William Sturge
William Allen Sturge (1850-1919) was an English physician and archaeologist
Best known for his early clinical description of Sturge-Weber syndrome, a neurocutaneous disorder that now bears his name. A thoughtful clinician with a keen interest in neurological disease, Sturge also contributed to the understanding of muscular atrophy and was recognised with the Silver Medal of the Medical Society of London.
Educated at Bristol Medical School and University College London, Sturge further honed his neurological expertise under Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) and Jean–Alfred Fournier (1832-1914) in Paris. He and his first wife, Dr Emily Bovell (1841–1885)—one of the pioneering “Edinburgh Seven” women medical graduates—established a prominent medical practice in Wimpole Street, London, where Sturge combined clinical work with teaching and research.
Sturge’s career took an unexpected turn when Emily’s declining health prompted a move to Nice, where he practised for 27 years. His reputation grew on the French Riviera, where he cared for British and American elites, including Queen Victoria and her family, for which he was awarded the MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order). In later life, he became a passionate archaeologist, assembling renowned collections of prehistoric flints and Greek antiquities now housed in major public museums.
Sturge’s legacy in medicine endures through the eponymous syndrome that reflects his prescient clinical insights into vascular malformations and neurological disease. His parallel achievements in archaeology further underscore the breadth of his intellectual pursuits and lasting cultural contributions
Biography
- 1850 – Born in Bristol, England; eldest son of William Sturge (land surveyor) and Charlotte Allen.
- 1865 – Attended a Quaker school in London; injured his knees playing soccer and developed an interest in medicine during recuperation with his physician uncle.
- 1868 – Entered Bristol Medical School; undertook practical work at Bristol General Hospital.
- 1870 – Passed Primary Examination of the College of Surgeons.
- 1871 – Continued medical studies at University College, London.
- 1873 – Travelled to Egypt as medical attendant; qualified MB (London) on return.
- 1875 – Completed MD (London).
- 1875 onwards – Appointed Physician’s Assistant, later Resident Medical Officer, and Registrar at the National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy, Queen Square; laid foundation for extensive work in neurology.
- 1876–1877 – Studied in Paris: neurology with Charcotat the Salpêtrière and pathology with Fournier at Hôpital Saint-Louis.
- 1877 – Married Dr Emily Bovell; returned to London and established a joint medical practice in Wimpole Street.
- Late 1870s – Appointed Assistant Physician and Pathologist at the Royal Free Hospital; Physician to the Royal Infirmary for Women and Children; held junior appointments at University College Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children; Lecturer in pathology at the London School of Medicine for Women.
- 1879 (April) – Presented first clinical description of Sturge-Weber syndrome to the Clinical Society of London. Awarded Silver Medal of the Medical Society of London for dissertation on progressive muscular atrophy.
- 1880 – Moved to Nice, France, due to Emily Bovell’s tuberculosis; established a successful practice serving English and American visitors on the Riviera.
- 1880–1907 – Practised in Nice for 27 years; personal physician to Queen Victoria and her family during four visits to Cimiez; awarded MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order).
- 1885 – Death of Emily Bovell.
- 1886 – Married Julia Sherriff, a former nurse and daughter of a wealthy ironmaster.
- 1907 – Retired to Icklingham Hall, Suffolk; established a private museum of more than 100,000 prehistoric flint implements; bequeathed collection to the British Museum.
- Founded and served as first president of the Society of Prehistoric Archaeology of East Anglia (exact date not provided). Assembled a notable collection of Greek vases (now housed as the Sturge Collection in the Toronto Museum, Canada).
- 1918 (Winter) – Contracted Spanish influenza, which progressed to nephritis.
- Died Mrch 27, 1919 at Icklingham, Suffolk
Medical Eponyms
Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS) is a rare, congenital neurocutaneous disorder characterised by capillary-venous malformations involving the skin, leptomeninges, and ocular structures. The hallmark clinical triad includes facial port-wine stain (nevus flammeus), leptomeningeal angiomatosis, and ocular involvement, typically glaucoma.
1879 – William Allen Sturge (1850-1919) presented a 6½-year-old girl with facial port-wine stain, seizures, and glaucoma to the Clinical Society of London – A case of partial epilepsy, apparently due to a lesion of one of the vasomotor centres of the brain. He detailed focal twitching of the left side of her body at 6 months of age which later spread to the other side with loss of consciousness.
The patient was born with a very extensive ‘mother’s mark‘ on the right side of the head and face. The mark is bounded pretty accurately by the middle line in the upper lip, nose, forehead, scalp, and back of the neck, extending a little beyond the middle line on the chin and on the upper part of the sternum…The mark is everywhere of a deep purple colour, the colour partially disappearing on firm pressure. All the parts affected are distinctly larger than the corresponding parts on the opposite side.
The right eye is affected in a similar way both in its superficial and deep structures. It is larger than the left; the sclerotic is more vascular than usual, and with the ophthalmoscope it can be seen that the retina and choroid are involved.
The point to which I wish to call particular attention is the probable relationship between the mark and the fits…the fits for a long time were confined to the left side opposite to the port- wine mark…they begin in the left hand with a sensory warning of considerable duration, and sometimes appear to consist only of a sensation of some kind in that hand. From the nature of the fits, and from their mode of onset…the cause is in all probability to be found in the presence of a ‘port- wine mark’ on the surface of the right side of the brain, just as we have found it in the skin, mucous membranes, and retina of that side.
1901 – Siegfried Kalischer (1862–1954) provided first histopathological confirmation of leptomeningeal angiomatosis.
1922 – Frederick Parkes Weber (1863–1962) demonstrated characteristic intracranial calcifications via radiographs in his article “Right-sided hemi-hypertrophy resulting from right-sided congenital spastic hemiplegia… a morbid condition of the left side of the brain, revealed by radiograms.”
1963 – Scottish ophthalmic surgeon, Sir Stephen James Hamilton Miller (1915–1996) provided a a comprehensive ophthalmic review of SWS. He reviewed the original ophthalmic report by Edward Nettleship (1845-1913) from 1879
Ophthalmoscope – Right disc much redder than left. Choroid. – The general colour is very markedly darker and at the same time redder in the right than the left eye. The difference is not what we should expect if it were due to the pigment being more abundant in one eye than the other; it is suggestive of venous or venous and capillary hypertrophy like that on the skin
and concluded…
This report indicates that Sturge’s original case presented a vascular disturbance in the choroid of the buphthalmic eye. Sturge’s patient also suffered from hemiparesis and epilepsy and he maintained, rightly, that the neurological component of he syndrome was due to a naevoid condition of the brain, akin to that of the patient’s face.
Major Publications
- Sturge WA. A case of partial epilepsy, apparently due to a lesion of one of the vasomotor centres of the brain. Transactions of the Clinical Society of London. 1879; 12: 162.
References
Biography
- Barlow T. William Allen Sturge. MVO, MD. BMJ 1919;1:468–9.
- Pearce JMS. Historical vignette: The Sturge–Weber syndrome. Eur Neurol. 2003;49(2):59–61.
- Pearce JM. Sturge-Weber syndrome (encephalotrigeminal or leptomeningeal angiomatosis). J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Nov;77(11):1291-2.
- William Allen Sturge. Royal College of Physicians
Eponymous terms
- Kalischer S. Ein Fall von Telangiektasie (Angiom) des Gesichts und der weichen Hirnhäute. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten. 1901, 34: 171-180.
- Lassman LP. William Allen Sturge (1850–1919) and the Sturge-Weber syndrome. Arch Dis Child. 1964;39:292–298.
- Comi AM, Hunt P, Vawter MP, Pardo CA, Becker KG, Pevsner J. Increased fibronectin expression in sturge-weber syndrome fibroblasts and brain tissue. Pediatr Res. 2003 May;53(5):762-9.
- Thomas-Sohl KA, Vaslow DF, Maria BL. Sturge-Weber syndrome: a review. Pediatr Neurol. 2004 May;30(5):303-10.
- Comi AM. Sturge-Weber syndrome. Handb Clin Neurol. 2015;132:157-68.
Eponym
the person behind the name
