John Gibson Fleming FRSE PFPSG (1809-1879) was a Scottish surgeon, medical administrator and President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow 1865 to 1868, and 1870 to 1872.
He was born in Glasgow on 2 December 1809.
He studied at Glasgow High School then Glasgow University, also spending some time in Paris and Italy studying anatomy and surgery receiving his doctorate (MD) in 1830.[1]
He returned to work in Glasgow (for all his life) first in more parochial roles and then in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, having survived a serious attack of typhoid fever contracted in the former role. He was manager of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary from 1850.[2] From 1839 to 1878 he also served as Surgeon to the Gartnavel Royal Hospital.[3]
In 1872 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Andrew Wood.[4] In 1876 he was co-founder of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary Medical School. He was chief medical advisor to the Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Company.[5]
He died on 2 October 1879 following a relapse of his earlier typhoid fever, at home at 155 Bath Street in Glasgow.[6] He was married with three sons, one of whom, Mr W M J Fleming, lectured in Physiology.[7]
His main publication, Medical Statistics of Life Insurance (1862), still forms the basis of much life insurance assessment.[8]
He was posthumously painted by Sir Daniel Macnee based upon a photograph in later life. The painting dates from around 1881 and hangs in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.[5]