Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beatson, George Steward
BEATSON, GEORGE STEWARD, M.D. (d. 1874), surgeon-general, graduated in arts and medicine at Glasgow, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1836. In 1838 he joined the army medical department, and did duty on the staff in Ceylon from 1839 to 1851. He was surgeon to the 51st foot in the second Burmese war, and subsequently served in Turkey during the Crimean war, where he rendered valuable services in the organisation of the hospitals at Smyrna. After serving as deputy inspector-general in the Ionian islands and Madras, he became surgeon-general in 1863, and was appointed principal medical officer of European troops in India, an appointment which he held for the customary five years. For the next three years he was in medical charge of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley; and in 1871 was appointed principal medical officer in India for the second time. He was appointed a C.B. in 1869. He died suddenly at Simla on 7 June 1874. Beatson, who was an honorary physician to the queen, was accounted one of the ablest officers in the army medical service, but it is in the records of the department, at home and in India, rather than in professional literature, that his labours will be noticed.
[Ann. Reg. 1874; Army Lists; Lancet, June 1874.]