Thomas Shortt

Thomas Shortt was born on 17 June 1788 near Dumfries, the son of Francis Shortt of Courance and White Laird. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1804 to 1805 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps at the age of eighteen, serving in Egypt and the Mediterranean before being appointed Physician to the Forces. In 1815 he returned to Edinburgh, graduated MD and established his practice. In 1819 he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the King in Scotland and in 1820 became Principal Medical Officer on St Helena, where he attended Napoleon, was present at the post-mortem and authored the autopsy report. After returning to Edinburgh in 1821, Shortt became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1822. In 1828 he was appointed physician to the Royal Infirmary and lecturer in medicine at the University of Edinburgh.