Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Falconer, Randle Wilbraham
FALCONER, RANDLE WILBRAHAM (1816–1881), medical writer, fourth son of Thomas Falconer, M.D. (1772–1839) [q. v.], born in 1816, was for many years one of the leading physicians of Bath, where his grandfather, William Falconer, M.D. (1744–1824) [q. v.], had also practised. He began the study of medicine at Edinburgh in 1835, and graduated there in 1839. At first he settled at Tenby, but in 1847 he moved to Bath, where he continued to practise till his death. He was a man of varied knowledge and accomplishments, fond of archæology and botany, and so much esteemed by his fellow-citizens that they elected him mayor in 1857. In addition to his Edinburgh doctorate, he held the honorary title of doctor from the Queen's University, Ireland, 1879, and that of fellow from the King and Queen's College, Dublin, and was a fellow of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of London. In 1878, when the British Medical Association met at Bath, he was elected president. He died 6 May 1881. As physician to the Bath General or Mineral Water Hospital he bestowed much attention on the curative virtues of the baths, and his work on ‘The Baths and Mineral Waters’ reached a fifth edition in 1871. Other publications were the following: ‘Reports of Cures at the Bath General Hospital,’ 1860; ‘The Bath Mineral Waters,’ &c., 1861; and in the same year he contributed cases to the ‘British Medical Journal.’
[Address of the President of the Med.-Chir. Soc.; Medical Directory.]