SirThomas Smith CloustonFRSEPRCPE (22 April 1840 – 19 April 1915) was aScottishpsychiatrist.[1][2]
Clouston was the youngest of four sons of Robert Clouston (1786–1857) 3rd of Nisthouse, in theBirsay parish ofOrkney, and his wife Janet (née Smith).[3][4] The Cloustons descend from Havard Gunnason (fl. 1090), Chief Counsellor to Haakon,Earl of Orkney, and later became landed gentry taking their name from their estate, Clouston.[5]
Clouston was educated atAberdeen Grammar School and theUniversity of Edinburgh.[1] Clouston qualified M.D.(Edinburgh) with a thesis on thenervous system of thelobster, supervised byJohn Goodsir.
His early interest ininsanity resulted in an apprenticeship withDavid Skae, the eminent Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. In 1863, Clouston was appointed superintendent of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum (Garlands Hospital) inCarlisle; and in 1873, in succession to Skae, Superintendent of the newRoyal Edinburgh Asylum, which had been set up under new principles laid down by the then Commissioner to the Scottish Health Board, SirJames Coxe . In 1879, after having lectured for some years in conjunction with the Professor of the Practice of PhysicThomas Laycock, Clouston was appointed as the first ever Lecturer on Mental Diseases in the University of Edinburgh, a post which he held in conjunction with his position at the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. Clouston became a celebrated lecturer with an international reputation for his exposition of the psychiatric disorders of adolescence. Clouston published extensively, beginning with his remarkableClinical Lectures on Mental Diseases (1883), followed, much later, by his more popular workUnsoundness of Mind (1911).[6] Another book aimed at the general public was entitledMorals and The Brain; and he remained an unreconstructed believer in "masturbational insanity" and an uncompromising advocate of teetotalism in opposition to his exact contemporary, the psychiatristJames Crichton-Browne. In 1888, Clouston served as President of the Medico-Psychological Association.
In 1874 Clouston was elected a member of theHarveian Society of Edinburgh and served as president in 1908.[7] In 1875 he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh, his proposers were SirJoseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister,John Hutton Balfour, Sir William Turner andAlexander Crum Brown.[8] In 1881 he was elected a member of theAesculapian Club.[9]
In 1894 he opened theCraig House extension to the Royal Edinburgh asylum on EasterCraiglockhart Hill, which was renamed the Thomas Clouston Clinic in 1972. The buildings later became part ofNapier University.[3] From 1902 to 1904 he was President of theRoyal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Clouston retired in 1908 and was knighted in 1911.[3] He is commemorated by a brass plaque on the eastern aspect of the north transept ofSt Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. His son was the authorStorer Clouston.[10] He Received theFreedom of the Burgh ofKirkwall on 28 August 1908.[11]
At the end of his life Clouston lived at 26 Heriot Row, an elegant and substantial Georgian townhouse inEdinburgh's New Town.[12]
He died in Edinburgh on 19 April 1915.[13] He is buried inDean Cemetery in Edinburgh with his wife Dame Harriet Secur Storer (1835–1917). The grave lies on the obscured southern terrace. His daughter, Augusta Maud Clouston CBE (1871–1960) lies to the side, with her husbandSir David Wallace (1862–1952).
His sketch portrait of 1884, byWilliam Brassey Hole, shown arm-in arm withDouglas Argyll Robertson, is held by theScottish National Portrait Gallery.[14]
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| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1902–1904 | Succeeded by John Playfair |
