Over the years, The Royal London Hospital has produced many fine physicians and surgeons. The achievements and interests of one of them – Thomas Horrocks Openshaw – were highlighted recently by the donation to the hospital’s Archives and Museum of a collection of his photographs, medals and certificates. Kate Hughes, Assistant Archivist at The Royal London, provides an insight into his distinguished and unusual career.

Watermen, Bargemen and Lightmen presented Openshaw with a magnificent illuminated testimonial to commemorate the acheivement.

Thomas Horrocks Openshaw was born in Bury, Lancashire, on 17 March 1856. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and began to train as an engineer. However, he soon decided engineering was not to his liking and entered Durham University to study medicine.

At that time, the London Hospital Medical College provided tutorials and lectures for medical students of Durham University, as well as the universities of London, Oxford and Cambridge, and Openshaw entered the College in 1877.

The student register notes that his work was ‘very good’ throughout and he won the Outpatient Dresser’s Prize of £15, awarded to the best dresser of wounds in the Outpatients Department, in 1879. Openshaw was awarded an MBBS (Durham) and, in 1883, became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and then, in 1886, a Fellow. His other qualifications included Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries and Master of Surgery (Durham).

Openshaw was appointed Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Medical College in 1886, and curator of the pathology museum in 1888. He developed and catalogued the museum’s collection, making the museum an invaluable tool for medical students.

Openshaw’s appointment as curator took place in the same year as the notorious Jack the Ripper murders. When a kidney was posted, allegedly by the killer, to Mr Lusk, Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, he took it to Openshaw for examination. A letter, signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, sent later to the museum, confirmed that Openshaw had correctly identified the kidney as the left one and that he intended to find another victim soon.

Openshaw’s career at The London Hospital (as The Royal London was then known) continued apace, with appointments as assistant surgeon in 1890 and surgeon in 1902. During this time, he carried out a series of three operations to drain abscesses on the brain of Samuel Tabar Everett, a lighterman, at a time when this type of operation had only just been pioneered. Everett’s fellow workers were so grateful that the Amalgamated Society of Watermen, Bargemen and Lightermen presented Openshaw with a magnificent illuminated testimonial to commemorate the achievement.

Openshaw was also a keen volunteer and was appointed surgeon to the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps in 1888. He travelled to South Africa as surgeon to the Imperial Yeomanry Field Hospital to tend the wounded of the Boer War. He was taken prisoner when Pretoria was captured, and held for two weeks, eventually freed as part of an exchange of prisoners. On his release, Openshaw became Principal Medical Officer at the Number Three Medical School Hospital, Pretoria.

The collection donated to The Royal London Archives and Museum includes a set of photographs taken by Openshaw in South Africa. Shot with an early form of pocket camera, they show ambulance wagons, temporary camps and troops and artillery moving between sites. In recognition of his medical services in the war, Openshaw was awarded the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG).

Although too old to serve abroad during the First World War, he was appointed as consulting surgeon with the rank of colonel, to the Eastern Command of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial Force). By then, Openshaw had become a recognised authority on orthopaedic surgery, and he put his knowledge to good use by helping establish the Queen Mary Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital for the Limbless at Roehampton. He spent much of his time during the war working with amputees and developing artificial limbs. In 1917, Openshaw was awarded the Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB).

Described as a sturdy man with a short neck, a marked Lancashire accent and great strength, Openshaw was a well-loved figure around The London Hospital. Known affectionately as Tommy, he was well respected by medical students and colleagues alike. His patients were always eager to show him how far they had progressed. Despite a formidable demeanour as he sat behind the table in his outpatient clinics, he always had a ‘redeeming twinkle in his eye’.

Outside of medicine, Openshaw also led a full life. He was a Master of the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, the Worshipful Company of Barber-Surgeons and the Worshipful Company of Glovers. He was an active Freemason, and helped found the London Hospital Lodge, as well as lodges at his old grammar school and university. He was a Fellow of the Old Time Cyclists Club and President of the Red Spinner Angling Society. Proud of his Lancastrian roots, he was President of the Association of Lancastrians in London and an early Master of the Lancastrian Lodge.

In 1890, Openshaw married Selina Gertrude Pratt, a nurse who had trained at The London, and they had a son and a daughter. His son, who joined the Royal Air Force, was tragically killed in a flying accident at an air show in 1927. This event had a severe impact on Openshaw’s health, and the sudden death of his wife two years later weakened him further. He developed diabetes and died of pneumonia a few months after his wife on 17 November 1929.

Reminiscences printed in The London Hospital Gazette after this death, along with the obituaries and letters of condolence that form part of the collection given to the Archives and Museum, show how well-liked and respected Openshaw was.

The donation to The Royal London Archives and Museum of items relating to Thomas Horrocks Openshaw was made by John Jenner, Openshaw's grandson. A selection of his medals and decorations are now on display at the Museum.