Sir Henry Marsh, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Marsh, 1st Baronet (1790 – 1 December 1860) was an Irish physician and surgeon. He was born in Loughrea, County Galway in Ireland. He was one of the medical doctors associated with Basedow's syndrome, which is also known as Marsh's disease and currently as Graves' disease.^[1]

Biography

The son of the Rev. Robert Marsh of Killinane, Co. Galway, great-grandson of the Most Rev. Francis Marsh, Archbishop of Dublin. His mother, Sophia Wolseley, was a granddaughter of Sir Richard Woolsey 1st Bt., M.P., of Mount Wolseley, Co. Carlow, whose wife was the daughter of Sir Thomas Molyneux, 1st Baronet, the first medical baronet created in Ireland.

Marsh originally wanted to engage in farming or in becoming a part of the clergy, before acquiring a career in surgery. After accidentally losing his right forefinger, injured during an operational procedure he was performing, he left his career in surgery. He was apprenticed to Sir Philip Crampton and received his doctorate in medicine in Dublin in 1818. After some time in Paris he returned to Dublin and in 1820 was appointed physician at Dr Steevens' Hospital.^[2]

He established the Park Street Medical School in Dublin in 1822, with the cooperation of his colleagues, namely: Robert James Graves, James William Cusack, Samuel Wilmot, and Arthur Jacob, among others. He taught pathology at this school until 1827.^[2]

In 1827, he taught surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He later became a medical doctor for Queen Victoria. In 1839, he was created a baronet. In 1840, he became president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

He died suddenly at his residence in Merrion Square, Dublin, and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery.

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