Collection MS 38 - Torrance Collection

David Watt Torrance, son of Dr Thomas Torrance of Airdrie, was educated at Glasgow University, graduating MB in 1883. Despite being offered a post at Glasgow Infirmary he travelled to Palestine and assisted in the inauguration of the Sea of Galilee Medical Mission. Following further training in Egypt, Damascus and Nazareth he returned in 1885 to Tiberias and opened the first hospital for those of any race or religion in two rooms near the Franciscan monastery. A move to Beit abu Shamnel abu Hannah preceded the opening of a new hospital with 24 beds and 6 cots in 1894.

DW Torrance was ordained in the Free Church of Scotland in 1895. During World War I (1914-1918), Dr Torrance served as resident officer in charge of Oakbank War Hospital in the west of Scotland. Dr Torrance married three times and had a large family. He died in Tiberias on 26 August, 1923.

His son, Herbert Watt Torrance, was educated at Glasgow University, graduating MB in 1916. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, served in France and Serbia and was awarded the Military Cross. After demobilisation he returned to Glasgow University as demonstrator and lecturer and to study for the FRCS. In 1921 he was awarded the degree of MD and went to Tiberias where in 1923 he became superintendent of the hospital.

HW Torrance was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. For services rendered during the British Mandate in Palestine he was awarded the OBE. He married twice and had two daughters. Dr H.W. Torrance retired to Dundee in 1953 and died in 1977.

Following the declaration of the State of Israel, in 1949 the mission hospital became a maternity hospital responsible for midwifery and gynaecology in Northern Galilee under the Israeli Department of Health. In 1959 the hospital closed but a hospice for travellers was established in the buildings and a resident minister and bookshop continue the work of mission in Tiberias.

Photography was an abiding interest for Herbert Watt Torrance. The collection provides a record of the main period of the British Mandate, the increasing rate of Jewish immigration and the impact of the State of Israel on the landscape. It also contains many photographs of medical conditions which subsequently have been eradicated. Dr Torrance's interest in flowers, animals and archaeology is well represented and many photographs show examples of the "biblical situations" popular with photographers.