T. Clifford (Thomas Clifford) Allbutt

Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, in 1836, Thomas Clifford Allbutt studied at St Peter’s School, York, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before training in medicine at St George’s Hospital and in Paris. He spent many years practicing in Leeds, where he earned a reputation for careful clinical observation and wide-ranging medical interests.

Allbutt is most often remembered for popularizing the short clinical thermometer in the 1860s, replacing the much larger instruments then in use and helping make temperature-taking a routine part of medical care. He also played an important part in bringing the ophthalmoscope into broader clinical use and wrote extensively on medicine and medical history.

Later in life he served as Commissioner in Lunacy and, from 1892 until his death in 1925, as Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and became one of the most respected British physicians of his generation.