Sir Raymond Henry Payne Crawfurd was an eminent British physician, medical administrator, and historian. Born in 1865, he studied classics at Oxford before pursuing medicine at King's College. Throughout his career, Crawfurd held numerous prestigious clinical and administrative roles, including serving as the Dean of King's College Hospital Medical School and the Chair of the Epsom College Council. He played a pivotal role in relocating King's College Hospital to Denmark Hill in 1933, an achievement that earned him a knighthood.
In his early forties, an illness left Crawfurd with mobility difficulties, forcing him to retire from active clinical practice. This transition prompted him to focus on historical research and writing. He became a prominent figure in the History of Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, serving as its president from 1916 to 1918. His historical writings combined his medical expertise with his classical training, resulting in highly regarded works on historical pathologies and medical folklore.
Crawfurd's literary contributions include a detailed study on the controversial death of Charles II, as well as published volumes expanded from his prestigious FitzPatrick Lectures delivered in 1911 and 1912. His first lecture series culminated in a comprehensive account of scrofula and the practice of the "royal touch," while his second series was developed into a well-known book examining the representation of plague in art and literature.
