Robert Coltman

Robert Coltman, Jr. (1862-November 3, 1931) was an American physician, born in Washington. He received his medical training at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and in 1881 began the practice of medicine. In 1896 he was appointed professor of anatomy at the Tung Wen College, Peking, and in 1898 professor of surgery at the Imperial University, Peking. He was personal physician to the Chinese royal household during that time.

During the siege of Peking by the Boxers in 1900 he sent out the first message that reached the outside world, acting as correspondent for the Chicago Record. He became attorney for the Standard Oil Company at Tientsin, China. He was author of The Chinese, their Present and Future: Medical, Political, and Social (1891) and Yellow Crime, or Beleaguered in Peking (1901).

Coltman retired in 1925 and returned to Washington, D.C., where he died in 1931.