Alexander William Reid qualified as Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Master in Surgery (CM) at the University of Aberdeen in 1894. At some time he also acquired the Diploma in Public Health at the University of Cambridge. After qualifying he became a surgeon in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), West Africa. He then went to India, where he worked as a civil medical officer, jail superintendent and health officer in the districts of Hoogly, Rungpore, Burdwan, and Puri. In 1903 he qualified as Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of Aberdeen with a dissertation entitled Observations on epidemics of cholera in India. That same year he came to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, where he was licensed to practice medicine on 10 December 1903. In April 1905 he married Henrietta May MacKenzie. Also in 1905 he was appointed medical officer of health for the district of Kimberley, a post he held until at least 1915. In 1912 he applied, unsuccessfully, for an appointment as health officer on Zanzibar. By 1926 he was assistant medical officer of health of Cape Town, residing in Claremont. He still held this post in 1930.

Reid published a book on Sanitation and public health, with special reference to conditions in South Africa (Cape Town, 1923, 270 pp., 2^nd ed., 1927). By 1910 he was a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, but his membership had lapsed by 1918.

List of sources:

FamilySearch: Alexander William Reid. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-Y3QX-89M?view=index&personArk=/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2QM-QPJW&action=view&cc=1779109&lang=en&groupId=M96W-88X AND https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZHP-NJQB?lang=en

Google Scholar, at http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by A.W. Reid.

Medical and pharmacy register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1907. Cape Town: Townshend, Taylor and Snashall.

Medical, dental and pharmacy directory of South Africa, 1926/7. Johannesburg: Ewald Herbert, 1926.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS), at http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Alexander William Reid / Dr A.W. Reid.

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, Vol. NMC 34, List of medical practitioners, dentists, and chemists and druggists registered in the Cape Colony on 31 December 1915.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1910, list of members.

South African bibliography to the year 1925. London: Mansell, 1979.

South African who's who, 1908, 1909.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-10-04 10:16:53