Health Care, doctors and medical provision
In the early 20th century Stowupland formed its own Nursing Association and for some 40 years had its own nurse who cared for local people. Before and since (up to 2024) local people have traveled to Stowmarket and further afield to access health services. See also other health care providers
Some Doctors who who served Stowupland in the early 1900s.
Dr Hugh Selwyn Gaskell (b. 1879 – 1967) he was born near Peterborough. In 1897 he entered Edinburgh University to study medicine. He fought in the Boer War between 1899 and 1902 returning to Edinburgh he qualified M.B., Ch.B and in 1905 his first job took him to Devon.
In 1916 he was commissioned as a Captin in the Royal Army Medical Corp with the 52 nd Field Ambulance in France.
In 1923 he bought a practice in Stowmarket living in The Corner House where he had a surgery till his retirement. Initially in partnership with Dr Hill and Dr Hounsfield and later Dr Hounsfield’s son. Later partnership with Dr Roger Kynaston and Dr Reeve.
Dr Gaskell wrote and published several poems as well as academic papers and was part of Stowmarekt Operatic and Dramatic Society. In tribute to the Royal Flying Corp he penned The Five Sisters
{His Biography was downloaded 11/09/2024}
Dr Hill
Dr Newhnham
We are lucky to have A Brief description of Thyroid Treatment in the 1930s . In this extract the Rev Brame mentions Miss Gwen Smith who was the daughter of a local miller. At the time when she was involved with the care of Ruth Brame she was senior Surgeon at The London Women’s Hospital. {Extract from As I Remember It, Book I: by the Rev L.A.Brame held in private archive.}
In further extracts from his manuscript Rev Brame recalled the available medical provision (p.89) ‘we had three doctors in Stowmarket and we used to pay into a doctor’s club at the rate of about three-pence a week for the family so we could call on any of them without having to pay fees.’ This was probably in the 1920s before the Nursing Association was set up.
The Brame’s family doctor was Dr Hill, ‘and we could go to him or he would come to us for consultations: he had his own little pharmacy in a room next to the surgery, and he would make up his own prescriptions’…it was always pink and always tasted of peppermint…the dose was by the teaspoon, the dessertspoon or tablespoon.
The other doctors were Dr Gaskell and Dr Newnham, ‘but they worked together as a team, and they consulted with one another if another opinion would help’.
Rev Brame described Dr Hill as ‘our family doctor : he knew everybody in the household by name, with their medical history,and to some extent what they might be prone to need from him.
Schools Medical Services.
In addition to the local nurse and doctor, children would be examined at the school by the ‘nit-nurse’ and a pediatrician.
The ‘nit-nurse‘ called at the school 2 or 3 times a year and each pupil was paraded infront of her for their heair to be examined for the dreaded nits or their eggs. To be found with nits was humiliating, the child was segregated from their class mates and the hair treated with sassafras oil and covered with a cotton cap. then sent home with a note to the parent instrucitng the treatment to be continued before the hair was thoroughly washed through with vinegar..
The Pediatrician called at least once a year to examine each child in the prescenc of a nurse. The nurse helped with the removal of clothing and the doctor checked ‘eyes, ears, blood pressure, breathing, heart, liver, stomach and anything else he could palpate.’ The nurse registered height and weight.’
‘ The doctor also arranged with the Friendly Society, to which most people belonged, to visit and pay some benefit to compensate for the loss of work or other extra expenses incurred during illness.’ The Brame’s belonged to the Ancient Order of Foresters (A.O.F)
At the age of 12 Leslie qualified to be initiated into the A.O.F and ‘with pomp and ceremony went through the rites of admission, and learned their secret signals and password’ which he swore never to divulge and became a Brother of the A.O.F.
From the 19th century
CHARLES ROBERT BREE (1811 – 1886)
Charles Bree who was at that time a doctor practising in Stowmarket bought some land in Stowupland. This land he left in his will to his wife Francis Elizabeth. Bree turns out to be an intriguing character.
In April 1834 he took over the practice of J. F. Freeman in Stowmarket by arrangement with Freeman’s widow. The house he and his family lived in where he carried on his practice is now known as Strickland and what is now Stricklands Lane was known as Bree’s Lane later corrupted to Breeze Lane.
He originated from Ambleside in Cumberland, He received his medical education in York and then University College London. In his second year he went with other students to Warsaw returning via Berlin. His first practice was in Bildeston.
It was probably at this time he became acquainted was Reverend Professor Henslow of the neighbouring parish of Hitcham. He was related by marriage to the John Edgar Rust of Abbots Hall Stowmarket.
He married in 1845, Frances Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Reverend Sir Augustus Henniker of Plashwood Haughley. While her father was away from home Bree met Frances in a carriage and drove to Bury making their way to Tintagel in Cornwell where they were married by Charles Bree’s brother Rev Robert Stapyldon Bree.
He left Stowmarket in 1858 going to Edinburgh to study for his MD.
He ran a Penny Club for the poor to enable them to afford medical treatment. Late he went to practice at Colchester Hospital then retired to Long Melford Suffolk.
He wrote a book the first to try to refute Darwin’s theory of evolution. Henslow had been Darwins tutor at Cambridge.
Obituary in British Medical journal
CHARLES ROBERT BREE, M. D. Edin., M. R. C. S. Eng., L. S. A., &c.
THE death of Dr. Bree, which occurred on October 17th, will be a source of great regret to a circle of friends, not only in his own district, but throughout the country. Dr. Bree was the eldest son of the late Mr. John Bree, of Keswick, Cumberland, by Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. J. Bearcroft, and was born at Ambleside on February 4th, 1811. He was, therefore, seventy-five years of age at his death. He married in 1845, Frances Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the late Sir Augustus Henniker, Bart., who survives him. Dr. Bree received his medical education in York, from whence he proceeded to London, and was a pupil at University College during 1829 and 1830.
At the end of his second year he joined a party of fellow-students and entered the Polish service, where he remained till Warsaw was taken by the Russians in 1831. After spending a short time in Berlin, he returned to England to commence practice at Bildeston, in Suffolk. In 1834 he removed to the neighbouring town of Stowmarket, where he remained until 1858, in which year he gave up practice and went to Edinburgh, where he studied for one year and took his M.D. degree at the University. In the autumn, of 1859 he was elected physician to the Essex and Colchester Hospital, and continued for twenty-two years physician to that institution. Dr. Bree was also a naturalist of no mean order. Among his well-known books on natural history are “The History of Birds of Europe, not observed in the British Isles,” and “Popular Illustrations of the Lower Forms of Life.” Dr. Bree was also joint-editor with the Rev. F. 0. Mortis of the Naturalist. He was a Fellow of the Liannaan and Zoological Societies and a J. P. for Essex and Suffolk. Dr. Bree was a staunch Whig and an ardent politician. {From Neil Langridge, 2024}
