Harriet Wheelock / Thursday 8 July 2010 Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital’s photographic archive, Dr Lea-Wilson and Caravaggio At the moment I'm in the process of cataloguing the photographic archive of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital. This is mainly made up of group portraits of resident doctors and the Hospital's rugby team from the 1890s to the 1950s, although there are some later items as well. As I catalogue each picture I am, as far as possible, creating index terms for each individual in the photographs. Luckily most of the photographs are labelled which has made this process much easier! This will mean that when the online catalogue is launched researchers looking for an individual doctor will be directed to any relevant group photographs. It also means that as cataloguing progress all material relating to a specific individual will be linked. I hope this will be a very useful function of the archive project, especially for the many genealogical researchers who use the collections. Working thought the archive my attention was especially caught by this photograph, taken in 1929 it shows the resident doctors at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital at the time. It drew my attention, partly I think, because it was the first photograph I had come across with a female doctor, but also as she is older than her fellow students. The lady in question is Dr Lea-Wilson. Marie Ryan was born in Charville, county Cork in May 1887, in January 1914 she married Percival Lea-Wilson, an English born Royal Irish Constabulary Officer. In 1916 the Lea-Wilsons were in Dublin, Lea-Wilson had been attached to the army and in the aftermath of the Easter Rising was put in charge of 250 prisoners including Tom Clarke and Michael Collins. Later reports from the prisoners accused Lea-Wilson of verbally abusing and taunting the captives. He certainly made many enemies that night and four years later Lea-Wilson was assassinated by four IRA men as he left his home in Gorey, county Wexford.[1] After her husband's death Marie Lea-Wilson, by then in her later thirties, decided to study medicine and in 1928 at the age of 41 graduated from Trinity College Dublin, one of only three women in her class. It was the year following her graduation that Dr Lea-Wilson spent as a member of the resident staff at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, which was the teaching hospital for Trinity College. Dr. Lea-Wilson continued to live and practice in Dublin, specialising in paediatric medicine. She died in Dublin in 1971 aged 84 years. Another story that revolves around Dr Lea-Wilson is that of a lost Caravggio painting. In Scotland in the 1920s she bought at an estate sale a painting attributed to a Dutch artist entitled 'The Betrayal of Christ', her purchase motivated by her liking for the painting and its religious message. In 1934 she donated the painting to the Jesuit Fathers in Dublin in gratitude for their support following her husband's death. It remained hanging in the dining room of the Jesuit building until it was sent to be cleaned in the 1990s, it was only during this process that it was discovered to be the lost Caravaggio master piece 'The Taking of Christ'. The work now hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.[2] Images: Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital Resident Staff, 1929 Detail of Dr Lea-Wilson from above Signature of Dr Lea-Wilson and her fellow resident doctors from the Book of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio (1571-1619), National Gallery of Ireland [1] 'The assignation of Captain Percival' by David Neary [2] 'Caravaggio masterpiece was hidden in plain sight', Catholic Online, http://www.catholic.org/ae/books/review.php?id=19464