Harriet Wheelock / Friday 24 September 2010 Archive of the Month – 'To T Gillman Moorhead' This month's archive of the month is a letter, but not one of the many College letters I have been sorting recently. This letter/poem is from the surgeon and poet Oliver St John Gogarty to his friend Thomas Gillman Moorhead. Moorhead was born in Tyrone in 1878 the son of a doctor, educated at Trinity he graduated top of his class in 1901. He went on to practice and teach medicine giving classes at the Royal City of Dublin and Saint Patrick Dun's Hospital, where he was also visiting physician. On the outbreak of war in 1914 Moorhead, still at Dun's, was able to help the war effort by treating the causalities the hospital admitted. With reports of the terrible casualties from Gallipoli where the army was beset by disease, Moorhead decided to join the RAMC and served at Gallipoli and in Egypt. Moorhead continued his medical career after the war, becoming one of the leading Irish medical men of his generation. In 1926 Moorhead was stepping from a train onto Euston Station, on his way to a BMA meeting, when he slipped and fell. Helped to his feet he was conscious but totally blind, the fall had caused a bilateral retinal detachment. This poem was written to Moorhead at Christmas in 1929, three years after his accident. In it Gogarty celebrate not only Moorhead's talents but also his character, which has enabled him to cope with his handicap with such fortitude and resilience. (For a transcript of the poem see below). Despite his accident Moorhead continued to practice medicine, he conducted consultations with a colleague to describe the physical signs to him, and he continued to devote much time to teaching. Already a member before his accident, he was elected as President of the College of Physicians of Ireland in 1930, he would also serve as president of the British Medical Association and Irish Medical Association. As well as his medical career he also maintained an active social life; he used Braille cards to allow him to continue to play bridge and was accompanied by friends in his Saturday afternoon county walks. Moorhead died in August 1960, after his death his widow presented the poem to the College. Details from J B Lyons, 'Thomas Gillman Moorhead' from the online Dictionary of Irish Biography Images: * Poem from Oliver Saint John Gogarty to Thomas Gillman Moorhead, part of the RCPI Archive * Painting of Thomas Gillman Moorhead by Leo Whelan, part of the RCPI Portrait Collection Transcript of Poem; It takes us all our time with all our eyes To learn to know, since knowledge come from sight; And long before we give light back for light Evening is on us, and the daylight flies: But you were swifter, and your faculties Gathered more quickly, so the mind is bright That, long before the evening, fell on night, And it shall comfort you to realise That, when we all are into darkness sent, The dark of which you had more than you share, If there be succour in time's banishment, Pre-eminent again, you'll help us where The sudden dark, the vague beleaguerment, Calls for such fortitude as you can spare.