Balfour, Andrew Howden

Updated September 17, 2014

Andrew Howden Balfour, surgeon, was listed as a resident of Hong Kong from 1846 to 1853. He was a resident surgeon of the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company (P&O) in 1846. He carried on a private practice in 1850. He was a Vice President of Royal Asiatic Society, China Branch, and of the Medical Missionary Society 中國博醫會 in 1850. He sat in the Examining Committee of the Morrison Education Society, and the Committee of Management of the Society for Relief of Sick and Destitute Foreigners in 1850. in 1850. He was one of the three coadjutors of the Union Church in 1850. Hollywood Road was listed as his address in 1850.

Balfour was born in 1819. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He was awarded Licentiate Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1844. He resided in Hong Kong between 1846 and 1853. He lived in Portobello, Edinburgh after Hong Kong and was said to have the best provincial practice in Scotland. He assisted in his sons' practices in later years due to declining health. He was a noted botanist. Balfour died in Portobello, Edinburgh in 1886.

John Hutton Balfour. Credit: Science & Society

Balfour was the son of Andrew Balfour and Magdalene Goldie (born in 1784 and died in 1849). He had ten siblings: John Hutton Balfour, botanist, professor of Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh; Magdalene Howden Browne; Mary Ann Balfour; Margaret Balfour; George Goldie Balfour; T.N.G. Balfour, medical practitioner; and and four others [names unknown]. He was married to Alison Lawson Hunter (born in 1818 and died in Edinburgh in 1875). The marriage bore six children: Alison Millar Balfour; Magdalene Goldie Balfour; Andrew H. Balfour, medical practitioner; James Duncan Balfour; William Balfour; and J.H. Balfour, medical practitioner.

Six medical practitioners were listed in the 1850 Hong Kong Almanack and Directory, arranged according to priority of residence. They were: Peter Young, George Kingston Barton, Thomas Hunter, Andrew Howden Balfour, William T. Morrison and Nicolet Michel Clerjon.

Selected Bibliography: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland [online]. The British Medical Journal, December 4, 1886, p.1125. Geni [online]. Tarrent, William, The Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for the Year 1846, 1848, 1850, Hong Kong: China Mail, resp. 1846,1848 and 1850.