Harriet Wheelock / Monday 5 July 2010

The Book of Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital

The book of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital is a large leather bound volume with a brass clasp, the title page carries the follow inscription:

'This books was presented in 1903 to the staff by Doctor Edward J M Watson, to keep a record of those who had acted as Resident Students; later there was added the succession of Physicians, Surgeons and other members of Staff with various items of general interest in the history of the hospital'

Opposite this is a message which will make any archivist smile

'It is expected that this book will last for many years, it is therefore hoped that you will handle it carefully and keep in clean'.

So who was Dr Watson and what is in the book?

Edward John Macartney Watson was born in Dublin in on 22 November 1872 the son of Sir William Watson, the managing director of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. Watson studied first engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then medicine at Trinity College Dublin. In 1903, shortly after graduating Watson was appointed assistant physician and radiologist to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, where he had been as a student. Watson specialised in Radiology, and was appointed radiologist to the hospital, a position he held for over 45 years. During the First World War, like many of his colleagues at Sir Patrick Dun's, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served in France, as well as at the Dublin Castle Red Cross Hospital, returning to his former position at Dun's after the war. He died in March 1947.[1]

Watson seems to have presented the Book to the hospital after his appointment there in 1903, presumably happy to return to the hospital he had enjoyed working in as a student. As the inscription suggests the book contains a unique record of the staff and students of the hospital, although presented in 1903 the information goes back as far as 1864. As well as the names or signatures of students and staff the book often contains additional biographical information, especially for doctors who served in the First World War, either in the form of manuscript notes or newspaper cuttings.

On three occasions photographs are also preserved within the book, including on the page for 1933, where there is a photograph of 'Mary Bennett – cook to the hospital for 40 years. Retired after 40 years service 13 July 1933', a later addition records that she died in 1941. The book begins with a short history of the hospital, and important events in the hospital's history are recorded next to the names of the staff and students for each year. For 1916 there is a printed report from the Matron, Margaretta Thornton, recording the hospital's involvement in the 1916 Rising; on the afternoon of the 25^th April an encounter between the 'military' and the 'rebels' took place outside the nurses' home on Lower Mount Street. The nurses could 'see the soldiers falling, and they felt they must go out and try to help', the hospital treated 80 soldiers and 3 civilians as a result. The report also shows that the trouble in the city had a serious effect on food supplies which were not getting thought to the hospital. Dr Watson 'at great risk … motored several times during the worst days to Wicklow and brought back large supplies of potatoes, eggs, meat, bread etc., thus relieving one of the most serious difficulties of that trying time.'

The book is a unique record of the staff and students who worked at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, and a valuable source for medical and geneological researchers. As Dr Watson had hoped the book lasted for many years, and in 1986 when the hospital closed it was still being used to record the names or signature of all the staff and students in the hospital. The last item in the book records the winding up of the hospital, the transfer of services to St. James' Hospital, the sale of the building, and the division of the hospital's assists between the two institutions involved in founding the hospital over 180 years before Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

[1] Watson, Edward John Macartney, 1872-1947, Kirkpatrick Archive

Images show;
Front cover of the Book of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital
Dr. Edward John Macartney Watson, from Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital Collection
Mary Bennett, from the Book of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital