Thomas Vicary

Who was Thomas Vicary?

Thomas Vicary was an early English physician, surgeon and anatomist.

Vicary was born in Kent, in about 1490. He was, "but a meane practiser in Maidstone … that had gayned his knowledge by experience, until the King advanced him for curing his sore legge” Henry VIII advanced him to the position of sergeant-surgeon to the Royal Household; and he became a leading surgeon in the City of London becoming the first master of the Company of Barber-Surgeons and again on three further occasions. He played a leading role in the 1540 Act of Union of the two guilds, appearing in Hans Holbein the Younger's painting showing the King handing the charter to Vicary himself. Vicary obtained an annual right to the cadavers of four executed criminals for the Barber-Surgeons, and established the first formal teaching of anatomy at their hall.

In 1546, he was appointed the first superintendent of St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1548, he was appointed resident surgical governor of St Bartholomew's Hospital, a post he held until his death. On Henry's death he continued to serve the Tudor monarchs as physician.