Robert Bowes Malcolm was born in 1808, the son of Major John Malcolm of the East India Company. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1826, became a member of the Royal Medical Society in 1828 and graduated MD on 12 July 1831. Malcolm became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 4 August 1840. He practised in Edinburgh as an obstetrician and physician and served as physician to Fettes College. Malcolm was a founding member of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society and President of the Harveian Society from 1856 to 1857. In 1856 he published 'On the Rise of the Edinburgh School of Midwifery'. He died aged eighty-six, seven years after retiring from practice.
