# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marsden, William (1796-1867)

​MARSDEN, WILLIAM (1796–1867), doctor of medicine, descended from a family of yeomen belonging to Cawthorne in Yorkshire, was born in August 1796 at Sheffield, where he spent the early years of his life. ​He came to London and entered at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was brought under the influence of Abernethy, and at the same time he served an apprenticeship to Mr. Dale, a surgeon practising at the top of Holborn Hill. He obtained the membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 27 April 1827. His inability later in that year to obtain the admission to a hospital of a girl of eighteen years, whom he accidentally found on the steps of St. Andrew's churchyard almost dead of disease and starvation, turned his attention to the question of hospital relief. Relief was then granted only to those who could obtain a governor's letter, or could produce other evidence of being known to subscribers to these institutions. This anomalous condition he sought to rectify by establishing in 1828 a small dispensary in Greville Street, Hatton Garden, to whose benefits the poor were admitted absolutely without formality. This institution at first met with great opposition; but in 1832 its value became widely recognised, owing to the fact that it alone, of all the London hospitals, received cholera patients. In 1843 the hospital was moved into Gray's Inn Road, to a site previously occupied by the light horse volunteers of the city of London, a site which was afterwards purchased by the beneficence of wealthy friends, and upon it was built the Royal Free Hospital, Dr. Marsden becoming its senior surgeon. In 1838 he obtained the degree of M.D. from the university of Erlangen. In 1840 a handsome testimonial was presented to him by the Duke of Cambridge, in the name of a numerous body of subscribers, who recognised the benefits his efforts had conferred upon the sick poor.
In 1851 Marsden opened a small house in Cannon Row, Westminster, for the reception of persons suffering from cancer. Within ten years the institution was moved to Brompton, where it exists in the imposing block of buildings known as the Cancer Hospital (with 120 beds), of which Marsden was also the senior surgeon. Marsden enjoyed a large practice, and throughout his life was a disciple of Abernethy, and followed his methods. Usually expectant in his treatment, he was sometimes so bold as to be heroic. He was a very acute observer. He died of bronchitis on 16 Jan. 1867, and was buried in Norwood cemetery. He was twice married, and had one son — Dr. Alexander Marsden (b. 1832) — by his first wife. After moving from Thavies' Inn he lived for many years at 65 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Marsden published 'Symptoms and Treatment of Malignant Diarrhoea, better known by the name of Asiatic or Malignant Cholera,' 8vo, London, 1834; 2nd edit. 1848.
A full-length portrait of Marsden by T. H. Illidge [q. v.], painted in 1850, hangs in the board-room of the Royal Free Hospital. A full-length, attributed to H. W. Pickersgill, sen., exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1866, is at present in the board-room of the Cancer Hospital at Brompton.
[The Hospital, 14 May 1887, p. 103; additional information kindly given to the writer by Dr. Alexander Marsden; Lancet, 1867, i. 131; Med. Times and Gaz. 1867, i. 98.]
D’A. P.