New Accession: Dr McVittie’s Medal

Earlier in the month the Heritage Centre received a donation of a medal won by Dr Arthur Craigie McVittie in 1898, when a medical student at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital.



1898 Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital Rugby team

McVittie was captain of the Dun's Hospital rugby team that year, and led them to victory in the Dublin Hospitals' Rugby Cup. This cup, which still runs today, was founded 17 years earlier in 1881 as a way to encourage friendly competition between the medical students at Dublin's many teaching hospitals. You can read find out more about the cup here.

So who was Dr McVittie? Arthur Craigie McVittie was born in Shetland on 26 May 1876, one of eight children of Charles Edwin McVittie and Susan Ireland. His father was Irish born, and had a distinguished career in the Indian Medical Service, retiring as Surgeon-General in 1900. His mother, despite her name, was Scottish. Arthur McVittie studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin in the 1890s, graduating in 1898. As a medical student at Trinity, he would have undertaken his clinical training at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, which he also represented at rugby. Following his graduation, McVittie moved to the UK were he practised in Staffordshire, Shropshire and finally at Ashford in Kent. The 1911 census shows McVittie living with his wife, three children and 2 servants, at Talbot House in Rugeley in Staffordshire. During the First World War, McVittie served as a Surgeon in the Royal Naval Volunteers. He died in Ashford in Kent in 1948.

Although the Heritage Centre holds a number of records relating to the Dublin Hospitals' Rugby Cup, including two photographs of McVittie in winning teams, we didn't have one of the winners' medals. The medal was made in silver by Moore & Co. of Grafton Street. The front shows an image of a man sitting on the crest of Dublin City, holding an angel in his hand; the edges of the medal being decorated with shamrocks and thistles. We are delighted to have received this donation, and it makes a great addition to the material we already hold on McVittie and the Cup.