the first surgeons to introduce Lister's antiseptic procedures in his surgery.