Chaplin , Thomas Hancock Arnold , 1864-1944 , physician

Thomas Hancock Arnold Chaplin was born in Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, on 30 August 1864, the youngest son of Abraham Thomas Chaplin, a nonconformist farmer and merchant. Chaplin was educated at Tettenhall College, near Wolverhampton, and Llandaff House, Cambridge. He then entered St John's College, Cambridge, in 1883, and in 1886 took a degree in natural sciences. He studied medicine for three years, undertaking his clinical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and graduated MB in 1889. In the same year he became a house physician at the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest.

In 1892 Chaplin became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. In the same year he was appointed as registrar and pathologist at the City of London Hospital. In 1893 he was appointed assistant physician at the Hospital, and in the same year graduated MD from Cambridge. Between 1893 and 1904 Chaplin was also assistant physician at the East London Hospital for Children. He was furthermore physician in London for the Ventnor Consumption Hospital and physician to the Eastern Dispensary. In 1894 he published, with Sir Andrew Clark and Wilfred James Hadley, a textbook on Fibroid Diseases of the Lung.

Chaplin conducted his private practice in the City, and acted as medical adviser to many City banks, commercial firms and shipping companies. In 1902 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and in the same year co-authored The Science and Art of Prescribing (1902), with E.H. Colbeck. In 1903 he was appointed medical inspector to the P&O Company, and held the position for 35 years. He was also medical inspector to the New Zealand Shipping Company and the British India Steam Navigation Company. While he held these appointments many improvements were made to the efficiency of medical service at sea. Chaplin was also medical adviser to the Chamber of Shipping, and twice chaired a committee set up by the Board of Trade for the revision of drugs to be carried on board ship.

Chaplin had a love for English and French historical literature, and his studies of the exile of Napoleon I on the island of St Helena made his name known to the public. He wrote The Illness and Death of Napoleon Bonaparte (1913), and later A St Helena Who's Who (1914). In 1917-18 Chaplin delivered the FitzPatrick Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, on the history of medicine. In 1918 he was appointed as the College's Harveian Librarian, a position he was `admirably suited' to, due to his love of old books and interest in literature (Munk's Roll, 1955, p.437). In 1918 he had published, with the help of his wife, an illustrated version of the Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London (Munk's Roll), which included engraved portraits of the fellows. In 1922 he delivered the Harveian Oration. In the same year he retired from the active staff of the City of London Hospital, after 29 years service, and became consulting physician.

Chaplin was a collector of portraits of medical men, and he gave to the Royal College of Physicians 250 portraits, and 350 to the Medical Society of London. He addressed the Medical Society twice on the subject of engraved portraits of medical men. He was president of the History of Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1936.

Chaplin had married Margaret Douie in 1909, but they had no children. His wife died in 1938. Chaplin died in Bedford, on 18 October 1944, at the age of 80.

Publications:
Fibroid Diseases of the Lung, including Fibroid Phthisis, Thomas Hancock Arnold Chaplin, Sir Andrew Clark, & Wilfred James Hadley (London, 1894)
The Science and Art of Prescribing, Thomas Hancock Arnold Chaplin & E.H. Colbeck (1902)
History of the College Club at the Royal College of Physicians of London. With a Continuation of the History from 1909 to 1926 by A. Chaplin, Joseph Frank Payne; Thomas Hancock Arnold Chaplin (London, 1909; 1926)
The Illness and Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, a Medical Criticism (London, 1913)
Thomas Shortt, with Biographies of some other Medical Men associated with the Case of Napoleon, 1815-1821 (London, 1914)
A St Helena Who's Who; or, a Directory of the Island during the Captivity of Napoleon (London, 1914; 2nd ed. 1919)
The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London; Illustrated with Portraits Collected and Inlaid by A. and M.D. Chaplin, William Munk; Thomas Hancock Arnold Chaplin & Margaret Douie Chaplin (London, 1918)
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Portraits, Busts, Silver and Other Objects of Interest... [& a List of Portraits of Fellows to be found elsewhere] (London, 1926)
A Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of British Medical Men; compiled by H. Bruen. With Additions and an Index of Painters and Engravers by A. Chaplin and W.J. Bishop, H. Bruen (London, 1930)
A Handlist of the Portraits of British Medical Men Engraved in Mezzotint (London, 1931)