William Malachy Burke

Who was William Malachy Burke?

William Malachy Burke was an Irish physician and Registrar General.

Burke was born in Ballyduggan, near Loughrea, County Galway, the third son of William Malachy Burke a barrister, and Anna Maria, only daughter of John Blake of Neirfield. Both the Blake's and the Burke's were old Galway families, the Burke's been descended from Richard Mór de Burgh, 1st Baron of Connaught and the Blake's one of the Tribes of Galway.

After receiving his medical education at St. George's Hospital, London, in 1842, he passed at the London College of Surgeons. He became a Licenciate in Ireland in June 1847, and on 19 October 1863, a Fellow of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland. He served as a physician at Steevens Hospital, Dublin, and he was also Physician in Ordinary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, for the years 1866–68 and 1874–76.

He was a member of the Pathology Society and the Geological Society, Dublin; of the British Medical Association; a Fellow of the British Meteoroligal Society; and was a Visiting Physician to Steevens Hospital, Dublin. He also served as a Consultant Physician at the National Eye and Ear Infirmery, St. Stephen's Green.