Col. JAMES HYSLOP, 



D.S.O., V.D., M.B, CM.., S.A-M.C. 

 (Born yd March, 1856; Died stii October, 1917). 



The death of Colonel James Hyslop occurred at Pieter- 

 maritzburg on the 5th day of October, 19x7, after an illness of 

 about two months' duration. 



From the beginning of the present war tJhe deceased had 

 been on active service, first as Assistant Director of Medical 

 Services at Pietermaritzburg. then Deputy Director at Durban, 

 where, owing to the strain of overwork, his constitution gave 

 way, and he was consequently released from military service 

 in- August, 1917, an invalid. 



James Hyslop's career was both varied and interesting ; his 

 activities were manifold, and his sympathies wide. 



He was born in 1856 at Kirkcudbright, Scotland, his father 

 being Mr. Thomas Hyslop, of Woodpark, Kirkcudbrightshire. 

 He was educated at Hutton Hall and at Edinburgh University, 

 where he was a pupil of Sir Wyville Thompson, of Lord Lister, 

 and temporarily of Huxley. He graduated in medicine at Edin- 

 burgh in 1879, subsequently specializing in mental diseases at 

 Berlin, Vienna, and Munich ; and he held an appointment as 

 Assistant at Morningside Asylum, near Edinburgh, under the 

 eminent authority Clouston, prior to his coming to Maritzburg 

 as Medical Superintendent of the Natal Government Asylum 

 (now known as the Mental Hospital) in 1882. He held the 

 latter position with distinction until his retiral in 1914. 



On arriving in Maritzburg 'he found the asylum a small 

 building-, containing 71 patients, and perched on a bare hillside. 

 The inmates were, in the light of modern methods, comparatively 

 neglected ; but Hyslop set to w'ork, and in course of time the 

 patients were provided with comforts and amusements, the 

 accommodation was expanded, and the grounds assumed the 

 appearance of a cultivated and well-planted demesne, until when 

 he retired his charge had become one of the show places of the 

 town, with alas ! about ten times more patients than when he 

 took over 32 years before. Mention might be made here of the 

 long and able assistance rendered to Colonel Hyslop by Head 

 Attendant Davidson, one of the landmarks of the institution. 



At an early age of 17 Hyslop's martial instincts led him 

 to join the volunteer movement in Scotland, and he was, with 

 only one short break on his arrival in South Africa, in military 

 service until his death. 



At the outbreak of the last Boer war, Hyslop was 

 a Lieutenant-Colonel and O.C, of the Natal Medical Corps, and 

 was with our forces besieged in Ladysmith. For his excellent 

 services in that campaign he was rewarded with the D.S.O. 



Unfortunately, a short time before the siege was raised, he 

 contracted enteric, which left him with a somewhat impaired 

 constitution. On his recovery he took up his military duties in 

 Maritzburir with his accustomed enthusiasm- As an evidence of 



