Dr Robert Kirkwood

Dr Robert Kirkwood (1824–98) was a native of Largs. He graduated MD from the University of Glasgow in 1854 and became a Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow in 1866. Immediately after university he was appointed medical assistant at the Royal Asylum, Gartnavel, Glasgow, and was later house surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and resident medical officer at Glasgow Town Hospital. During his early career he also studied in hospitals in Paris. In the late 1850s he returned to Largs as assistant to Dr John Campbell – later his father-in-law – and on Campbell's retirement took on his practice, where he became a 'highly regarded' general practitioner. 1

When William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, broke one of his legs at the neck of the femur in December 1860 while out curling, Dr Kirkwood was closely involved in his care and was described by Thomson and his wife as skilful and attentive. 2 Kirkwood retired from general medical practice around 1882 due to a decline in his own health. However, he was still able to serve on the Northern District Committee of Ayrshire County Council, representing Largs Parish until 1895, and advising during the construction of Clark Hospital in Largs and hygiene and sanitary science. 3

In 1858, Kirkwood married Jessie Hunter Campbell, daughter of Dr John Campbell. They had four children: Jessie (b. 1860), John (b. 1862), Helen (b. 1863) and Florence (b. 1867). Mrs Kirkwood died in 1885 in the Royal Asylum in Edinburgh. Kirkwood then married Agnes White Millar in 1887 with whom he had three further children: Elizabeth Margaret Dorothea (b. 1889), James (b. 1890) and David (b. 1891). According to her death certificate, Agnes died of puerperal fever in following David's birth. After Kirkwood's death on 21 May 1898, Helen Kirkwood took care of her three younger half-siblings at Auchencraig. In 1911, Dorothea and James still lived at the house. The Kirkwood children must have been provided with a significant inheritance: in both the 1901 and 1911 censuses they were described as 'living on own means' and employed servants. 4

Kirkwood was a member of the Free Church and served as a Justice of the Peace for Largs. 5