Sir James Wylie, 1st Baronet
Portrait of Wylie by Mihály Zichy (1841)
Born	James Wylie 13 November 1768 Kincardine-on-Forth, Scotland
Died	2 March 1854(1854-03-02) (aged 85) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh, King's College, Aberdeen
Known for	One of the organisers of military medicine in Russia
Awards	Russian Empire Order of Saint Vladimir 2nd Class (1812) Order of St. Anna 1st Class (1814, since 1821 with diamonds) Diploma of nobility of the Russian empire and approval of the annexed coat of arms (1816) Baronet of the Russian Empire (1824) Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky 3rd Class (1828, since 1838 with diamonds) Order of Saint Vladimir 1st Class (1840) Honorary member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences Austria Order of Leopold 2nd Class Bavaria Merit Order of the Bavarian Crown, Commander France Legion of honour, Chevalier (1807 or 1809) Prussia Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class (1835) United Kingdom Knighthood (1814), Baronetcy (1814) and his Coat of Arms United States Member of American Philosophical Society Württemberg Order of the Crown
Scientific career
Fields	Surgery, military medicine

Sir James Wylie, 1st Baronet (Russian: Я́ков Васи́льевич Ви́ллие, Yakov Vasilyevich Villiye; 13 November 1768 –2-March 1854), was a Scottish physician who served as a battlefield surgeon and as a court physician in the Russian Empire from 1790 until his death in 1854, and as president from 1808 to 1838 of both the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy at Saint Petersburg and its sister academy at Moscow. He is considered one of the foremost contributors to the development of military medicine in Russia by some by whom the role of the indigenous Russian Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov as the "father of combat medicine"^[1] may appear to be less valued.

James Wylie was born on 13 November 1768 at Kincardine-on-Forth, a Scottish seaport.^[2][3] His parents were Janet (née Meiklejohn) and William Wylie, he a carrier, Forth cargo transporter and farmer.^[2][3][4][5] James was the second of eight children, he and four brothers surviving infancy.^[6] Inevitably, young James would have spent much time around Kincardine's busy harbour, well on its way to becoming one of Scotland's busiest by the turn of the century,^[3] and he would likely have listened to many stories about distant, exotic places from encounters with the sailors there.^[7] Nevertheless, after leaving school, James had an ambition to study medicine and he was therefore apprenticed to the local doctor, although this didn't start well as "being rather hardly used he ran off to sea" according to a grand-niece.^[7] Upon learning of this, his mother walked 20 miles to the small seaport of Cramond-on-Forth, retrieved James from a sloop lying at anchor there and escorted him the 20 miles back to Kincardine, after which James returned to his apprenticeship, completed it, and thereby gained admittance to the University of Edinburgh.^[7]

Wylie successfully completed his studies at the university between 1796 and 1789, these years coinciding with a golden era of that medical school's history, during which it arguably provided the world's best medical instruction.^[7] Wylie would likely have encountered the university's foremost clinical teachers of their day in anatomy, in clinical medicine and physiology and in chemistry. This, together with acquired knowledge of the medical school's teaching methods and his observations of the advanced structure and layout of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary^[7] were major influences on Wylie and doubtless instrumental in his subsequent work in expanding and improving medical instruction in Russia, in expanding and improving military & civilian medical services there, and in his major contribution to Russian pharmacology.^[8]

Wylie left the university without graduating, not uncommon in those days, and in 1790, at the suggestion of John Rogerson, from Dumfries, a physician to Catherine the Great, he moved to Russia. To the Russians, who found his name impossible to pronounce, he was known as Villie.^[9]

Until well into the 19th century Russia had little in the way of an organised profession of medicine. Treatment for the Imperial Court and nobility was hired from abroad, and for the lower classes it was mainly in the hands of the clergy.^[10]

In accordance with Russian requirements he sat, and passed, the Russian State Medical Board examination for the right to practise medicine there, then worked for a time as medical attendant to the family of Prince Galitzin. He later enlisted in the Russian military and was appointed in December 1790 a physician within the Eletsky regiment, stationed at that time in Lithuania.^[9][11][12]

Wylie was surprised that only officers received medical assistance, with lower ranks thus more likely to succumb to their wounds, infections and diseases. He resolved to expand battlefield medicine to include the enlisted men as well. He would later enforce this once he was in a position to do so.

Wylie's surgical operations were particularly numerous during the regiment's participation in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, and during the extremely bloody Kościuszko Uprising in 1794 that culminated in the Battle of Praga, and he soon attracted attention by his surgical successes and the improvements that he had brought to battlefield medical treatment. One of those attracted was a Colonel Fenshaw who employed Wylie as a tutor to one of his sons, and it was over this period that Wylie became fluent in Russian.^[13]

What particularly made Wylie's reputation was his treatment for malaria, known then as intermittent fever, common then among soldiers and officers.^[14] For this, he devised his own medication of his own, this recognised in January 1793 with a special award by the commanders of the regiment.^[9]

One of his operations during this early military service involved a lithotomy, involved extracting an egg-sized bladder calculus, this receiving high praise from his Headquarters Physician. Wylie also successfully performed a particularly-rare operation to extract a bullet embedded in a soldier's lumbar vertebra.

In December 1794, Wylie finally received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, this by King's College, Aberdeen, in those days the degree of Doctor of Medicine being generally awarded there "in recognition of general and professional attainments".^[15]

He resigned from the army in November 1795 upon appointment as family physician to Count Boris Strogavoff in Saint Petersburg. He also commenced private practice nearby the imperial Court, his reputation growing quickly and attracting many society clients.^[2]

One year later, Catherine the Great died and the Russian crown passed to her son Paul, thereafter known as Tsar Paul I. Wylie's surgical skill, boldness and determination would soon land him important appointments at this tsar’s imperial Court.

Wylie having made a re-acquaintance with Dr Rogerson, Rogerson would afterwards contact his compatriot when he and a German surgeon were in despair about needing to use a catheter to remove a stone from the urinary bladder of Baron Otto von Blom, the Danish ambassador to the Russian court. Wylie performed the lithotomy with a trocar improvised out of the catheter, thereby saving the life of a friend of Tsar Paul, and Wylie was duly appointed Court Surgeon in February 1798.^[16] In July 1799 be became both Tsar Paul's Surgeon-in-Ordinary and Physician to the heir apparent (Grand Duke Alexander) when, being the only surgeon with enough courage to perform the first laryngotomy operation in Russia, he saved the life of a man about to suffocate. This was Count Ivan Kutaisov who was the tsar's barber, closest confidant and fixer, and been ennobled by him with the title of Count.^[2][16][17] Other cases, equally opportune for Wylie, occurred around this time, but his position remained very insecure for his good fortune would have aroused much jealousy in a Court where intrigue and violence were no strangers.^[10]

Throughout Paul's reign Wylie enjoyed his absolute trust, being awarded by him in early 1800 with the title "Doctor of Medicine and Surgery...for his skills and knowledge in medical science and for his success in the treatment of diseases". Accordingly, Wylie would accompany the tsar on a formal visit by him to exotic and Islamic Kazan in remote Tatarstan.

After Paul I was murdered by a group of disaffected military officers on 23 March 1801, Wylie was the first doctor on the scene.^[9] Later, Paul's body was handed over to Wylie and two other Scots doctors to dissect, with Wylie diplomatically certifying the cause of death to be apoplexy.^{[2][9][16][17]} The next day he embalmed Paul's distorted facial features to make them presentable for a public viewing prior to burial.^[9] Wylie's wise judgement and medical skills in this matter were welcomed across the Imperial Court..

The death of Tsar Paul ushered in the reign of his eldest son Grand Duke Alexander under the title of Tsar Alexander I. This did not affect Wylie's position at the Court, Alexander appointing him as his personal Body Surgeon and Physician and Wylie retaining his influence among the courtiers, along with many privileges. In time, Wylie would become a favourite confidant of the tsar, accompanying him on all his travels, very many of these across vast distances.^[9] He was to remain Alexander's Body Surgeon and Physician until the tsar's death in 1825.^[9]

Early in Alxander's reign, despite Wylie's lofty role for the tsar he nevertheless showed a strong interest in also teaching students at Saint Petersburg's Medical-Surgical Academy which had been formed in 1798 from four existing training centres for army and fleet physicians. After obtaining permission from the academy's Council, he taught there on anatomy and instructed students in how to perform operations, using both cadavers and living patients. According to Chistovich, "there was seldom a day when Wylie did not visit the Central Hospital of the Land Corps and did not watch treatment of patients, especially surgical ones". Later (in 1808), he was to become responsible for this medical training when elected president of both the academy and its sister academy in Moscow.^[18]

In September 1804 Wylie was awarded the Order of St Vladimir 4th class, the first of many awards received in his service to Russia.

Around this time, concerns had re-emerged in Russia about the stability of Europe posed by Napoleon. In 1804 Tsar Alexander invited Wylie into military service, already familiar to him, appointing him Medical Inspector of the Imperial Guard.^[19] From this point, the tsar would routinely detach Wylie from his Court duties to enable him to participate in Russia's military conflicts whenever they might occur. The additional experience in military medicine thereby gained by Wylie was to prove invaluable during his most definitive future test, Russia's bloody 1812-1814 war against Napoleon. It was also the start of a pattern of Wylie's concurrent involvement in the academic teaching of military medicine and personal in-field application of military medicine bundled together with his responsibilities as the tsar's Body Surgeon and Physician. Wylie would continue this pattern for the remainder of his long, busy career.

In early 1805, Russia, Austria and Britain formed a coalition against further French encroachment within Europe, with war then breaking out in October that year. Ten or so indecisive actions in Austria that month between Austrian and French forces were followed during the following month by battles in Austria between French and incomplete Russian forces at Schöngrabern and Wischau. In September 1805, Tsar Alexander joined the campaign in Austria, and he was accompanied, as always, by Wylie. At Wischau, Wylie was on the field of battle directing the Russian medical field services there. He great courage there, nearly losing his life when his horse was shot, and again when a cannon ball landed two steps away from him.

The decisive battle of the Austrian campaign took place on 2 December when the entire Russian and Austrian forces engaged Napoleon's entire force at the Battle of Austerlitz, north of Vienna. The tsar personally led the Russian forces, Wylie accompanying him throughout the battle. It was later noted that Wylie was one of the few that remained with the tsar in the heat of the battle and throughout the army's chaotic retreat from the battlefield after the combined Austrian/Russian force was defeated that day.^[14][20]

The allied coalition then fell apart as a result of a formal peace treaty being signed between Austria and France. A new coalition against France involving Russia, Britain, Prussia, Saxony, and Sweden was formed within months of the collapse of the previous one. There followed three indecisive battles involving Russian and French forces in Poland between December 1806 and May 1807 at Pultusk, Eylau and Heilsberg, these setting the stage for a major engagement on 14 June 1807 at the battle of Friedland in East Prussia. This battle inflicted an overwhelming defeat on the Russian forces, leading to the signing of a Franco-Russian peace treaty at Tilsit, this generally considered these days as the pinnacle of Napoleon's power. Wylie had attended all but one of the Russian army's battles under this coalition and he also attended the tsar at Tilsit.

In March 1807 the tsar had appointed Wylie to the position of Inspector General for the Army Board of Health, thus enabling Wylie to formally submit for the tsar's endorsement his suggestions for changes to army medicine. The Battle of Friedland had taken place shortly after this appointment, and it became the first occasion that Russian wounded were to be dressed in the field of battle, this necessarily taking place under the fire of cannon,^[9][21] and the doctors often treating the enemy's wounded as well as their own.^[9]

Much later, in 1814, after re-instatement of the monarchy in France, the new king would award Wylie the Legion of honour for Russian field medics and surgeons doing so with wounded French soldiers.^[22] For his work during these campaigns, Wylie would also be decorated by General Benningsen, the army's commander, and the tsar would award him another Order of St Vladimir, this one being of the 2nd class.^[23]

Wylie's successful management of all parts of the medical service during these campaigns and his development of several organisational documents together with his participation on the fields of battle had also attracted the attention of Russia's allies Austria and Prussia who then applied Wylie's successful methods in their own armies medical corps.

Between 1805 and 1808, Wylie published the following four books at Saint Petersburg, this work on these facilitated by the year-long break between the hostilities within Austria and those within Poland: Concerning American Yellow Fever published in early 1805, A Brief Manual of Most Important Surgical Operations and A Manual for Physicians Performing Recruit Selection, both published in 1806, and Russian Field Pharmacopoeia (Pharmacopoeia Castrensis Ruthena) first published in 1808.

Concerning American Yellow Fever was a small book written in Russian. Given the prevalence of this serious disease within the Russian army it was primarily directed at military physicians, giving the history of the disease, outlining its characteristics and symptoms, giving ways to prevent and treat it, and noting how these characteristics, treatments and preventions might differ to those of other diseases.

A Brief Manual of Most Important Surgical Operations. This 100-page book was the first field surgery manual published in Russia.

A Manual for Physicians Performing Recruit Selection gives recommendations for evaluating recruits' fitness for miliary service. It lists the diseases, the physical and psychiatric illnesses and the deformities that can render recruits unfit for army service, and describes methods for their diagnosis. A separate section describes the detection of feigned diseases, especially relevant during annual conscription of 'recruits' into a mandatory 25-year term of army service. ^[24]

His voluminous work written in Latin: the Russian Field Pharmacopoeia.

On 31 July 1808, Wylie became responsible for all academic training of military medicine within Russia as a result of his election as president of both Saint Peterburg's Medical-Surgical Academy (renamed that year as Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy) and a new sister academy to be established in Moscow, positions he held until 1838.^[18] At the Medical-Surgical Academy Wylie urged that medical students be taught solely in Russian rather than the existing practice of falling back on the Latin or German languages of many of the academy's old textbooks.

The period of Franco-Russian collaboration lasted until Dec. 31, 1810, when the tsar broke one its terms by opening Russian ports to neutral ships.^[24] From that point Russia's key government departments began preparing for a renewal of hostilities. In time, a small but highly skilled Russian spy cell in Paris and the astute Russian ambassador there were able to provide the tsar with early warning to indicate that Napoleon was planning to invade Russia during summertime in 1812.^[24] Russia's Imperial Ministry of War immediately commenced arrangements for massive increases in, inter alia, recruitment and training for reserve army battalions and militia units, cavalry horses, artillery pieces and shells, rifles and bullets, uniforms, stored rations, wagons and animals to haul the army's field equipment and rations.^[24]

The Army Medical Department also lost no time in bringing the army's medical services to a high state of efficiency, especially in regard to ensuring sufficient: trained field surgeons and medics; medical instruments and medications; material for the assembly of battlefield hospitals; ancillary army staff, carts and horses needed to transfer wounded soldiers to battle-site hospitals or further afield, plus all manner of other supplies. Wylie personally directed the Medical Department's preparations from his appointed as its Director in 1812, a position he held until his death in 1854.

When added to his election as president of the Medical-Surgical Academy in 1808, his concurrent involvement in both the academic teaching of military medicine and the personal in-field application of military medicine of his earlier years had now become substantially magnified into concurrent oversight of all academic teaching of military medicine throughout Russia and responsibility for the in-field application of military medicine throughout all of Russia's armies. These dual responsibilities continued for most of his remaining career in Russia.

A noteworthy outcome of Wylie's appointment as director of the Medical Department, was that in every possible way he supported and advanced Russian doctors, fand for this he obtained their appreciation and respect.^[25] Then later, once he could see that it had become possible for Russia to effectively train its own sons, he discontinued all recruitment of foreign doctors and surgeons into Russia's armed forces.^[9]

On 24 June 1812, a French force of about 200,000 crossed the Nemen river into Russia, the initial wave of about 615,000 troops in total by the end of the French campaign within Russia.^[24] This ushered in an unrelenting period of repeated deadly battles until the remaining French forces, just 18% of those who had entered Russia, scrambled back across the Nemen in mid-December 1812 just beyond Vilnius, Lithuania.^[24]

Tsar Alexander commanded the Russian 1st and 2nd Armies in their initial responses to the invasion, then returned to St. Petersburg leaving Wylie in the field augmented with any other doctors that could be spared from elsewhere, including civil hospitals.^[26] At the battle of Smolensk and thereafter he was free to direct his entire efforts to wounded soldiers and officers, he accompanying the Russian army on all of its remaining journey eastward to beyond Moscow and its exhausting westward pursuit of Napoleon's forces from the Russian army's temporary base nearby Moscow all the way to Vilnius.

Particularly bloody were the battles at Smolensk (16-18 August), Borodino (7 September) and Maloyaroslavets (24 October), all having high-stakes strategic implications.^[24] The Borodino battle, with Moscow at stake, was the deadliest single-day battle of the Napoleonic Wars and one of the bloodiest single-day battles in military history until the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. The entire French force was pitted against the combined Russian 1st and 2nd armies, the battlefield, about 88 miles west of Moscow, being almost the last realistic terrain for Russia's army to make a stand in defence of that city.^[24] Accompanying the battle until petering out towards its end was the constant, thunderous roar of discharges from some 1,224 artillery pieces in place there.^[24] The French fired off 90,000 artillery rounds that day, leaving them enough for just one more battle, and the following day Napoleon ordered his soldiers to collect all the used cannon balls scattered across the battlefield.

At Borodino, Wylie arranged to have an extra-large tent set up outside the battlefield to serve as a central surgical operations centre staffed with surgeons, nurses, and support staff. He is said to have personally performed a remarkably large number of operations there without differentiating between wounded friend and foe.^[27] He also attended the battlefield, as when seeing to the mortally wounded General Prince Pyotr Bagration, the commander-in-chief of 2nd Army. After the exhausted opposing forces had come to a standstill in the late afternoon, Wylie later took up an opportunity to ride in darkness with Count Platov and his force of Cossack horseback skirmishers on a bold extended foray across the French front lines.

The following day the Russian forces withdrew, but did so as major strategic victors. They re-assembled at Mojaisk further east toward Moscow. Many of the Russian wounded had been conveyed in carts to places of safety during the battle, with all wounded then borne with the army to Mojaisk.

In early 1813 Tsar Alexander formed a coalition with Prussia (the coalition to eventually to include Austria, Sweden, Württemburg and Baden) and hostilities against Napoleon were then resumed through Poland, Prussia and eventually into Paris. Apart from a nine-week mid-year truce willingly accepted by Tsar Alexander, this campaign entailed unrelenting minor and major battles together with numerous skirmishes involving small detached army units until the tar's coalition forces stormed into Paris on 31 March 1814.

Particularly bloody were the battles at Dresden and Liepzig. In August 1813 at Dresden, Wylie amputated the mortally wounded General Moreau's legs, which were shattered by a cannon shot as he was talking to the tsar.^[2][9]

Wylie is said to have accompanied the main Russian force for the entire journey from Borodino to Paris, not missing any of their battles.^[25] Wylie is reported as saying that his total travels with the army in the campaign.

The outcome of the pre-war efforts of the Medical Department of the Imperial Ministry of War was impressive. Russian military doctors had worked throughout this campaign as part of a coherent system to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield for recuperation or for surgery at field hospitals. This complex mechanism was set up by Wylie.

After Waterloo, with Napoleon no longer a threat, Wylie was now able to press ahead in developing his academy and reforming the military medical service in accord with his entire intentions for each.

Wylie accompanied Alexander I during his visit to England in 1814, and on 10 June at Ascot racecourse he was knighted at Alexander's request by the Prince Regent, becoming Sir James Wylie.^[28] On 2 July 1814, again at the tsar's request, Wylie was created a baronet in the name and on behalf of Prince Regent.^[28][29]

Tsar Alexander had intended to travel within Britain as far north as Edinburgh and then return directly to Saint Petersburg from the adjacent port of Leith.^[7] This would have provided the opportunity for Wylie to visit his home town, but the tsar had to curtail his visit and the chance was lost.^[7] In Paris, to where they returned from London, the tsar himself designed a coat of arms for Wylie, this confirmed by the Prince Regent in July that year as a favour to the tsar.^[16][27][28] The coat of arms is indicative of the bearer's great love of Russia. Above the shield, a Don Cossack holding a lance gallops to the right. Below that, the upper torso of a knight wearing an open-faced helmet signifies the bearer as being a baronet or knight. At the top of the shield is the double-headed Russian eagle, this being the badge of the Imperial Russian army. Below that is a blood stained glove and a fox that is typically present on Wylie coats of arms, finishing with two five-pointed stars further down. Below the shield, Wylie's motto, is written in Latin as Labore et Scientia, or By Hard Work and Knowledge.^[30][13] His supporters, Life Guards of the Semenovsky Regiment stand at attention, one on each side of the shield. Regarding their inclusion, it is worth mentioning that Baronets, as such, are not entitled to have supporters on their arms and these ones would have been granted by royal warrant in appreciation of Wylie's special services.^[13]

In early 1816, Tsar Alexander ordered that the diploma of nobility of the Russian Empire be made out to Wylie and also approved that Wylie's British coat of arms be annexed to it.^[31] In February 1824 his title as a British baronet was recognized by the State Council of the Russian Empire, making him the only baronet in the country's history. He also became an honorary member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences.^[16]

From September 1814 to June 1815, Wylie attended Tsar Alexander at the Congress of Vienna, a tortuous series of convoluted international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order in the wake of Napoleon's downfall.

On 10 January 1816, Tsar Alexander ordered the diploma of Nobility of the Russian Empire to be made out to Wylie, and to approve the coat of arms annexed to it.^[32]

Wylie attended Tsar Alexander at the Congress of Verona in 1822.

A standout achievement of these years was his founding of the Voenno-Meditsinskii Zhurnal (Journal of Military Medicine) in 1823, this becoming one of Russia's most significant journals, and nowadays Russia's oldest peer-reviewed scientific journal.^[2]

Wylie's shrewd clinical judgement and boldness were never more obvious than when in early 1824 discolouration accompanied by severe pain appeared in the emperor's leg, this being a major recurrence of erysipelas that had occasionally come and gone since the tsar had injured the leg in a carriage rollover while visiting the lands of his Don Cossacks in 1818.^[26][33] This time, advisers and other doctors within the imperial court were pressing for amputation of the leg, no doubt aware of likely violent mob reaction to them in the streets if the emperor were to die without them having taken any prior action. The doctors were even provided with passports to facilitate their escape in that event.^[26] But despite the danger, Wylie remained resolute in advising against an amputation. Slowly, the complaint yielded to cautery and the lancet, and the leg was saved.^[9][26][33]

A view into the strong relationship between Wylie and the tsar was manifest in August 1823 when Wylie was badly injured in his own carriage rollover near the small town of Novomyrhorod, south of Kyiv. He was afterwards visited there by a nephew (another James Wylie at Saint Petersburg's imperial court, he the personal physician to Grand Prince Michael) and in a subsequent letter to his father in Scotland he recounted, as follows, what Sir James had told him about the tsar's care for him. "...The attentions of H.I.M. to Sir James upon this occasion were such as can be forgotten neither by him nor me — they were really those of a brother to a brother. He remained in Novomirogod three days after the accident, gave every direction for the comfort and care of Sir James, repeatedly sat with him himself, and when obliged to continue his journey, there were by his order couriers sent off every day to him with reports 'till the danger had gone by".^[34]

Wylie was with the Tsar during his last tour to the South of Russia, which was ended by the tsar's death at Taganrog on 1 December 1825.^[35]

After a delay stemming from confusion about the legitimate heir to the crown and the resulting Decembrist revolt, the deceased tsar's brother Nicholas was finally crowned on 3 September 1826 as Tsar Nicholas I.

Important elements of the new tsar's character were quite contrary to those of his predecessor. He was both an authoritarian and quite uninterested in Alexander's enlightened but shelved plans to initiate Russia's transition to representative government and to abolish serfdom. [Around the year 1809, Alexander had made a start on these plans alongside with his powerful Interior Minister Speranski but benched them following immediate, strong opposition within the Imperial Court and outright hostility to the tsar among the masses, both groups being concerned about the spread French revolutionary concepts across Europe and the abolition of many monarchies as a result of Napoleon's rhetoric and actions there.]

Despite these characteristics of the new tsar, the Scottish doctor forged a close relationship with him and continued to enjoy imperial confidence under him.^[10] He was one of the individuals honoured at the coronation by a notice of the new emperor, being presented by him with a valuable snuff-box accompanied by a rescript, expressing his acknowledgement of Wylie's services as Chief of the Medical Staff.^[36]

In 1828 during the Russo-Turkish War, Wylie, by then aged 60, again saw service.

In April 1841, Wylie received the highest honour given to any military doctor, Actual Privy Councillor 2nd grade.^[12]

Wylie had been highly valued by all of the Russian emperors with whom he had closely worked – Paul I, Alexander I and Nicolas I – and valued also by, inter alia, the famous Russian generals M.I. Kutuzov, P.M. Bagration, M.B. Barklay de Tolly and N.V. Repnin.^[11]

Wylie remained a lifetime bachelor, although he had twice considered marriage. A marriage with an Englishwoman living in Petersburg recommended to him in 1815 by Tsar Alexander I did not eventuate as Wylie would not give up his high position and, as the bride insisted, return to England.^[12][27] Then, in August 1823, during a courtship at the small town of Novomyrhorod, south of Kyiv, his wedding arrangements fell through after he was badly injured in the carriage rollover mentioned earlier in this narrative, his injuries confining him to bed for a prolonged period of time after surgery for a compound fracture of the knee and smashed fibula became dangerously gangrenous beneath the plaster cast.^[12][34]

When younger, Wylie's preferred diversions had been gymnastics and physical education. He had loved swimming, riding, fencing, ice skating, playing billiards, and attending the hunt along with his pointer dogs,^[27] and until his last days his physical and mental health remained sound, with excellent memory, a keen interest in both current affairs and literature, and his home open to guests at any time.^[12] He remained always busy, as beforehand.^[12] Despite his elevated status and collaboration with Saint Petersburg's upper echelons, he always preferred his circle of Russian doctors and for the last 15 years of his life a routine of regular informal lunches at his home or at theirs had been established at his suggestion.^[12][27] In Saint Petersburg or when travelling he would rather have dinner with a regimental doctor than go to a lavish treat at the city government or with other notables. With the young, he listened without interrupting, was strict but fair, and tried to help where he could.^[12]

He died at Saint Petersburg on 2 March 1854.^[33] He had still been reading and signing official papers on that day.^[12] He was buried at Saint Petersburg's Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery, with full imperial honours, attended by Tsar Nicholas and all of the members of the court.^[33] Befittingly, he was spared the personal tragedy of his country of birth joining on 28 March the Ottoman Empire in its war against his beloved adopted country (this later known as the Crimean War).

Wylie had become a very wealthy man before he died and had asked three Russian doctors, all close friends, to be executors of his Russian will (I.V. Yenokhin, V.S. Sakharov and N.P. Yevfanov).^[12]. The will was challenged by his family, and a lengthy legal battle was finally decided at Britain's House of Lords where it was held that he had died intestate in relation to funds that he had invested in British public funds, as naming a foreign power in one's will was illegal at that time.^[37][38] Some £50,000 was shared among his wider family as he had no wife nor direct heirs. But Wylie had successfully bequeathed a considerable fortune of 1.5 million roubles for the construction of a hospital attached to the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy. This cluster of five buildings assembled in his honour into the shape of a W was finished in 1873.^[33] Before the October Revolution of 1917 it was known as the Mikhailovskaya Baronet Wylie Clinical Hospital in recognition of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, youngest brother of the former tsar, Alexander I. As of 2014, the hospital housed clinics of the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy: the Intermediate-level Therapy & Military Field Surgery clinics and the Clinic for Child Diseases.^[12]

In regard to Wylie's will, serfdom still existed across Russia when it was written shortly before his death. A noteworthy insight into Wylie's enlightened view on this practice is provided in his instructions about the sale of his properties. It stated: " ... also my property or estate situated ... in the districts of New Ladoga and Schlusselburgh, in different villages, with the peasants, (excepting those of my serfs who for their faithful and zealous service to my person shall be set free)".^[39] [This enlightened view had been demonstrated much earlier, around 1806, when Tsar Alexander, having heard of a noble woman treating her serfs with inhumanity in regard to their sustenance and welfare, had sent him to examine the situation with powers to act accordingly. Following his inspection, Wylie sent for flour, wheat and wine to a great distance, obliging the offender to incur heavy expense said to have cured her of exercising such cruel economy.]^[21][26]

In 1859 a large monument in to him created through the joint work of Andrei Stakenschneider, sculptor David Jensen and rock master G. A. Balushkin was erected in front of the main building of the Medical and Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg.

Sculpted in grey marble, the sculpture rests upon a massive stepped pedestal formed from a granite monolith. Wylie is depicted in military uniform bearing his medals while sitting on a cliff and reading his reformed statutes of the Academy, his pharmacopoeia laying at his feet. The corners of the pedestal feature four identical figures of Hygeia, Goddess of Health. The sides of the pedestal feature a panel with the dedicatory inscription carved in large gold lettering and three bronze panels showing: (a) his baronet's coat of arms designed personally for him by Tsar Alexander I, (b) a session of the academic council of the academy under his chairmanship, and (c) he and other doctors rendering aid to the injured on the battlefield.^[11][25][33]

For 90 years the monument stood in its assigned place. Then in 1948 during Joseph Stalin's anti-cosmopolitan campaign with its dictum that foreign models were not to be unthinkingly emulated, the Medical and Surgical Academy leadership was ordered to have the monument removed, perhaps even destroyed.^[11][12][25]This decision was supported by a smear campaign involving pliable soviet historians who declared that Wylie had been an English spy, one of the historians even stating that Wylie was never able to learn to speak Russian, all of this being duly notified to readers of local daily newspaper Leningradski Pravda (Leningrad Truth), a mouthpiece for the Soviet Union's communist party.^[11] Tellingly, this denunciation had occurred just 2 years after Russia's Military Medical Encyclopaedic Dictionary had described him as "A man of great gifts and talents, a good surgeon, talented administrator and organiser who enjoyed great authority in the country".^[2]

At special conference held later in 1948 at the Military Medical Museum in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg's name between 1924 and 1991), chaired by the lieutenant-general of the medical service, the majority of participants rejected the charge against Wylie. Accordingly, in 1949, the monument was dismantled and for 14 years it's separate parts were hidden, buried within wooden boxes, until being re-assembled in 1964 and placed in the depths of the Academy's park.^[11][25]

More drama ensued when two of the monument's bronze panels were stolen in 2002. It wasn't until August 2009 that online news outlets reported on a badly damaged panel (that of Wylie chairing a session of the Academy's academic council) being purchased at a Saint Petersburg reception point for nonferrous metals, whereupon one of the purchasers, a metal artist himself, recognised its value and restored it personally before giving it to Saint Petersburg's State Museum of Urban Sculpture on 5 August 2009, after which it was returned home.^[40] The other panel (that of Wylie and other doctors rendering aid to injured soldiers on the battlefield), is also now in place, having either been found or reconstructed.

Wylie's well-preserved gravesite in Saint Petersburg's Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery eatures a massive black sarcophagus placed upon a podium of granite flagstones. Its rear face features a modern (2014) enamelled photograph of one of Wylie's portraits. On a polished white marble plate attached to the front face of the sarcophagus is carved in relief the following inscription in four lines of English: "Sir James Wylie Baronet 1766–1854". The sides of the sarcophagus each feature a large panel with relief inscriptions in Russian about Wylie's life and his services to Russia, these translating as:

• "Matters of administration and assistance to the suffering did not divert baronet Yakov Vasilyevich Villie from service to science: he wrote essays about yellow fever, plague, cholera, diseases typical of hot climates, a military pharmacopoeia, the management of operational surgery, the first in the Russian language, and he founded the first Russian medical journal, which is published to this day. Having warmly fallen in love with Russia and in his will naming it his second fatherland, he allotted his entire inheritance, more than a million roubles, for the benefit of medical education in Russia and for good works. Passed away 11 February 1854". [NB: Wylie’s date of death was based on the Julian Calendar used by Imperial Russia"
• "Baronet Jakov Vasil'evich Villie, doctor of medicine and surgery, physician-in-ordinary, actual privy councillor, born in 1768 in Scotland, moved after completion of medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 1790 into the Russian service as a physician in the Eletsky infantry regiment. He participated in the wars of 1805, 1807, 1812-1814 and 1826 and reached in his official career the positions of chief inspector of the medical professionals of the army and director of the medical affairs of the Court".^[27]

Wylie was depicted at Borodino as a minor character in Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace, being named within the novel's English-language version as Doctor Villier, an anglicized version of Russian Villiye.

• On the American yellow fever (1805). St. Petersburg. In Russian. Included within the holdings of the British Library.
• A brief manual on the most important surgical operations (1806). St. Petersburg: Medical Printing House. In Russian.
• Manual for physicians performing recruit selection. (1806, 2nd edn. 1810). Saint Petersburg. In Russian.
• Pharmacopeia castrensis ruthena – transl. as Russian military pharmacopoeia (1808, later editions 1812, 1818, 1840). Saint Petersburg: Medical Printing House. Wylie's voluminous book, printed in Latin. NB: a copy at the National Library of Scotland.
• Prakticheskie zamechaniia o chume – transl. as Practical observations on the plague (1829). Saint Petersburg. In Russian.
• Wylie's translation into Russian of a work written in English by James Johnson: Practical observations on diseases related to tropical climates (1829). St. Petersburg, ^[27] the original 1813 work published in London having been under the title: An essay on the influence of tropical climates, more especially the climate of India on European constitutions &c.
• Practical observations about intermittent fevers and weakening fevers (1829). St. Petersburg. In Russian.
• Official report to His Imperial Majesty on the comparative value of the therapeutic methods applied in the military hospitals and at Saint Petersburg to subjects struck with the epidemic disease known as Cholera Morbus, with practical observations to the nature of the plague and what one learns by opening the corpses (1831). St Petersburg. In French.
• Description of the conjunctivitis that prevailed among the troops (1835). St. Petersburg. In French.

Wylie's government roles, honours and memberships are well summarised in a dedication to him given in a mineralogical book published by Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim at Moscow in 1816.^[41] The author spent most of his adult life in Russia, and this dedication reflects a general admiration of Wylie among men of science within that country.

in 1840, Wylie received a gold medal for his 50 Years of service to Russian medicine together with a gorgeous silver vase made specially for him.^[12] The obverse side of the medal has a bust of him together with his name and the titles of his principal roles stated in Russian around the rim. The reverse side has twelve lines of Latin, the translation stating: "To the most distinguished gentleman under the auspices of the triumphant Emperor. Dedicated to the most outstanding gentleman in the field of Medicine in Russia exercising the healing art for fifty years. Respectfully the doctors of Russia congratulate him at St Petersburg 9-12-1840".

The medal was presented to him by Grand Duke Michael at a jubilee held in his honour at Saint Petersburg in December 1840^[12][42][43], translation of a French description of the event reading as: "...details of the half-century jubilee of doctor James William baron Wylie, doctor and privy councillor to the emperor, grand cross of several orders, etc. All of the most distinguished within Russia were associated with this festival. From the early morning a great number of people had gathered in Mr. Wylie's house; at ten o'clock, the members in charge of the provisions of the festival presented their congratulations to the honourable doctor and invited him to a banquet …. the heir grand-duke Alexandre Nicolavitsch condescended to go in person to the illustrious old man to congratulate him. At a quarter hour past mid-day the banquet room began to fill with those who had been invited, among whom could be found the grand-duke Michael, the ambassador of England, Lord Klanricard, field-marshal prince de Varsovie, prince Volkonsky, minister for the court, the minister for war count Tchernicheff, the vice-chancellor of the empire count de Nesselrode, the minister of the interior, count Strogonoff, the minister for justice, count Panin, the director-general of communication, count Toll, the controller of the empire Chitrovo, the marshal of the nobility, the grand-equerry, prince Dolgorouki, Blondoff, president of the department of the laws of the council of the empire, the auditor-general, prince Schackousky, general of the general staff of the Russian armies, count de Kleinmichael. At half past four doctor Wylie appeared. The minister for war complimented him in the most flattering terms, and on behalf of the emperor presented him with the grand cross of the order of St. Vladimir, whose star and ribbon were placed on the doctor by grand-duke Michael. At the end of the meal, which was the most brilliant, they presented to baron Wylie a silver vase of very great value and an immense gold medal, struck in his honour".^[42][43] NB: some copies of the medal were subsequently minted in bronze; the order of St Vladimir received by Wylie was his third, this one being the highest (1st) class.

Russian Empire:

• Monogrammed diamond ring of Alexander I (1804)
• Order of Saint Vladimir, 4th class (1804)
• Order of Saint Vladimir, 2nd class (1807)
• Order of Saint Anna, 1st class (1814, since 1821 with diamonds)
• Honourary Member, Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences (May 1814)
• Diploma of nobility of the Russian Empire, and approval of annexed coat of arms (1816)
• Baronet of the Russian Empire (February 1824)
• Tobacco box with diamonds and the emperor's monogram (1826)
• Tobacco box with the emperor's enamelled portrait (1828)
• Decoration "For Impeccable service – XXXV years" (1828)
• Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (1828, since 1838 with diamonds)
• Decoration "For Impeccable service – XL years" (1834)
• Medal and for 50 years of service to Russian medicine (1840)
• Order of Saint Vladimir, 1st class (1840)
• Actual Privy Councillor, 2nd grade (1841)

Austria: Order of Leopold (Austria), 2nd class

Bavaria: Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, Commander

France: Legion of honour, Chevalier (1814)

Prussia: Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class

United Kingdom: Knighthood (10 June 1814), Baronetcy (2 July 1814) and coat of arms designed for him by Tsar Alexander I that includes a Latin inscription of the holder's motto Labore et scientia, i.e. By labour and science.^[28]

United States: An international member, of the American Philosophical Society <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:International_members_of_the_American_Philosophical_Society&pagefrom=Richter%2C+Gerhard%0AGerhard+Richter#mw-pages>

Württemberg: Order of the Crown (Württemberg), Commander, (1818)

Books and booklets:

• Appleby, John H. (1 September 1987). "Through the looking glass; Scottish doctors in Russia". In The Caledonian Phalanx: Scots in Russia. Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland. pp. 59-63.
• Beveridge, David (1885). Culross and Tulliallan: or Perthshire on Forth: Its History and Antiquities, with Elucidations of Scottish Life and Character from the Burgh and Kirk-session Records of That District. Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood and Sons. pp. 226-228, 352-354, Vol. 2.
• Boase, Frederick (1901). Modern English Biography. Truro, Netherton and Worth. pp. 1534-1535, Vol. 3.
• Burgon, Rev. John W. M.A. A Memoir of Patrick Fraser Tyttler. London, John Murray. pp. 92-110.
• Churilov, L.P., Stroyev, Y. I., Tyukin, V. P. (2012). "Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Baronet Iakov Vasil'evich Villiye and Russian medicine". In Health – The Basis of Human Potential: Problems and Solutions, 2012; 7 (2): 974-995. Printed in Russian. A PDF is available at Lenin Cyber Library: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/geroy-otechestvennoy-voyny-1812-g-baronet-yakov-vasilievich-villie-i-russkaya-meditsina/viewer.
• Comrie. John D. (1932). History of Scottish Medicine. Baillière, Tindal and Cox. pp. 767-768, Vol. 2. A PDF is available at the Wellcome Collection, London: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/p3bwpd8b
• Gordon, T. Crouther (1960). Four Notable Scots. Stirling, Scotland, Aneas Mackay. pp. 101-126.
• Lieven, Dominic (2009). Russia Against Napoleon, the Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814. London, Allan Lane. 672 pages.
• McGrigor, Mary (2010). The Tsar's Doctor: The Life and Times of Sir James Wylie. Edinburgh, Birlinn Limited. 220 pages.
• Mieklejohn, William, Rev, M.A. (1990). Four Lads o' Pairts: Sir James Wylie, Sir James Dewar, Robert Maule J.P., Sir Robert Maul. How and Blackwell, Berwik-upon-Tweed. Edited for electronic publishing by Colin Anderson in 2014. pp. 1-23.
• Materials on the History of the Baronet Villie's Mikhailovskaya Clinical Hospital. Saint Petersburg, Typography of Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1899. pp. 1-24. In Russian. A PDF is available at the Wellcome Collection, London: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/r8hyyqrb
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 2004. pp. 648-649, Vol 60.
• Schnitzler, Johann H (1854). Histoire Intime de la Russie Sous les Empereurs Alexandre et Nicolas. [Secret History of Russia Under Emperors Alexander and Nicholas.], vol. 1 (Paris: Garnier frères), pp. 116, 124-133, 160, 441.

Journals:

• Berman, Alex. (April 1960). "Early Russian military and naval formularies 1765-1840". American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. 17:210-218.
• Hutchison, Robert (June 1928). "A medical adventurer. Biographical note on Sir James Wylie, Bart., M.D., 1758 to 1854". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 21(8):1406-1408.
• Fisun, A.Ya., Porokhov, S. Yu. (2018). "Yakov Vasilyevich Willie over half a century serving Russian military medicine and the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy (on the 250th anniversary of his birth)". Journal of the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy. 20(4):300-304. In Russian. NB: a PDF available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367893737_Yakov_Vasilyevich_Willie_-_more_than_half_a_century_in_the_service_of_military_medicine_The_Russian_Empire_and_the_Medico-surgical_Academy_to_the_250th_anniversary_of_the_birth
• McIntyre, Neil (1 November 2000). "Medical statues – Sir James Wylie (1768-1854)". Journal of Medical Biography. 8 (4): 243.
• Müller-Dietz, H. (1969). "J. Wylie and the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. On the 200th anniversary of Sir James Wylie's birth". Clio Medica. 4: 99-107. In German. NB: a copy held at the Wellcome Collection, London.
• Novik A. A., Mazurov, V. I., Semple P. A. (August 1996). "The life and times of Sir James Wylie Bt., MD., 1768-1854, body surgeon and physician to the czar and chief of the Russian Military Medical Department". Scottish Medical Journal. 41(4):116-120.
• Shabunin, A., Semple, P. d'A. (1999). "Achievements in Russia of Sir James Wylie, Bt., MD. – a Scottish graduate". Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 29:76-82.
• Tyukin, V. P., Churilov, L. P. (2006). "Yakov Vasilyevich Wylie: half a century at the head of Russian medicine", Medicine in the 21st Century. 4(5): 100-107. In Russian.
• Wilson, John B. M.D. (April and May 1973). "Three Scots in the service of the czars". The Practitioner. 10: 572-574 (Part I) and 10: 706-708 (Part II).
• Zaytsev, E. I. (2009). "Yakov Vasilyevich Wylie (1768–1854)", The I. I. Grekov Journal of Surgery. 168(4):9-10. In Russian.

Newspapers:

• MacPherson, Hamish (2 March 2020). "Back in the day: the Scottish doctor who treated the czars". The National.
• Nicholson, Stuart (20 April 2004). "Doctor to the czars; Scots surgeon became a legend in Russia, but is still almost unknown in the land of his birth". Daily Mail.

Web pages and newsletters:

• Vasiliev, Konstantin (8 December 2014). "Яков Виллие: личный медик Александра I и единственный русский баронет Источник" ("Yakov Villie: Alexander I's personal physician and the only Russian baronet"). Журнал История Петербурга, N1, 2014. (History of Saint Petersburg Magazine, No. 1, 2014) <https://statehistory.ru/4781/YAkov-Villie-medik-Aleksandra-I-i-edinstvennyy-russkiy-baronet/>
• Vershinin, Alexander (2 December 2014). "Russia's giant leap forward in military medicine". Russia Beyond (a website launched in 2007 by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a newspaper published by the government of Russia) <https://www.rbth.com/arts/2014/12/02/russias_giant_leap_forward_in_military_medicine_40071>.