William Hartigan (Irish surgeon)

WILLIAM HARTIGAN (surgeon)

WILLIAM HARTIGAN, MD MRCSI  1756-1812

William Hartigan born in Dublin in 1756, was educated as a surgeon, and commenced to practice in Dublin about 1778. On the 17th August, 1780, he was elected a member of the Dublin Society of Surgeons, and on the incorporation of the

surgeons as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 1874, Hartigan was elected a member.

In 1789 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy in RCSI, proceeding to Professor of Surgery in 1798. Hartigan was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for the year 1797. He was later appointed Professor of Anatomy in Trinity College, Dublin University (TCD) and was subsequently appointed Professor of Anatomy in TCD.

In Cameron's History of RCSI, Hartigan is described as " having a good presence and agreeable manners, he secured a considerable amount of popularity in his circle. With his pupils he was a favourite ; on two occasions those at the College of Surgeons presented

him with complimentary addresses."(1)

Hartigan died on 15th December, 1812, and was interred in St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street. The house in which Hartigan so long resided (3 Kildare-street) was eventually sold to the Kildare-street Club, by whom it was pulled down.

(1) Charles A. Cameron History of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland 2nd Dublin: Fannin, 1916. p. 385.