Charles James Hill Aitken (or Charles James Hill-Aitken) medical practitioner, was a son of Alexander Aitken and his wife Elizabeth Smith (McClelland) Aitken. He qualified as Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of Edinburgh in 1900 with a thesis titled Minor complaints associated with dilatation of the stomach. Soon thereafter he came to the Cape Colony, where he was licensed to practice on 26 November 1902. By 1907 he was practicing in East London, where he remained until moving to Idutywa in the Transkei around 1911. He was still working there in 1915.

Aitken contributed articles on a variety of topics to the South African Medical Record, for example, "Efficacy of diphtheria antitoxin" and "Natural process of cure in constipation" (1903/4, Vol. 1); "Bossi's dilator" and "Post-graduate study in South Africa" (1905, Vol. 3); and "Wound of the scrotum" (1908, Vol. 6). He was still active in 1916, when three articles by him appeared in the same journal: "Rheumatism?", "Feverishness in children", and "Twins and triplets". During the period 1905 to 1928 he also contributed a dozen or so articles to the British Medical Journal, including 'Illness following a tick bite' (1905) and several on the effects of nasal obstruction.

During World War I (1914-1918) Aitken served in the Royal Army Medical Corps with the rank of Captain.

List of sources:

Charles James Hill Aitken. Lives of the First World War. Retrieved on 17 November 2022 from https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/665212

General directory of South Africa, 1908-1911.

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by C. J. H. Aitken.

Medical and Pharmacy Register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1907.

Minor complaints associated with dilatation of the stomach. Edinburgh Research Archive: Edinburgh Medical School thesis and dissertation collection. Retrieved on 17 November 2022 from https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/25367?show=full

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

South African Medical Record, 1903-1908, Vol. 1-6; 1916, Vol. 14.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2022-11-17 12:05:52