William Pym

William Pym was born in January 1772. He began medical studies in 1788 but joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving as a regimental mate in 1792 and as a surgeon in the West Indies in 1794. During the occupation of Martinique he witnessed outbreaks of yellow fever and later published 'Observations upon Bulam Fever' (1815), the first treatise on the disease, in which he noted the role of climate and the development of immunity following survival. He obtained his MD from the University of St Andrews on 2 April 1799. Pym was admitted a Licentiate of the College on 6 February 1816 and a Fellow on 7 May 1816. He was promoted to Superintendent General of Quarantine in 1826 and sent to Gibraltar in 1828 to manage a yellow fever outbreak. He was knighted by William IV in 1830 and 1831. He retired on half pay in 1816 and died at Harley Street, London, on 18 March 1861.