The amazing Dr Eric GardnerWeybridge’s greatest polymath? Not your typical GP!

General Practitioner & surgeon

Rower

Brooklands medical officer

Inventor of the Crash Helmet

Soldier

Hospital governor

Founder and Honorary Curator of Weybridge Museum

Family man

Local councillor & Mayor

Archaeologist

Local Historian

Map collector & expert

Forensic pathologist

‘Polymath’ - a person whose knowledge and expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas

1877 - 1951

Talk for The Weybridge Society by Steve McCarthy on 7th February 2019

www.elmbridgehundred.org.uk

What was he like?

Member of the Medico-Legal Society - the professional body for forensic pathologists

Early Life• Born November 6th 1877, at Hackney

• Youngest of three children who survived infancy

• Son of George Gardner, Hay merchant

• Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, and Caius College Cambridge

• At Cambridge from 1896– ‘prominent oarsman and stroked his First May Boat’– a Sergeant in the Volunteer Corps

• One of the Twelve Great Livery Companies in the City of London.

• Charitable work

• Gardner male family tradition

• Eric was a Liveryman all his life

Quote from his son John

“Eric made up his mind to be a doctor at a very early age, and his youthful interest in anatomy is shown in the collection of animal skulls, made when he was only 10, which is still preserved.

It includes a horse’s skull which to the great discomfort of his family, he boiled in the kitchen copper!”

Cambridge Alumni Records

Medical Training

• Cambridge University

• The London Hospital in 1900

– Surgery, Pathology

– Qualified 1904

• First role - Great Ormond Street Hospital

Great Ormond Street 1905Eric by the fireplace

Early Life in Weybridge

• Aged 29, in 1906 moved to Weybridge to be a GP– when Brooklands was being built – it opened in 1907

• Marriage to Dora Constance (nee Smith) in 1907, d.1955

• Children - 3 sons– John Soanes– George Oakley (Pickles) d. 13/12/1942 , Pilot at El

Alamein, buried Bari, Italy– James Willis, Major b. 28/2/1915 m. 1958 d.1997

• Weybridge Urban District Council – Councillor and Mayor in 1909– Chairman in 1913, aged 36

Wedding – 1907

Three Sons

• John, Jim & Pickles

• Probably in the 1920’s

• John had two daughters, Kate Finlay + ano

• Jim had Marina Georgopulos, William & Alexia

Major James Willis Gardner• From his son William Patrick - gardner@un.org :• Major James Willis Gardner MBE - No.1 Commando• No.331 on the No.1 Commando panorama photo is Major James Willis Gardner

born Weybridge, UK 28/02/1915, died Rome, Italy 11/11/1997. Following the war he worked for Procter and Gamble in Newcastle and left for Lausanne, Switzerland in 1952 to start up company operations in continental Europe.

• He retired from the company in 1980 asadministrator of the Italian branch and lived out his retirement in the 'CastelliRomani' a renowned wine region of central Italy.

• He married Leila Tusgioglu from theisland of Rhodes and had three childrenMarina, William and Alexia. His grandchildren live in three continents, with one niece married to a 'James' working for P&G and in Weybridge(!)

Portmore House, Weybridge• The Gardner home for many years

• Built in 1822 on site of earlier house. Part of it was an inn, the Portmore Arms till 1832.

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Offices Today

• Notable listed building

• Staff believe it is haunted by a White Lady!

GP Practice for 30 years

• 1906 - G.P. in Weybridge at practice of Dr. Chapple

• 1922 - Started a practice with Dr. Sam Beare& others

• Worked from his Portmore House home

• July 1936 retired as a GP

– working with Drs Barkley, Beare & Whitehurst, Weybridge Park House, Hanger Hill

Medical Practice

• Did almost all his own surgery– Big wooden operating table in Portmore House– Expertise in saving damaged limbs, later with the assistance of

Dr Sam Beare from 1922

• Well known as a gynaecologist/obstretician– near the end of his career as a GP upset when he lost his first

and only baby in 30 years

• Worked at the Cottage Hospital (now Locke King House)

• Later the new Weybridge Hospital

Local Folk Medicine & Folklore

• Cures for whooping cough

– ‘Doing the bridges’ - take the child across one bridge and return by another bridge

– Give the child a skinned and fried mouse to eat

• Remedy for adder bites

– Use the oil from boiling an adder

• Midwive’s expression, ‘The lions have whelped’ - when a run of boys were born

Weybridge Rowing Club

• Founded in 1881– a club ‘for tradesmen and watermen’

• Dormant for a period & resurrected in September 1907

• 1908/9 - the club calls for support of local ex-Varsity rowers• Eric offers help - made coach for the Senior members• 1909/10 – very successful years for his Senior Four crew• 1912 – Captain of the club for the year• 1915 & 1916 – President of the club

Source: Weybridge Rowing Club 1880s – 1980s, Nigel Burton

WRC Coxed Four

The Locke Kings

• Hugh and Ethel Locke King, owners of the Brooklands estate and builders of the race track

• Eric was the Medical Officer at Brooklands from 1907

• Knew them extremely well professionally and socially

• Ethel was godmother to at least John Soanes Gardner

• Eric was their personal physician

• Attended Hugh when he died in 1926 and was at the funeral service

Brooklands Race Track

• 1907 – 1930s Brooklands Medical Officer– After WW1 given the power to stop any driver racing

• Car and motorcycle accidents

– Head injuries and concussion

– No helmets worn

• Flying accidents

• Amateur archaeology – found Roman coins & donated to British Museum

Testimonial from Lord Ridley

Brooklands – Eric at the track

Brooklands – Eric’s photos

The Fork - the start of the Finishing Straight

Flying Accidents at Brooklands

• Flight Magazine, May 1912

– Flanders F.3 monoplane of E. V. B. Fisher

– Fisher & passenger killed

– Medical report by Dr Gardner

Flanders F.3 of Fisher

Flying Accidents at Brooklands (2)

• Flight Magazine, June 1913

– Pilot injured, passenger killed

– Pilot taken to Weybridge Cottage Hospital

Inventor of the motorcycle helmet• 1907 - Speed limit for motor cycles was 20mph• Brooklands – Speeds were up to 90mph

– he saw motor cyclists with head injuries about every 2 weeks

• Got Mr Moss of Bethnal Green to make linen and shellac helmets– stiff enough to stand a heavy blow and smooth enough to glance off any

projections, with no visor

• Auto-Cycle Union - compulsory for the 1914 Isle of Man TT races• Took 94 helmets to the Isle of Man, and one rider hit a gate with a

glancing blow and was saved by the helmet.– Isle of Man medical officer said after the T.T. they normally had "several

interesting concussion cases" but that in 1914 there were none

• The ACU made the helmets made compulsory in 1922• Used at Brooklands from 1920 for 16 years and only 2 hospital

cases in that period

• Became known as ‘Skid Lids’ • Eric’s sons probably wished he had patented it…

Helmets

• For sale at Brookland’s auto jumble, July 2016

• £200

• Shellac and linen composition shell, leather side and neck protection and cloth lined interior

• Worn by Brooklands car drivers in the 1930s

Head Injuries in Motor-cyclists

• Letter in the BMJ, 1941

• In response to a paper on ‘Head Injuries in Motor-cyclists’ by Prof. Hugh Cairns

• Explains his work 27 years earlier !

Founder of Weybridge Museum

• Elmbridge Museum (from 1991)

‘The Museum opened on 23 June 1909 as the Museum for Weybridge in a single room of Aberdeen House on Church Street. Dr Eric Gardner, a local doctor and history enthusiast with a special interest in archaeology was appointed honorary curator. He held this post until his death in 1951.’

• Mayor at the time

Original Weybridge Museum

• June 1909 - a room in the Council building

Local History Writings & Lectures

From ‘Weybridge Past’ published 1999, by the Museum Manager

• 1910 – wrote about village life in Weybridge based on a document of 1340....

• 1911 – wrote ‘A Short History of Oatlands, 1505 – 1909’

• 1912 – ‘Major Travers reminds me that some 20 years ago a dug-out canoe was found in the roadway opposite Dorney House, at the bottom of Thames Street....’

• 1921 – ‘fires on Weybridge Heath had cleared undergrowth and had revealed the remains of old iron workings, where ironstone was obtained locally...’

• Wrote about local history from 600BC onwards...??

• Wrote about Oatlands Palace, including it ‘bore a remarkable resemblance to the old part of St John’s College at Cambridge....’

Sanitary Committee

Archaeology

• Surrey Archaeological Society

– joined 1909, on Council 1912, Vice-President 1945

– Honorary Local Secretary for Weybridge

• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries

• 1920’s – excavated the site of Oatlands Palace when the Old Palace Gardens housing estate was being constructed

• 1934 – discovered a Tile Kiln at Chertsey Abbey

– gave a paper to the Society of Antiquaries

• 1911-12 Annual Report

• Council Member & Local Secretary

St George’s Hill Excavation

• Gained permission from Mr Egerton, before Tarrantstarted building houses

• 1911 – published a report in SAS journal

• Article based on it in the Spectator, December 1911

• Camp

St George’s Camp, 1914 OS Map

“British CampOccupied by

Caesar before the crossing of the Thames at

the CoweyStakes”

- No evidence to support this

Swiss Cottage

Swiss Cottage & Deadman’s Pond

Papers and work for SAS

• 1913

• Manuscript Catalogue Of Known Bronze Age “Finds” in Surrey

• “Bronze Age Urns in Surrey”

• “Triple Banked Enclosure on Chobham Common”

Iron Age & Medieval excavation siteDiscovered by Dr Eric Gardner

• On 50ft contour, highest area near river

• Iron smelting

• 600BC to 100AD

• Ore from St Georges Hill

• Iron Age house plus later Medieval house

• 1970/1• Site Excavations• Today’s

sewage works

• Booklet inLibrary

Medieval house – 1150 to 1325

Chertsey Abbey

Journal of the British Archaeological Association 1954

Elmbridge Museum has a poster advertising a lantern lecture by Dr Gardner on the “Romance Tiles of Chertsey Abbey”, April 20th 1923

From a book about the Abbey

Eric’s 1934 excavations revealed :• a kiln which had been used to produce Chertsey

tiles• an oven to the west of Colonel's Lane• in total five separate ovens or kilns• medieval walls, and a hearth• remains of steps and part of a tiled floor

‘The excavator described the results as 'disappointing’ but ‘most people would think it more than reasonable return for two weeks' work’

World War One Activities

• RFC (later RAF) took over Brooklands in 1914– Developed the means for selecting and assessing the medical and

psychological fitness and suitability of pilots for flying

• Member of the British Red Cross local committee – In charge of the Rest Station at Weybridge to service the Territorials– Medical Officer for the Auxillary Hospitals, Brooklands House & Caenshill

• Called up April 1917 for service with the Royal Army Medical Corps– Macedonia campaign – aiding Serbia against Germany & Austria– Initially a Lieutenant and then promoted to Captain– Mentioned in despatches

• Early 1919, ran an Ambulance Train from Baku to Batumi in the Caucasus, during the abortive fighting against the Soviets

Macedonia - Salonika Campaign

Macedonia - Amphipolis• Amphipolis – ancient Archaic-

Hellenistic Greek cemetery

• Eric took treasures found atAmphipolis and ‘donated’ them to the British Museum in 1918

• Controversy in October 2014• ‘Amphipolis: British Museum

responds to looting accusations’

‘The objects donated by Eric Gardner to the British Museum are consistent with a modest burial of around the sixth century BC. As such they cannot be associated with the later fourth century tomb currently being excavated at the Kasta tumulus’

Some of EG’s British Museum items

• Gold mouth piece with repoussé decoration

• Bronze spiral finger-ring

• Silver plaque with dotted repoussé decoration

• Hair pin, terracotta figure, bottle

Weybridge Cottage Hospital• Built 1889, on Balfour Road

• 1912 photo & 1914 map

PortmoreHouse

New Hospital

• 1923 decision made to find a site for a new hospital

• Building Committee set up a Fundfor public subscriptions

• Eric chaired the Building Committee and discussed with Hugh Locke King

• HLK offered Vigo House on Church Street for free

• Building completed in 1927• Officially opened by Princess

Beatrice in 1928• Eric was on the Board of Governors• Chairman of the Contributory

Scheme till the NHS was created in 1948

Vigo House Site – 1900

Vigo House

New Hospital Funding Appeal

?

Pathologist

• 1936 – Pathologist to Surrey Coroner, aged 59– Horrified to find mortuary attendants were

dissecting bodies before he arrived

• Surrey History Centre:Dr Eric Gardner, pathologist: VOLUME OF POST MORTEM EXAMINATIONS post mortem reports (1 vol) 1939-46

• Worked with Professor Keith Simpsom, one the UK’s most eminent forensic pathologists

• Friend of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the top Home Office pathologist

• The most interesting cases were murders

A Weybridge Murder

• Molly Lefebure was Simpson’s secretary• Wrote a book on her experiences• Her 1st murder was of Miss Salmon who

lived at ‘The Nook’, Weybridge• Killed by her drunken lodger, early

1940s• Eric worked with Dr Simpson on it• Post mortem performed ‘in a pretty

little mortuary surrounded by great scarlet dahlias and drowsy September bees’

• Book made into a TV Series in 2013 on ITV

The Wigwam Girl

From a 2005 book:

• Eric again worked with Dr Simpson

The discovery of the body

• On an Army training ground

• National news item

The Chalk Pit Murder 1946

• Body in a chalk pit in Woldingham

• Initially Police thought it was suicide

• Eric not convinced, “spent long hours

in the Chalk Pit in cold weather,

without proper meals”

• Vindicated when his evidence led to the conviction of the murderer at the Old Bailey

Eric’s most famous case but also the cause of his own later ill health & eventual demise

Dead bodies floating

From his letter to the BMJ, Nov 1950

‘I have lived most of my life on the banks of the Thames, and my many riverside friends, boat-builders, lock-keepers, and the like, all tell me that a woman after death floats face downward, but a man floats on his back’

Map Collector

• John Speed – "our English Mercator“– A renowned historian & cartographer (1552 – 1629)

• Eric - world authority on Speed atlases

• Owned a large collection

• Donated 41 rare maps of Surrey (1575 – 1806) to the Surrey Archaeological Society, including 17by Speed

• His finest Speed atlas was bought by Cambridge University

Book Review

• ‘County atlases of the British Isles, 1579-1850’

• 5 Volume book by R.A. Skelton , 1970

• “Skelton singles out Eric Gardner, to whose memory the volume is dedicated, and who added so much to the study of Speed’s atlases”

‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine’ - 1611

Speed’s Map of Surrey

The most precious Atlas

• John Speed’s Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine - one of the world’s great cartographic treasures

• Head of the Map Department at the Cambridge University Library, said: “Although the Library holds several copies of the published atlas – including a first edition – it is the hand-coloured set of proofs produced between 1603 and 1611 that is one of its greatest treasures.”

• “It was bought by the University Library in 1968 after the government refused an export licence for the proofs to be sold abroad. We know it as the Gardner copy after its previous owner (Eric Gardner). It really is a rare and delightful item.”

Theatre of the World Atlas

• Eric’s maps, atlases and books were sold by his sons

• Four were held back after plea by Jim’s wife

• She sold Speed’s Theatre of the World in 2013

Illness and Decline

• During 1947 Eric fell ill with tuberculosis– brought on by the Chalk Pit case

• Stayed at the Montana Hall, an English Sanatorium for British Patients in Switzerland

• Whilst there he wrote an 11 page letter about his ‘reminiscences of Weybridge Hospital’– Included in a booklet on the history of the

hospital

Weybridge Cemetery

1951 - Resting place of Eric and Dora