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Summary

Description

Sir John James Burnet (Burnet Son and Dick), 1923-25; sculptor, George Henry Paulin. Memorial to William and John Hunter. U-plan. Cenotaph type, with long low wings embracing raised platform. Polished ashlar sandstone.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: Central cenotaph containing sculpture of St Kentigern and inlaid bronze memorial text ('In gratam memoriam fratrum de scientia naturali et medendi arte optime meritorum Gulielmi 1718-1783 et Johannis 1728-1793 Hunter quorum uterque famae venator aeternaehic collegium chirugorum Londini regium ille Glasguae almnus idem et ditator matrem studiorum universitatem musaeo condito ornavit'); flanking wings containing medallion portraits of William and John Hunter; lower flanking walls.

Statement of Special Interest

Hunter Memorial is part of an A-Group with McMillan Reading Room, Gatepiers, Railings, Quincentenary Gates, Lord Kelvin's Sundial, Pearce Lodge, John McIntyre Building, Thomson Building, James Watt Building and Gilbert Scott Buildings.

This memorial was designed by one of the UK's foremost architects, Sir John James Burnet, to prominent alumni of the University of Glasgow, William Hunter (1718-83) and his brother, John Hunter (1728-93).

The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery was named after William Hunter, who bequeathed his substantial collection of anatomical and pathological samples, coins, books, manuscripts, botanical and geological specimens and other materials to the University. He was a student at the University from 1731 to 1736, and became a leading anatomist and medical teacher in London. John Hunter was a pioneer of careful observation and scientific method in medicine, and regarded as one of the leading scientists and surgeons of his day. He was appointed Surgeon to King George III in 1776 and Surgeon General in 1789. The Hunterian Society and the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London are named after him.

John James Burnet was one of Scotland's leading architects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Son of another architect, John Burnet Senior, he trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Burnet was a pioneer of the stylistic move from historicist styles to a tradition-based, but free-style architecture. He developed enormously successful and influential practices in Glasgow and London, designing a number of eminent buildings including the Fine Art Institute, Athenaeum Theatre, Charing Cross Mansions, Atlantic Chambers and Clyde Navigation Trust Offices in Glasgow and the Kodak Building, the second and third phases of Selfridges, Adelaide House, and the King Edward VII Wing at the British Museum in London. Burnet was knighted for the latter project in 1914. Commissions for the University of Glasgow included: the Bower Building (1900), James Watt Engineering North Building (1901 and 1908), Thomson Building (1901), John McIntyre Building (1908), University Chapel (1923-29), and Zoology Building (1923). The neighbouring Glasgow Western Infirmary also employed Burnet Snr and John James Burnet for a number of projects.

The Hunter Memorial was unveiled by Mrs. George R Mather, widow of the brothers' biographer, on 24th June 1925.

List description updated as part of review of the University of Glasgow Hillhead Campus, 2011.

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