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Charles Edouard Brown-Sequard was born Charles Edouard Brown on 8 April 1817, at Port Louis, Mauritius, the posthumous son of Edward Brown, of Irish descent and captain of a merchant vessel belonging to Philadelphia. He had little education early on and acted for a time as a clerk in a store. In 1838 he traveled with his Mauritius-born mother, originally of the Provencal family of Sequard, to France, first to Nantes and then to Paris. It was his intention to pursue a profession in literature, but he was persuaded to study medicine by Charles Nodier, lexicographer. His mother paid his fees, making a living as a boarding-house keeper. She died in 1842, and Brown added her maiden name to his own. In 1846, at the age of 29, he graduated MD from Paris, with a thesis on the reflex action of the spinal cord after separation from the brain.

Brown-Sequard then served as `externe des hopitaux' under the physicians Armand Trousseau and Pierre Rayer. He devoted himself to the study of physiology, labouring under conditions of extreme poverty. In 1848 he became one of the four secretaries of the Societe de Biologie. The following year, during an outbreak of cholera, he was appointed auxiliary physician at the military hospital of Gros-Caillou. In 1852 he left for America, fearing that his republican tendencies might bring him trouble in France. He settled in New York where he supported himself by giving lessons in French and attending midwifery for five dollars a case. In 1853 he returned to Paris, newly married, with his American wife Ellen.

He again left Paris in 1854, intent on practicing medicine in his native Mauritius. However on arrival he found the island was in the midst of a cholera epidemic, whereupon he immediately took charge of the cholera hospital. Once the epidemic was subdued he was presented with a gold medal, struck in his honour by his countrymen. He was appointed professor of the Institutes of Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence at the Virginia Medical College in Richmond, Virginia. He took up his post in 1855, but soon after changed his mind and suddenly returned to Paris. It is said that there were irreconcilable differences; Brown-Sequard could not accept the College's pro-slavery stance, whilst the College was equally unhappy about Brown-Sequard's experiments on un-anaesthetised animals (Gooddy, p.3).

Back in Paris again he was awarded a prize by the Academie des Sciences, and between 1855 and 1857 taught at a small laboratory that he had rented. In 1858 he established the Journal de la Physiologie de l'Homme et des Animaux, which he continually published until 1864. It was also in 1858 that he came to London and delivered a course of lectures on the physiology and pathology of the central nervous system, at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He then lectured in Edinburgh, Dublin and Glasgow. In 1859 he was made a fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. It was due to the renown that these lectures brought him that Brown-Sequard was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1860. In 1859 he had also been appointed physician to the newly established National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, in Queen Square, London. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1860, and subsequently delivered both the Croonian and the Goulstonian Lectures.

Brown-Sequard became famous for his spinal cord syndrome. Through his work on the localisation of the tracts in the spinal cord, he traced the origin of the sympathetic nerve-fibres into the spinal cord. With the physiologist Claude Bernard, his old master, Brown-Sequard shares the honour of demonstrating the existence of vaso-motor nerves. He was also the first to show that epilepsy could be produced experimentally in guinea pigs. Whilst Brown-Sequard was not a philosophical thinker he undoubtedly did much to enrich physiological science. Indeed it is said that he established upon a firm scientific basis much of our present knowledge of diseases of the nervous system' (DNB, 1901, p.320). He remains however unrecognised as a pioneer of endocrinology, having demonstrated through his experiments the significance of adrenal glands. Indeed it is thought that there isstill little recognition of the immense contribution he made to modern medical thinking' (Davenport et al., 2001, p.95).

Brown-Sequard soon established a considerable practice in London, however it has been said that it `overtaxed his strength, and otherwise proved distasteful to him' (DNB, p.320). His elevated position within England's medical profession was already established though; amongst his correspondents were such figures as Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur. In 1863 he resigned his appointment at the Hospital, and was made honorary physician. He left London for America, where he had accepted the office of professor of the physiology and of pathology of the nervous system at Harvard University. At this time he managed to resume his original work in experimental medicine, although his wife died in 1864.

In 1868 Brown-Sequard returned to Paris, via Dublin. In Paris he jointly founded, with his friends Edme Vulpian, physiologist, and Jean Charcot, neurologist, the Archives de Physiologie Normale et Pathologique. Between 1869 and 1872 he held the chair of comparative and experimental pathology in the Ecole de Medecine, Paris. In 1872 he left Paris for New York, where he settled to work as a physician. In that same year he married his second wife, another American, Maria Carlisle. During this time he founded the Archive of Scientific and Practical Medicine, in which he published his first paper on inhibition.

In 1875 he left New York and returned once more to Paris, after residing for a short period in London, during which time he again lectured at the Royal College of Physicians. In 1877 however he accepted an offer of chair of physiology in Geneva, having refused a similar offer from Glasgow. About this time his second wife died, and he married an English woman, Elizabeth Emma Dakin. The following year Claude Bernard died, and Brown-Sequard was offered the vacant professorship of experimental medicine at the College de France, which he held until his own death.

In 1881 he was awarded the honorary degree of LLD from the University of Cambridge. In the same year he received the Lacaze prize from the Academie des Sciences and, in 1885, the grand prix biennal. In 1886 the Royal College of Physicians presented him with the Baly medal. He was elected president of the Societe de Biologie in 1887, which it is said `gave him more pleasure than any of the other honours he had received' (ibid). In 1889 he was awarded the Order of the Rose from the Brazilian legation in Paris. Also in 1889 Brown-Sequard became sole editor of the Archives de Physiologie Normale et Pathologique. He published numerous papers in the various journals with which he was involved, as well as contributing to the London and New York medical papers.

Brown-Sequard did not recover from the shock of his wife's death in 1894. He suffered an attack of phlebitis in January 1894, and died in Paris on 1 April the same year. He was buried in Montparnasse cemetery.

Publications:
Experimental Researches Applied to Physiology and Pathology (New York, 1853)
Journal de la Physiologie de l'Homme et des Animaux (est. Brown-Sequard, Paris, 1858-64)
Course of Lectures on the Physiology and Pathology of the Central Nervous System (Philadelphia, 1860)
Lectures on the Diagnosis and Treatment of the Principal Forms of Paralysis of the Lower Extremities (London, 1861)
Lectures on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Functional Nervous Affections (London, 1868)
Archives de Physiologie Normale et Pathologique (est. Brown-Sequard, Vulpian, & Charcot, c.1868-)
Lecons sur les Nerfs Vaso-moteurs, sur l'Epilepsie et sur les Actions Reflexes Normales et Morbides (Paris, 1872, transl. Joseph Marie Alfred Beni-Barde)
Archive of Scientific and Practical Medicine (est. Brown-Sequard, c.1872)
Notice sur les Travaux Scientifiques du Docteur C.E. Brown-Sequard (Paris, 1886)

Andrew Clark was born on 28 October 1826 in Aberdeen, the only son of Andrew Clark, a doctor practicing in St Fergus, Aberdeenshire. His mother died during his birth and his father died when Clark was seven years old. Two bachelor uncles directed his education; he went to school in Aberdeen and at the age of thirteen was apprenticed to a doctor in Dundee. During his apprenticeship he attended the Tay Square Academy and the wards of the Royal Infirmary. In 1842, and then from 1843-46, he studied at Edinburgh University as an extra-academical student, winning medals in most of his classes. He took the diploma for membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (MRCS) in 1844, and developed an interest in pathology. He returned to Edinburgh and was for some time assistant to the eminent physician John Hughes Bennett, in the pathological department of the Royal Infirmary.

Due to the appearance of the early symptoms of phthisis Clark sort an outdoor life, and from 1846-53 he held a commission as an assistant surgeon in the medical service of the Royal Navy. He made a voyage to Madeira in 1847, but for most of the six years was employed on pathological work at the Royal Navy Hospital at Haslar. Here he taught the use of the microscope in clinical and pathological work.

In 1853 Clark retired from the navy and was appointed to the new curatorship of the museum at the London Hospital. He remained in this position for eight years, although the impetus of his initial enthusiasm was lost when in 1854 Clark was also elected assistant physician to the hospital. It has been said that his new appointment revealed the true nature of his genius', and he quickly built up a huge reputation in both the wards of the hospital and in private practice (Munk's Roll, 1955, p.93). He had begun practice in Montague Street, Bloomsbury, and became famed for hisremarkable powers of observation, thoroughness and scientific approach' (ibid, p.94). He also became well known for giving elaborate directions to his patients as to their diet, despite this being considered by some of his contemporaries a rather antiquated therapy. He believed that many maladies were due to poor diet and lifestyle. It was also in 1854 that he graduated MD from the University of Aberdeen, and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians.

From 1855-56 Clark was assistant physician at the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. He held the lectureship in physiology at the London Hospital from 1856-62. In 1858 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1860 he was Lettsomian Lecturer at the Medical Society of London. He was joint lecturer in medicine at the London Hospital from 1865 to 1870, and was promoted to full physician there in 1866. By then Clark had also acquired `a larger practice than any other physician of his time' (DNB, 1901, p.23). During the cholera epidemic of 1866, which raged throughout the East End of London, he became friends with, and physician to, the Gladstones. William Gladstone, statesman and four times prime minister, was one of Clark's many famous patients.

Although he published no large medical work Clark made many contributions to medical knowledge, through lectures, addresses, and articles. His special interest was in pulmonary diseases, in particular phthisis. At the Royal College of Physicians in 1867 Clark delivered the Croonian Lectures, on the subject of pulmonary diseases. In the same year he moved home and practice to a large house in Cavendish Square, where his private practice continued to expand. In 1871 he became president of the Medical Society of London.

Clark was made a baronet in 1883, at the instigation of Gladstone, then Prime Minister, in recognition of his services to medical science. Two years later he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and was Lumleian Lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians, again lecturing on pulmonary diseases. He also served as censor at the College. In 1886 Clark was made consulting physician at the London Hospital, after twenty years service as physician. He continued to give lectures in his capacity as Emeritus Professor of Clinical Medicine, until his death.

In 1888, Clark became president of the Royal College of Physicians, serving in this office until his death. He became consulting physician both of the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, in 1892, and of the East London Hospital for Children. He was made honorary president of the Naval Medical Examining Board, and had been president of the Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association. In recognition of his position and status in the medical profession, the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Cambridge awarded him the degree of LLD, whilst Dublin awarded him an honorary MD. He was elected president of the Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1892, and was presiding over this body and the Royal College of Physicians at the time of his death.

Clark had married Seton Mary Percy Forster in 1851, and they had had one son and two daughters. His first wife died in 1858, and in 1862 he married Helen Annette Alphonso, with whom he also had a son and two daughters. Clark suffered a stroke in October 1893. During his illness the Queen desired that she daily be kept informed of his condition. He died just over 2 weeks later at his home in Cavendish Square in London on 6 November 1893. After a service at Westminster Abbey he was buried at Essendon, Hertfordshire, where he had recently bought a country house.

Publications:
He authored a number of tracts & chapters in medical publications.
Fibroid Diseases of the Lung, including Fibroid Phthisis, Sir Andrew Clark, Wilfred James Hadley & Thomas Hancock Arnold Chaplin (London, 1894)
Medical Nursing; edited by E.F. Lamport, with an introductory biographical note by Sir Andrew Clark, James Anderson & Sir Andrew Clark, Ethel Lamport (ed.) (London, 1894)
The Physician's Testimony for Christ, with a preface by Sir Dyce Duckworth, Sir Andrew Clark & Sir Dyce Duckworth (London, 1894)

Sir James Clark was born on 14 December 1788, in Cullen, Banffshire. He was educated first at the parish school in Fordyce, and then at Aberdeen University where he graduated MA. It was his initial intention to pursue a career in law but he found he had a preference for medicine. He went to Edinburgh to study, and in 1809 became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Immediately he entered the medical service of the Navy. He served at Haslar Hospital until July 1810, when he was appointed as assistant surgeon aboard HMS Thistle. The 'Thistle' was wrecked off the coast of New Jersey. Clark returned to England, was promoted to surgeon, and joined the HMS Collobree, which was also wrecked. He served on two more vessels until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, and was then placed on half pay. During his time at sea he had sailed to Canada, North America and the West Indies. He returned to Edinburgh to continue his studies at the University, graduating MD in 1817.

In 1818 Clark took a phthisical patient to the south of France and to Switzerland, making observations on the effects of the climate upon phthisis (pulmonary consumption). He collected meteorological and other data with a view to studying their influences on that and other diseases. In 1819 he settled in Rome, the resort frequented by many of the higher echelons of English society, where he built up a practice and a steadily increasing reputation over the next seven years. One of his patients was the poet John Keats, who was far advanced in his suffering from phthisis, and died in Rome in 1821. Whilst there Clark had published his Medical Notes on Climate, Diseases, Hospitals, and Medical Schools in France, Italy, and Switzerland, comprising an Inquiry into the Effects of a Residence in the South of Europe in Cases of Pulmonary Consumption (1822). During the summers he visited various European centers and acquainted himself further with the English aristocracy. In particular he visited the mineral springs and universities of Germany. On such a visit to Carlsbad he met Prince Leopold, later to become King of the Belgians, who was greatly interested in Clark's examinations of the waters. When Clark returned to England the Prince appointed him his physician.

Clark returned to London in 1826, and was admitted a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1820, on a visit to London from Rome, he had been admitted an Extra-Licentiate. He was appointed physician to St George's Infirmary, a small dispensary. His progress in London was slow but steady. His practice gradually built up, whilst he continued his research into the climate and phthisis. In 1829 appeared his 'best and most important work' (Munk's Roll, vol. III, p.224), The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases, more particularly of the Chest and Digestive Organs (1829). In it he gave a clearer, more correct, view of the powers of climate and of mineral waters in the treatment of disease, than had before then existed. Accordingly this work established Clark's reputation in London, with the public and with members of his profession. He employed the use of mineral waters in the treatment of disease in his practice. Clark became both famous and popular for the care he took in his prescriptions, masking the nauseous taste of the drugs for his patients.

In 1834 he obtained, via recommendation by the King of the Belgians, the appointment of physician to the Duchess of Kent. The appointment involved the medical care of Princess Victoria. Accordingly, this led to a large increase in his business and reputation. Upon Queen Victoria's accession to the throne in 1837, Clark was appointed the Queen's physician in ordinary, and was created baronet.

Unfortunately his prosperity and success were undermined by the case of Lady Flora Hastings. In 1839 Clark was called upon to express his opinion on her condition, when the growth of a fatal abdominal tumour led to suspicion that she was pregnant. Clark's erroneous opinion, possibly owing to his relative inexperience of the diseases of women due to his history as a naval surgeon, appeared to give support to the slander that was spread by others. He subsequently became unpopular with the public and lost many of his patients. It took years for the effects of the case to dissipate, but eventually it was widely understood that he had been wrongly blamed. Indeed it seems that if Clark's advice had been followed, Lady Flora's name would have been cleared. In the meantime, despite his professional mistake, he continued to be trusted at court. Upon the Queen's marriage in 1840 Clark was also appointed physician to the Prince Consort, Prince Albert, who also held him in high esteem. He became the person to whom all queries concerning medical matters and polity were addressed. It is stated that Clark 'was always ready with advice... and wise, carefully-considered counsel' (ibid, p.226). He also served on several Royal Commissions.

Outside of his role at court, Clark was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1832. He served on the Senate of the University of London, 1838-65. Indeed it is said that to him the medical section of the University owes its shape and usefulness (ibid). He also played an influential role in the establishing of the Royal College of Chemistry, in 1845. Clark also served on the General Medical Council, 1858-60.

Clark retired in 1860, giving up his practice at Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, where he had lived since 1841, and his duties as physician to the monarch. He moved to Bagshot Park, Surrey, which was lent to him by Queen Victoria for his life. He had married Barbara Stephen in September 1820, and they had had a son in July 1821. His wife, known to Clark as Minnie, died in 1862. Clark was 81 when he died at Bagshot Park on 29 June 1870. He was buried at Kensal Green on 4 July 1870.

Publications:
Lettera al. Prof. Tommasini intorno alle sue Osservationi sulla Scuola Medico-clinica di Edinburgo (Rome, 1822)
Medical Notes on Climate, Diseases, Hospitals, and Medical Schools in France, Italy, and Switzerland, comprising an Inquiry into the effects of a residence in the South of Europe in cases of Pulmonary Consumption (London, 1822)
The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases, more particularly of the Chest and Digestive Organs (London, 1829)
Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption comprehending an Inquiry into the Causes, Nature, Prevention, and Treatment of Tuberculous and Scrofulous Diseases in General (London, 1835)
Remarks on Medical Reform (London, 1842)
Memoir of John Conolly, MD, comprising a Sketch of the Treatment of the Insane in Europe and America (London, 1869)

Thomas Cogan ([1545]-1607). Medical student at Oxford, 1563-1574.

Unknown

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In 1767 Licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians established the Society of Collegiate Physicians, a dissentient body agitating for a change in the College rules. Fellows were not to be admitted to its membership. The Society wound up in 1798.

No biographical details of Mrs Alice Corffilde (fl. 1649) are known.

David Davies (1760-1844) MD St Andrew's, Extra-Licentiate, surgeon to St Peter's Hospital, Bristol.

Deptford Hospital, Avonley Road, Deptford, was opened on 17 March 1877, by the Metropolitan Asylums Board for admission of pauper patients with smallpox. By 1881, the epidemic was over, but it remained a fever hospital up until 1941. It became the South Eastern Fever Hospital in 1885 and then New Cross General Hospital in 1949. Since c 1964 it was known as New Cross Hospital. It closed c 1991.

Frederick George Dawtrey Drewitt was born at Burpham, Surrey, on the 29 February 1848. He was educated at Winchester College before entering Christ Church College, Oxford. He graduated with a natural science degree in 1871, and then began his medical studies at St George's Hospital, London. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1876, and took house appointments at St George's, the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street, London, and the Belgrave Hospital for Children.

He graduated MA and BM from Oxford in 1878, and the following year became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. Drewitt held honorary appointments at the Victoria Hospital for Children, 1881-87, and the West London Hospital, 1882-1902. He qualified MD from Oxford in 1883. In 1888 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Drewitt's private income enabled him to retire early. He then devoted himself chiefly to the study of birds and flowers. He had a range of interests however, which were reflected in his publications. In 1907 he wrote Bombay in the Days of George IV, and in 1922 The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden, which reached a third edition. His other publications included The Latin Names of Common Flowers: Their Pronunciation and History (1927), and The Life of Edward Jenner (1931). He was also a fine water-colour painter and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Drewitt sat on the governing bodies of the Ornithological Society, the Zoological Society, and the National Trust, and represented the Royal College of Physicians in the management of the Chelsea Physic Garden until 1941.

He had married in 1897 the Hon. Caroline Mary, daughter of the third Baron Lilford. Drewitt died on 29 July 1942, at the age of 94.

Publications:
Bombay in the Days of George IV: Memoirs of Sir Edward West, Chief Justice of the King's Court during its Conflict with the East India Company (London, 1907)
The Romance of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea (London, 1922)
The Latin Names of Common Flowers: Their Pronunciation and History (London, 1927)
The Life of Edward Jenner, MD, FRS, Naturalist and Discoverer of Vaccination (London, 1931).
The Notebook of Edward Jenner in the possession of the Royal College of Physicians of London, with an introduction on Jenner's work as a naturalist by F. Dawtrey Drewitt, Edward Jenner (London, 1931)

Sir George Ent was born at Sandwich, Kent, on 6 November 1604, the son of Josias Ent, a Belgium merchant whose religion had forced him to flee the Netherlands and settle in England. He was educated at a school in Rotterdam. In 1624 he entered at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1627, and MA in 1631. Ent then went to Padua University, at the time the most celebrated school of medicine. He studied there for five years, graduating MD in April 1636. As was the custom of the time, congratulatory poems addressed to him by his friends were published in Padua, entitled Laureae Apollinani, with Ent's coat of arms endorsed on the title page. He was incorporated MD at Oxford in November 1638.

In 1639 he was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Ent's major work was his Apologia pro Circuitione Sanguinis, contra Aemilium Parisanum (1641; 2nd edition 1683). The book defends William Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood, and is a particular reply to a Venetian physician Aemylius Parisanus. It also gives a `rational account' of the operation of purgative medicines (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.226). Both editions were dedicated to Sir Theophilus Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and were preceded by an address to Harvey. In 1642 Ent delivered the Goulstonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians. He was censor of the College for twenty-two years, between 1645 and 1669.

In 1651 Ent published Harvey's De Generatione Animalium, with a dedicatory letter to the celebrated anatomist. Ent had persuaded Harvey to give him the manuscript, which Harvey had up to that point delayed publishing as he felt he might have made further observations. Ent then published the work, with the author's permission. He dedicated the book to the president and fellows of the Royal College of Physicians. Ent was a close friend of Harvey's, and when Harvey died, in 1657, he left Ent five pounds with which to buy a ring. Their friendship was immortalised by the poet John Dryden, in his Epistle to Dr Charleton.

Ent was registrar of the Royal College of Physicians for fifteen years, 1655-70, and became an elect in 1657. In 1665 Ent delivered the anatomy lectures at the College. After the last lecture Charles II, who was present at the lecture, knighted Ent in the Harveian Museum, an unprecedented event. Ent was subsequently consiliarius, advisor to the president, from 1667-69, and again from 1676-86. Ent became president of the College from 1670-75, and served again in 1682 and 1684.

He was one of the original fellows of the Royal Society, and is named in the charter as one of the first council. A collection of Ent's works, Opera Omnia Medico-Physica, was published in Leiden in 1687. It has been said of him that he was `a man of very considerable scholarship speaking and writing Latin with ease and elegance' (Whitfield, [1981], p.51).

Ent had married Sarah, daughter of the physician Othowell Meverall, treasurer of the Royal College of Physicians, in February 1645-6. Ent died at his house in the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields, on 13 October 1689, at the age of 84. He had resigned from his position as elect at the College just a few days before his death. He was buried in the church of St Lawrence Jewry, near the Guildhall of London.

Publications:
Apologia pro Circuitione Sanguinis, contra Aemilium Parisanum (London, 1641; 2nd ed. 1683)
De Generatione Animalium, William Harvey (London, 1651, published by Ent)
Animadversiones in Malachiae Thrustoni, MD, Diatribam de Respirationis usu Primario (London, 1672)
Opera Omnia Medico-Physica... Nunc Primum Junctim Edita... (Leiden, 1687)
A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, Olof Rudbeck, Philip Stansfield, & Sir George Ent, ed. by John Houghton (London, 1692)

Robert Ferguson was born in India on 15 November 1799, the son of Robert Ferguson of the Indian Civil Service, originally from Glen Islay, Perthshire, and grand-nephew of the historian Adam Ferguson. Ferguson's early education was at a school in Croydon. He then began to study medicine as a pupil of his relative George Ricketts Nuttall, a practitioner in Soho, whilst attending lectures at the Great Windmill Street School of Anatomy. He studied for a time in Heidelberg, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of German literature, before entering the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. During his time at Edinburgh he became friends with the novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott, and Scott's son-in-law John Gibson Lockhart, novelist and biographer. Ferguson graduated MD in 1823.

In 1824 he became a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and began to practice midwifery in London. He became great friends with the eminent physician Robert Gooch, and obtained his patronage, succeeding to a large portion of Gooch's practice. Ferguson's first publication was a letter to Sir Henry Halford, president of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1825, proposing a combination of the old inoculation of smallpox with vaccination. After travelling abroad for a time as a medical attendant to various high societal families, he took the post of resident medical officer at the Marylebone Infirmary.

In 1827 he was active in founding the London Medical Gazette, an opportunity for conservative opinion in medical politics and academic views in medical science to be expressed. He was also a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Review. Most of his articles were on medicine, although one or two were of a philosophico-religious kind. Ferguson had a number of close literary friends, the novelists and poets William Wordsworth, Washington Irving, and Sir Henry Taylor. Ferguson anonymously authored a `History of Insects' for Murray's Family Library(1829-47).

With the support of Gooch he continued to specialise in obstetric practice, was appointed physician to the Westminster Lying-in Hospital, and became professor of obstetrics at King's College, when the medical department was opened in 1831. Ferguson became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1837. In 1840 he was appointed physician-accoucheur to Queen Victoria, during which appointment he attended the births of all her children. In 1844 and 1845 he was censor at the College, and between 1857 and 1859 a member of the council.

From 1857 he gradually withdrew from his extensive obstetric practice and became a general medical practitioner. He resigned his appointment as physician-accoucheur to the Queen, and was made her physician extraordinary. His success as a general practitioner was remarkable considering he had not served as physician to one of the large general hospitals. Indeed so successful did he become that it has been said that, at the time, `no physician was so well known' (Medical Times, 1865, p.14). Among his patients were distinguished leaders in politics and literature, such as Sir Walter Scott, with whom he had maintained friendships throughout his career.

He was twice married, first in 1830 to a lady of the noble French family of Labalmondiere, and then in 1846 to Mary Macleod, with whom he had five children. Ferguson died at his country cottage at Winkfield, Berkshire, on 25 June 1865, at the age of 65.

Publications:
Essay on the Most Important Diseases of Women. Part 1, Puerperal Fever; On the Method of Induction and its Results in Medical Science (London, 1839)
On Some of the Most Important Diseases of Women; Prefatory Essay by Robert Ferguson, Robert Gooch; Robert Ferguson (London, 1859)

James Gregory was born in January 1753 in Aberdeen, the son of John Gregory, professor of medicine at Edinburgh University. He was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and studied for a short time at Christ Church, Oxford. During the winter of 1773-74 he studied at St George's Hospital, London. His father died suddenly in the winter of 1773 whilst he was still a medical student, and he completed his father's course of lectures at Edinburgh University. He did this with such success that his father's chair, the professorship of practice of medicine, was left open to Gregory. He graduated MD in 1774 and spent the following two years studying medicine abroad.

In 1776, at the age of 23, he was appointed professor at Edinburgh University. The following year he began giving clinical lectures at the Royal Infirmary. In 1780-82 he published his Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae, which established his position in medicine. Although there was little original work in his Conspectus, it was valuable for what he wrote on therapeutics. In 1790 he succeeded to the chair of the practice of medicine at the university. From this point he was chief of the Edinburgh Medical School. Gregory attained a high reputation and had the leading consulting practice in Scotland, until his death. He was a friend of the poet Robert Burns.

He was widely popular as a teacher, particularly for his command of language, his excellent recollection of cases, his outspokenness, energy and humour. He was very practical in his approach, and advocated temperance, bodily exertion without fatigue, and mental occupation without anxiety, although he `by no means followed his own prescription' (DNB, 1890, p.100).

Gregory was a keen controversialist, and was keen-witted and sarcastic, but wasted his great powers on temporary and irritating controversies' (ibid). His controversy with the physician James Hamilton led to him severely beating Hamilton with a stick, for which he was fined £100 and costs for defamation. He then attacked, in hisMemorial to the Managers' of 1800, the practice of allowing all surgeons in Edinburgh to officiate at the Royal Infirmary in turn.

Gregory spoke out vehemently in opposition to the Edinburgh College of Physicians' recommendation to relax its regulations against the dispensing of medicines by members. The College charged him with violating his oath not to divulge its proceedings and having made false statements. He was found guilty by the College in September 1803, and was suspended from the rights and privileges of the fellowship in May 1809.

Gregory died on 2 April 1823, and was buried in Canongate churchyard, Edinburgh. Five sons and two daughters, by his second wife a Miss McLeod, survived him.

Publications:
De Morbis Coeli Mutatione Medendis (Edinburgh, 1774)
Conspectus Medicinae Theoreticae (Edinburgh, 1780-82)
Philosophical and Literary Essays (2 vols; Edinburgh, 1792)
Additional Memorial to the Managers of the Royal Infirmary (Edinburgh, 1803)
First Lines on the Practice of Physic, William Cullen, edited by James Gregory (Edinburgh, 1812)
Letter from Dr James Gregory in Defence of his Essay on the Difference of the Relation between Motive and Action and that of Cause and Effect in Physics, with replies by A. Crombie, Alexander Crombie and James Gregory (London, 1819)

Publications by others about Gregory:
Answer for the Junior Members of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh to the Memorial of Dr James Gregory, John Bell (Edinburgh, 1800)
Narrative of the Conduct of Dr James Gregory towards the RCPE, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1809)
Letters on Professional Character and Manners: On the Education of a Surgeon, and the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician: Addressed to James Gregory, MD, John Bell (Edinburgh, 1812)

Reginald Hale-White (1895-1967), general practitioner in London and Principal Medical Officer to the Alliance Assurance Company and the Imperial Life Assurance Company of Canada: Chairman of the Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine from 1955 to 1967.

The Fellowship was founded by Lord Horder in 1948 as a right-wing pressure group to support the interests of private practitioners in medicine and to oppose further extension of state intervention following the establishmernt of the National Health Service.

Sir Henry Halford was born Henry Vaughan in Leicester on 2 October 1766, the second son of James Vaughan, a successful physician in Leicester. Halford's father devoted his entire income to the education of his seven sons. Halford was educated at Rugby from 1774 before he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1781, where he graduated BA and MA in 1788. He spent some months in Edinburgh and practiced for a short time with his father in Leicester, before graduating MB in 1790 and MD in 1791. In 1792, after a few months practice at the fashionable resort of Scarborough, he settled in Mayfair in London. He had borrowed £1,000 on his own security on the advice of Sir George Baker, President of the Royal College of Physicians and recognised head of the medical profession in England.

He was elected physician to the Middlesex Hospital in 1793. In the same year, before he was 27 years old, he was appointed physician extraordinary to King George III. In 1794 he was made Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and served in the office of censor in 1795, 1801, and 1815. In 1800 he delivered the Harveian Oration at the College. In the same year, as a result of his practice having become so large, he relinquished his hospital appointment. In 1802 he moved to Curzon Street, where he remained throughout his life. By 1805 his income exceeded £7,000 a year. His patients included the statesmen Charles James Fox, William Pitt and George Canning, and several members of the Royal Family including the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and three of the King's sons, the Dukes of York, Kent and Cumberland.

Halford inherited a large estate on the death of Lady Denbigh, widow of his mother's cousin, Sir Charles Halford. Consequently he changed his name by Act of Parliament from Vaughan to Halford in 1809. In the same year George III created him baronet. Halford attended the King during his illness, and the Prince Regent made him physician in ordinary to the King in 1812. In 1813 he attended, with the Prince Regent, the opening of the coffin of Charles I, undertaken to identify the former King's remains. On the ascension of George IV he was again made physician in ordinary, and subsequently performed the same duty to William IV and Queen Victoria.

It has been said that he was an eminent physician with good perception and sound judgment, wielding the resources of his art with a confidence, precision, and success, which was unapproached by any of his contemporaries' (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.430). However it is recognised that his knowledge of pathology and accuracy of diagnosis were inferior to Matthew Baillie's, his eminent colleague, and it is said that he disliked innovation. Many of his contemporaries criticised him for behaving as a courtier outside of his role as royal physician. James Wardrop, who had been appointed surgeon to the King in 1828, referred to him as 'the eel-backed baronet'. Ultimately thoughfor many years after Dr Matthew Baillie's death he was indisputably at the head of London practice' (DNB, 1890, p.39).

From 1820 Halford served as president of the Royal College of Physicians, to which office he was unanimously re-elected every year for 24 years until his death. During his presidency one of the most significant changes in the College's history occurred, the ending of the restriction of the Fellowship to Oxbridge graduates alone. He also inaugurated a series of monthly evening meetings, the audiences of which came from all walks of life. Halford was largely instrumental in securing the removal of the College from Warwick Lane to Pall Mall East in 1825, and officially opened the new premises. To mark the occasion the King conferred on him the Star of a Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order (KCH). William IV subsequently promoted him to a Grand Cross of Hanover (GCH).

In 1831 Halford published Essays and Orations Delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, which included papers on 'Tic Douloureux', 'The Treatment of Gout', and 'The Climacteric Disease'. However he made neither significant nor extensive contributions to medical literature. In 1835 he again delivered the Harveian Oration at the College. Due to his office as president of the Royal College of Physicians he became a trustee of the British Museum and president of the National Vaccine Establishment. He had been a keen advocate of vaccination since its introduction by Edward Jenner in 1798. He also became a fellow of the Royal Antiquarian Societies and a trustee of Rugby School.

Halford spent much time in his latter years composing Latin poetry. He continued in practice to within a few months of his death. He had married Elizabeth Barbara St John, daughter of Lord St John of Bletsoe, in 1795. His wife died in 1833, whilst their son and daughter both survived Halford.

Halford died at his home on 9 March 1844, at the age of 77. He was buried in the parish church of Wistow, Leicestershire, where a monument was erected in his memory.

Publications:
An Account of What Appeared on Opening the Coffin of King Charles I, in the vault of King Henry Eighth in St George's Chapel at Windsor (London, 1813)
Oratio in Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis, aedibus novis, habita die dedicationis, Junii XXV, MDCCCXXV (London, 1825)
Essays and Orations Delivered at the Royal College of Physicians; to which is added an Account of the Opening of the Tomb of Charles I (London, 1831; 1842)
On the Education and Conduct of a Physician (London, 1834)
On the Deaths of some Eminent Persons of Modern Times (London, 1835)
On the Effects of Cold (London, 1837)
Nugae Metricae (Latin & English) (London, 1842)

Publications by others about Halford:
The Life of Sir Henry Halford, Bart, William Munk (London, 1895)

William Harvey was born on 1 April 1578 in Folkestone, Kent, the son of Thomas Harvey, a Kentish yeoman, and his second wife Joane. He was the second child and eldest son of a family of ten children. In 1588 he went to King's Grammar School, Canterbury, and then in 1593 to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He graduated BA in 1597 and decided to pursue a career in medicine. In 1598 he traveled through France and Germany to Padua, to study at the most renowned medical school of the time. He studied under Fabricus of Aquapendente, Professor of Anatomy, as well as Thomas Minadous, Professor of Medicine, and Julius Casserius, Professor of Surgery. He graduated on 25 April 1602, before returning to England and graduating MD from Cambridge in the same year.

Harvey moved to London and took a house in the parish of St Martin-extra-Ludgate. In 1604 he married Elizabeth Browne, daughter of Dr Lancelot Browne, former physician to Queen Elizabeth I. On 5 October 1604 he was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, and was elected Fellow on 5 June 1607. In February 1608-9 he applied for reversion of the office of physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital, whereupon he produced a recommendation from the King and testimonials from Dr Atkins, President of the Royal College of Physicians, and several senior doctors of the College. He was elected to the reversion, a position equivalent to assistant physician, and worked under Dr Wilkinson. Upon the latter's death in the summer of 1609 Harvey was elected full physician.

From 1609 onwards Harvey's time was divided between his hospital duties, his private practice, his anatomical and physiological research, and his numerous duties at the Royal College of Physicians. He became Censor at the College in 1613, and in 1615 was elected Lumleian Lecturer, a role he fulfilled every other year for the next thirty years. He gave his first set of anatomical lectures at the College on 16-18 April 1616. Originally it was believed that Harvey publicly revealed his concept of the circulation of the blood during these earliest demonstrations, although he did not publish his beliefs until 1928. However it is now accepted that

`complete realization of this doctrine was only arrived at by stages during the first twelve years covered by the lectures' (Keynes, 1978, p.106).

In 1618 Harvey was made physician extraordinary to James I. Five years later he received a promise that he would be made physician in ordinary to the King on the next vacancy, although this did not take place until Charles I had been on the throne for some time. In 1620 Harvey was appointed by the Royal College of Physicians to watch the proceedings of the surgeons who were moving Parliament in their own interest, and was sent to Cambridge where the university declined to join the College. Harvey was Censor again for the College in 1625 and 1629, was named Elect in 1627, and was Treasurer in 1628 and 1629.

In 1628 Harvey published at Frankfurt his discovery of the circulation of the blood, in a book entitled Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sangiunis in Animalibus. Throughout the seventeen chapters `the whole subject is made clear from the beginning and incontestably demonstrated' (DNB, 1891, p.96). Harvey's success in his research has been attributed to the fact that

`his originality stemmed not from the amassing of observations per se but from his remarkable gift for perceiving and pursuing the theoretical implications of his observations' (DSB, 1972, p.152).

In his book he described the movement of the blood around the body, and covered the motions of the arteries and of the ventricles and auricles of the heart, and the use of these movements. He explained that blood is carried out of the heart by arteries and comes back to it via veins, performing a complete circulation. He finally demonstrated that the right ventricle is thinner than the left, as it only has to send the blood to the lungs, whilst the left ventricle has to pump it over the whole body. The book immediately attracted attention and discussion. Whilst a few opposed his theory, such as Caspar Hofmann of Nuremburg, his momentous discovery, `the greatest of the discoveries of physiology' (ibid, p97), was certainly accepted throughout the medical world before his death.

In 1630 he requested leave of absence from St Barts, and resigned from his position of Treasurer at the Royal College of Physicians, to travel with the Duke of Lenox on the King's command to France, Spain and Italy, between 1630 and 1632. It was probably on his return to England that he was sworn in as physician in ordinary to the King. In May 1633 he journeyed to Scotland with Charles I for Charles' coronation as King of Scotland, 18 June 1633. In October of that year St Barts appointed a full physician to allow Harvey more liberty to fulfill his many duties. Harvey then drew up sixteen regulations for the hospital, essentially stating that absolutely incurable cases should not be admitted, and that the surgeon, apothecary, and matron were to discharge all services decently and in person.

Once back in England Harvey was in full attendance on Charles I. He remained heavily involved with the Royal College of Physicians however, regularly attending the comitia, examining applicants for Candidate, and drawing up rules for the library. In July 1634 he made a speech to the apothecaries persuading them to conform to the College orders.

In April 1636 he again left England, this time for Germany and Italy, as part of an embassy sent to Emperor Ferdinand of Germany. Harvey was in attendance on his friend the ambassador Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. During this diplomatic mission he was able to visit a number of medical colleges, and lectured to students and professors on his theory of blood circulation. Whilst in Germany he visited his critic Hofmann, in Nuremburg, in an attempt to convince him of his theory on the circulation of the blood, but failed.

On returning to England, at the end of 1636, Harvey remained in London until the outbreak of Civil War. From 1639 he was the King's chief physician, and in 1642 he left London with the King. Shortly afterwards his apartment in Whitehall Palace had been ransacked and most of his papers destroyed by the Parliamentarian soldiers. Harvey was present at the Battle of Edgehill, and was in charge of the Prince of Wales and Duke of York during the fighting, although it is said that he `cared little for politics' (ibid, p.98). He subsequently went to Oxford with the King and was incorporated MD on 7 December 1642. In 1643 he resigned from St Barts. He continued his anatomical work, making dissections at Oxford. In 1645 he was made royal mandate warden of Merton College, Oxford.

In 1646, after the surrender of Oxford, Harvey left the university and his appointment as warden and returned to London to live with one of his brothers, all of who were wealthy merchants. His wife had died the previous year in London, unable to leave the capital to join her husband in Oxford. He was now 68 years old and withdrew from practice and from the royal cause. Three years later he published Exercitatio Anatomica de Circulatione Sanguinis, ad Joannem Riolanem filium Parisiensem (1649), a discussion of the arguments against his doctrines set out in Riolanus's book Encheiridium Anatomicum (1648). His last publication, Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, quibis accedunt quaedam de Partu, de Membranis ac Tumoribus Uteri et de Conceptione, based on his study of embryology, appeared in 1651.

From this period until his death it is said that `the chief object which occupied the mind of Harvey was the welfare and improvement of the College of Physicians' (Munk's Roll, 1878, p.133). In July 1651 Harvey built a library for the College. Although he wished to remain anonymous the source of this generous donation soon became known, and in December 1652 the College decided to erect a statue of Harvey. The library was completed in February 1653-4 and handed over to the College with the title deeds and his whole interest in the building. In 1654 he was elected president, but declined the honour on the grounds of his age. He did however serve on the Council, in 1655 and 1656. In 1656 he also resigned his Lumleian lectureship, but before leaving he donated to the College, in perpetuity, his estate at Burmarsh, Kent, and left an endowment to pay for a librarian and the delivery of an annual oration.

Harvey had suffered from gout for sometime but the attacks became more severe towards the end of his life. He died of a stroke on 3 June 1657 at the age of 79. His body was placed in the family vault at Hempstead, Essex, the fellows of the Royal College of Physicians forming part of the procession from London to Essex. His body remained there until 18 October, St Luke's Day, 1883 when it was moved to a sarcophagus, provided by the College, in the Harvey chapel erected in Hempstead Church. In his will Harvey left his books and papers to the College, a benefaction to Christ's Hospital, and many bequests to his relations. The College posthumously published a collected edition of his works in 1766, whilst a complete translation into English, by the Sydenham Society, appeared in 1847. In his honour the Harveian Oration is delivered every year on St Luke's Day.

Publications:
Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sangiunis in Animalibus (1628; Translated with Introduction & Notes by G. Whitteridge, Oxford, 1976)
Exercitatio Anatomica de Circulatione Sanguinis, ad Joannem Riolanem filium Parisiensem (1649)
Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium, quibis accedunt quaedam de Partu, de Membranis ac Tumoribus Uteri et de Conceptione (1651)
Harvey's post mortem examination of Thomas Parr, the old man of 152, in De Ortu et Natura Sanguinis, Treatise of John Betts (London, 1669)
Eleven Letters of William Harvey to Lord Feilding, June 9 - November 15 1636 posthumously published (privately printed, London 1912)
De Motu Locali Animalium, posthumously published, edited, translated, and introduced by Gweneth Whitteridge (Cambridge, 1959)

Publications by others about Harvey:
Guilielmi Harveii Opera Omnia a Collegio Medicorum, Akenside (ed.), with prefixed biography by Dr Thomas Lawrence (London, 1776)
The Works of William Harvey: Translated from the Latin with a Life of the Author by R. Willis, Robert Willis (Sydenham Society, 1847)
William Harvey: A History of the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, Robert Willis (London, 1878)
A Brief Account of the Circumstances Leading to and Attending the Reintombment of the Remains of Dr William Harvey in the Church of Hempstead in Essex, October 1883, William Munk (privately printed, London 1883)
The Life of William Harvey and his Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood, Rowland Hills (London, 1893)
William Harvey (Masters of Medicine), Sir D'Arcy Power (London, 1897)
William Harvey 1578-1657, Raymond Benedict Hervey Wyatt (London, 1924)
A Bibliography of the Writings of William Harvey, MD, Discoverer of the Blood, 1628-1928, Sir G.L. Keynes (Cambridge, 1928)
William Harvey, Thomas Archibald Malloch (New York, 1929)
William Harvey: His Life and Times: his Discoveries: his Methods, Louis Chauvois (London, 1957)
William Harvey, Norman Wymer (Oxford, 1958)
William Harvey, Englishman, 1578-1657, Kenneth James Franklin (London, 1961)
William Harvey, the Man, the Physician and the Scientist, Kenneth David Keele (London, 1965)
William Harvey: Trailblazer of Scientific Medicine, Rebecca B. Marcus (London, 1965)
William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood, Gweneth Whitteridge (London, 1971)
William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (Pioneers of Science and Discovery), Eric Neil (London, 1975)
New Light on William Harvey, Walter Pagel (Basel, 1976)
The Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of William Harvey - Scientific and Social Programme, 9-13th July 1978, Royal College of Physicians of London (London, 1978)
The Life of William Harvey, Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford, 1978)
William Harvey and His Age: The Professional and Social Context of the Discovery of the Circulation, Jerome J. Bylebyl (Baltimore, c.1979)
The Diary of William Harvey: The Imaginary Journal of the Physician who Revolutionised Medicine, Jean Hamburger, translated by Barbara Wright (New Jersey, 1992)
William Harvey's Natural Philosophy, Roger Kenneth French (Cambridge, 1994)

John Latham was born on 29 December 1761, at Gawsworth, Cheshire, the eldest son of the Rev. John Latham, vicar of Siddington, Cheshire. Latham acquired his early education at Manchester Grammar School. In 1778 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford. He proceeded BA in 1782, and MA in 1784. Between 1782 and 1784 he studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1784 he began to practice medicine in Manchester, where he was elected physician to the town's infirmary. In 1786 he resigned the office and returned to Oxford where he graduated MB in the same year. The following year he was appointed physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary and graduated MD in 1788.

In 1788 Latham moved to London and set up his home and practice in Bedford Row. His exertions on settling in the capital were excessive, and he consequently established a large, lucrative practice. He was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians in the same year, and became a fellow in 1789. It was also in 1789 that he was elected physician of the Middlesex Hospital and the Magdalen Hospital. From his election as fellow he played an active roll in the life of the College, for example acting as censor on several occasions between 1790 and 1807. In 1791 he published A Plan of a Charitable Institution to be Established on the Sea Coast. In 1792 Latham undertook to arrange the College library, the result proved so satisfactory that his colleagues voted him the sum of £100. In 1793 he resigned from the Middlesex and became physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Latham gave several of the eponymous lectures of the Royal College of Physicians, including the Goulstonian Lectures in 1793, the Harveian Oration in 1794, and the Croonian Lectures in 1795. In 1795 he was appointed physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. The following year Latham published On Rheumatism and Gout, in which he detailed an elaborate treatment and argued that neither acute rheumatism nor gout were hereditary. In 1802 Latham retired from his position at St Bartholomew's.

In 1807, at the age of 46, Latham retired to the country, due to exhaustion brought on by his intense labour. It was believed that he was consumptive and that he might die. However away from his professional business he regained his health and eventually recovered. He returned to London and began a more moderate practice, based in Harley Street.

In 1811 Latham published Facts and Opinions concerning Diabetes, and authored many medical papers which were published in the Royal College of Physicians's Medical Transactions. His writings `show that the parts of physic in which he excelled were clinical observation and acquaintance with the materia medica' (DNB, 1892, p.166). Latham was President of the College from 1813-19. In 1816 he founded the Medical Benevolent Society. When the Prince of Wales ascended to the throne as George IV in 1820, Latham was reappointed physician extraordinary.

In 1829 Latham finally left London and retired to Bradwall Hall in Cheshire. He had married Mary Mere in 1874, and they had had three sons. Their second son Peter Mere Latham, born in 1789, also became a physician, whilst the first and third sons, John and Henry, were both poetical writers. Latham died on 20 April 1843 at the age of 81, after suffering from stones in the bladder.

Publications:
Diatribae duae encaemicae coram Collegio Regali Medicorum Londinensi, scilicet Oratio Harveiana et Praelectio Crooniana (London, 1795?)
On Rheumatism and Gout: A Letter Addressed to Sir George Baker (London, 1796)
The New Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians (index by John Latham) (London, 1796, 7th edition; 1801 8th edition)
Facts and Opinions concerning Diabetes (London, 1811)

Peter Mere Latham was born in London on 1 July 1789, the second son of John Latham, physician. He was first educated at the free school of Sandbach, Cheshire, and then from 1797 at Macclesfield Grammar School. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1806. He graduated BA in 1810 and began his medical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Carey Street Public Dispensary under the tutelage of Thomas Bateman, dermatologist and physician. Whilst studying at the Dispensary he met the celebrated Richard Bright, physician, with whom he established a life-long friendship. He proceeded MA in 1813, and then MB in 1814. Latham took a house in Gower Street and in 1815 was appointed physician to the Middlesex Hospital. In 1816 he delivered a course of lectures on the practice of physic in London. He graduated MD in the same year.

Latham was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1818, and delivered the College's Goulstonian Lectures the following year. In 1820 he was a censor for the College, and held that office again in 1833 and 1837. In March 1823 he and Peter Mark Roget, fellow physician and savant, were asked by the government to undertake the investigation of an epidemic disorder then rife in the Millbank Penitentiary. They found the epidemic to be scurvy and dysentery, which they concluded was due to an insufficient diet. Consequently they recommended for the prisoners at least one solid meal a day, better bread, and 3lbs of meat every fortnight. Latham subsequently published An Account of the Disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (1825).

In 1824 Latham resigned from the Middlesex Hospital and was appointed physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1827 he delivered the Royal College of Physician's Lumleian Lectures. Latham published his Essays on some Diseases of the Heart' in the Medical Gazette (1828). In them he maintained that administering mercury until it produced salivation was essential for the cure of pericarditis. Latham's particular interest in heart diseases had been encouraged by the recent invention of the stethoscope by the French physician Laennec. In 1836 Latham was elected joint lecturer on medicine, with fellow physician Dr (later Sir) George Burrows, at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. It has been said of Latham thathis clinical teaching was excellent' (DNB, 1892, p.167). It was also in 1836 that he published Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine, of which the first six are on methods of study and observation, the next six on auscultation and percussion, and two more on phthisis.

In 1837 he was appointed physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria, an office which he retained until his death. Latham never acquired a large private practice. In 1839 he delivered the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians, which he subsequently published. In 1841 he resigned from St Bartholomew's Hospital due to frequent attacks of asthma, from which he had suffered from an early age. Latham published Lectures on Clinical Medicine, comprising Diseases of the Heart in 1845. This was described as `a work of great originality, full of careful observation, and containing a discussion of all parts of the subject' (ibid). It has also been said of his work that

`although most remedies Latham advocated have proved ineffective, his descriptions of the clinical symptoms and physical findings in his patients remain interesting and instructive' (Fye, 1989, p.610).

In 1865 he relinquished his small practice and left London to settle in Torquay. He was married twice, firstly to Diana Clarissa Chetwynd Stapleton in 1824, who had died the following year, and then to Grace Mary Chambers, with whom he had four children all of whom survived him. He died in Torquay on 20 July 1875, at the age of 86.

Publications:
An Account of the Disease lately prevalent at the General Penitentiary (London, 1825)
Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine (London, 1836)
Oratio ex Harveii instituto habita..., MDCCCXXXIX (London, 1839?)
Lectures on Subjects connected with Clinical Medicine, comprising Diseases of the Heart (London, 1845-46, 2nd ed.)
Collected Works, with Memoir by Sir Thomas Watson, Robert Martin (ed.) (London, 1876-78)
Aphorisms from Latham; edited by W.B. Bean, William Bennett Bean (ed.) (Iowa, 1962)

Bax was the son of Bonham Ward Bax (q.v.). He joined the BRITANNIA in 1889, rose to captain in 1913 and saw active service in World War One. He was promoted to admiral on the retired list in 1932.

Berry went to sea as a volunteer in 1779 and served in the guardship Magnificent between 1787 and 1788. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1794. He later served in the AGAMEMNON and the Captain with Nelson (q.v.), 1796 to 1797 and was then promoted to captain. After service with Nelson at the battle of the Nile, 1798, he commanded the FOUDROYANT and captured the GENEREUX and GUILLAUME TELL. He was appointed to the AGAMEMNON in 1805 and fought at Trafalgar. Subsequent commands took him to the West Indies and in 1812 he was appointed to the Barfleur. Berry commanded the royal yacht ROYAL SOVEREIGN, 1813 to 1814. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1821.

Robert Barrie was born in 1774 or 1775. His mother was a sister of Admiral Lord Gardner. After the death of Barrie's father she married George Clayton of Lostock Hall, Preston, Lancashire. Barrie entered the navy in his uncle's ship in 1786. He sailed on Vancouver's expedition 1791-1794, and was promoted lieutenant in 1795 and to captain in 1802. He commanded the BRILLIANT on the Irish Station between 1804 and 1805 and the POMONE in the Channel and the Mediterranean between 1806 and 1811. In 1810 he was responsible for apprehending Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, one of Bonaparte's brothers, and his family who were subsequently sent to England where they remained until 1814. In 1811 the POMONE was wrecked but Barrie was acquitted at his court martial. He commanded the DRAGON on the North American Station 1813 to 1815. From 1819 to 1834 he was Superintendant of HM Dockyard Kingston, Canada. See: biographical article by T L Brock with a family memoir and notes on Barrie's ancestry, and transcripts of his Canadian letters in BGY/19. See also: Section 4 (DXN) diaries of Anne Dixon, nee Gardner (1733-1803), sister of Admiral Lord Gardner and Barrie's aunt.

Blake entered the Navy in 1897, was made a lieutenant in 1904, specialising in gunnery and was promoted to commander in 1914. Between 1914 and 1918 he served in the Grand Fleet flagships IRON DUKE and QUEEN ELIZABETH as Fleet Gunnery Commander and Executive Officer respectively. In 1918 he was promoted to captain and served as Naval Attache in Washington between 1919 and 1921. From 1921 to 1923 he commanded QUEEN ELIZABETH and from 1923 he served on the staff of the War College for two years. Between 1925 and 1929 he was Deputy Director and then Director of the Royal Naval Staff College, after which, for three years, he was Commodore in command of the New Zealand Station and First Naval Member of the New Zealand Naval Board. In 1931 he was made rear-admiral. He became Fourth Sea Lord in 1932 and was promoted to vice-admiral in 1935. His last active command was that of the Battle Cruiser Squadron. He retired because of ill-health in 1938, was recalled in 1940 and served on the Board of Admiralty as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff. From 1942 to 1945 he was Flag Officer, Liaison, with the United States Navy in Europe.

Bougainville served in the French army in Canada, where he was aide-de-camp to Montcalm (1712-1759). In 1763 he sailed on a private enterprise to colonise the Falkland Islands with French Canadian refugees but when France sold her interest in the islands to Spain in 1766, he sailed to the South Seas and in the next three years circumnavigated the world. He subsequently proposed undertaking a voyage towards the North Pole hut his scheme was dropped when the Duc de Choiseul (1719-1785) was dismissed in 1770. In 1775 Bougainville was granted naval rank and was second-in-command to de Grasse (1722-1788) in the West Indies during the American War of Independence. In 1791 he was offered the post of Ministre de la Marine but refused it. He narrowly escaped the guillotine and he later enjoyed the patronage of Napoleon. In 1796 he was elected to the Institut National. He was also a member of the Bureau des Longitudes and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. See Jean Etienne Martin-Allanic, Bougainville, navigateur et les decouvertes de son temps (Paris, 1964).

By the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854, the responsibility for maintaining a systematic wreck register was taken over by the Marine Department of the Board of Trade; for a short period before this date it had been the responsibility of the Admiralty. Between 1864 and 1867 the Wreck Department was created to deal with wrecks, salvage and related matters.

Edward Eden Bradford joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet in 1872, serving on HMS HERCULES in the channel. Promoted to Midshipman in 1876, he then served aboard HMS DORIS, HMS DANAE and HMS RALIEGH, before taking up position on the schooner HMS SANDFLY as her Sub-Lieutenant. It was during his time on th SANDFLY that Bradford was forced to take charge of the vessel, following the murder of her Commanding Officer and five crew by natives whilst surveying ashore in the Solomon Islands. Bradford's subsequent actions in recovering the bodies of his shipmates and the punishment of the natives earned him a special promotion to Lieutenant in December 1880. Bradford then joined HMS ACHILLES in 1881 and took part in the bombardment of Alexandria, for which he was decorated. He served in the China Station from 1883 to 1891 aboard HMS SAPPHIRE and HMS MUTINE, after which he joined HMS BOADICEA, flagship of the East Indies Squadron as a Commander. Promoted to Captain in 1899, Bradford then served under Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson as his Flag-Captain in HMS MAJESTIC, HMS REVENGE and HMS EXMOUTH. Commodore of Chatham Naval Barracks from 1907 to 1908, Bradford was then made Rear-Admiral of the Home Fleet, with his flag in HMS HIBERNIA. He then commanded the Training Squadron aboard HMS LEVIATHAN from 1911 to 1913, before being promoted to Vice-Admiral and given command of the 3rd Battle Squadron, with which he supported Admiral Beatty at Dogger Bank. At his own request, Bradford retired in 1918 with the rank of Admiral.

Brown entered the Navy in 1890 and served in the DREADNOUGHT in the Mediterranean until 1893, when he joined the TOURMALINE in the West Indies. He then joined the VOLAGE in the Training Squadron and took part in the summer cruise of 1896. His next ship was the TRAFALGAR, Mediterranean and Channel Stations, and between 1900 and 1902 he served in the ARGONAUT on the China Station. Brown was promoted to commander in 1905, to captain in 1912 and held a succession of cruiser appointments during the First World War. He then served as head of the naval mission to Greece between 1917 and 1919 and was made rear-admiral in the Royal Hellenic Navy in 1918. In 1922 he was promoted to rear-admiral, placed on the retired list and in 1927 was advanced to vice-admiral.

David Beatty entered the navy in 1884 as a cadet on board the BRITANNIA. Two years later he was posted as a midshipman to the ALEXANDRA, flagship of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, after which he served in the CRUISER and TAMAR. As an acting Sub-Lieutenant, he underwent training between 1890 and 1892 at Portsmouth and at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Promoted Lieutenant in 1892, he spent most of the next four years in the RUBY corvette, and battleships CAMPERDOWN and TRAFALGAR. Between 1896 and 1898, in the efforts to retain the Sudan under Egyptian control, he distinguished himself in operations involving a flotilla of gunboats on the Nile; in addition in 1898 he commanded a rocket battery on shore. For these services he was promoted Commander in November 1898 (see BTY/1/2 and BTY/24/1-6).

The following year, Beatty went as commander in the BARFLEUR to China, then in the throes of the Boxer rebellion. Again he distinguished himself in reinforcing the garrison at Tientsin and in leading sorties against the besieging rebels (see BTY/1/3). Although only 29, in November 1900 he was promoted captain. Between 1902 and 1910, Beatty commanded the cruisers JUNO, ARROGANT, DIANA and SUFFOLK and the battleship QUEEN. Memoranda survive relating to his command of the JUNO (BTY/2/1). In 1910 Beatty was promoted Rear-Admiral, the youngest flag-officer for over a hundred years, at 39. In 1911 he was offered a Flag post in the Atlantic Fleet, which he refused (see BTY/2/2), and after Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty in October 1911, he chose Beatty for his naval secretary (see BTY/2/3). To test Beatty's aptitude for sea command, Churchill gave him commane of a cruiser squadron during the manoeuvres of 1912 (see BTY/22/1). In 1913 Churchill gave Beatty command of the battlecruiser squadron based at Scapa Flow, with his flag in the LION (see BTY/2/4). Beatty took a leading part in the naval operations of the Grand Fleet throughout the First World War Admiral Sir John Jellicoe became first Sea Lord and Beatty as Commander-in-Chief and Jellicoe's subordinate, the correspondence with Jellicoe is a key source for the history of naval operations for the whole war (see BTY/13/21-23).

Other important correspondence is that between Beatty and Sir Rosslyn Wemyss (1864-1933) (see BTY/13/39, 40). In 1901 Beatty married Ethel (1874-1932), daughter of Marshall Field of Chicago and former wife of the american, Arthur Tree. They had two sons, David (1905-1981) and Peter (b 1910). Their correspondence (BTY/17 and 18) is an important source for the war as well as for pre- and post-war periods, extending from 1900 to 1927. In 1919 Beatty succeeded Wemyss as first sea lord at the Admiralty, a post he held until 1927. Beatty's correspondence with W H Long (1854-1924), then First Lord, covers the terms of his appointment and his first three years at the Admiralty (BTY/13/28). Dominating his first three years at the Admiralty was the controversy over what actually happened at the battle of Jutland, and the succession of efforts to produce a version of events for public comsumption. Particularly important are the memoranda relating to the production by Captain J E T Harper (1874-1949) of the 'Official Record' of the battles and the decision not to publish it (BTY/9/2 and 3). In 1927 Beatty was elevated to the peerage and took his place in the House of Lords. He died in 1939 and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

Burton was commissioned as first lieutenant in the Royal Marines in 1806. From 1811 to 1812 he served in the ROTA in the Channel. He was promoted to captain in 1827 and served in the Mediterranean in the ALFRED, 1831 to 1834.

Osborn served in the Mediterranean before becoming a lieutenant in 1717. In 1718 He took part in the action off Cape Passaro in the Mediterranean and the following year served in a squadron on the north coast of Africa. His first command was the SQUIRREL in 1728. In 1734 he commanded the PORTLAND in the Channel and in 1738 the SALISBURY in the Mediterranean. He was appointed to the PRINCE OF ORANGE in 1740, returning to England in the CHICHESTER in 1741, when he moved to the PRINCESS CAROLINE, Channel, until 1743. Osborn was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1747 and in 1748 was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands; in the same year he became a Vice-Admiral. He was promoted Admiral and appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, in 1757 but after blockading the French fleet in 1758, he suffered a stroke and saw no more active service. Osborn was Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire, 1758 to 1761.

Abdy began his career by serving in the East India Company's ships TRUE BRITON, 1750 to 1752, on a voyage to China and Stafford, 1753, to India. He then entered the Navy and was commissioned as lieutenant in 1758. He was promoted to commander in 1761 and served in the BEAVER, 1761 to 1766, in home waters and then in the West Indies. In 1766 he was promoted to Captain of the ACTEON in the West Indies, but he returned home before the end of the year and did not serve again because of ill-health.

Chatfield attended the School of Naval Architecture at Portsmouth. He was Assistant Master Shipwright at Deptford, 1848 to 1853, and Master Shipwright between 1853 and 1860. He was a member of the Dockyard Committee of Enquiry, which concluded its report in 1861 and to which he attached a minority report.

Chambers entered the Navy in 1823 and served in the West Indies from 1824 until 1829, the year in which he became a lieutenant. He went again to the West Indies in 1833 when he was appointed First Lieutenant of the RACER and in 1836 was given charge of the Portuguese prize brigantine VIGILANTI. In 1837 he transferred to the WELLESLEY, flagship in the East Indies, and in 1840 was acting captain firstly of the ALLIGATOR, then of the PELORUS which was stationed at Port Essington, Australia. When the PELORUS was sold at Singapore in 1841, Chambers returned to the WELLESLEY as her First Lieutenant and took part in the latter stages of the First China War, 1839 to 1842. For this service he was promoted to commander and became captain in 1846.

Captain John Christopher joined the Royal Navy in June 1839 and served as a seaman on board HMS CAMBRIDGE until November 1841. In March 1842 he commenced a career of over thirty years in the Merchant Service. In 1850 he made a successful claim for a Master's Certificate of Service (his application form is among the papers of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen at the Museum). He served in a number merchant ships including the barque MINMANUETH of Scilly 1865 to1872 in the American trade. In 1872 he left the sea due to ill health although he served as Mate in the REAPER in 1876. He then turned his attentions to shipowning. In 1875 he purchased shares of the schooner LIZZIE MORTON of St Ives in 1879. He also became involved in the foundation of the Hain Steamship Company of St Ives in 1879. The Christopher family continued to play a leading part in the Hain Steamship Company; John Christopher's grandson Sir George P Christopher becoming Chairman and Managing Director and his grandson Captain J Christopher becoming the Company's Marine Superintendant.

Thomas Clifford was born at Chudleigh, near Exeter, Devon on 1 August 1630. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1647 and then entered the Middle Temple in the following year to complete his education. In November 1664, on the eve of the Second Dutch War, Clifford was made a Commissioner for Sick and Wounded Seamen and Prisoners of War. On 14 January 1665, he was appointed as Sub-Commissioner for Prizes for the Port of London, rising to the position of General Commissioner on 24 March. In the same year, Clifford also received a knighthood and joined the English Fleet at sea participating, with the Duke of York, in the Battle of Lowestoft on 3 June. On 28 June, Charles II granted him the prize ship the PATRIARCH ISSACK, captured from the Dutch, for attention to his duties as Sub-Commissioner for Prizes for the Port of London. In August of that year he was again at sea as Captain of the REVENGE, serving under the Earl of Sandwich at the Battle of Bergen. On 29 August 1665, Clifford was appointed, with Sir Henry Coventry, as Extraordinary Envoy to Sweden and, with Sir Gilbert Talbot, as Extraordinary Envoy to Denmark, to settle questions of commerce and navigation. Sir Clifford was to see direct action again in the Second Dutch War, between 1 and 4 June 1666, when he participated in the Four Days' Battle, and on 25 July 1666 at the St James Day Battle. On 8 November that year, he was appointed Comptroller of the Household and on 5 December he was placed on Charles II's Privy Council. As one of the King's most trusted advisors, he subsequently received a number of high profile appointments, the first in 1667, when he was asked to serve on the Commission of the Treasury. In October 1667, he was requested to assist in the preparation of a report on the English Fleet at war. He was made Treasurer of the Household on 14 June 1668. In 1670, Sir Clifford was responsible, with other ministers including the Earl of Arlington, for the negotiation of the Secret Treaty of Dover of June 1670 with Louis XIV of France, urging Charles II to go to war with the United Provinces. Two years later, during the absence of Coventry and Arlington in Sweden and Holland, Clifford was appointed as Principal Secretary of State. In April 1672, he was created 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh and on 28 November was appointed as Lord High Treasurer. The same year he was also made Treasurer of the Exchequer, and was a principal promoter of the Declaration of Indulgence of 1672, suspending penal laws against dissenters and Catholic recusants. Clifford was a member of the Cabal, a group of inner advisers to Charles II, which included Clifford, Ashley (Lord Shaftesbury), Buckingham (George Villiers), Arlington (Henry Bennett) and Lauderdale (John Maitland). Their initials form the word, although the origin of the term is much earlier. Although never a working ministry, one or more of this group was to dominate Court policy from 1667-1673. After the Test Act of 1673, Clifford as a Roman Catholic was forced to resign his role as Treasurer and in June he left the Privy Council. He died, possibly by his own hand, in September of the same year

The Chine Shipping Company of Cardiff was incorporated as a public company in 1934 with a capital of £20,000. Until the Second World War the Company operated in a modest way with second-hand ships. During the war, and after the loss of its last ship, the Company operated various vessels on behalf of the Ministry of War Transport. In 1944 it was taken over by the Anglo-Danubian Transport Company, which had its headquarters in London. This company, founded in 1928 by George Bischoff (d 1963), had operated a fleet of tugs and barges in the Danube before the war. Bischoff decided to go into deep sea shipowning with the purchase of the Chine Shipping Company. In 1945 he also purchased the Gryfevale Steamship Company and the Rodney Steamship Company. In addition, he owned the Anglo-Continental Inland Waterways Ltd operating barges on the Rhine. From this time the Chine Shipping Company became the most active interest in the group, operating a small number of bulk carriers mainly engaged in the transport of phosphate rock from Spain to Billingham. The depressed state of the tramp freight market, however, led to the liquidation of the Company in 1968.

Cunningham entered the Navy in 1898. He became a lieutenant in 1904, a commander in 1915, captain in 1919, rear-admiral in 1934, vice-admiral in 1936, admiral in 1941 and Admiral of the Fleet in 1943. He was Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, 1938 to 1939, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, 1939 to 1942 and 1943, naval Commander-in-Chief, Expeditionary Force, North Africa, 1942, and First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, 1943 to 1946. He was created a viscount in 1946. See Cunningham's autobiography, A Sailor's Odyssey, (London, 1951) and Oliver Warner, Cunningham of Hyndhope, Admiral of the Fleet, (London, 1967).

Younger son of Commander William Owen, W F Owen entered the Navy in 1788 and served on the Home and West Indies Stations. He was in the Culloden at the battle of the First of June 1794 and became a lieutenant in 1797. In 1803 he went to the East Indies where he surveyed the Maldive Islands and assisted at the capture of Batavia in 1806. He was a captive of the French in Mauritius from 1808 to 1810 during which time, in 1809, he was promoted to commander. In 1811 he commanded the BARRACOUTA at the capture of Java. He became a captain and was posted to the CORNELIA, East Indies Station, in 1812. From 1815 to 1816 Owen was engaged in a survey of the Great Lakes and from 1821 to 1826 in the LEVEN, with the BARRACOUTA, conducted the first survey of the coasts of Africa. In the Eden he founded a colony on Fernando Po in 1827 and then served on the coast of South America until 1831. His only other command was the COLUMBIA, North America, in 1847. He returned to England at the end of the year on his promotion to rear-admiral. Owen became a vice-admiral in 1854 and retired in 1855.

Cowan entered the BRITANNIA as a naval cadet in 1884. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1892 and commanded the REDBREAST between 1893 and 1895 in the Red Sea. In 1895 he was appointed to the BARROSA, Cape Station. He saw active service during the Brass River and Benin expeditions in 1897 and in 1898 commanded the gunboat flotilla on the Nile during the operations in the Sudan. Cowan was promoted to commander in 1901 and to captain in 1906. After almost two years in the post of Assistant to the Admiral of Patrols, Cowan was sent in 1914 to the Zealandia, Grand Fleet. He joined the PRINCESS ROYAL in 1915 and in her was present at Jutland, 1916. He was appointed Commodore commanding the First Light Cruiser Squadron, Grand Fleet, in 1917 and reappointed after his promotion to rear-admiral in 1918. He continued to command it as well as the naval force in the Baltic during the anti-Bolshevik operations in 1920, for which he became well-known. In 1921 he took command of the Baltic Cruiser Squadron. After a year as Commanding Officer on the coast of Scotland, Cowan became, in 1926, Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies, and it was during his two years there that his Station was extended to include South America. Cowan was promoted to admiral in 1927, was appointed First and Principal Aide-de-Camp to the King in 1929 and retired in 1930. At the age of sixty-eight, he persuaded the Admiralty to employ him for the duration of the war in the rank of commander. He served as liaison officer with a commando brigade in the eastern Mediterranean during 1941 and was then attached to an Indian regiment in the Western Desert. He was captured at Bir Hakeim in 1942 and repatriated the following year. After further active service he retired in 1945. See Lionel Dawson, Sound of the guns (Oxford, 1949) and Geoffrey Bennett, Cowan's war (London, 1964).

Dr Edward Hodges Cree was born on January 14th 1814, Devonport. He studied medicine at Dublin and Edinburgh Universities, graduating from the latter in 1837, receiving his M.R.C.S and M.D ten years after. Cree entered the Navy in 1837 where the journals begin, which subsequently continue until 1861. Cree's first appointment began in 1837 as assistant surgeon to the ROYAL ADELAIDE, ordered to do duty at the Naval Hospital, Stonehouse. He then establishes his career as a surgeon on board His Majesties vessels VOLCANO, CEYLON, FIREFLY, RATTLESNAKE, VIXEN, FURY, SPARTAN, EAGLE, RUSSELL, ORION and SATURN. Throughout his career he visited many parts of the world, including the Far East, where he witnessed actions in the First Opium War of 1839-42. His service led him to take action against piratical Chinese fleets, engagements and actions against the Russians in the Baltic; and was involved in the final stages of the Crimean War, being present at the Capture of Sebastopol and Kinburn. The water-colour illustrations and sketches contained within his journals create and rich and colourful depiction of the period whilst serving in the Navy. In addition, the book entitled The Cree Journals: The Voyages of Edward H Cree, Surgeon R.N., as related in his private journals, 1837-1856, edited by Michael Levien; is a useful supplement to the collection.

Thomas Cairns was born in Sunderland in 1854. In 1876, while employed a as a clerk with the Newcastle firm of Davidson and Charlton he was offered a partnership by Captain B B Starks who had just commenced business as a shipbroker and merchant. The new firm was styled Starks and Cairns. On the retirement of Captain Starks in 1883 Cairns formed a new partnership with his brother-in-law, William Joseph Noble, and Lindsay Young as Cairns, Young and Noble. Their first ship, the CAIRNGOWAN 1, was launched in June 1883.

In 1891 the Cairnglen Steamship Company was formed as the owner of the first vessel of that name. The formation of further single ship companies followed. In 1892 the Cairn Line of Steam ships was founded with Cairns, Young and Noble as the management company and these single ship companies were gradually merged with the Cairn Line, along with the Gaelic Steamship Company Limited, another associated company. By 1911 this process was complete.

With the retirement of Lindsay Young in 1903 the management company had become known as Cairn, Noble and Company. Thomas Cairns died in 1908. In that same year the company purchased the Thomson line of Dundee, a cargo concern specialising in services to Canada. Thomson entered the passenger trade in 1909 with two vessels, the CAIRNRONA and the TORTONA on the Newcastle-London-Canada route. A licence was acquired from the Italian Government for the conveyance of emigrants from Italy to Canada. In March 1911 as the third vessel intended for service, the GERONA, was nearing completion the goodwill of the passenger services and all there vessels were sold to the Cunard Steamship Company.

The company suffered heavy losses during the 1914-18 war- eight vessels were lost to enemy action. William Black Noble, son of William Joseph Noble, died on service in France.

In the post war period, William Joseph Noble and Russell Cairns, son of the founder continued as directors of Cairns, Noble and Company and the Cairn Line. Noble was created a baronet in recognition of his services to shipping. He retired in 1928 when Furness Withy and Company acquired the management company. The Cairn Line retained its separate identity and services.

The fleet numbered five at the outbreak of war in 1939. Of these vessels, only two the CAIRNESK III and the CAIRNVALONA, remained in 1945. Additions to this number in the following years were the CAIRNAVON IV, the CAIRNGOWAN IV and the CAIRNDHU IV.

In February 1967 agreement was a reached with Furness Withy and Company for the purchase of ordinary stock units of the Cairn Line not already beneficially owned by them. These amounted to approximately 85% of the total. The company thus became a wholly owned subsidiary of Furness Withy and Company.

Joined RN 1876; R Adm, Home Fleet, Portsmouth and President of Submarine Committee 1913; served World War One, 1914-1918; Commanding 5 Battle Sqn, Channel Fleet 1914-1915; Senior Naval Officer in charge of Gibraltar 1915; retired 1919.

Curzon-Howe entered the Navy in 1863. From 1868 to 1871 he went round the world in the frigate GALATEA. He was made lieutenant in 1872 while serving in the HERCULES. It was not until 1888 that he was on active service again, when he was promoted to captain and appointed to the BOADICEA, which became the flagship of Sir Edmund Fremantle on the East Indies Station. Here, as Flag-Captain and Chief of Staff, Curzon-Howe took part in the operations against the Sultanate of Vitu. In the CLEOPATRA, in 1892, he spent a period as Senior Officer, Newfoundland, reporting on the fishing question. In 1894 he was called south to Bluefields to protect the Mosquito Indians, whose reservation had been invaded by the Nicaraguans. He subsequently returned to Newfoundland and remained there until 1895, when he went to the Mediterranean in the REVENGE, staying on the Station until 1900. In 1901 he was promoted to rear-admiral and became second-in-command of the Channel Fleet in the MAGNIFICENT until, in 1903, he went out to the East in the ALBION to become second-in-command of the China Fleet. Curzon-Howe returned to the Channel in 1905 and in 1907 was given command of the Atlantic Fleet. From 1908 to 1910 he was Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, and then Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, until his death.

Hubert Harold Dannreuther, the son of Rear-Admiral Harold Edward Dannreuther and the brother of Captain Raymond Portal Dannreuther, entered the Navy as a cadet in 1934, training on HMS FROBISHER. He then served as a midshipman on HMS AJAX on the American and West Indies Station. He was appointed Sub-Lieutenant on HMS KENT, China Station, in January 1938. On the eve of the Second World War, in June 1939, he was promoted to lieutenant and during the war he served on HMS COSSACK before becoming an assistant gunnery officer on HMS HOWE. After attending the gunnery school at HMS EXCELLENT in Portsmouth in 1943, Hubert Harold Dannreuther was posted to HMS QULLIAM followed by HMS EURYALUS. On 30 Jun 1957 Hubert Harold Dannreuther was appointed a captain, having been a Commander since December 1951 in charge of HMS STRIKER, HMS DIAMOND AND HMS EXCELLENT. Hubert Harold Dannreuther retired from The Royal Navy in 1966. Hubert Harold Dannreuther married Oriole Angela Burdett-Coutts and they had two daughters and one son.

Raymond Portal Dannreuther, the son of Rear-Admiral Harold Edward Dannreuther and the brother of Captain Hubert Harold Dannreuther, entered the Royal Navy as a cadet attending the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. He then served as a midshipman on the cruiser HMS KENYA, Home Fleet from September 1940, the destroyer HMS LAFOREY, Home Fleet and then on the battleship HMS MALAYA from June 1942. After attending gunnery school on HMS EXCELLENT in 1942 he was promoted to Sun-Lieutenant and posted to the destroyer HMS RELENTLESS, South Africa, Eastern Fleet. After being promoted to Lieutenant in 1944 he served consecutively on HMS LEWES, HMS PYTCHLEY, HMS CAMPERDOWN. Raymond Portal Dannreuther then attended the gunnery school at HMS EXCELLENT in Portsmouth and was then posted to HMS DRAKE, HMS CUMBERLAND and HMS PRESIDENT, being promoted to Commander in 1954. In 1960 he joined the staff of the Surface Division in the Weapons Department of the Admiralty. On 31 Dec 1962 Raymond Portal Dannreuther became a captain and was posted to HMS UNDAUNTED. From 1968 to 1969 he was the Director of Naval Operational Requirements, Ministry of Defence in the Navy Department. He became a Naval ADC to the Queen from 1971 to 1972 and retired from The Royal Navy in 1973. In 1961 Raymond Portal Dannreuther married Elizabeth Bourne and they had 2 sons.

HMS DAUNTLESS, a naval shore establishment at Burghfield in Berkshire, has been used by the Women's Royal Naval Service since 1946 as a training and drafting centre.

Born at Whitchurch, Hampshire, on 19 November 1904, Sir Norman Egbert Denning joined the navy as a special entry cadet in 1921, leaving Andover grammar school. He joined the paymaster branch instead of becoming an executive officer due to his eyesight. He excelled in this branch and was quickly rewarded for his competency, appointed secretary to senior executive officers. In 1937, paymaster lieutenant-commander Denning was appointed to the Admiralty's intelligence division. He then became chief adviser to the First Sea Lord of the Admiralty. Denning acted as the link between the operational intelligence centre (OIC) and components of the naval intelligence division including the Ministry of Economic Warfare, the army, the Secret Intelligence, the Special Operations Executive and Bomber commands of the RAF. Denning was later promoted paymaster-commander, 1941 and then paymaster-captain, 1951. After World War Two, Denning was appointed director of administrative planning in the Admiralty, later becoming director of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1956. In 1958 Denning was promoted to rear-admiral on the general list. In 1958, he became deputy chief of naval personnel and director of manpower in the Admiralty, 1959. From 1964 to 1965 Denning acted as deputy chief of defence staff. Denning was appointed OBE in 1945, CB in 1961, and KBE in 1963. Retiring in 1967 he was secretary of the services, press and broadcasting committee, otherwise known as the 'D Notice Committee'. He died at Micheldever, Hampshire, on 27 December 1979.

De Vitre, a naval chaplain who joined the service in 1898, served in the Mediterranean before the First World War and in the Canopus in the Dardanelles. He later retired to a parish in Berkshire.

Born James Whitley Deans, he took the name of Dundas on marrying his cousin in 1808. He entered the Navy in 1799, served in the Mediterranean and Channel fleets and was made lieutenant in 1805. For the rest of the Napoleonic War he served in the Baltic or the North Sea. After a succession of peacetime commands, he was made rear-admiral in 1841, and briefly, a member of the Board of the Admiralty. From 1846 to 1847 he was Second Naval Lord and was First Naval Lord from 1847 to 1852. He was Member of Parliament for Greenwich, 1832 to 1834 and 1841 to 1852 and for Devizes, 1836 to 1838. In 1852 he was made Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, and a vice-admiral. He was in command when the Crimean War started and his responsibilities included the transport of the army to the Crimea and support of the allies in the battle of Alma and at Sebastopol. Having completed the usual term of command he was relieved in January 1855. He was promoted to admiral in 1857 but saw no further service.

Bethune was the son of the army officer and historian Colonel John Drinkwater (d 1844) and it was not until 1837 that he took the name Bethune. He entered the Navy in 1815 as a first-class volunteer in the NORTHUMBERLAND and sailed in her from 1815 to 1816 on the voyage taking Napoleon to exile in St Helena. In 1817 he joined the LEANDER in North America; he then went to South America, where he served in the SUPERB and the CREOLE from 1819 until 1823. Still on this station, he was promoted to lieutenant, 1823, and joined the DORIS and then the BARHAM until promoted to commander in 1828. From 1828 to 1829 he commanded the ESPIEGLE, Jamaica Station. He was promoted to captain in 1830. At Palmerston's request, in 1835, he joined the Embassy of the Earl of Durham (1792-1840) to Russia to report on the naval installations in the Black Sea. Later he served in the East Indies and in the China War. He was made rear-admiral in 1855, vice-admiral in 1862, admiral in 1866 and retired in 1870.