C. (Charles) MacLaurin

Born in 1872, Charles MacLaurin was an Australian surgeon and medical lecturer based in Sydney. Contemporary records describe him as a Macquarie Street specialist and a lecturer in clinical surgery, and he also served in the Australian armed forces during World War I.

Alongside his medical career, he wrote a pair of notable essay collections, Post Mortem (1923) and Mere Mortals (1925). These books are remembered for their medico-historical approach: he looked at well-known figures from history through the lens of illness, temperament, and the body, combining professional insight with readable narrative.

MacLaurin died in 1925. Although he is less widely known now than some of his contemporaries, his work stands out for bringing medicine and history together in a form that was both scholarly and approachable.