Sir William Gull, 1st Baronet

Life & Legacy

Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet (31 December 1816 – 29 January 1890) was an English physician. Of modest family origins, he established a lucrative private practice and served as Governor of Guy's Hospital, Fullerian Professor of Physiology and President of the Clinical Society. In 1871, having successfully treated the Prince of Wales during a life-threatening attack of typhoid fever, he was created a Baronet and appointed to be one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria.
Gull made some significant contributions to medical science, including advancing the understanding of myxoedema, Bright's disease, paraplegia and anorexia nervosa (for which he first established the name).
A masonic/royal conspiracy theory created in the 1970s alleged that Gull knew the identity of Jack the Ripper, or even that he was the murderer. Scholars have dismissed the idea, since Gull was 71 years old and in ill health when the murders were committed. The theory has been used by creators of fictional works. Examples for his portrayal as Jack the Ripper include the TV miniseries Jack the Ripper (1988) and the Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell graphic novel From Hell, which was made into a film in 2001.