{{Short description|New Zealand university professor, artist, medical school dean (1851 - 1914)}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}} thumb|Scott in 1885 Prof '''John Halliday Scott''' FRSE (28 December 1851 – 25 February 1914) was a Scottish-born New Zealand university professor, artist and medical school dean.
==Early life and education==
He was born John Lidderdale Scott<ref name="DNZB Scott" /> at 13 Drummond Place<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1851</ref> in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1851.<ref name="DNZB Scott">{{DNZB|title=Scott, John Halliday|first= Rex |last=Wright-St Clair|id=2s7|accessdate=15 August 2020}}</ref> His parents were Marion Shaw Lidderdale and Andrew Scott (WS).<ref name="DNZB Scott"/>
He was educated at Edinburgh Institution and then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MB ChB in 1874. He then went on to take the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons postgraduate diploma in 1876. The adoption of the middle name "Halliday" appears a homage to his university professor: John Halliday Croom.
== Career == He obtained a position as House Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh then Stirling Royal Infirmary. He returned to Edinburgh as a Demonstrator in Anatomy 1876/77 and obtained his doctorate (M.D.) in 1877.<ref name = Otago>{{cite web |url= http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d2-d18-d2.html|title= The University of Otago – Professor John Halliday Scott|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= 2015|website= The Cyclopedia of New Zealand[Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]|publisher= University of Wellington|location= Victoria, New Zealand |access-date= 30 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |publisher=University of Edinburgh |type=PhD |last=Scott|first=John Halliday|date=1877|title=The nervous system of the dog: with some other points in its anatomy especially learning in experimental physiology: with plates|url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/32048|language=en}}</ref> He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in May 1880. His proposers were Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, Sir William Turner, Daniel John Cunningham and Sir John Murray.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=6 June 2018|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Scott practiced in Scotland for a time before he was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Otago in 1877.<ref name="DNZB Scott" /> He sailed to New Zealand on SS Ringarooma arriving on 27 July 1877. His first home in Dunedin was a semi-detached house on St David Street (later named Scott Street in his honour).<ref name="odt.co.nz">{{cite web |date=23 June 2014 |title=Artist's work as early photographer revealed |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/artists-work-early-photographer-revealed |website=Otago Daily Times}}</ref>
He was appointed Dean of Medicine in 1891 remaining in the post until his death in 1914.<ref name="DNZB Scott" /><ref name="Otago" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Gilmour |first=Michael |date=25 May 1988 |title=New Zealand and its doctors, 1840s-1980s |journal=New Zealand Medical Journal |volume=101 |issue=846 |pages=292-296}}</ref>
== Personal life == In 1882 he returned to Britain during the summer vacation (winter in UK) and in January 1883 married Helen Gardner Bealey (d.1899) in Cheltenham. She returned with him to New Zealand and they had two daughters and three sons. One son was Robert Hannay Scott who was killed in action at the Somme in World War I.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert Hannay Scott |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C14121 |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=Online Cenotaph, Auckland Museum}}</ref>
He joined the Otago Art Society<ref name=":0" /> and was its Secretary for 30 years and was a member of the Otago Institute.<ref name="DNZB Scott" />
After a series of small strokes he died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Dunedin on 25 February 1914.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Wright-St Clair |first=Rex |url=https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/external/WrightSt-Clair-HistoriaNuncVivat.pdf |title=Historia Nunc Vivat: Medical Practitioners in New Zealand 1840–1930 |date=2013 |publisher=Cotter Medical History Trust |isbn=978-0-473-24073-8 |pages=338}}</ref>
==Artistic works== Scott was a gifted artist and also a competent photographer.<ref name="odt.co.nz"/>
*''Lusitania Bay'' (1880) *''Moeraki Builders'' (1889)
==Publications==
*''[https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1893-26.2.6.1.1 Contribution to the Osteology of the Aborigines of New Zealand and of the Chatham Islands.]'' Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 26, 1893.
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, John Halliday}} Category:1851 births Category:1914 deaths Category:Medical doctors from Edinburgh Category:People educated at Stewart's Melville College Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Scottish emigrants to New Zealand Category:New Zealand artists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Academic staff of the University of Otago