John Wickham Legg

Who was John Wickham Legg?

John Wickham Legg was the third son of the printer and bookseller George Legg, and was born at Alverstoke near Portsmouth in Hampshire, England, on 28 December 1843. He was educated at Winchester College and from there he went to New College, Oxford and subsequently opted to read Medicine at University College, London, where he studied under Sir William Jenner. Having qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, he was recommended by Jenner for the post of medical attendant to Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria's fourth son, later styled Duke of Albany, a haemophiliac. Though the appointment lasted only a year, the young Legg became a favourite of the Prince's wife, Princess Helen, and of their daughter, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.

In 1867, Legg studied in Berlin and upon his return he obtained his M.D. and membership of the Royal College of Physicians and was appointed curator of the Pathological Museum at University College. He began to publish and in 1870 became Casualty Physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. About this time he took up liturgical studies as a hobby.

In 1872 Legg married Eliza Jane Houghton and they had a son, Leopold, in 1877.