Robert William MacKenna

Born in Dumfries in 1874, Robert William MacKenna was educated at Dumfries Academy and then studied at the University of Edinburgh. Sources describe him as the first person there to pursue arts and medicine at the same time, an early sign of the unusual double career he would build.

Alongside his work as a physician, MacKenna became known as a novelist and essayist. He specialized in dermatology and later published Diseases of the Skin: A Manual for Students and Practitioners in 1923, while also writing books such as Flower o' the Heather, Through Flood and Fire, and O Rowan Tree. His fiction is especially associated with Scottish religious history and the world of the Covenanters.

MacKenna died in 1930. He remains an interesting figure for readers who enjoy authors whose literary work grew out of a full life beyond books, especially one rooted in both Scottish history and medical practice.