Robert Coltman

Dr. Robert Coltman, M.D.
Born	19 August 1862 Washington, District of Columbia
Died	25 November 1931 Washington, District of Columbia
Resting place	Glenwood Cemetery, Washington D.C.
Alma mater	Jefferson Medical College
Occupation	Author Physician Professor

Robert Coltman, Jr. (August 19, 1862^[1] – November 3, 1931) was an American physician, born in Washington, to Robert Coltman and Mary Jane Clements. He received his medical training at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia,^[2] and in 1881 began the practice of medicine. In 1896 he was appointed professor of anatomy at the , Peking, and in 1898 professor of surgery at the Imperial University, Peking. He was personal physician to the Chinese royal household during that time. Li Hung Chang bestowed upon Dr. Coltman the decoration of the Double Dragon and made him a mandarin of the fourth rank.^[3]

Biography[]

Robert married Alice Winifred Gallagher, on August 26, 1881 in Pennsylvania. He fathered six children from this marriage.

During the siege of Peking by the Boxers in 1900 he sent out the first message that reached the outside world, acting as correspondent for the Chicago . He became attorney for the Standard Oil Company at Tientsin, China.

He was author of The Chinese, their Present and Future: Medical, Political, and Social (1891) and Yellow Crime, or Beleaguered in Peking (1901).

Coltman retired in 1925 and returned to Washington, D.C, where he would die in 1931. He was a member of the following societies: a Mason, Sons of the American Revolution and the Society of the Cincinnati.^[4]

Works[]

• Coltman, Robert (1891). The Chinese, their present and future: medical, political, and social Philadelphia: Davis. -University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, China Through Western Eyes
• Beleaguered in Peking: the boxer's war against the foreigner (1901); reprinted (with a foreword by Gareth Powell) by China Economic Review Publishing Ltd., Hong Kong, 2008

References[]

External links[]

• New York Times obituary, Nov. 5, 1931 (subscription required)
• Evening star., November 04, 1931, Page A-3 (free)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. Missing or empty |title= (help)