Saxilby and District's Doctors
The first recorded village doctor we can find is Edward Allen Wilson, who was born in 1800. Listed on the 1841 census as a Surgeon, he is living in the village with his wife, Rebecca, and their three children, Lavinia, William, and Adelaide.
I have found a newspaper report from September 1840.Mr Wilson, Surgeon, of Saxilby, on Thursday week narrowly escaped a shocking death. He was visiting a patient at the new engine close by Hodda [now Odda] Bridge, and was going round to the engine-house door, when his pony backed into a well which had been incautiously left uncovered. With difficulty he was rescued from his perilous situation: the pony was much hurt.
Edward died at the age of 45, and is buried in Saxilby
Churchyard, together with his wife and their son Samuel, who died at the age of
1 in 1834.
He was succeeded as the village doctor by George Bromhead Lic. Soc. Apoth.
The Medical Act of 1858
established the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the
United Kingdom (now the General Medical Council). The Act officially recognised
the Licence of the Society of Apothecaries as a fully registrable
qualification for practicing medicine, surgery, and midwifery throughout
England and Wales.
The 1861 Census records him living on the High Street with his Saxilby born wife Frances, their five children, and a servant.
I cannot quite place the house (the
census has no house numbers) but they are living next door to William Simpson,
the landlord of Mason’s Arms, which is opposite Station Approach.
The house may have been to the rear of the pub or on the site of
Hope House, now Barber Bros., at the end of Chapel Yard.
Dr Broomhead relocated to Bradford in 1862 and was
replaced by Dr Horace Rainbird MRCS LRCP Edin. (recorded as an" English
Surgeon").
After qualification, Dr Rainbird served
as assistant surgeon in Wragby and Eagle.
In addition to being the local
medical practitioner, Dr Rainbird was the District Medical and Vaccination
Officer of the Lincoln Union, which involved overseeing the residents of
Lincoln Workhouse.
His home and surgery were Malt Kiln House, now Fossdyke House, the showroom and workshop of Chislewood.
The surgery was in a conservatory attached to the house. If you went to Fossdyke House to see him, it was a wait outside in all weathers until it was your turn. Some older residents will remember this was still the case until a new health centre opened in 1968.
Dr Rainbird had five children, two
sons and three daughters.
He died suddenly in 1905. He is described in his obituary as a gentleman of magnificent physique.
His eldest son, Percival Rainbird LRCP Edin LRFPS Glas, had joined his father in the practice in 1902.
In the 1930s Dr Rainbird is
remembered for excavating a pit near to Fossdyke House and stocking it with
fish, his favourite pastimes being fishing, shooting and walking his dogs. He
visited (if absolutely necessary!) on a motorbike and sidecar and later bought
a Daimler car; something of a luxury in those days. Dr. Rainbird set up the
first branch surgery at Sturton. Both Percival and his brother Laurence were
keen cricketers and played for Saxilby.
When he retired both he and his father had served Saxilby for 91 years as its doctors. Horace Rainbird (to 1905) and Percival Rainbird (Horace’s son) (to 1937).
Dr Arthur McDougall Maiden OBE MB CLB Glas started in practice on 1st March 1936, and was only the fourth qualified medical practitioner to serve our community since the official registration of doctors in 1858.
He was due to take over Dr Rainbird's practice at Fossdyke House, but things did not go well. Dr. Rainbird did not want to leave, but he did not wish to continue either, so a new surgery was quickly found and set up at Delian, Church Road.
A member of the General
Medical Council, he was awarded the OBE in March 1968 for services to medicine.
When he retired in 1983, he had been in practice here for forty-seven years and
was 76 years old.
The practice was joined by a partner in 1947.
Ridley MacPhail, known by everyone as Dr Mac.,
lived in Ingleby Hall until his death in 1978.
He had been in Saxilby for 30 years, and he and his wife were well-respected and liked in the community. (Mrs. MacPhail was involved in the RSPCA and the Women’s Institute). He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during WWII.
After his death, £500 was raised locally to provide a fitting memorial to him. As falconry was his passion (he was a member of the British Falconer’s Club and editor of the Falconer magazine) a goshawk lectern was erected in St. Botolph’s Church in his memory.
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