An unexpected find

Wasn’t Davina’s episode fun? In a roundabout way it has led me to uncovering something about my great grandfather that I didn’t know before.

I knew already that he had been an eminent surgeon in Birmingham and so, as I was uploading an article on our website on how to use obituaries (to tie in with Davina’s episode), I decided to have a root around to see if I could find an obituary for him.

Not being based in Birmingham, I thought I would try The Times online archive. Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, he wasn’t quite eminent enough to have made it into the national news. However, I then had a look at the British Library’s 19th-century newspapers online and came across a delightful entry from the Birmingham Daily Post dated 10 September 1900.

I had no idea that he had gone to South Africa to visit the hospitals in Natal during the Boer War (passing through Ladysmith just after it had been relieved). He talks of the terrible conditions and disease suffered by soldiers and medical staff alike, but then adds, ‘But to the gloom of it all there was a relief, if only the cheerful endurance displayed. “Tommy” has a heart of iron, and in the hour of racking pain he bore himself like the man he is. Wounded Boers were dressed who cried at a twinge; “Tommy” simply shut his teeth together and uttered not a word.’

His partisan comments would not be approved of nowadays, but for some reason they helped me to picture him as the late Victorian gentleman he was. I've been thoroughly enjoying Casualty 1909 on the BBC and suddenly, amongst those older, experienced surgeons, I could imagine my great grandfather, at the cutting edge of surgery, and I was rather proud of him.

Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams is editor of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. Click here to read more from the magazine team

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