John Hamilton McKechnie (Mackechnie) M.D. (8 December 1828 – 28 January 1903) was an orthodox physician who converted to homeopathy. He was a Fellow and Council Member of the British Homeopathic Society and in 1885-6 served as President of the Society. McKechnie, was also a member of the homeopathic Western Counties Therapeutical Society, alongside Archibald Spiers Alexander, Francis Hervey Bodman, Robert Hume Fallon, William George Hardy, Samuel Morgan, Thomas Dickinson Nicholson, George Norman, Percy Roberts Wilde, and Eubulus Williams.

McKechnie was also a colleague of John Pitney Aston, George Henry Burford, John Henry Clarke, Robert Thomas Cooper, Edward Christopher Holland, George Newman, George Norman, John Hodgson Ramsbotham, Charles Thomas Knox Shaw, Percy Roberts Wilde, Dudley d’Auvergne Wright.

John Hamilton McKechnie was born in London in December 1828 to printer John Spence McKechnie and Emma Charlotte Lachlan.

McKechnie’s early years are unrecorded but he studied medicine at the University of St Andrews, where he obtained his M.D. in October 1856.

In 1850, McKechnie joined the staff as Resident Officer at the new London Homeopathic Hospital, working there during the 1854 cholera epidemic. According to Dr.’s Galley Blackley and Hamilton:

It was in great measure owing to young Mackechnie’s unsparing devotion to his duties at all hours of the day and night, and his determination never to admit that a patient had been dying until he was actually dead, that the list of successes at the hospital mounted up so satisfactorily.

The same year, McKechnie had joined the British Homeopathic Society. He became a frequent participant at meetings and served as Secretary in 1867-9, Vice-President in 1872, and in 1885-6 he was President of the Society.

In 1858, McKechnie was present at a Festival in aid of the London Homeopathic Hospital attended by many Aristocratic and minor gentry patrons attending, alongside medical staff including William Edward Ayerst, William Bayes, Hugh Cameron, Edward Charles Chepmell, William Vallancey Drury, George Napoleon Epps, Arthur Guinness, Edward Hamilton, Frantz Hartmann, Amos Henriques, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, James Bell Metcalfe, Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, Henry Reynolds, John Rutherford Russell, Charles Caulfield Tuckey, George Wyld, Stephen Yeldham, and many others.

In 1861, McKechnie was listed as residing at 212 Piccadilly, London. He also practiced at 60 Wimpole Street, W1, and at 16, Princes Street, Cavendish Square, London.

McKechnie married London-born Annie Letitia Child (1836 – 1900).

In 1882-3, McKechnie was a Council Member of the British Homeopathic Society, alongside Hugh Cameron, William Valancey Drury, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Robert Douglas Hale, Edward Hamilton, Richard Hughes, Henry Ridewood Madden, James Bell Metcalfe, Alfred Crosby Pope, Charles Ransford, George Wyld and Stephen Yeldham.

In 1885, after a thirty-five year association with the London Homeopathic Hospital, McKechnie resigned as House Surgeon due to his own failing health.

McKechnie and his wife relocated to Bath, and in 1886 he succeeded Dr. Edward Christopher Holland as one of the honorary medical officers at the Bath Homoeopathic Hospital, alongside Dr.’s George Norman and John Pitney Aston.

In 1888, McKechnie joined his homeopathic colleague George Norman on the Medical staff at the new Hahnemann Free Dispensary that they had established at 2 Abbey Street, Abbey Green, Bath. The Dispensary was later situated at Hartley House, Manvers Street.

During his career McKechnie submitted cases and articles to various homeopathic publications.

By 1895 the McKechnie’s were living at 2 Brunswick Place, Julian Road.

John Hamilton McKechnie died at his home, 4 Crescent Gardens, on 28 January 1903, aged 75, and was buried three days later in St. James’ Cemetery, Bath.