John Abercrombie was born in France, where his father, John Abercrombie, was serving in the army of occupation as surgeon to the 2nd Dragoon Guards. He went from Tonbridge School to Caius College, Cambridge, in 1834, won a scholarship in mathematics, and took his B.A. degree in 1839, having rowed and played cricket against Oxford in that year. He studied medicine at St. George’s Hospital and proceeded to his M.B. in 1845, being chosen to make the Thruston Speech at Caius seven years later. He held an early appointment at the Public Dispensary, Lincoln’s Inn, but in 1848 settled in Cheltenham, where he was made physician both to the General Hospital and to the College. After retiring in 1879, he lived in London, where he died.

G H Brown

[Med.-Chir.Trans., 1893, lxxvi, 28; Biog.Hist.of Caius College, ii, 229; Boase, iv, 11]