Dr Lachlan Grant (1871-1945)

Dr Lachlan Grant practised as a doctor in the rural community of Ballachulish, Scotland for over 40 years. His substantial contribution over a professional life time as a general practitioner (GP), medical scientist and occupational physician has recently come to the attention of social historians researching his political contribution as a social reformer [1]. After gaining a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh and despite a promising career in research and teaching, he dedicated his professional life to rural general practice [2]. He developed an early interest in tuberculosis and established a laboratory service for accurate diagnosis. His multitude of publications in the Lancet and British Medical Journal made frequent reference to the importance of laboratory medical science, especially in a rural context [3–5]. He returned to the family home in Ballachulish in the late 1890s as a medical employee of the slate quarry and was tasked with looking after slate quarry workers and their families [6,7]. Grant was an ardent writer on social reform, land reform, nationalization and economic development. He campaigned for social justice for agricultural workers and crofters inaugurating the Highland Crofters and Cottars Association in 1906, along trade union lines [8]. He also campaigned nationally against economic migration to Canada and New Zealand which he felt was taking the best young people from his community [9]. In the mid-1930s, Grant published his ideas about Highland development in a seminal pamphlet, A New Deal for the Highlands [10]. When British Aluminium established a plant at Kinlochleven, he became the company medical officer (1930). Grant’s experience in occupational health, including challenging his employer over health and safety issues and considering the balance of employment opportunities and health impacts from new industries, remains relevant today [11,12]. In 1912, the British government was so concerned about poor medical services in the Highlands and Islands that they commissioned a report by Sir John Dewar, MP for Inverness-shire. Grant gave crucial evidence to this committee, which stands out in its analytical ability and visionary thinking. He advocated a state-funded and organized health service and mapped out an organizational framework and professional governance structure that we recognize today in the National Health Service (NHS) [13]. The Highlands and Islands Medical Service was established in 1913 [14]. It piloted the concept of a state health care system in the UK and the service administrator Miss Muriel Ritson served on the Beveridge Commission in the early 1940s. It was the Beveridge Report, published in 1942, which set out the concept of the NHS.

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