Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Marsden, Alexander Edwin
MARSDEN, ALEXANDER EDWIN (1832–1902), surgeon, born on 22 Sept. 1832, was son by his first wife of William Marsden [q. v.], surgeon. He was educated at Wimbledon school and King's College, London, and was admitted a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1853 and M.R.C.S. England in 1854; he graduated M.D. at St. Andrews in 1862 and became F.R.C.S. Edinburgh in 1868.
Entering the army in 1854 as staff assistant surgeon, he served in the Crimean war. For three months he was in the general hospital at Scutari; early in 1855 he was sent to Sevastopol with the 38th regiment, and he acted afterwards as a surgeon to the ambulance corps until the end of the war, when he received the Crimean and Turkish medals. On his return to England he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, London (founded by his father), where he was also curator of the museum and general superintendent. At the cancer hospital at Brompton (also founded by his father) he was surgeon from 1853 to 1884; consulting surgeon from 1884 until his death; trustee from 1865; member of the house committee from 1870, and chairman of the general committee from 1901.
In 1898 he was master of the City company of cordwainers, and on his retirement he presented to the company the service of plate given to his father in 1840 in recognition of his philanthropic work in opening the first free hospitals in London. Marsden died at 92 Nightingale Lane, Wandsworth Common, S.W., on 2 July 1902.
In 1856 he married Catherine, only daughter of David Marsden, banker.
Marsden published: 1. 'A New and Certain Successful Mode of treating Certain Forms of Cancer,' 1869; reissued 1874 (a collection of extracts, 1870). 2. 'The Treatment of Cancers and Tumours by Chian Turpentine,' 1880. 3. 'Our Present Means of successfully treating or alleviating Cancer,' 1889. He also edited in 1871 the fourth edition of his father's treatise on 'Malignant Diarrhœa,' better known by the Name of Asiatic or Malignant Cholera.'
[Men and Women of the Time, 1899; Lancet, 1902, ii. 118; Brit. Mod. Journal, 1902, ii. 157; private information.]