William Laidlaw Purves

William Laidlaw Purves MRCS, LRCP (16 April 1842 - 30 December 1917) was a Scottish-born surgeon who worked in London as an aural and ophthalmic surgeon. He contributed specialist articles to the medical literature but is mainly remembered for his contributions to golf. He planned the course that became Royal St Georges in Kent and in 1888 he also designed the Littlestone golf course at New Romney.

Purves also became an active supporter of women's golf. In 1872, the Wimbledon Golf Club had laid out a nine-hole course for women and created the Wimbledon Ladies Golf Club. Purves arranged and presided over a meeting of the 15 ladies golf clubs in the UK in 1893 which led to the formation of the Ladies' Golf Union.

Purves, together with Henry Lamb and Cassette Pearson were the three key figures in the introduction of the system of handicaps into the UK. The golf historian C.B. Clapcott in his History of Handicapping wrote that "Dr. Laidlaw Purves set out the rules for universal handicapping (1898) which were evolved at Wimbledon. These rules indeed may be regarded as the basis upon which the British Golf Union's Joint Advisory Council have built up their system of uniform handicapping."