William Chester Minor William Chester Minor , also known as W . C . Minor ( June 1834 – March 26 , 1920 ) was an American army surgeon and one of the largest contributors of quotations to the " Oxford English Dictionary " . He was held in a lunatic asylum at the time . Biography . Early life . Minor was born on the island of Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) , the son of Congregationalist Church missionaries from New England . He had numerous half - siblings , among them Thomas T . Minor , mayor of Seattle , Washington , in the late 1880s . At 14 he was sent to the United States , and finished his medical education in 1863 at Yale . Military career . He was accepted by the Union Army as a surgeon and served at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864 , which was notable for the terrible casualties suffered by both sides . Minor was also given the task of punishing an Irish soldier in the Union Army by branding him on the face with a " D " for " deserter " and his nationality later played a role in Minor ' s dementia delusions . After the end of the American Civil War , Minor saw duty in New York City . He was strongly attracted to the red - light district of the city and devoted much of his off - duty time to going with prostitutes . By 1867 , his behavior had come to the attention of the Army and he was transferred to a remote post in the Florida Panhandle . By 1868 , his condition had progressed to the point that he was admitted to St . Elizabeths Hospital , a lunatic asylum in Washington , D . C . After eighteen months he showed no improvement . Move to England . In 1871 he went to the UK , settling in the slum of Lambeth , in London , where once again he took up a dissolute life . Haunted by his paranoia , he fatally shot a man named George Merrett , who Minor believed had broken into his room , on February 17 , 1872 . Merrett had been on his way to work to support his family of six children , himself , and his pregnant wife , Eliza . After a pre - trial period spent in London ' s Horsemonger Lane Gaol , Minor was found not guilty by reason of insanity and incarcerated in the asylum at Broadmoor in the village of Crowthorne , Berkshire . As he had his army pension and was not judged dangerous , he was given rather comfortable quarters and was able to buy and read books . Contributor to Oxford English Dictionary . It was probably through his correspondence with the London booksellers that he heard of the call for volunteers from what was to become the " Oxford English Dictionary " ( OED ) . He devoted most of the remainder of his life to that work . He became one of the most effective volunteers , reading through his personal library and compiling quotations that illustrated the way particular words were used . He was visited quite often by the widow of the man he had killed , and she provided him with further books . The compilers of the dictionary published lists of words for which they wanted examples of usage . Chester provided these , with increasing ease as his lists grew . It was many years before the OED ' s editor , Dr . James Murray , learned Minor ' s background history , and visited him . Minor ' s condition deteriorated and in 1902 he cut off his own penis ( autopeotomy ) . His health failed and he was permitted to return to the United States and St . Elizabeths Hospital ; he was subsequently diagnosed with dementia praecox . He died in 1920 in New Haven , Connecticut . In popular culture . The book " The Surgeon of Crowthorne " ( published in America as " The Professor and the Madman " ) by Simon Winchester , was published in 1998 and chronicles both Minor ' s later life and his contributions to the creation of the " Oxford English Dictionary " .