Sir William Gull
Physician
Died when: 73 years 29 days (876 months)Star Sign: Capricorn
Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet (31 December 1816 – 29 January 1890) was an English physician.Of modest family origins, he established a lucrative private practice and served as Governor of Guy's Hospital, Fullerian Professor of Physiology and President of the Clinical Society.
In 1871, having successfully treated the Prince of Wales during a life-threatening attack of typhoid fever, he was created a Baronet and appointed to be one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria.
Gull made some significant contributions to medical science, including advancing the understanding of myxoedema, Bright's disease, paraplegia and anorexia nervosa (for which he first established the name).
A widely discredited masonic/royal conspiracy theory created in the 1970s alleged that Gull knew the identity of Jack the Ripper, or even that he himself was the murderer.
Although scholars have dismissed it, and Gull was 71 years old and in ill health when the murders were committed, it has been used by creators of fictional works.
Examples for his portrayal as Jack the Ripper include the films Jack the Ripper (1988) and From Hell (2001), the latter based on the graphic novel.
