Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
Here's one about a famous bloke i did earlier, but which got a bit destroyed in the photo removal debacle...and it's a bit indulgent, as it features a man of medicine that I learned about when I first arrived as a fresh faced Lab Rat at the Women's Hospital......so please forgive me...?
In 1868 and 1869 Mr Ross Jordan and three friends - Drs George Jones, James Neale, and the delightfully named Lumbley Earle – became convinced of the necessity for a hospital to be entirely devoted to the alleviation of cases peculiar to women. The effort was at first unsuccessful but undaunted, Mr Ross Jordan successfully enlisted the interest of Mr Arthur Chamberlain, who undertook the duties of Honorable Secretary. With the aid and support of a number of his friends, among others being Mr Joseph Chamberlain (naturally), Dr Heslop. George Dawson (of course), Arthur Ryland, Charles Vince, Dr Samuel Berry, and Joseph Nettlefold (inevitably) in 1871 the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women became an accomplished fact.
The Founders
No 8, The Crescent, a large House near the municipal centre of Birmingham, was bought and adapted to accommodate out-patients, and an in-patient department of eight beds. It was next door to the recently opened Training School for Nurses. In the following year, No 7 The Crescent was also bought and in 1876, three small wards were built in the garden at the rear.
The Crescent
The Hospital was fortunate in appointing to its staff a young surgeon, Robert Lawson Tait.
Many medical historians have paid tribute to his pioneering work in abdominal surgery and he is acclaimed as the most famous gynaecologist that this country has produced. Several new operations, soon universally adapted, were derived by him and first performed at our Women’s Hospital. These historic operations include the first deliberate removal of the appendix (1880), the first operation for ruptured tubal pregnancy (1883), and the first Caesarean section for haemorrhage in late pregnancy (placenta praevia). Only last year, a notable local Gynaecologist Mr Joe Jordan (ATV Today fame) gave a modern Lecture to hundreds of members of the Birmingham & Midland Obstetrics & Gynaecological Society on this man’s life and work, such was his genius, even today.
These clips were taken from a fairly recent paper in a respected, peer reviewed medical Journal by a colleague of long standing, Mr John Studd MD…still practicing in London…and give a little cameo of Tait, and the rather cruel practices abounding in Tait’s time by his peers…the Victorians were not as sweet and gentlemanly as some authors always seem to portray…well at least in Medical Gynaecological circles they weren’t! Especially if you were a working class girl….. Some women readers may like to skip this bit..!
Cont....
In 1868 and 1869 Mr Ross Jordan and three friends - Drs George Jones, James Neale, and the delightfully named Lumbley Earle – became convinced of the necessity for a hospital to be entirely devoted to the alleviation of cases peculiar to women. The effort was at first unsuccessful but undaunted, Mr Ross Jordan successfully enlisted the interest of Mr Arthur Chamberlain, who undertook the duties of Honorable Secretary. With the aid and support of a number of his friends, among others being Mr Joseph Chamberlain (naturally), Dr Heslop. George Dawson (of course), Arthur Ryland, Charles Vince, Dr Samuel Berry, and Joseph Nettlefold (inevitably) in 1871 the Birmingham and Midland Hospital for Women became an accomplished fact.
The Founders
No 8, The Crescent, a large House near the municipal centre of Birmingham, was bought and adapted to accommodate out-patients, and an in-patient department of eight beds. It was next door to the recently opened Training School for Nurses. In the following year, No 7 The Crescent was also bought and in 1876, three small wards were built in the garden at the rear.
The Crescent
The Hospital was fortunate in appointing to its staff a young surgeon, Robert Lawson Tait.
Many medical historians have paid tribute to his pioneering work in abdominal surgery and he is acclaimed as the most famous gynaecologist that this country has produced. Several new operations, soon universally adapted, were derived by him and first performed at our Women’s Hospital. These historic operations include the first deliberate removal of the appendix (1880), the first operation for ruptured tubal pregnancy (1883), and the first Caesarean section for haemorrhage in late pregnancy (placenta praevia). Only last year, a notable local Gynaecologist Mr Joe Jordan (ATV Today fame) gave a modern Lecture to hundreds of members of the Birmingham & Midland Obstetrics & Gynaecological Society on this man’s life and work, such was his genius, even today.
These clips were taken from a fairly recent paper in a respected, peer reviewed medical Journal by a colleague of long standing, Mr John Studd MD…still practicing in London…and give a little cameo of Tait, and the rather cruel practices abounding in Tait’s time by his peers…the Victorians were not as sweet and gentlemanly as some authors always seem to portray…well at least in Medical Gynaecological circles they weren’t! Especially if you were a working class girl….. Some women readers may like to skip this bit..!
Cont....
