Robert James Lee FRCP (9 November 1841, St James Parish, London[1] – 17 November 1924, West Drayton, Middlesex[2]) was an English physician. He published papers on diseases of children[1] and on the "treatment of pulmonary phthisis by antiseptic vapours".[2]
He had two younger brothers, James Irwin Lee (1843–1880) and John Francis Lee (1850–1905), both of whom graduated from the University of Cambridge.[3][4] The father of the three brothers was the obstetrician Robert Lee, who held the chair of midwifery at St George's Hospital.[5]
After education at King's College School and Brighton College,[6] Robert James Lee matriculated in May 1859 at Caius College, Cambridge.[1] During his undergraduate years he was both a runner and an oarsman. He read natural sciences and graduated with a B.A. in 1863. After studying medicine in London at St George's Hospital and at St Thomas Hospital and in Paris, he graduated with his M.B. degree in 1865.[6] In 1866 he qualified as M.R.C.P.[2] In 1869 he graduated from the University of Cambridge with both M.A. and M.D.[1]
At the beginning of his career, he was appointed as a physician to Marylebone's Western General Dispensary[6][7] and as a lecturer on forensic medicine and pathology at the Westminster Hospital. Later in his career he was appointed to St George's Hospital as an assistant obstetric physician, as well as a lecturer on obstetric medicine. He was also appointed to London's Hospital for Sick Children (later renamed Great Ormond Street Hospital) as an assistant physician with eventual promotion to full physician.[6]
In 1874[2] he delivered the Goulstonian Lectures[8][9][10] [11][12][13] and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.[2]
He spent the years from 1910 to 1924 in retirement in West Drayton.[2] One of his two daughters was the actress Auriol Lee.[6]
