WATCH: Michael Pedersen's poem to mark 300th anniversary of Edinburgh University medical school
The 300th anniversary of Edinburgh University’s medical school is an opportunity to look both backwards and forwards, writes Michael Pedersen
From the discovery of penicillin to the world’s first anaesthetic, the barber surgeons to Elsie Inglis, Edinburgh’s medical history is gargantuan, glorious, and gruesome. The 300 year anniversary of Edinburgh University’s medical school calls for an examination of not just those last three centuries but what came before and what lies ahead.
Throughout 2026, Edinburgh Medical School (EMS) are exploring the past and present with as many people as possible to help shape the future for medicine in Edinburgh. A year-long programme of events and activities will mark the occasion with the aim of building community, forging meaningful partnerships and creating sustainable change.
In my role as Edinburgh Makar, I was asked to investigate this rich history within the confines of a poem, and this has now been transformed into a stunning slice of animated film by students at Edinburgh College of Art.
When this commission came to me, amongst a flurry of other pitches, I knew it was one I had to do. I’m infinitely fascinated about Edinburgh’s history in general, and the medical history of this city is totally enthralling – gripping and gory. Having been born in Elsie Inglis Hospital, with a mum who trained as a maternity nurse at the old Simpson’s Hospital (aka The Edinburgh Royal Maternity and Simpson Memorial Pavilion), there were all sorts of notes of reverence to be played. I wasn’t prepared for just how personal it would get, though, my mum having been diagnosed with cancer midway through the writing process.
EMS 300 plied me with information, gave me a truly scintillating three-hour Edinburgh medical history tour and a behind the scenes look at the curios stashed away in the medical school’s anatomy museum – including a plaster cast of Robert Burns' skull for the phrenology zealots, the skeleton of notorious murderer William Burke and the cadaver of the infamous "Mercury Man". I also got access to contemporary luminaries in the field and academic material aplenty – a veritable deluge of medical glister. I left buoyed, edified, and saturated with information.
What resulted is a medley in itself – a dance through the laurels of Edinburgh’s medical history alongside my own personal narrative, as my mum underwent live-saving operations and treatments. I was feeling grateful for medical science and in awe of the NHS, both swooning and terrified. The poem became the vessel for all that, and more.
To have my work, once again, transformed into animated splendour by the students at Edinburgh College of Art is a majestic thrill. Their work both enlivens and deepens my poem, whilst adding a whole new narrative to the city’s lore through the lens of three international artists making Edinburgh their home. Not only that but the poem will appear in print as part of a stunning anthology of work produced in collaboration with the Scottish Poetry Library – other featured writers include Robert Burns, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wendy Cope, WE Henley, Julia Darling, and medical school graduates such as Nina Young.
For more on this year’s “Edinburgh Medical School: 300 Years of Medicine” programme, see www,medicine-vet-medicine.ed.ac.uk/300-years-of-medicine/events
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning poet and author and the seventh Edinburgh Makar (poet laureate), see www.michaelpedersen.co.uk
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