James Sawyer was born at Carlisle, the eldest son of James Sawyer and his wife Ann, daughter of William George of Ross. He studied medicine at Queen’s College, Birmingham, and qualified in 1866. He then obtained resident posts at the Queen’s Hospital, Birmingham, to which he was elected physician in 1871, and consulting physician on his retirement. He was also physician to the Children’s Hospital from 1871 to 1876. At Queen’s College, he occupied the chairs of pathology (1875-78), materia medica and therapeutics (1878-85) and medicine (1885-91). He was the author of Contributions to Practical Medicine (1886), which reached a fifth edition in 1912, and delivered the Lumleian Lectures before the Royal College of Physicians in 1908. Sawyer, who was knighted in 1885, was prominent in local politics and public affairs, and held office as president of the Birmingham Conservative Association for some years and as president of the Warwickshire Chamber of Agriculture in 1902. Another of his interests was heraldry. He married in 1873 Adelaide, daughter of Rev. J. Harwood Hill, rector of Cranoe, Leicestershire, and had two sons and two daughters, one of whom married H. S. French, F.R.C.P. He died at Hatton, Warwick.

G H Brown

[Lancet, 1919; B.M.J., 1919]