People of the 20th Century
THOMAS CLOUSTON

“One of Orkney’s most brilliant and talented sons” was the tribute paid to the Orcadian pioneer of the treatment of mental illness, Sir Thomas Clouston, who died in April, 1915.

He was born the son of Robert Clouston of Nisthouse, in 1840 and, after education at Edinburgh University, at the age of 23, he was appointed medical superintendent of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Asylum, Carlisle, in 1863.

In 1873, he became Physician Superintendent of the Scottish Metropolitan Asylum for the Insane, and ten years later, his book of clinical lectures on mental diseases established hi reputation throughout the English speaking world.

He was made freeman of Kirkwall in 1908 and knighted in 1911.

Less than a year before his death, Sir Thomas had been involved in a public debate with Orkney and Shetland MP John Cathcart Watson who had dismissed vivisection as “cowardly” and “brutal.”

Sir Thomas Clouston wrote to The Orcadian: “I am proud to say that the men who practise experiments on animals to increase our knowledge are, as might be expected, as kind-hearted, brave, chivalrous and philanthropic as the very best of our citizens.”