Frederick Page was born in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire in 1806, the son of William and Elizabeth Page. Although it’s not yet known, probably his family were not medical, since he was apprenticed out to a Mr Adam Adams of the same place. His apprenticeship indenture was dated 4th May 1820, shortly before his 14th birthday – the normal age for starting such an apprenticeship (see The history of medical treatments, training, qualifications and regulation for more on apprenticeships etc.). It was for 7 years, again typical, and at some point he spent 12 months at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. Strangely however, he didn’t take the standard for the time LSA examination until 1834 (14 years after the indenture date) and he didn’t obtain the usually paired MRCS surgical qualification until even later in 1837 (or 1839 – the references to this vary), by which time he would have been over 30 years of age. It’s not clear why he took so long.
He’s first mentioned as a Newmarket medic (surgeon and apothecary, i.e. generalist medic) in a couple of 1839 trade directories (see image further below). However, he married at nearby Woodditton several years earlier in 1833, and at the time was described as a surgeon ‘of Beccles, late of Newmarket’. He was still in Beccles in 1837, when his first son Albert died. So it appears he was in Newmarket for some of those unaccounted for years before his LSA examination (perhaps still in some form of training role?) then moved to Beccles before returning to Newmarket some time between 1837 and 1839. His eldest daughter Ellen was baptised at Newmarket in 1839.
Frederick Page on the 1841 census in Newmarket, with an assistant called Henry Donnett, and his one year old son, who later became Professor of Surgery at Newcastle (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 1).
Frederick and Ann Page had several children born in Newmarket, including sons Frederick, Edwin and William Joseph, and daughters Ellen, Ada and Elizabeth. They lived on the northern side of the High Street in St Mary’s parish, up the western (Cambridge) end, apparently in a house that was at least later called Berteaux House, where Cheffins estate agents is now. The 1841 census shows the family there (see image on the right), and that he had a 25 year old assistant named Henry Donnett working with him, regarding whom no further information has yet come to light (Henry Donnett does not feature in the later Medical Directory or Registers). There is a possibility that Frederick moved to Mentmore House later, but that is not particularly likely (see the page on Mentmore House for details).
Aside from his wider practice, Frederick Page was a medical officer for the Newmarket poor law Union from 1840 until 1842, but lost out to Richard Faircloth in the 1842 re-organisation of that institution (see the page on the Newmarket Union for details). He made himself available for the Pecks Newmarket Union role when Floyd Peck moved to Kent in 1844, but Floyd’s father Robert James Peck continued serving their district. Interestingly Fredrick Page appears to have gone bankrupt the following year, in 1845, but he’s a good lesson in perseverance since he went on to flourish later in his career.
Although Frederick Page was never medical officer for a district of the Newmarket Union again, he appears to have carved out a special role in providing psychiatric opinions for that institution, being mentioned regularly in the Newmarket Union minutes assessing patients’ state of mind and issuing ‘Lunatic Certificates’! (see the page on the Newmarket Union for the terminology of the time in that regard). However, a hint of his later main interest in surgery emerged during the 1840s as well. In 1842 he published a letter in The Lancet medical journal regarding the surgical treatment of small cysts, such as eyelid cysts. In 1844 he published another letter in the same journal regarding an orthopaedic foot operation. In 1847 the Newmarket Union minutes record that he successfully operated on a child other medics couldn’t help, apparently for an orthopaedic problem too. The minutes record a similar case 10 years later in 1857, a year or two after he’d become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) – as opposed to the normal qualification for generalist medics at that time of MRCS, which as above he’d obtained two decades earlier. This was in the early days of anaesthesia under ether, and he’d been present at a demonstration of this new technique at Bury St Edmunds in 1847, along with other Newmarket medics (for a full account of that event click here).
As with the 19th century medics generally, there are the usual occasional mentions of medical cases in the local press involving Frederick Page. These include a head injury case that turned into a murder trial in 1848 following the death of the patient, in which Frederick Page performed his own post mortem examination (the norm it seems for generalist medics in the 19th century). The most fascinating case however was one reported in 1856, apparently regarding someone poisoned by carbon monoxide emitted from a charcoal fire, in which early resuscitation techniques are described in some detail (well before modern CPR) – see the references below for details.
Frederick Page’s 1857 Medical Directory entry mentioning ‘Page and Mead’; see the page on George Borwick Mead for a reciprocal entry (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 2).
In 1857 Frederick Page was joined in partnership by the younger George Borwick Mead (who did obtain a poor law medical officer role in early 1858, on Floyd Peck’s emigration to Australia; no doubt Frederick Page would have provided cover for his partner, even though the post was officially held by George Mead). Page and Mead were both medical officers ‘surgeons’ to the Rutland Club too (which possibly refers to the ‘Newmarket Medical Provident Club’, later known as the ‘Newmarket Provident Society, and self-aiding Medical Club’, of which the Duke of Rutland was Chair/President; it was a form of medical insurance scheme, designed to make it easier for poorer working people to afford medical care and cover sickness expenses etc. – see the July 1840 and October 1848 references below for more on this institution, and the page on Richard Faircloth, who was it’s secretary). In January 1858 Page and Mead also took on Floyd Peck’s role as medical officer for the Duke of Rutland’s Cheveley Estate as well. However, just a few months later the Page-Mead partnership was dissolved, with Frederick Page moving on, first briefly to Cambridge, then to the Portsmouth area, where he was to spend the rest of his life, becoming a hospital based general surgeon. It’s of note that in 1858 he obtained an MD qualification, in his early 50s, so clearly he was a life-long learner, progressing his education in the direction he wanted to go, despite the earlier setbacks.
Frederick Page died in 1872 when 65 years of age. It’s of interest that his son, Frederick Page junior, who grew up in Newmarket in the 1840s and 50s and is visible aged 1 on the 1841 census in Newmarket above, apparently inherited his father’s taste for surgery, and ended up as a professor of surgery at Newcastle.
Robson’s trade directory 1839, showing Frederick Page alongside the end of one practice chain (Mark Bullen) the continuation of another (Robert James Peck) and two other new practices (Richard Faircloth and Robert Fyson) – the bottom four practices would go on to provide the medical services for Newmarket throughout the 19th century (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 3).
Regarding contemporaries, Frederick Page founded the Page-Meads-Crompton practice chain. He overlapped with Mark Bullen (the end of the Edwards-Norton-Taylor-Kendall-Thomas-Bullen practice chain) as shown in the 1839 Pigot’s and Robson’s directories (see image on the left). These directories also show Robert Fyson and Richard Faircloth who founded new practices in town about the same time as Frederick Page, the three of them essentially replacing Walter Norton’s large practice (which was a triple partnership called Norton, Taylor & Kendall for many years). The other practice during his time was the already well established Braham-Sandivers-Mudd-Pecks-Day-Grays – Alton House Surgery – The Rookery Medical Centre chain, under the stewardship of the Pecks during Frederick Page’s era. He would have seen Floyd Minter Peck overlap with and succeed his father Robert James Peck, and just see William Henry Day succeed to that practice in 1857/8. He would also have seen Samuel Gamble join Robert Fyson, but left long before Ernest Last Fyson joined and succeeded to that practice or John Rowland Wright replaced Richard Faircloth.
Image 1: The 1841 census, reference HO/107/1027/15 (cropped); image ©, reproduced with kind permission of The National Archives.
Image 2: From a copy of the Medical Directories at The Society of Apothecaries Archives, London; reproduced with kind permission of The Society of Apothecaries Archives. [Note: for further details regarding this publication see the references and other sources consulted sections below.]
Image 3: Robson’s trade directory 1839 (cropped); image ©, reproduced with kind permission of the Cambridgeshire Archives. [Note: see the references below regarding a fuller title and reference for this book and page.]
Note: see comments regarding images and copyright © etc. on the Usage &c. page as well.
1807, 7th June: Frederick son of William and Elizabeth Page baptised (born 26th August 1806), Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire. Reference: Online image of the Wotton under Edge ‘Register of Christenings and Burials from 1800 to 1812’ held at the Gloucestershire Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 13th November 2017).
1833, 18th September: Frederick Page bachelor of this parish married Ann Matilda Bloss spinster of this parish. Reference: An indexed transcription of the parish registers of Wood Ditton. Cambridgeshire Family History Society; 2005, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely).
1833, 18th September: Under marriages, ‘On Wednesday last, at Woodditton, Mr. Page, surgeon, of Beccles, late of Newmarket, to Miss Bloss, daughter of Mr. Bloss, training-groom, of Newmarket’. Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. Friday Sept 20 1833: 2.
1834, 19th June: Frederick Page recorded as ‘Did not attend’ for his LSA examination, but the following details were recorded: ‘son of Wm Page of Wotton Underedge Gloucestershire’, apprenticed to ‘Mr Adam Adams of Wotton Underedge’ for 7 years, with an indenture dated 4th May 1820 interestingly (i.e. 14 years before the examination). It records his hospital training having been 12 months at the ‘Royal Infirmary Edinburgh’. His date of birth is recorded as 26th August 1806. He’s recorded as having attended lectures in chemistry; materia medica and botany, anatomy and physiology, anatomical demonstrations, principles and practice of medicine, and midwifery. Reference: Court of Examiners Candidates’ Qualification Entry Book, The Society of Apothecaries Archives, Apothecaries’ Hall, Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6EJ. [Note: he subsequently did attend for the examination on 3rd July 1834, with a reference back to these 19th June details.]
1837, 13th February: Under deaths, ‘aged 1 year and 9 months, Albert, eldest son of F. Page, Esq., surgeon, of Beccles’. Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Feb 22 1837: 2.
1839, 14th June: Ellen daughter of surgeon Frederick and Ann Matilda Page of St Mary’s parish Newmarket baptised. Reference: J552/10, microfilm of Newmarket St Mary’s parish register, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1839: ‘Page Frederick, High st’ listed under ‘Surgeons & Apothecaries’ in ‘Newmarket and Neighbourhood’ Cambridgeshire. Reference: Pigot and Co.’s royal national and commercial directory and topography of the counties of Bedford, Cambridge, Essex, Herts, Huntingdon, Kent, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey and Sussex… . London & Manchester: J. Pigot & Co.; 1839, pg 65. [Note: Bullen Mark Edmund [sic], High st, Faircloth Richard, High St, Fyson Robert, High St, and Peck Robert James, High St are listed separately.]
1839: ‘Page Frederick’ listed under ‘surgeons’ in Newmarket, Cambridgeshire. Reference: Robson’s royal court guide and peerage, with the commercial directory of London and the six counties forming the Norfolk circuit, viz. Beds, Bucks, Cambridgeshire, Hunts, Norfolk, and Suffolk:… . London: William Robson & Co.; 1839, pg 48. [Note: Bullen Mark, Faircloth Richard, Fyson Robert and Peck Robert James are listed separately.], [Note: see image above.]
1840, 7th July: ‘NEWMARKET MEDICAL PROVIDENT CLUB… plan for a medical Provident Club… the objects of which institution are to benefit equally the Labouring Classes and the Parishes, by enabling the former to procure medical assistance and medicines at a smaller expense, and with greater facility than they can possibly do by any other means, and to diminish to the latter the payments for medical bills to which they are now subject. / The DUKE of RUTLAND was unanimously called to the chair…’ Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. Saturday Jul 18 1840: 3. [Note: see the page on Richard Faircloth as well.]
1840, 29th September: ‘Mr Fredk Page of Newmarket’ allocated district 2 of the Newmarket Union, which at that stage comprised Dullingham, Newmarket St Mary, Newmarket All Saints’, Woodditton, Stetchworth, Moulton, Exning, Burwell with Reach, Snailwell, Chippenham and Landwade. Reference: 611/13, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1841, 23rd March: ‘Mr Frederick Page of Newmarket’ allocated district 1 of the Newmarket Union, which at that stage comprised Newmarket All Saints’, Brinkley, Borough Green, Westley [Waterless], Dullingham, Stetchworth, Woodditton and Cheveley. Reference: 611/13, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1841, 6th June: Frederick Page aged 30 [sic he was 34], surgeon, together with his wife Ann, their daughter Ellen aged 3, son Frederick aged 1, Henry Donnett an ‘assistant surgeon’ aged 25 and three servants. St Mary’s parish, Newmarket. Reference: The National Archives, 1841 census. [Note: by comparing the sequence of occupants and buildings on the various census records, it appears that Frederick Page lived where Cheffins estate agents is at the time of writing (November 2017), probably in a property later called Berteaux House on the 1891 census (thanks to newmarketshops.info – see below – for working out his location and sending me a spreadsheet in 2014).], [Note also, the 1851 census for Newmarket St Mary’s is missing, but there is a possibility that Frederick Page had moved to Mentmore House by then (see the page on Mentmore House for details). However, more likely he remained in Berteaux House until he left Newmarket.]
1842, 19th April: Following re-organisation of the medical districts earlier in the month, Frederick Page failed to obtain a Newmarket Union role. Subsequent correspondence between the Newmarket Board of Guardians and the Poor Law Commissioners the following month indicate that he had applied for the new district 2 (which comprised Brinkley, Borough Green, Westley [Waterless], Dullingham, Stetchworth and Snailwell), but that had been allocated to Richard Faircloth, along with the workhouse medical officer role. Reference: 611/14, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1842, 27th August: Letter to the editor of The Lancet published regarding the ‘Treatment of small encysted tumours’ detailing a method he uses for small cysts generally but he particularly mentions eyelid cysts. ‘F. PAGE, surgeon. Newmarket, Aug. 17, 1842.’ Reference: The Lancet 1842;38(991):750.
1844: ‘Page Fredk.’ listed under ‘Surgeons’ in Newmarket. Reference: History, Gazetteer, and Directory, of Suffolk, and towns near its borders… . Sheffield: W. White; 1844, pg 719. [Note: Faircloth Rd., Fyson Robert and Peck Rt. James and Son are listed separately.]
1844, 10th February: Letter to the editor of The Lancet published regarding a ‘Case of Talipes equinus cured by operation’, including the comment, ‘it is quite evident that mechanical treatment alone never could have effected a cure’… ‘F. PAGE. Newmarket, Jan. 17, 1844.’ Reference: The Lancet 1842;41(1067):634-635.
1844, 8th October: Following the resignation of Floyd Peck from the Cheveley district of the Newmarket Union, ‘Mr Page surgeon of Newmarket’ wrote to the Board of Guardians offering himself as a candidate for the role, but they replied stating that his ‘application was premature’. Reference: 611/16, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: this role had been taken up by Floyd Peck’s father, Robert James Peck, and would next become available when the office came up renewal in March 1845, when Robert Peck continued in the role.]
1845, 18th July: ‘Frederick Page, of the High street, in the town of Newmarket, in the county of Cambridge, Surgeon and Apothecary, an insolvent debtor, having been filed in the Court of Bankruptcy,…’ Reference: The London Gazette. July 18 1845; Issue 20489: 2161.
1845, 30th September: ‘Mr Frederick Page a surgeon unconnected with the union’ assisted a Justice of the Peace to determine that someone be ‘pronounced not to be a lunatic’. Reference: 611/16, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1845, 7th October: ‘Mr Frederick Page a surgeon and apothecary not being a Medical Officer of the Union’ assisted another Justice of the Peace to determine that an ‘Inmate of the House’ [i.e. the Newmarket workhouse] ‘having been reported insane’ ‘was a Lunatic’ and so this individual was admitted ‘into Sir Jonathan Miles’s asylum Hoxton House London’. Reference: 611/16, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: there are further entries up until 1853 (611/20) regarding Frederick Page being involved with ‘examining & certifying as to the state of mind of Lunatics’, mainly recording payments for ‘Lunatic Certificates’, so he appears to have had a special interest or specific role in this field. Other places patients were sent to included ‘St Lukes’ and ‘Peckham House’.], [Note also, see the page on the Newmarket Union regarding this terminology.]
1846: ‘Page Frederick, surgeon, High street’ in Newmarket. Reference: Post Office Directory of the nine counties; viz.:- Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, with Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, and Sussex. London: W. Kelly and Co.; 1846, pgs 1131-1133 (Newmarket section). [Note: Faircloth Richard, surgeon, High street, Fyson Robert, surgeon, High street and Peck Robert James, surgeon, agent to Crown life assurance company, & medical referee, High street are listed separately.]
1847: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Newmarket, Cambridgeshire – General Pract. ; M.R.C.S. 1837; L.S.A. 1834.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1847.
1847, 26th January: Attended a ‘PAINLESS OPERATION UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ÆTHER’ at the Suffolk General Hospital. Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Jan 27 1847: 2. [Note: click here for full details.]
1847: Between March and June there are a series of minutes in the Newmarket Union records regarding a case in which Mr Page successfully operated on a child from Dullingham effecting a ‘perfect cure… within 6 weeks’ on a case that previously had not responded to two years of treatment, which had included the use of ‘irons’. This sounds like an orthopaedic operation, perhaps similar to that described in February 1844 above and March 1857 below. Reference: 611/17, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1848: A murder case was reported in the press in which the following remarks from Frederick Page were recorded: ‘Mr. Frederick Page, surgeon, Newmarket: On the 10th of January the deceased came to me, and I attended him until he died on the 4th of February. I made a post-mortem examination, and found the skull fractured and an abscess on the brain, which caused his death, and which I have no doubt arose from the blow.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Mar 29 1848: 4.
1848, 3rd October: ‘The general annual meeting of the Newmarket Provident Society, and self-aiding Medical Club, was held on Tuesday last at the Rutland Arms; the following members were pre-sent – his Grace the Duke of Rutland, President of the so-ciety, occupied the chair… “eighth annual report… In the Medical Club, 3706 have, during the past year, testi-fied their sense of its benefits by enrolling themselves as members… 159 poor married women have been attended in their confinements [i.e. pregnancies] by the doctor of their own choice; and within the same period 11 persons have received prompt and efficient aid, from their surgeon, under the painful accident of a broken limb… other benefits besides sick-pay are insured for, such as pensions, burial money, &c.,…”’. Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. Saturday Oct 07 1848: 2. [Note: see the page on Richard Faircloth as well.]
1850: ‘Page Frederick, High st’ listed under ‘Surgeons’ in Newmarket. Reference: SLATER’S (LATE PIGOT & CO.)… DIRECTORY… of… CAMBRIDGESHIRE; London: Isaac Slater; 1850, pg 36. [Note: Faircloth Richard, High st, Fyson Robert, High st and Peck Ffloyd Mentor [sic], High st are listed separately.]
1851: ‘Page Frederick, High-street’ listed under ‘Surgeons’ in Newmarket. Reference: History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Cambridgeshire… . Peterborough: Robert Gardner; 1851, pg 409. [Note: Faircloth Richard, High-st., Fyson Robert, High-street and Peck Robert, Railway-street are listed separately, but note Robert James Peck had died in 1848, so that entry appears out of date – see discussion on the pages about Robert James Peck and Floyd Minter Peck about this and Railway Street, which is now part of All Saints’ Rd.]
1851, 5th June: Sons Frederick, Edwin and William Joseph, and daughter Elizabeth, of surgeon Frederick and Ann Matilda Page, of St Mary’s parish Newmarket, baptised. Reference: J552/10, microfilm of Newmarket St Mary’s parish register, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1855: ‘Page Frederick’ listed under ‘Surgeons’ in Newmarket. Reference: HISTORY, GAZETTEER, AND DIRECTORY OF SUFFOLK… . Sheffield: William White; 1855, pg 820. [Note: Faircloth Richard, Fyson & Gamble, Fyson Robert and Peck Floyd M are listed separately.]
1856: ‘MEAD, GEORGE BORWICK, Chatteris, Isle of Ely, Cambridgesh.- M.R.C.S.Eng.; Lic. Midw. And L.S.A. 1854.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1856. [Note: This reference is included to show that George Mead was not in Newmarket until he became a partner of Frederick Page in 1857.]
1856, 5th December: ‘Mr Page of Newmarket’ was a candidate for District 8 of the Newmarket Union (which comprised Wicken, Fordham and Chippenham), but ‘Mr Addison of Soham’ was appointed (these villages lie between Newmarket and Soham). Reference: 611/21, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1856, 24th December: ‘NEWMARKET / DEATH FROM CHARCOAL / … Mr. Page, surgeon, Newmarket: The deceased was a man about eighteen years of age. I was called to see him last Wednesday morning about nine o’clock, and found him in a warm bath with no appearance of life. I had him instantly placed in a large room, and commenced inflating his lungs, and continued the process some con-siderable time, opened the jugular vein, rubbing him with stimulants, and everything that could be thought of, and persevered for an hour and a half till the body became perfectly cold. Death under these circumstances is not produced by asphyxia or want of air in the lungs, but by breathing a deleterious air that poisons the blood and produces apoplexy. There was a peculiar livid appearance of the face which indicated death by the mode I have described. The blood that was drawn was peculiarly characteristic of death from this cause, it was black as a hat. I should have no doubt that he died from inhalation of a poisonous gas, generated by combustion of charcoal…’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Wednesday Dec 31 1856: 2. [Note: the ‘peculiar livid appearance of the face’ presumably refers to the classic ‘cherry red’ appearance seen in severe cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.], [Note also, see another early resuscitation attempt by Sidney Winslow Woollett in 1906 on the page about him.]
1857: ‘MEAD, GEORGE BORWICK, New-market, Cambs. (Page and Mead) – M.R.C.S.Eng.; L.M., and L.S.A. 1854; Surg. Rutland Club; late Asst.-Surg. Spalding Infirm. Author “Chloric Æther, its properties, Chemical Com-position, and Uses,” 1854.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1857. [Note: see the page on George Borwick Mead for an image.]
1857: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Newmarket, Cambs. (Page and Mead) – M.R.C.S. 1837; F.R.C.S. 1856; L.S.A. 1834.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1857. [Note: see image above.], [Note also, this is the first time that his FRCS is mentioned, stating 1856, but thereafter it is dated 1855, although it is not mentioned in the 1856 Directory.]
1857, 6th March: ‘Frederick Page Esq: Surgeon of Newmarket’ recorded treating ‘distortion of the feet of a Boy belonging to the Parish of Stetchworth – the case having been reported cured.’ (underlining in the original). Reference: 611/21, Newmarket Union minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1858: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Newmarket, Cambs. (Page and Mead) – F.R.C.S. Eng. 1855; M.R.C.S. 1837; L.S.A. 1834. Surg. Rutland Club. Contrib. to Lancet and Med. Times.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1858.
1858, January: ‘CHEVELEY.- Medical Appointment.- Messrs. Page and Mead, of Newmarket, have been appointed sur-geons upon the Duke of Rutland’s Cheveley estate, in the room of Mr. Peck, whose removal has also caused a vacancy in one of the Union districts, to which Messrs. Page and Mead are likely to be appointed’. Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal. Saturday Jan 23 1858: 5. [Note: the word ‘removal’ here does not imply sacking; it was used to mean ‘moving’ as we would ‘move house’, and presumably is why we still use ‘removal vans’ to do so. cf. Woodward Mudd’s 1813 public notice. Mr. Peck was about to move to Australia! – see the page on Floyd Minter Peck for more details.]
1858, 5th February: Mr. George B. Mead elected as medical officer to district 3, having received 18 votes compared with 10 for Dr. William H. Day. Reference: 611/21, Newmarket Union Minutes, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1858, 9th February: ‘THE UNION – MEDICAL OFFICER.- At a meeting of the Board of Guardians, on Friday last, there were two candidates for the appointment of Surgeon for No. 3 District, comprising Ashley, Cheveley, Kennet, Moulton, and Woodditton, namely, Mr. Day, successor to the practice of Mr. Peck, the late officer, and Mr. Mead, of the firm of Page and Mead, Newmarket, when Mr. Mead was successful, having gained the appointment by a majority of ten.’ Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Tuesday Feb 9 1858: 3. [Note: according to the minutes above the majority was 8 – don’t believe everything you read in the papers (or minutes?)!]
1858, 1st May: ‘NOTICE is hereby Given, that the PARTNER-SHIP heretofore subsisting between us, the undersigned FREDERICK PAGE and GEORGE BORWICK MEAD, in the profession, practice, and business of a Surgeon, Apothecary, and Accoucheur, at Newmarket, in the counties of Suffolk and Cambridge, and elsewhere under the style or firm of “Page and Mead,” was DISSOLVED, by mutual, [sic] consent, on the first day of May instant. / Witness our hands this 29th day of May, in the year 1858. / FREDERICK PAGE. / GEORGE B. MEAD.’ Reference: The Cambridge Independent Press. Saturday Jun 5 1858: 2. [Note: a similar notice appeared a few days earlier in the Bury and Norwich Post. Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Tuesday Jun 1 1858: 3.], [Note also, an ‘accoucheur’ is another name for a male medic who assists with childbirth, sometimes also referred to historically as a ‘man midwife’ – see the page on William Sandiver 2 for an example of this, and see also The history of medical treatments, training, qualifications and regulation.]
1859: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Cambridge – M.D. St. And. 1858; F.R.C.S. Eng. 1855; M.R.C.S. 1837; L.S.A. 1834. Surg. Rutland Club; Mem. Brit. Med. Assoc. Contrib. to Lancet and Med. Times.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1859. [Note: George Mead was also still recorded as a surgeon to the Rutland Club.]
1860: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Landport, Hants – M.D. St. And. 1858; F.R.C.S. Eng. 1855; M.R.C.S. 1837; L.S.A. 1834. late Surg. Rutland Club; Mem. Brit. Med. Assoc. Contrib. to Lancet and Med. Times.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1860.
1861, 7/8th April: Frederick Page, aged 54, surgeon, born in Wooton, Gloucestershire, together with his wife Ann M from Newmarket, two daughters Ada aged 17 and Elizabeth 12 both born in Newmarket, a visitor and a servant, living at Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Reference: The National Archives, 1861 census. [Note: Frederick Page junior, aged 21, born in Newmarket, can be found as a Medical Assistant in the household of John Bromfield ‘Surgeon Gen Practice’ at Whitchurch, Shropshire.]
1862: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Landport-terr. Southsea, Hants – M.D. St. And. 1858; F.R.C.S. Eng. 1855; M.R.C.S. 1837; L.S.A. 1834. (Edin.); Surg. Roy. Portsm., Portsea and Gosport. Hosp.; late Surg. Rutland Club; Mem. Brit. Med. Assoc. Contrib. to Lancet, Med. Times. and Brit. Med. Assoc. Journ.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1862. [Note: this is the first time that his hospital post is mentioned; he’s shown as retired from that role in the 1866 directory, but continued in a poor law Union role first recorded in 1865 until his last entry in the Directory of 1872 – see below.]
1871, 2nd/3rd April: Frederic [sic] Page aged 64, ‘Surgeon & Physician’, born in Gloucestershire, together with his wife Ann from Newmarket, unmarried daughter Ada aged 27 and two servants, living at Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Reference: The National Archives, 1871 census. [Note: Frederick Page junior, aged 31, born in Newmarket, can be found as a ‘Senior House Surgeon’ at Newcastle upon Tyne Infirmary.], [Note also, despite their move away, there is a memorial stone in Newmarket cemetery that reads ‘In Memoriam / ADA / SECOND DAUGHTER OF THE LATE / FREDERICK PAGE ESQ M.D. / DIED MARCH 10TH. 1874. / AGED 30 YEARS’ and underneath, ‘ANN MATILDA HIS WIDOW / DIED DEC 18TH. 1894 / AGED 85 YEARS’. This would suggest that they’d perhaps moved back to Newmarket after Frederick’s death, which was the year after this census (see 1872 below). On the 1881 census there was an Ann Bloss, widow, aged 70, living with her brother George Bloss, a race horse trainer in Newmarket, with Elizabeth Page his niece aged 26 (sic, ought to be 32 if the 1861 census above is correct – see June 1851 also) in the household too. This was obviously her, recorded with her maiden name (see 1833 above).]
1872: ‘PAGE, FREDERICK, Langston Lodge, Milton, Southsea, Hants – M.D. St. And. 1858; F.R.C.S. Eng. 1855; M. 1839 [sic]; L.S.A. 1834. (Edin. and Lond.); Mem. Brit. Med. Assoc.; Med. Off. Portsmouth, Portsea, and Southsea Union House; late Surg. Roy. Portsm., Portsea, and Gosport Hosp. and Rutland Club. Contrib. “Successful Case of Ovarian Tumour Extirpa-tion,” Brit. Med. Journ. 1867; and Papers to Lancet, Med. Times, and Brit. Med. Assoc. Journ.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1872. [Note: this was his last entry in the Directory, his death on 20th February 1872 being reported in the obituary section of the 1873 edition.]
1872, 20th February: Reported as the date of his death in the obituary section of the Medical Directory for 1873. Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1873.
1919, 19th July: Obituary of Frederick Page junior published in the BMJ, ‘ON July 3rd Mr. Frederick Page passed quietly away at the ripe age of 79… By his death Newcastle and the north of England have lost a distinguished surgeon. He was the son of Dr. Frederick Page, who many years ago was surgeon to the Portsmouth, Portsea, and Gosport Hospital, and may be said, therefore, to have been born with a taste for surgery. / The future Professor of Surgery at Newcastle was educated at the University of Edinburgh…’. Reference: Obituary. British Medical Journal 1919;2(3055):93.
Newmarket Union Minutes 1840-1857. Reference: 611/13-21, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: not all entries regarding Frederick Page in these minutes have been detailed above. Those not recorded are largely about routine payments.]
Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows Online. Page, Frederick (senior) ( – 1872). http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E002880b.htm (accessed 10th November 2017). [Note: there is also a page for Frederick Page junior: http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E002881b.htm.]
Shops History Newmarket. http://www.newmarketshops.info/index.html. [Note: newmarketshops.info has been supplied with information regarding the medical history of Newmarket by the author of talkingdust.net since August 2013 (see footnotes on some of the pages). Both websites continue to be developed, and in this sense are mutually symbiotic.]
Suffolk Medical Biographies. Profile for Page, Frederick. http://www.suffolkmedicalbiographies.co.uk/Profile.asp?Key=2139 (originally accessed pre October 2013). [Note: at the time of writing (November 2017), this website had only three references to Frederick Page.], [Note also, see comments regarding this website on the Francis Greene page.]
The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1847-1873. [Note: see above references for full 1847, 57-60, 1862 and 1872 entries, and 1856&7 entries for George Borwick Mead], [Note also, this publication has been known by various titles over the years. Initially it just covered London, but from 1847 it had a wider remit, being variously known as the London and Provincial Medical Directory, The Medical Directories, The Medical Directory, etc., essentially the same work with minor variations and developments. It is usually referred to as The Medical Directory (as opposed to The Medical Register), so that is how it’s consistently referred to on talkingdust.net.]
The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1859ff. [Note: this records his MRCS as 1839 and FRCS as 1855.]
Note: For published material referenced on this website see the ‘Acknowledgements for resources of published material’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page. The sources used for original unpublished documents are noted after each individual reference. Any census records are referenced directly to The National Archives, since images of these are so ubiquitous on microfilm and as digital images that they almost function like published works. Census records are covered by the ‘Open Government Licence’ as should be other such public records (see the ‘Copyright and related issues’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page for which references constitute public records, and any other copyright issues more generally such as fair dealing/use etc.).