Norman Moore (medical historian)
Encyclopedia
Sir Norman Moore, 1st Baronet FRCP (8 January 1847 – 30 November 1922) was a British doctor and historian of medicine.
, in 1847. He was the only child of noted Irish political economist
Robert Ross Rowan Moore, and his wife Rebecca. The couple had been estranged since before Norman's birth, and he was raised by his mother through the support of her circle of Liberal nonconformist friends at Manchester. He studied initially at Chorlton High School, but left at the age of 14 to work in a cotton mill. He studied at Owens College from 1862 until 1865, and then read natural sciences at St Catharine's College
, Cambridge University, from 1865 to 1868, graduating in 1869. During his time in Cambridge he met and became friends with Francis Darwin
, the son of Charles Darwin
, and the Reverend Whitwell Elwin
. During his childhood in Manchester he had developed a passion for walking, and had visited Ireland on a walking tour, cementing his affinity for the country's history, people and culture. In 1863 he had visited the natural history collection at Walton Hall
, Wakefield
, befriending the author and explorer Charles Waterton
.
, brought him into contact with important literary figures, including the publishers John Murray
, father and son, author and critic Leslie Stephen
, and Shakespearian
scholar W. J. Craig. Moore's interest in natural history was influenced by his acquaintances with Alfred Newton
, Richard Owen
, and Charles Darwin. The recipient of an eight-year residential scholarship at St Catharine's, Moore was invited by university's anatomy professor George Murray Humphry
, to assist in the establishment of the school of science at Cambridge. Moore however ran foul of St Catharine's master
, the Reverend Charles Kirkby Robinson
, during a minor scuffle in hall. Robinson rusticated
Moore, leading to Moore's friend Elwin waging a pamphlet war on his behalf. Though Moore was allowed to sit his exams, he lost his scholarship, and in 1869 he enrolled at St Bartholomew's Hospital
, London
, to study comparative anatomy.
, and learnt palaeography
from Henry Bradshaw
. Moore became a prolific author, producing a new edition of Essays in Natural History, and translations from the Book of Leinster
in 1881 and a translation from the German of Concise Irish Grammar in 1882. He contributed 459 lives to the Dictionary of National Biography
, edited by Leslie Stephen, and through his association with Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, developed a keen interest in military history. One of his greatest works, written in two volumes over a period of 30 years, was History of St Bartholomew's Hospital (1918). The history of the hospital was also the subject of the Rede Lecture
he gave in 1914: St Bartholomew's Hospital in peace and war.
Through his mother Moore met Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, who in turn introduced him to artists and literary figures including Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
, William De Morgan
, the Rossettis Dante Gabriel
, Christina
, William Michael
and Maria Francesca
, Helen
and William Allingham
, George Eliot
, and Mme Belloc
and her children, Hilaire
and Marie
. Moore became involved with Bodichon's niece, Amy Leigh Smith, and proposed to her in 1876. Her parents objected at first, but eventually they were married on 30 March 1880 by Whitwell Elwin.
Moore was elected to the Royal College of Physicians
in 1877 and became an active member, serving as president between 1918 and 1922 and representing the college on the General Medical Council
for 21 years. He was a trustee of the British Museum
and was created a baronet
in 1919. His old college, St Catharine's, made him an honorary fellow in 1909. He retired from St Bartholomew's in 1911 and was appointed consulting physician to the hospital, emeritus lecturer in medicine, and hospital governor. He became secretary of The Literary Society
, and librarian of the Royal Society of Medicine
from 1899 until 1918. He was Harveian librarian at the Royal College of Physician, the 1901 Harveian orator, and was elected senior censor in 1908. He combined his medical studies and numerous lectureships with his study and reproduction of ancient manuscripts.
, West Smithfield after his marriage to Amy Leigh Smith, moving in 1891, to 94 Gloucester Place, west London. The marriage produced two sons, Alan Hilary and Gillachrist, and a daughter, Ethne Philippa. Gillachrist was killed during the first battle of Ypres
in 1914. Amy contracted tuberculosis
and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900. Moore, despite his nonconformist upbringing, did so as well. Amy died on 25 August 1901, and Moore married her first cousin, Milicent Ludlow in 1903. In 1920 Moore received an honorary LLD from Cambridge, but by then he had been aged by the war, never fully recovering from the death of his son, and his writing began to show signs of Parkinsonism
. He died in Hancox, near Battle
in East Sussex
, on 30 November 1922. An obituary in The Times
grudgingly wrote that his work ‘lacked that deeper scholarship’ which would ‘render it lasting’. This was refuted by M. R. James
, then the provost of Eton College
who wrote to The Times on 8 December 1922 declaring that ‘I have never met any man whose erudition was so varied, lay so ready to hand, or was so delightfully enlivened by human and humorous touches’.
Early life
Moore was born in Higher Broughton, ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, in 1847. He was the only child of noted Irish political economist
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
Robert Ross Rowan Moore, and his wife Rebecca. The couple had been estranged since before Norman's birth, and he was raised by his mother through the support of her circle of Liberal nonconformist friends at Manchester. He studied initially at Chorlton High School, but left at the age of 14 to work in a cotton mill. He studied at Owens College from 1862 until 1865, and then read natural sciences at St Catharine's College
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
, Cambridge University, from 1865 to 1868, graduating in 1869. During his time in Cambridge he met and became friends with Francis Darwin
Francis Darwin
Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin, FRS , a son of the British naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin, followed his father into botany.-Biography:Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848...
, the son of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, and the Reverend Whitwell Elwin
Whitwell Elwin
Whitwell Elwin was an English clergyman, critic and editor of the Quarterly Review.Son of a country gentleman of Norfolk, Whitwell Elwin studied at Caius College, Cambridge, and took orders...
. During his childhood in Manchester he had developed a passion for walking, and had visited Ireland on a walking tour, cementing his affinity for the country's history, people and culture. In 1863 he had visited the natural history collection at Walton Hall
Walton Hall, West Yorkshire
Walton Hall is a stately home in the county of West Yorkshire, England, near Wakefield. It was built in the Palladian style around 1767 on an island within a 26 acre lake, on the site of a former moated medieval hall. It was the ancestral home of the naturalist and traveller Charles Waterton, who...
, Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, befriending the author and explorer Charles Waterton
Charles Waterton
Charles Waterton was an English naturalist and explorer.-Heritage and Life:"Squire" Waterton was born at Walton Hall, Wakefield, Yorkshire to Thomas Waterton and Anne Bedingfield. He was of a Roman Catholic landed gentry family descended from Reiner de Waterton...
.
Influences and connections
Moore's friendship with Elwin, a former editor of the Quarterly ReviewQuarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967.-Early years:...
, brought him into contact with important literary figures, including the publishers John Murray
John Murray (publisher)
John Murray is an English publisher, renowned for the authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, and Charles Darwin...
, father and son, author and critic Leslie Stephen
Leslie Stephen
Sir Leslie Stephen, KCB was an English author, critic and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.-Life:...
, and Shakespearian
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
scholar W. J. Craig. Moore's interest in natural history was influenced by his acquaintances with Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton
Alfred Newton FRS was an English zoologist and ornithologist.Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907...
, Richard Owen
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen, FRS KCB was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
, and Charles Darwin. The recipient of an eight-year residential scholarship at St Catharine's, Moore was invited by university's anatomy professor George Murray Humphry
George Murray Humphry
Sir George Murray Humphry was a professor of physiology and anatomy at Cambridge, surgeon, gerontologist and medical writer.-Life:He was born at Sudbury in Suffolk on 18 July 1820, the third son of William Wood Humphry, a barrister...
, to assist in the establishment of the school of science at Cambridge. Moore however ran foul of St Catharine's master
Master (college)
A Master is the title of the head of some colleges and other educational institutions. This applies especially at some colleges and institutions at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge .- See also :* Master A Master (or in female form Mistress) is the title of the head of some...
, the Reverend Charles Kirkby Robinson
Charles Kirkby Robinson
Charles Kirkby Robinson was a British clergyman and academic, whose election to the Mastership of St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1861 caused great controversy. Charles Robinson was born in 1826 in Acomb, North Yorkshire, and he matriculated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1845. He...
, during a minor scuffle in hall. Robinson rusticated
Rustication (academia)
Rustication is a term used at Oxbridge to mean being sent down or expelled temporarily. The term derives from the Latin word rus, countryside, to indicate that a student has been sent back to their family in the country, or from medieval Latin rustici, meaning "heathens or barbarians"...
Moore, leading to Moore's friend Elwin waging a pamphlet war on his behalf. Though Moore was allowed to sit his exams, he lost his scholarship, and in 1869 he enrolled at St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England.-Early history:It was founded in 1123 by Raherus or Rahere , a favourite courtier of King Henry I...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, to study comparative anatomy.
Medical and writing career
After clinical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital, he qualified as a doctor in 1872. He obtained his MD in 1876, with his thesis, The Causes and Treatment of Rickets. He spent his entire career at St Bartholomew's, serving as warden of the college from 1873 to 1891, and in the roles of lecturer in anatomy, pathology, and medicine, and physician to the hospital in 1902. Moore maintained a frequent correspondence with many of his academic friends, broadening his knowledge to ancient Irish texts through his friendship with Standish Hayes O'GradyStandish Hayes O'Grady
Standish Hayes O'Grady was an Irish antiquarian. He was born at Erinagh House, Castleconnell, County Limerick, the son of Admiral Hayes O'Grady. He was a cousin of the writer Standish James O'Grady, with whom he is sometimes confused. As a child, he learnt Irish from the native speakers of his...
, and learnt palaeography
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
from Henry Bradshaw
Henry Bradshaw (scholar)
Henry Bradshaw was a British scholar and librarian.Henry Bradshaw was the son of Joseph Hoare Bradshaw, a banker. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1853...
. Moore became a prolific author, producing a new edition of Essays in Natural History, and translations from the Book of Leinster
Book of Leinster
The Book of Leinster , is a medieval Irish manuscript compiled ca. 1160 and now kept in Trinity College, Dublin, under the shelfmark MS H 2.18...
in 1881 and a translation from the German of Concise Irish Grammar in 1882. He contributed 459 lives to the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
, edited by Leslie Stephen, and through his association with Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, developed a keen interest in military history. One of his greatest works, written in two volumes over a period of 30 years, was History of St Bartholomew's Hospital (1918). The history of the hospital was also the subject of the Rede Lecture
Rede Lecture
The Sir Robert Rede's Lecturer is an annual appointment to give a public lecture, the Sir Robert Rede's Lecture at the University of Cambridge. It is named for Sir Robert Rede, who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the sixteenth century.-Initial series:The initial series of lectures ranges...
he gave in 1914: St Bartholomew's Hospital in peace and war.
Through his mother Moore met Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, who in turn introduced him to artists and literary figures including Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
Hercules Brabazon Brabazon was an English artist, accomplished in Turner manner watercolours....
, William De Morgan
William De Morgan
William Frend De Morgan was an English potter and tile designer. A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles are often based on medieval designs or Persian patterns, and he experimented with innovative glazes and...
, the Rossettis Dante Gabriel
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
, Christina
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems...
, William Michael
William Michael Rossetti
William Michael Rossetti was an English writer and critic.-Biography:Born in London, he was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and the brother of Maria Francesca Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti.He was one of the seven founder members of the...
and Maria Francesca
Maria Francesca Rossetti
Maria Francesca Rossetti was an English author. She was the sister of artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as William Michael Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti, who dedicated her poem Goblin Market to Maria...
, Helen
Helen Allingham
__NOEDITSECTION__Helen Allingham was an English watercolour painter and illustrator of the Victorian era.-Biography:...
and William Allingham
William Allingham
William Allingham was an Irish man of letters and a poet.-Biography:He was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland and was the son of the manager of a local bank who was of English descent...
, George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
, and Mme Belloc
Bessie Rayner Parkes
Bessie Rayner Parkes Belloc was one of the most prominent English feminists and campaigners for women’s rights in Victorian times and also a poet, essayist and journalist.- Early life :...
and her children, Hilaire
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
and Marie
Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes
Marie Adelaïde Lowndes, née Belloc , was a prolific English novelist.Active from 1904 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological interest...
. Moore became involved with Bodichon's niece, Amy Leigh Smith, and proposed to her in 1876. Her parents objected at first, but eventually they were married on 30 March 1880 by Whitwell Elwin.
Moore was elected to the Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
in 1877 and became an active member, serving as president between 1918 and 1922 and representing the college on the General Medical Council
General Medical Council
The General Medical Council registers and regulates doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It has the power to revoke or restrict a doctor's registration if it deems them unfit to practise...
for 21 years. He was a trustee of the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and was created a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in 1919. His old college, St Catharine's, made him an honorary fellow in 1909. He retired from St Bartholomew's in 1911 and was appointed consulting physician to the hospital, emeritus lecturer in medicine, and hospital governor. He became secretary of The Literary Society
The Literary Society
The Literary Society is a London dining club, founded by William Wordsworth and others in 1807. Its members are generally either prominent figures in English literature or eminent people in other fields with a strong interest in literature. No papers are delivered at its meetings. It meets monthly...
, and librarian of the Royal Society of Medicine
Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine is a British charitable organisation whose main purpose is as a provider of medical education, running over 350 meetings and conferences each year.- History and overview :...
from 1899 until 1918. He was Harveian librarian at the Royal College of Physician, the 1901 Harveian orator, and was elected senior censor in 1908. He combined his medical studies and numerous lectureships with his study and reproduction of ancient manuscripts.
Family and personal life
Moore lived at first at the Warden's House, Little BritainLittle Britain, London
Little Britain is a street in the City of London running from St. Martin's Le Grand in the east to West Smithfield in the west. It is the northern boundary of St Bartholomew's Hospital and is situated in the Aldersgate and Farringdon Within wards. Postman's Park is situated by Little...
, West Smithfield after his marriage to Amy Leigh Smith, moving in 1891, to 94 Gloucester Place, west London. The marriage produced two sons, Alan Hilary and Gillachrist, and a daughter, Ethne Philippa. Gillachrist was killed during the first battle of Ypres
First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders , was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium...
in 1914. Amy contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1900. Moore, despite his nonconformist upbringing, did so as well. Amy died on 25 August 1901, and Moore married her first cousin, Milicent Ludlow in 1903. In 1920 Moore received an honorary LLD from Cambridge, but by then he had been aged by the war, never fully recovering from the death of his son, and his writing began to show signs of Parkinsonism
Parkinsonism
Parkinsonism is a neurological syndrome characterized by tremor, hypokinesia, rigidity, and postural instability. The underlying causes of parkinsonism are numerous, and diagnosis can be complex...
. He died in Hancox, near Battle
Battle, East Sussex
Battle is a small town and civil parish in the local government district of Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south southeast of London, east of Brighton and east of the county town of Lewes...
in East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, on 30 November 1922. An obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
grudgingly wrote that his work ‘lacked that deeper scholarship’ which would ‘render it lasting’. This was refuted by M. R. James
M. R. James
Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, , who used the publication name M. R. James, was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge and of Eton College . He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre...
, then the provost of Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
who wrote to The Times on 8 December 1922 declaring that ‘I have never met any man whose erudition was so varied, lay so ready to hand, or was so delightfully enlivened by human and humorous touches’.
Lectureships
- Bradshaw LecturerBradshaw LectureThe Bradshaw Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons of England....
(1889) - Harveian Orator (1901)
- FitzPatrick Lecturer (1905-6)
- Lumleian LecturerLumleian LecturesThe Lumleian Lectures are a series of annual lectures run by the Royal College of Physicians of London, started in 1582 and now run by the Lumleian Trust. The name commemorates John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, who with Richard Caldwell of the College endowed the lectures, initially confined to...
(1909) - Linacre Lecture (1913)
- Rede LectureRede LectureThe Sir Robert Rede's Lecturer is an annual appointment to give a public lecture, the Sir Robert Rede's Lecture at the University of Cambridge. It is named for Sir Robert Rede, who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the sixteenth century.-Initial series:The initial series of lectures ranges...
(1914)