William Hey (surgeon)

William Hey
William Hey, 1816 stipple engraving
Born23 August 1736
Pudsey, Leeds, England
Died23 March 1819
Occupation(s)Surgeon and politician

William Hey (23 August 1736 – 23 March 1819) was an English surgeon, born in Pudsey, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Richard Hey and his wife Mary Simpson; John Hey and Richard Hey were his brothers.[1] He was a surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary from its opening in a temporary building in 1776, and senior surgeon from 1773 to 1812.

He gave his name to Hey's amputation (a tarso-metatarsal amputation), Hey's internal derangement (dislocation of the semilunar cartilages of the knee joint), Hey's ligament (the semilunar lateral margin (falciform margin) of the fossa ovalis), and Hey's saw, used in skull surgery.[2]

Hey served as mayor of Leeds in 1787–88 and 1802–03. In 1783 he was President of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. He also founded the Leeds Club. In March 1775, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[3] He was one of the founding members of the Leeds Library,[4] alongside his friend Joseph Priestley and other surgeons, clergymen, leading industrialists and businessmen.[5]

  1. ^ DeLacy, Margaret. "Hey, William". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13163. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ "William Hey". Who Named It?. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  3. ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  4. ^ "William Hey FRS (1736–1819) – They Lived in Leeds – Thoresby Society". thoresby.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  5. ^ "About Us". The Leeds Library. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2021.