He was born in
Canada on 21 July 1871 the son of William Cox Lelean. He studied medicine at Hart House in Canada then sent to UK to
St Mary's Hospital, London. In the
First Boer War, he volunteered for the Army Medical Services and saw action throughout
South Africa, winning the
Queen's Medal four times. Staying in
Africa he served on the Anglo-French Boundary Commission in 1903, considering international boundaries from the
River Niger to
Lake Chad. He then served as an army surgeon in
India until 1912. He was four times
Mentioned in Dispatches. During the war he was also employed as a specialist at the Anti Gas Department in Millbank. He retired from the army at the rank of Colonel in 1922. In 1926 he took the Usher Chair in Public Health at the
University of Edinburgh. In 1926 he was elected a member of the
Harveian Society of Edinburgh. In 1930 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Ralph Allan Sampson,
James Hartley Ashworth,
Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer and
Sir William Wright Smith. In 1944 he retired fully and was succeeded by Prof
Francis Albert Eley Crew. He died in
London on 6 November 1956. ==Publications==