Sir Philip Crampton, 1st Baronet
Sir Philip Crampton, 1st Baronet, FRS MRCSI MRIA was an eminent Irish surgeon and anatomist. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1811, 1820, 1844 and 1855.
Life
Crampton was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of John Crampton and Anne. His father, a prosperous dentist, was a member of the Church of Ireland, while his mother was Presbyterian, of Ulster-Scottish descent with ancestral roots in Auchendinny. He was a childhood friend of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the United Irishman, and a cousin, on his mother's side, of Thomas Verner, Grand Master of the Orange Order. He was indentured to Solomon Richards and soon after commenced studies at the RCSI. He joined the army as an assistant surgeon. When he was appointed surgeon to the Meath Hospital in 1798 he was not yet fully qualified, and went on to graduate MD in Glasgow University in 1800 and by 1801 he was a Member of the RCSI. He was to remain in the Meath Hospital for nearly sixty years. A few years later he also became assistant surgeon at the Lock Hospital, Dublin and also built up a large private practice at his house in Dawson St. He joined Peter Harkan in teaching anatomy in private lectures, forming the first private school of anatomy and surgery in the city.Cameron in his History of the RCSI notes of him: " In 1805 Crampton published an essay on Entropeon, or inversion of the eyelid, which excited considerable interest at the time. In 1813 he described a muscle in the eyes of birds, arising from the inner surface of the bony hoop which surrounds the cornea, and terminating in a circular tendon connected with the circular lamina of the cornea. By means of this muscle the lens can be so adjusted—telescoped, so to speak—as to enable it to see objects at short or long distances, as required. This muscle has been termed musculus cramptonius in honour of its discoverer". He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in Ireland for this treatise on the construction of eyes of birds. This was later published, with other writings, in the Dublin Journal of Medical Science.
In 1821, together with Sir Henry Marsh and Dr. Charles Johnston, he founded a children's hospital in Pitt St., the Institute for Sick Children in 1821. This hospital was the first teaching children's hospital in Ireland or Great Britain. The main objective of the hospital was to treat sick children in one of the poorest parts of Dublin, The Liberties.
He resigned the chief-surgeoncy of the Lock Hospital when he was appointed surgeon-general to the forces in Ireland. He remained as consulting surgeon to Dr Steevens' Hospital and the Dublin Lying-in Hospital. He was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on four occasions. Lady Harriet Kavanagh recruited him to help support her son Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, who was born with vestigial limbs, in living an active life. Crampton created a mechanical wheelchair for the child, who later went on to be an MP. Crampton was created a baronet on 14 March 1839.
He was always interested in zoological science and played an active part in founding the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland and was many times its president. In 1853, he was introduced to a large plesiosaur fossil by the Marquess of Normanby at the latter's residence, Mulgrave Castle. Later that year, Crampton transferred the fossil to the Royal Zoological Society in Dublin. A decade later, after Crampton's death, the specimen was moved to the Royal Dublin Society museum and was officially described by Alexander Carte and W. H. Bailey as a new species of Plesiosaurus. Carte and Bailey named the species Plesiosaurus cramptoni in Crampton's honour.
Crampton was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He died at his residence, 14 Merrion Square, in Dublin. By his wife, the former Selina Cannon, he had two sons and four daughters. He was succeeded in the title by his eldest son John, second and last Baronet.