William McLean

William McLean
File:McLean, William.jpg
Born	1867
Died	1930
Residence	Seaforth Sanatorium, Canon Bridge, Rosshire
Occupation	medical
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1930 deceased elected_AI 1913.04.22

Notes

House Notes

1913.04.03 proposed by Arthur Keith, seconded by T.C. Hodson

Notes From Elsewhere

born in Inverness on 22nd June 1867 and from 1884 lived in Maryburgh where he attended local schools. After graduating from Edinburgh University in 1892 he served as a medical doctor in Dingwall and then Fortrose.
It was during this time that he married Louisa Grant, daughter of the Provost of Fortrose.
In 1908 Dr Maclean became Medical Superintendent of the Seaforth Sanatorium at Maryburgh and returned to live
there. He later became the County Medical Officer of Health, and played a crucial role in diagnosing an unusual case of botulism in 1922 which resulted in the deaths of eight guests at the Loch Maree Hotel, near Gairloch.
He died in post on 10th December 1930 from bronchial pneumonia and heart failure possibly brought on by overwork.
He is known to have enjoyed angling and cricket but Maclean’s main love was early human history and archaeology. He was involved in various local excavations and also built up a sizeable archaeological collection, which his wife donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1931.
Dr Maclean seems to have been well respected with a vibrant personality but over time memory of the man and
his legacy faded.
Until a year or two ago, little or nothing was known about the man behind the ‘Maclean Collection’ – mostly locked away in the museum’s stores. It was then that a community course started to explore the local past. It was this course that sparked off the recent research and renewed interest in this fine local collection and its enigmatic collector.

Related Material Details

Other Material

National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. McLean collection