ABSTRACT
Benjamin Harrison (1771–1856) was treasurer of Guy’s Hospital. He was ‘viewed as an autocratic, even a despotic, administrator by contemporaries who referred to him as King Harrison’ ( 2 ). However, he was a driving force behind the success of the medical school and oversaw a rapid expansion in its size and power. Was he one of the first people to realise the importance of funding streams for medical education? Certainly, Thomas Clifford Allbutt, writing nearly a century later, was keen to press the point home: ‘but let it be clearly understood that all these betterments of medical education will cost money, and let us not hesitate to say so’ ( 3 ).
