Robert James Rowlette MD was born on the 16th of October 1873 in Carncash, County Sligo. He was educated at Sligo Grammar School and later at Trinity College Dublin, graduating BA in 1895, MB and B.Ch. in 1898 and receiving his MD in 1899. During his time in Trinity, he was President of the University Philosophical Society (‘The Phil’) in 1896-1897 and he also served as the Vice-President of the College Historical Society, having received the Gold Medal for Oratory in 1899. He held various different academic and medical positions in his career; he was a lecturer in Pathology in Queen’s College Galway from 1904 to 1909, a pathologist in the Rotunda between 1905 and 1919, and in Dr Steevens’s Hospital between 1904 and 1909. Rowlette also worked as a Physician in Jervis Street Hospital, Mercer’s Hospital and as a Consulting Physician in the Royal Hospital for Incurables, Stillorgan Convalescent Home, British Colonial Office and the Royal National Hospital for Consumption, in Newcastle, County Wicklow. He was a Professor of Pharmacology in RCSI from 1921 to 1926 before being elected as the eighth King’s Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in TCD in the same year.

He was President of various institutions, such as; the RCPI between 1940 and 1943, the Irish Medical Association between 1932 and 1946, the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland and President of the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Section of the British Medical Association in 1933. He was also a member of the Irish Public Health Council, the Dental Board, the Medical Registration Council and a Trustee and Vice-Chairman of the National Health Insurance Society of Ireland. He also had an interest in writing, being editor of and regular contributor to medical journals such as Medical Press and Circular (1909–1936) and Journal of the Irish Free State Medical Union, to name just two.

During World War I, he served in France with the Royal Army Medical Corps, ranking as a Lieutenant-Colonel and in World War II, he oversaw air-raid casualty preparations in Dublin.

Dr. Rowlette had a keen interest in sport and athletics having run long-distance for TCD. He was President of the Irish Amatuer Athletic Association (IAAA) between 1908 and 1920 and promoted, unsuccessfully, the unification of the IAAA and the GAA. He was the Olympic Physician to the British team in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and later to the Irish Teams in 1924 in Paris and 1928 in Amsterdam. Additionally, he was The Irish Times correspondent at the 1929 Amsterdam Olympics.

If all of that wasn’t enough, he also had a successful political career having been elected as an Independent TD for Dublin University in the 8th dail following a by-election in October 1933. Notably, he was the first TD elected following the abolition of the Oath of Allegiance to the British monarch. Famously, he advocated for women’s health rights during a 1934 contraception debate. Following the transferral of the University panels from the Dáil to the Seanad, he was elected Senator for Dublin University in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Seanads. He lost his re-election bid in 1944 by just 5 votes.

He was married to Gladys Muriel Camper Day and together they had one son, Edward Camper Rowlette (1910-1977) who went on to serve in the Rhodesian Medical Service. Robert Rowlette died on the 13th of October, 1944 at home, aged 70. He was buried in Enniskerry Cemetery in County Wicklow.

Image from the Royal College of Physicians Ireland website

Robert James Rowlette MD, FRCPI
Elected 24 April, 1926.