Arthur Thomson (military surgeon)

Surgeon Major Arthur Saunders Thomson (29 December 1816 – 4 November 1860) was a notable Scottish military surgeon, medical scientist, writer and historian. He was born in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland in 1816.

He joined the British Army on 19 October 1838 as an assistant surgeon to the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot and was stationed in India with the 14th (The King's) Regiment of Light Dragoons until 1847. There, he wrote about the epidemic of fever among his regiment during the monsoon season. Upon his return to England, he was appointed surgeon to the 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot and sent to New Zealand. In New Zealand he wrote extensively about disease statistics among Māori and European populations and climatology.

Thomson's book, The Story of New Zealand: Past and Present, Savage and Civilized (1859), is generally considered to be the first scholarly history of the island country.

He was promoted to surgeon major in 1858 and was sent back to England. A year later, he was placed in charge of the hospital steamship Mauritius and sent to China where he was in medical charge of the 2nd Division, British Expeditionary Force. He died there on 4 November 1860 and was buried in the Russian cemetery, Pekin.