David Christison

Christison was born at 3 Great Stuart Street on the Moray Estate in Edinburgh on 25 January 1830, the second son of Sir Robert Christison and Henrietta Sophia Brown. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy.[1] He trained in Medicine at Edinburgh University and began work at the Old Royal Infirmary on Drummond Street where his friends and colleagues included Joseph Lister, Patrick Heron Watson and Alexander Struthers. He gained his first doctorate (MD) in 1851.[2]

In 1854, in the Crimean War, Christison volunteered to tend troops and travelled with a group of fellow Scots including his brother-in-law John Beddoe. He was based at Renkioi Hospital at the Dardanelles. He became seriously ill and had to terminate his medical career. He thereafter pursued a career in archaeology.[3] From 1867, he began taking trips to South America, including Argentina but Uruguay in particular, in order to improve his health.[4] In 1870 he was living at 40 Moray Place on the Moray Estate.[5]

In 1891 at the creation of the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh, housed in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Christison was Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.[6] He was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) by Dean Ludovic Grant on behalf of Edinburgh University in 1906.[7]

In later life he lived at 20 Magdala Crescent in Edinburgh's West End.[8] He died on 21 January 1912 and is buried in the family plot at New Calton Burial Ground.[9]

Christison was married to Susannah Hodgson Brown (1848-1928), a cousin. They only had one son, John Alexander Christison (1889-1914) who sided suddenly of malaria while in Uganda. They had three daughters.[10]

• A Journey to Central Uruguay (1880)
• The Gauchos of San Jorge, Central Uruguay (1881)
• The Life of Sir Robert Christison (1885)
• Thunder Squalls in Uruguay (1887)
• Early Fortifications in Scotland: Motes, Camps and Forts
• The Size, Age and Rate of Girth Increase achieved by trees of the Chief Species in Britain, particularly in Scotland (1893)
• On the Geographical Distribution of Certain Place Names in Scotland (1893)
• Prehistoric Forts of Scotland (1896) the Rhind Lecture
• Excavation of the Roman Station at Ardoch, Perthshire (1898)
• The Excavation of Rough Castle on the Antonine Wall (1905)

His portrait in stained glass by William Graham Boss forms one of the multiple portraits of committee members of the same gallery on the main stair.[11]