William Henry Battle (1855–1936)

Excerpt

William Henry Battle (1855–1936) practiced medicine in England over one century ago and is primarily remembered for his description of ecchymosis over the mastoid process following skull base fracture. Battle was born in Lincoln of Lincolnshire, England, on February 23, 1855. One of nine children, he was the son of John Richard Battle who was leader of a prominent Lincolnshire family and served as mayor [1]. Battle earned his medical degree (M.R.C.S. and LSA) from St. Thomas’s Medical School, London, in 1877, and became F.R.C.S. in 1880. He was elected honorary secretary of the section of surgery of the British Medical Association. As a surgeon at St. Thomas’s Hospital, he was affiliated with the Royal Free Hospital, and from 1881 to 1885, he edited the St. Thomas’s Hospital Surgical Reports. In 1888, he was selected as assistant surgeon to East London Hospital for Children. From 1889 to 1890, he held the position of Hunterian Professor in Surgery and Pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons jointly with William Watson Cheyne, John Langton, and Walter Pye and also taught in the Medical School for Women where he held the position of Demonstrator in Practical Surgery (Fig. 1).

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