William Ivison Macadam (27 January 1856 – 24 June 1902) was a Scottish scientist, academic author and antiquarian. He was also Colonel of the 1st Lothian Volunteer Infantry Brigade and a leading Freemason. On 24 June 1902 he was shot and killed, along with a student, by a mentally disturbed gunman in his own laboratory at Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh.
The Scotsman ran a contemporary view of him the day after his death: "Few men were more widely known in Edinburgh or more affectionately regarded than was Colonel Ivison Macadam. He was a man of varied interests. To scientific men he was known as a clever and highly qualified analytical chemist, an able and interesting lecturer on that subject, and a prominent and useful member of learned societies. Among Freemasons he was known as one of the most enthusiastic members of the craft, and a leading officer in many of its orders. But it was as a Volunteer that he is most widely known to the general public. Latterly his appointment as brigade-major for the 1st Lothian Volunteer Brigade brought him in touch with both the regular and the volunteer officers of the district, and by all he was admired and respected alike for his genial personal qualities, his sound military instincts and accomplishments, his organising abilities, and his capacity for hard work. The tragedy of his death was deepened by the fact that it came on the day when he was to command a special representative Volunteer Battalion to take part in the Coronation celebrations.The Scotsman, 25 June 1902. (Most newspaper references here originate and are verified from the original newspaper cutting archives of Dr. William St. Clair Boyd, Belfast, passed to the keeping of Mr Barkly Macadam then passed to the keeping of Christopher Taylor, the subject's great-grandson, who in turn supplied them to the Ivison Macadam Archives, Runton Old Hall, East Runton, Norfolk).
Early life He was born at 11 Brandon Street, a Georgian townhouse near the Water of Leith in Edinburgh's Second New Town. He was the eldest son of Stevenson Macadam. The family moved to Brighton House, 25 Brighton Place in Portobello when he was four years old.
He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh and The Edinburgh Collegiate School and at Heidelberg University, Germany,The Scotsman, 25 June 1902Veterinary Journal Vol VI where he studied with Professor Robert Bunsen inventor of the Bunsen Burner.Elison Macadam Desch Childhood Memories, privately published, Ivison Macadam Archives, Runton Old Hall, Norfolk
Academic career Macadam followed in his father's footsteps and began lecturing to both medical and veterinary students in 1873. From 1901 he was based at Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh, the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the oldest medical corporation in the world. He became associated with his father, Dr. Stevenson Macadam, 'a well-known analytical chemist and lecturer on chemistry in his work at Surgeons' Hall Laboratory. He rapidly became known as a coadjutor to his father. He also subsequently became a lecturer in chemistry and agricultural chemistry, School of Medicine, Edinburgh.
In 1873 he joined the staff of the New Veterinary College when he became assistant to his father. In 1880 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry there when Dr. Stevenson Macadam retired, an appointment he held until his death.
His work gained recognition from many learned societies, and he contributed numerous papers to these.
The college journal obituary described him as "a man of great ability, and [he] had a profound knowledge of his subject. He had an excellent way with young students, and made the learning of chemistry a pleasant task. There was also a frank bonhomie about Macadam. And no one was better at telling a good story in the volunteer camp or at the dinner table."
Encouragement of women
Macadam was ahead of his time in the teaching of women and encouraging them to participate in courses and degrees, particularly at Surgeons' Hall and the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, despite women being banned from attendance at his or other's university lectures and from taking academic degrees at most universities and colleges in Great Britain. Most professors and all-male student classes objected to their participation in the academic professions at the time.
Edinburgh with its famous Medical School became a centre of controversy over medical education for women and Macadam championed the women's cause. At the time women were not admitted to either theoretical or practical classes at Edinburgh University although they could sit for examinations. To overcome these difficulties the pioneer of medical education for women Sophia Jex-Blake established the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in Surgeons' Square in 1886. Professor Macadam took over the teaching of chemistry there before starting his own classes for women at Surgeons' Hall in 1887. The first set of women medical students he taught in this pioneering role included a number going on to be medical missionaries. He also taught chemistry at the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women which had been established in Chambers Street by John Inglis and his daughter Elsie Inglis. These classes were in addition to his large classes of male medical and dental students at Surgeons' Hall for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and for Edinburgh University.
He also became Professor of Chemistry at the New Veterinary College. A woman student in due course presented herself. The college authorities were worried about permitting women to take classes but he helped persuade them that she should.Memories of Her Edinburgh Childhood by Mrs. Cecil H. Desch (Elison Ann Macadam), privately published. Macadam Archives, Runton Old Hall, Norfolk This first woman he encouraged and taught there was Aleen Cust, who became the first woman veterinary surgeon in Great Britain,Hall, Sherwin A.Cust, Aleen Isabel (1868–1937. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press and was his studentWith also the active support of his friend the Principal and founder of the college William Williams (veterinarian). at the New Veterinary College.Professor Macadam's eldest son Barkly Macadam subsequently named one of his daughters after Aleen Cust (Constance Aleen (1910–1991). Married 1941 John Barrington Taylor (1914–1993) (Later His Hon. Judge Taylor). Always known as Aleen (and thus also indirectly her daughter Aleen Taylor, now Medcalf, was named after her). She completed her veterinary studies in 1897, winning the Gold medal for Zoology. However, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London had disagreed in their allowing women admission to the college and would not agree to a woman taking the final examination. They consequently refused to admit and license her. This was challenged in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, seeking to overturn the decision of the RCVS examination committee, but the court declined to rule on the basis that the RCVS was not domiciled in Scotland.
Nevertheless, with recommendations from the New Veterinary College faculty she joined a new practice in Ireland, which she assumed responsibility for after the death of the principal. After her voluntary service on the front with the British armed forces in the First World War attending wounded, maimed and lame war horses, and the enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, she was finally presented with her diploma by the President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London on 21 December 1922, thus officially becoming the first woman Veterinary Surgeon in Great Britain in spite of over twenty years of having already practised.
Macadam also encouraged and initially taught his own daughter Elison Ann Macadam (1862-1965), later FIC, at Surgeons' Hall. He appointed her as one of his student assistants there, which meant there was a woman assistant, and not only his male assistants, to make his classes seem more welcoming to women and also show that it was not just men who were qualified for the work. Elison Macadam, after his death, went on to become the first woman to graduate from King's College, London.Memories of Her Edinburgh Childhood by Mrs. Cecil H. Desch (Elison Ann Macadam), privately published. Macadam Archives, Runton Old Hall, Norfolk She later became the first woman to graduate in Chemistry at King's College London,In this she persevered in spite of the hostility toward women entering from the all-male students: Ivison Macadam Archives. Elison had studied under her father Prof. William Ivison Macadam and "had wished to continue study for a degree in Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh but at that time women were excluded. Curiously, despite the formal ban from King's College London, she was able to study chemistry under Professor F.C. Thompson and Professor Herbert Jackson and sit the Chemistry examinations and was then hired by Professor Huntington about 1902 in his Laboratory": Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists, 1880-1949: Marlene Raynor-Canham, Geoff Raynor-Canham; Imperial College Press 2008. in spite of their rule against women.Why the King's College London professors made this first exception in her case is not known. It may have been, in addition to her own determination, that her father Professor W. Ivison Macadam did not feel he could make an exception for his daughter at Edinburgh University because of their rule against women. So two professors of chemistry F. C. Thompson and Professor Herbert Jackson at King's College, London may have circumvented the college rule there of male-only students out of respect for her father and made this exception.(Her younger brother Ivison Macadam subsequently followed in his elder sister Elison's footsteps and attended King's and for the last 18 years of his life also sat on its governing body and was elected a Fellow of the College). After her graduation Elison worked in the chemical laboratory as Assistant to Professor A. K. Huntington, Professor of Metallurgy at King's.She was engaged in the accurate analyses of metal samples and these were then examined metallographically by Cecil Desch, who was to become her husband. Desch had gained his PhD at Wurtzburg University in 1902 and subsequently, in the same year, his DSc at University College, London. He then obtained the position at King's. Elison and Cecil Desch were married in January 1909 and moved to Glasgow University, where Desch had obtained a lectureship in metallurgical chemistry, under Professor John Ferguson. In a biographical report, Professor Huntington remarked that Professor Desch had robbed him of his best assistant. Later her daughter Rosalind Desch (1913–1994) carried on this tradition of educating women and went on to build The Study School into a leading all-girls school in Wimbledon, London and it was through her that many thousands of women received an important early education. Before her death, she saw that its future was protected by making it over into a charitable education foundation so that the school would continue.
Military career His career as a Volunteer army officer extended over a period of 27 years.