The Meads were a father/son pair of generalist medics who worked in Newmarket in the second half of the 19th century, forming part of the Page-Meads-Crompton practice chain (see The practice chains of Newmarket). They practised from Mentmore House, which had been used earlier by the Pecks, who were part of a different chain of succession. Further details regarding both George Bor(th)wick Mead the father and George Owen Mead the son can be found on the pages dedicated to those individuals. This page is to present them in summary form, and to set them in their wider context.
The origins of the Newmarket Meads are interesting. George Borwick Mead was born in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, in 1831, the son of Joseph Mead, who was primarily described as a Chemist/Druggist. However, the same Joseph Mead appears to be recorded in some of the 1850s Medical Directories, as a district vaccinator and having worked as a medic (surgeon) in the Royal Navy. Like many medics at that time he had no formal qualifications, being in practice before the Apothecaries Act of 1815 (See The history of medical treatments, training, qualifications and regulation for more on Chymists, Druggists, Apothecaries, Surgeons, and the Act of 1815 etc.). Joseph Mead seems to have been quite a late example of the blurred distinction between chemists/druggists and surgeons/apothecaries, but primarily he adopted a chemist’s role, rather than the surgeon-apothecary / General Medical Practitioner role of his son George Borwick Mead.
Joseph and Elizabeth Mead appear to have had only one other child aside from George, a daughter named Jane Lydia Mead. She was born in 1834 but sadly died in 1850 at the age of 16, when George was 19 years of age and apparently away serving his apprenticeship. This must have been a difficult time for them all; the 1851 census records Joseph and Elizabeth at home alone. They were a Methodist family, and a newspaper report on Joseph’s death three decades later paints a picture of his enduring character: ‘More than fifty years since he commenced business in Ramsey,… his energy, industry, and strict probity in all transactions was soon rewarded by success. He was particularly interested in all institu-tions intended to benefit his fellow-townsmen, especially of the poorer classes. He was the principal founder of the Ramsey Benefit Society, of which flourishing institution he was secretary till a few days before his death, and also of a reading society, which continued over a quarter of a century. He was for many years a director of the Gas Company, a member of the Board of Health and Burial Board, and took an active part in all public and philanthropic movements. During his long residence in the town he was a most useful and energetic member of society, and his loss will be deeply felt by many to whom he had been a kind and generous friend, and is regretted by all classes of his fellow-townsmen.’ There seems to have been something of Newmarket’s Clement Gray about him, a man blessed with unusual energy and capacity, well focused.
George Borwick Mead didn’t train with his father, who as mentioned above was essentially a chemist, but served a more general medical apprenticeship in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and London – see below and the page on George Bor(th)wick Mead for full details and discussion. After qualifying in 1854, he worked briefly in Bury St Edmunds, with his father in Ramsey, then in Chatteris, where he married a farmer’s daughter Elizabeth Owen, before settling in Newmarket in 1856/7. There he joined the older and already established Frederick Page in partnership, who moved on/away in 1858.
George and Elizabeth had four children in Newmarket, born during the 1850s and 60s, George Owen Mead (Owen), Georgina Bessie Jane Mead (Georgie), Jane Georgette Mead (Janie), and George Percy Mead (Percy)! Owen was the eldest, and followed his father into the medical profession and practice at Newmarket, after some military roles. They can be seen working together on the 1881 census (see the page on George Owen Mead for an image). Percy also appears to have started off pursuing some medical training but doesn’t seem to have completed this – see the page on George Owen Mead for a discussion on the interesting way in which the training of these three medical Meads differed. This could be contrasted further with Joseph above.
Owen’s mother Elizabeth died in 1885, at the relatively young age of 52, and was buried back in Mepal, alongside some Owen family relatives. A few years after that his father George seems to have developed an interest in medical defence, spending increasing amounts of time in London in that capacity. The 1891 census shows Owen running the practice at Mentmore House, with his two sisters, George senior away in London, and Percy having left home by that stage. The partnership between father and son was formally dissolved in 1896, interestingly a few months after George had re-married to the 19 year old Frances Johnson in London (although she was from Wicken) – more than 40 years his junior!
The turn of the century saw the rapid demise of the medical Meads of Newmarket. Sadly Owen died first, in 1900 at the very young age of 43, being buried at his request near his mother in Mepal, where he is in the row of Owens mentioned above. His father George died the following year in 1901, and is buried in Mill Road cemetery, Cambridge, where he had moved in the late 1890s with his young wife Frances. See the pages on George Owen Mead and George Bor(th)wick Mead for images of their graves in Mepal and Cambridge respectively.
The Meads’ practice at Mentmore House appears to have been for sale in 1900, and at some point that year taken on by Ernest Crompton, who can be seen there on the 1901 census (see The Page-Meads-Crompton practice chain also).
Note: see the specific pages on George Bor(th)wick Mead and George Owen Mead for many more references relating to these individuals.
1831, 25th April: George Borwick Mead baptised, son of druggist Joseph and Jane Mead, Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (born 21st April 1831). Reference: Online image of the Huntingdon St Mary (Wesleyan) register of baptisms for the Huntingdon Circuit held at The National Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 17th November 2017). [Note: a separate image from The National Archives ‘General Register Office: Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry’ reveals that the baptism took place at the Methodist Chapel in Ramsey.]
1834, 2nd November: Jane Lydia Mead baptised, son of druggist Joseph and Jane Mead, Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (born 28th July 1834, registered 24th June 1835). Reference: Online image of the Wesleyan Methodist Registry Paternoster Row births and baptisms held at The National Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 22nd November 2017). [Note: a separate image from The National Archives ‘General Register Office: Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry’ also provides this information.]
1839: ‘Mead Joseph, High st’ listed under ‘chymists & druggists’ in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire. 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 229. [Note: he is not listed under ‘surgeons’ – but see 1858 below.]
1850, 9th November: Jane Lydia Mead buried at Ramsey, aged 16. Reference: The church of St Thomas a Becket, Ramsey, Huntingdonshire; Burials and miscellaneous notes with index; Transcribed from the original parish registers and bishop’s transcripts by the Huntingdonshire Family History Society. Huntingdonshire Family History Society; 2000, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely).
1851, 30th/31st March: Joseph Mead, aged 48, Chemist, born in Kingston, Cambridgeshire, together with his wife Jane, a visitor and a servant, Ramsey High Street, Huntingdonshire. Reference: The National Archives, 1851 census. [Note: this appears to have been George Borwick Mead’s parents. I have not been able to find George Mead himself on the 1851 census in Bradford (see below), London or elsewhere, but the 1854 paper below suggests that he was somewhere in Yorkshire in 1850/51, but perhaps he had left before the census? I haven’t been able to find the family at all yet on the 1841 census.], [Note also, Joseph Mead aged 57, Chemist and Druggist, together with his wife Jane and a servant can be seen on the 1861 census, still in Ramsey High Street, then on the 1871 census he’s still there, but married to Hannah instead.]
1854, 8th April: ‘RAMSEY.- Medical.- Among the gentlemen who were admitted members of the Royal College of Sur-geons, London, at the examination on Friday week, was George B. Mead, Esq., formerly a pupil of Edwin Morris, Esq. M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, of this town…- Spalding Free Press. [Mr. Mead is a son of Mr. J. Mead, of this place.]’. Reference: Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal. Saturday Apr 08 1854: 7. [Note: this is quoting the Spalding Free Press and Dr. Edwin Morris was Surgeon to the Spalding Dispensary and Union Infirmary in the 1854 Medical Directory.], [Note also, see the page on George Bor(th)wick Mead for more detail.]
1854, 15th June: George Borwick Mead passed the LSA examination, ‘son of Joseph Mead, of Ramsey, in the County of Huntingdon’, apprenticed to ‘Mr. Richard Caton, of Bradford, Yorkshire’, ‘Surgeon & APOTHECARY for five Years’ [note: ‘Surgeon &’ and ‘five’ are added in hand, the rest pre-printed in the book], with an indenture dated 9th March 1847. It records his hospital training having been 18 months at St Bartholomews Hospital. His date of birth is recorded as 21st April 1831. Reference: Court of Examiners Candidates’ Qualification Entry Book, The Society of Apothecaries Archives, Apothecaries’ Hall, Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6EJ. [Note: in the Medical Directories, Richard Caton relocated from Bradford to Scarborough between 1849 and 1850. Possibly therefore some of George Mead’s apprenticeship was served in Scarborough?], [Note also, see the page on George Bor(th)wick Mead for more detail.]
1854: George Borwick Mead published on the use of chloric æther, but in the process revealed some details about his whereabouts. ‘During the years 1846, 7, and 8, the typhus fever pre-vailed to a considerable extent in several of the most popu-lous districts of the Bradford (Yorkshire) Union’ followed by comments implying he was there. He then mentions a time when he was ‘residing with Dr. Morris of Spalding’ and later ‘In 1850 and 1851, I was again residing in Yorkshire’. The communication is in two parts ending ‘Bury St. Edmund’s, Suffolk, August 17th, 1854’ and ‘Bury St. Edmunds, September 18th, 1854’. Reference: Mead GB. Chloric æther: its properties and uses, especially in choleriac and other forms of diarrhoea, and in cholera. Association Medical Journal 1854;2(88):819-820 & 2(92):905-908. [Note: this was the name of the British Medical Journal from 1853-1856.]
1855: ‘MEAD, JOSEPH, Ramsey, Hunts – In practice prior to 1815; Dist. Vacc.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1855. [Note: this was likely/possibly George Borwick Mead’s father, otherwise described as a druggist or chemist. He seems to feature sporadically in only a few directories but does not appear in the early Medical Registers from 1859. Regarding the Directories, he is not in the 1853 or 54 editions, he is in 1856, not in 1857, 59, 60 or 61, but his 1858 entry is interesting, see below.]
1855: ‘MEAD, GEORGE BORWICK, Ramsey, Hunts – M.R.C.S. Eng.; Lic. Midw. and L.S.A. 1854.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1855. [Note: this was his first appearance in the Medical Directory.]
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.
1856, 7th May: George Borwick Mead, bachelor, surgeon of Chatteris, son of Joseph a chemist, married Elizabeth Owen, spinster of this parish, daughter of Thomas a farmer. Reference: An indexed transcription of the parish registers of Mepal. Cambridgeshire Family History Society; 2010, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely).
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.]
1858: ‘MEAD, JOSEPH, Ramsey, Hunts – In practice prior to 1815; late Surg. R.N. ; Dist. Vacc. Jenn. Inst.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1858. [Note: see comments 1855 above.]
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.]
1861, 7/8th April: George B Mead, aged 29, with qualifications listed, born in Ramsey, Hunts, together with his wife Elizabeth, son George O Mead aged 4, daughter Georgina J Mead aged 3 months (both born in Newmarket) and three servants, living at Mentmore House, High St, Newmarket St Mary’s parish. Reference: The National Archives, 1861 census.
1862, 9th March: Georgina Bessie Jane, daughter of physician George Borwick and Elizabeth Mead 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). [Note: I haven’t been able to find the baptisms of the other three children, in Newmarket or any other obvious places, such as Mepal or Ramsey, in the Church of England nor non-conformist registers that I could find. However, George Borwick Owen Mead’s birth was registered in Newmarket during the 1st quarter of 1857, Georgina Bessie Jane Mead 1Q 1861, Jane Georgette Mead 4Q 1864 and Percy G Mead 3Q 1866. There is no record of a Newmarket Georgina Mead in 1870/1 or Georgette in 1874/5 – see the 1891 census below, so there probably were no such people, these being 1861 and 64 sisters giving the wrong ages! Reference: Online images of the General Register Office England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 19th December 2017). [Note also, this use of Borwick as a second name for Owen occurs only here, in the Medical Directory as simply the initial B, and likewise on the 1881 census.]
1871, 2nd/3rd April: George B Mead, aged 39, with qualifications listed, born in Ramsey, Hunts, together with his wife Elizabeth, born in Mepal, Cambs, sons ‘Owen’ a ‘scholar’ and Percy Mead aged 14 and 4 respectively, and daughters ‘Georgie’ and Jane Mead aged 10 and 6 respectively (all born in Newmarket) and two servants, living at Mentmore House, High St, Newmarket St Mary’s parish. Reference: The National Archives, 1871 census.
1873, 18th January: A local newspaper reported in its Newmarket section, ‘MEDICAL EXAMINATION.- At the examination of arts held at the University of London, for the Royal College of Surgeons, on Dec. 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1872, Mr. George Owen Mead, son of G. B. Mead, Esq., M.D.L.R.C.P., was one of the successful candidates.’ Reference: The Bury Free Press. Saturday Jan 18 1873: 8. [Note: this appears to have been some form of entrance exam? – see The history of medical treatments, training, qualifications and regulation regarding the rather fluid situation medical education was in during the 19th century.]
1880: ‘MEAD, GEO. B. OWEN, Mentmore House, New-market, Suffolk – L.R.C.P. Edin. and L.M. 1879; M.R.C.S. Eng. 1879; (St. Barthol.); Brackenbury Schol. 1877; Surg. Nat. Aid. Soc. Russo-Turkish War 1877-78.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1890. [Note: this was his first entry in the Medical Directory.], [Note also, from 1881 onwards he mentions past roles as ‘Surg. Cape R.M. Serv., and Asst. House Surg. W. Sussex Hosp.’ but see comments regarding his 1900 BMJ obituary on the page regarding George Owen Mead.], [Note also, see 1862 above regarding the ‘B’.]
1880, 5th February: Date of death of Joseph Mead, Ramsey, Huntindonshire, recorded in the national probate records. Reference: Online image of National Probate Registry entry, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 18th December 2017). [Note: the probate date was 20th February 1880, executor George Borwick Mead M.D., Mentmore House, Newmarket, Suffolk.]
1880, 5th February: ‘RAMSEY.- We regret to announce the decease of Mr. Joseph Mead, and old and well-known in-habitant of this place, which took place on Thursday February 5th. Mr. Mead was upwards of 76 years of age, and had been in failing health during the last two years. More than fifty years since he commenced business in Ramsey, and his energy, industry, and strict probity in all transactions was soon rewarded by success. He was particularly interested in all institu-tions intended to benefit his fellow-townsmen, especially of the poorer classes. He was the principal founder of the Ramsey Benefit Society, of which flourishing institution he was secretary till a few days before his death, and also of a reading society, which continued over a quarter of a century. He was for many years a director of the Gas Company, a member of the Board of Health and Burial Board, and took an active part in all public and philanthropic movements. During his long residence in the town he was a most useful and energetic member of society, and his loss will be deeply felt by many to whom he had been a kind and generous friend, and is regretted by all classes of his fellow-townsmen.’ Reference: The Cambridge Independent Press. Saturday Feb 14 1880: 7. [Note: it’s interesting that he was a director of the gas company, since a couple of decades later his grandson Owen was a director of Newmarket’s electricity company – see the page on George Owen Mead!]
1881, 3rd/4th April: George B Mead, aged 49, ‘Physician + Surgeon’, together with his wife Elizabeth O Mead aged 48, son George B. O. Mead aged 24 ‘Physician &c’, daughters Georgina and Jane aged 19 and 16 respectively, and three servants, living at Mentmore House, High St, Newmarket St Mary’s parish. Reference: The National Archives, 1881 census. [Note: see the page on George Owen Mead for an image.], [Note also, I haven’t been able to find George Percy Mead on the 1881 census.], [Note also, see 1862 above regarding the ‘B.’ in Owen’s name.]
1885, 11th December: Elizabeth Mead of Newmarket buried at Mepal, aged 52. Reference: An indexed transcription of the parish registers of Mepal. Cambridgeshire Family History Society; 2010, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely).
1885: Memorial to Elizabeth Mead, in a grave with her mother at Mepal. ‘IMO Elizabeth relict of Thomas OWEN d 21 Nov. 1873 aged 80 Also of Elizabeth their youngest daughter and the beloved wife of George Borwick MEAD MD who died at Newmarket 6 Dec. 1885 aged 52’. Reference: 11, Monumental Inscriptions Saint Mary Mepal. Recorded by Alan and Margaret Bullwinkle for the Cambridgeshire Family History Society, 1992, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely). [Note: added in pen to this document is ‘Robert and Dorothy Hardick’ as also involved in the transcription?], [Note also, when I saw this grave in December 2017 it was covered with very thick ivy and brambles, such that the stone casket part of the grave was impossible to uncover in any appropriate way. A headstone was very badly weathered, but the transcription seems to have come from that judging from the few parts that were legible. The top was illegible, then came the name Elizabeth, followed by a word with ‘R’ in it, then Thomas Owen.], [Note also, this was part of a row of five graves, numbered 8-12, all of which related to the Owen family one way or another – number 8 was the grave of Owen Mead (see 1900 below) – and see the page on George Owen Mead for an image.]
1890: ‘MEAD, GEO. BORWICK, Mentmore House, Newmarket, Suffolk, and 13, Royal-avenue, Sloane-sq. Lond. S.W. – Ph.D. and M.A. Gessen (res. and exam.), 1859; L.R.C.P. Lond. 1861; M.R.C.S. Eng. and L.M. 1854; L.S.A. 1854; (St.Bartol.); Prizes and Hon. Certifs. in Anat., Chem., Bot., Phys., Pract. Chem., Mat. Med., and Midw.; Organising Sec. Med. Defence Union; Surg. Rous Memorial Hosp.; late Asst. Surg. Spalding Infirm. Author of “Chloric Æther: its properties, Chem-ical Composition, and Uses,” 1854; “History of Newmarket during the Reign of James I.,” 1864; “The History, Prevention, and Treatment of the Rinderpest, or Russian Cattle Plague, &c.,” 1865; Hygienic Medicine; or, Observations on the use of Baths and Bathing, &c.,” 1866; Contrib. “Cases Illustrative of the use of Baths in the treatment of Disease,” Brit. Med. Journ. 1866; “Physical Hygiene,” Ibid. 1867; “Case of Fragilitas Ossium,” Ibid. 1868.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1890. [Note: he starts listing a London address in 1890, in addition to his Newmarket address. In 1891 it’s 5 Winchester Rd, S. Hampstead. Lond. N.W., in 1892 it’s back to the Sloane Square address as here, until 1895 when it becomes 32 Bedford Place W.C., then 1 Oakley Street S.W. in 1896. In 1897 the address is the same, but strangely his middle name is changed to Borthwick (which spelling remains until his last posthumous entry in 1902 – see below). In 1898 he appears to drop both his London and Newmarket address, recording ‘Mentmore, Chester-ton, Cambridge’, which changes to Mentmore, 44 Glisson Rd., Cambridge in 1899, then the number changes to 48 in 1901 (with the house still called Mentmore).]
1891, 5th/6th April: George Owen Mead, aged 34, Georgina Mead aged 20 and Georgette J Mead aged 16 (oddly, if this is Georgina and Jane, their ages seem 10 years out – but see comments on the 1862 reference above), and three servants, shown in Mentmore House, High St, Newmarket St Mary’s parish, and described as ‘Son, Daughter and Daughter’, with no head of household recorded, implying that George Borwick Mead was still regarded as the head of this four ‘Georges’ household. Reference: The National Archives, 1891 census. [Note: see the page on George Owen Mead for an image.], [Note also, George Mead senior is listed living in Royal Avenue, Chelsea, London, as George B Mead aged 59, ‘General Medical Practitioner’, widower, born in Ramsay [sic] Hunts.], [Note also, George P Mead, aged 25, from Newmarket, Suffolk, was living in Coleshill, Buckinghamshire, ‘Living on own means’.], [Note also, neither George B or George O Mead are listed on the 1901 census, which was taken on 31st March / 1st April, after their deaths. Ernest Crompton, their apparent successor, was in Mentmore House as ‘Physician + Surgeon’ on the 1901 census – see the page on Ernest Crompton for an image.]
1896: ‘Mead George Borthwick M.A., L.R.C.P.Lond. surgeon, Mentmore house, High street’ and ‘Mead George Owen L.R.C.P. Edin. surgeon & medical officer of health to the urban district council & coroner for Newmarket division of West Suffolk, Mentmore house, High street’ in the commercial section of Kelly’s Directory for Newmarket, Cambridgeshire. Reference: Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire… . London: Kelly & Co., Limited; 1896, pgs 137-145 (Newmarket section). [Note: Ernest Last Fyson, Clement Frederick Gray, James Percy Grieves, Walter Hutchinson and John Hansby Maund are listed separately.]
1896, 3rd June: Marriage licence between George Borthwick Mead, widower, of St Mary’s parish, Newmarket, and Frances Mildred Johnson, spinster aged 19, of St Mary Abbots parish, Kensington, with the consent of her father Frederick Appleyard Johnson. Reference: Online image of the Surrey Marriage Bonds and Allegations records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 24th November 2017). [Note: the 1891 and 1881 censuses reveal that his young wife was a gentleman farmer’s daughter from Wicken near Soham (near Newmarket) originally. Reference: The National Archives, 1881 and 1891 censuses. – see the 1901 census below also.]
1896, 25th September 1896: ‘NOTICE is hereby given that the Partnership which has for some time past been carried on by George Borwick Mead and George Owen Mead under the firm of Mead and Son at Newmarket in the County of Suffolk in the business of Surgeons and Apothecaries was this day dissolved by mutual consent.– As witness our hands this 25th day of September 1896. / GEORGE BORWICK MEAD. / GEO. OWEN MEAD.’ Reference: The London Gazette. Oct 16 1896; Issue 26786: 5690.
1900: ‘MEAD, GEO. B. OWEN, Mentmore, Newmarket, Suffolk – L.R.C.P. Edin. 1879; M.R.C.S. Eng. 1879; (St Bart.); Brackenbury Schol. 1877; Mem. Camb. Med. Soc.; Surg. Rous Memor. Hosp.; Med. Off. Health Newmarket U. Dist.; Coroner for Co. Suffolk; Surg. Brit. Nat. Aid Soc. Russo-Turkish War 1877-8 (Ord. Medjidieh, 3rd class); late Surg. Cape R.M. Serv., and Asst. House Surg. W. Sussex Hosp.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1890. [Note: this was his last entry in the Medical Directory.], [Note also, his previous role in the West Sussex Hospital is included from 1881 onwards, but his BMJ obituary (see the page on George Owen Mead) cites the West Suffolk Hospital.]
1900, 13th March: A newspaper reported that George Owen Mead had died from an ‘abscess on the brain, at his residence, Mentmore House, Newmarket, early on Monday morning, after a very brief illness. Prof. Victor Horsley, of London, and Dr. Wherry, of Cam-bridge, visited him on Sunday morning, with a view of performing an operation, but found that it was too late to operate. The deceased gentle-man received every attention from his brother practitioners in Newmarket.’ Reference: East Anglian Daily Times. Tuesday Mar 13 1900: 7. [Note: this was the first such report – the day after he died. There were many more to follow, filling in further details – see the page on George Owen Mead for a selection.]
1900, 16th March: George Owen Mead of Newmarket buried at Mepal, aged 43. Reference: An indexed transcription of the parish registers of Mepal. Cambridgeshire Family History Society; 2010, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely).
1900: Memorial to Owen Mead, in a grave three along from his mother at Mepal, in a row of five Owen family graves. ‘ILMO Owen MEAD d 12 March 1900 aged 43 Coroner for West Suffolk, capt. 3rd Suffolk Regt.’ Reference: 8, Monumental Inscriptions Saint Mary Mepal. Recorded by Alan and Margaret Bullwinkle for the Cambridgeshire Family History Society, 1992, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely). [Note: added in pen to this document is ‘Robert and Dorothy Hardick’ as also involved in the transcription?], [Note also, when I saw this grave in December 2017 it was covered with very thick ivy, such that it was impossible to uncover completely in any appropriate way. However, it was possible to lift the top left corner of the ivy to reveal a flatstone on which could be read ‘In Loving Memory’ and the name Owen Mead with his qualifications underneath. To lift the ivy back any further would have been inappropriate and destructive, so it was carefully placed back down to continue growing. However, it was clear from this investigation that the transcription was a summary of facts, not an exact transcription, since on the actual grave were the words ‘In loving memory’ in capitals and written out in full, ‘Owen Mead’ all in capitals, with his qualifications ‘M.R.C.S. L.R.C.P.’ immediately underneath, not mentioned on the transcription – see the page on George Owen Mead for an image.], [Note also, this was part of a row of five graves, numbered 8-12, all of which related to the Owen family one way or another (according to the transcriptions) – number 11 was the grave of Owen’s mother (see 1885 above). The graveyard had been tended such that graves 8-11 formed a mass of thick ivy and some brambles, the cross from grave 9 sticking up in the middle – again, see the page on George Owen Mead for an image.]
1900, 17th March: A newspaper reported George Owen Mead’s funeral, which took place on Friday 16th March at Mepal. It reported that he ‘was interred in the pretty little churchyard at Mepal… in accordance with the deceased’s wish to be buried near his mother. The body was taken by road to Mepal… The hearse was accompanied by two coaches, conveying the friends and relatives of the deceased.’ Those in attendance at the graveside included ‘Mr Percy Mead (brother), Dr Gray, Dr Hutchinson, Dr Maud [sic]…’. There were floral tributes from many, including his father, sisters ‘Georgie and Janie’ and interestingly ‘his son, Owen’. It’s not clear from the report whether these people were all present as well, likely at least some were. Reference: Cambridge Daily News. Saturday Mar 17 1900: 3.
1900, 7th April: Under the headings ‘Newmarket Urban District Council.’ … / ‘NEW MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.’ … ‘The applicants were Mr. W. R. Etches, Mr. W. Hutchinson, and Mr. J. H. Maund. / The chairman read a letter from Mr. Etches, who stated that he had come to Newmarket with a view of taking the practice of the late Medical Officer of Health (the late Mr. G. Owen Mead), and settling here permanently…’ Reference: The Newmarket Journal. Saturday Apr 7 1900: 8. [Note: in the event Walter Hutchison was elected. However, this shows that there was to be a formal successor to the Meads’ practice, which was presumably for sale. In the 1901 Medical Directory William Robert Etches can be found in Surrey, having been in Macclesfield earlier. Ernest Crompton, in Mentmore House on the 1901 census (see below), obviously succeeded to the Meads’ practice instead.]
1901, 15th March: Date of death of George Borwick Mead of Glisson Rd., Cambridge, recorded in the national probate records. Reference: Online image of National Probate Registry entry, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 21st November 2017). [Note: the probate date was 18th May 1901, to George Percy Mead, gentleman. He can be found ‘living on own means’ in Bicton, Shropshire on the 1901 census. Reference: The National Archives, 1901 census.]
1901, 15th March: Memorial ‘IN MEMORY OF / GEORGE BORTHWICK MEAD. M.D. / DIED MARCH 15TH 1901, / AGED 68 YEARS. / A TOKEN OF AFFECTION FROM HIS LOVING WIFE.’ Reference: Memorial in Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge. [Note: see the page on George Bor(th)wick Mead for an image.], [Note also, I found this memorial on Wednesday 22nd November 2017. The metal wording and punctuation was starting to crumble and fall off, but was clearly visible on that day as transcribed here. I have images for anyone interested, which might be deposited in the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk County record offices in due course, along with this whole work.], [Note also, the same day I looked at 44 and 48 Glisson Road (see 1890 Medical Directory entry above) and neither were visibly called ‘Mentmore’ still, or any other name, although some other houses in the street did have names carved into them.]
1901, 31st March / 1st April: Frances Mildred Mead, born in Wicken, Cambridgeshire, aged 25, widow, living at 48 Glisson Road, Cambridge, with her sister and two servants. Reference: The National Archives, 1901 census. [Note: by the 1911 census Frances was remarried to Archibald George May (who by way of contrast was significantly younger than her) and living in Southall, Middlesex. Reference: The National Archives, 1911 census. They married at St John’s, Southall on 26th November 1910. Reference: Online image of the Southall St John’s marriage register held at The London Metropolitan Archives, ancestry.co.uk (accessed 24th November 2017).]
1901, 31st March / 1st April: Ernest Crompton born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, aged 39, ‘Physician + Surgeon’, together with his wife Margaret, aged 30, born in Canada, and a housemaid, living at Mentmore House, High St, Newmarket St Mary’s parish. Reference: The National Archives, 1901 census.
1902: ‘MEAD, GEO. BORTHWICK, Mentmore, 48, Glisson-rd. Cambridge – Ph.D and M.A. Giessen (res. and exam.), 1859; L.R.C.P. Lond. 1861; M.R.C.S. Eng. and L.M. 1854; L.S.A. 1854; (St.Bart.); Prizes and Hon. Certifs. in Anat., Chem., Bot., Phys., Pract. Chem., Mat. Med., and Midw.; Chairman Med. De-fence Insur. Syndicate; Surg. Rous Memor. Hosp.; Med. Ref. Workm. Compens. Act; Surg. Ambul. de la Presse Paris, Franco-German War (Legion of Honour 1871); late Asst.-Surg. Spalding Infirm. Author of “Chloric Æther: its properties, Chemical Composition, and Uses,” 1854; “History of New-market during the Reign of James I.,” 1864; “The History, Prevention and Treatment of the Rinder-pest, or Russian Cattle Plague, &c.,” 1865; Hygienic Medicine: or, Observations on the use of Baths and Bathing, &c.,” 1866; “Medical Defence,” 1894. Contrib. “Cases Illustrative of the use of Baths in the treatment of Disease,” Brit. Med. Journ. 1866; “Physical Hygiene,” Ibid. 1867; “Case of Fragilitas Ossium,” Ibid. 1868.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1902. [Note: this was his last entry in the Medical Directory, although he had died the year before.]
Newmarket Union Minutes 1856-1900. Reference: 611/21-37, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St. Edmunds). [Note: see the pages on George Bor(th)wick mead and George Owen Mead for details.]
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 Mead, George Borwick. http://www.suffolkmedicalbiographies.co.uk/Profile.asp?Key=1436 and Profile for Mead, George B Owen. http://www.suffolkmedicalbiographies.co.uk/Profile.asp?Key=1435 (originally accessed pre October 2013). [Note: at the time of writing (December 2017), this website had only four references to George Borwick Mead and three to George B Owen Mead], [Note also, see comments regarding this website on the Francis Greene page.]
The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1855-1902. [Note: see above references for full 1855 and 1858 entries for Joseph Mead, 1855, 56, and 57, 1890 and 1902 entries for George Borwick Mead, and 1880 and 1900 entries for George Owen 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: the first edition in 1859 records George Borwick Mead’s address as ‘Mentmere [sic] house’.]
Venn JA. Alumni Cantabrigienses. A biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900. Cambridge: At the University Press; 1951; Part II (from 1752 to 1900), Vol IV (Kahlenberg – Oyler): ‘MEAD, GEORGE PERCY. Adm. Pens. At DOWNING, Oct. 18, 1884. [s. of Dr J. [sic] B., of Newmarket. B. Aug. 23, 1866. School, Kings’, Ely.] Matric. Michs. 1884. At St Bartholo-mew’s Hospital, 1885. Not found in Medical Directs. (Kings’ Sch., Ely, Reg.)’.
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.).