Rutherford Alcock obtained the MRCS diploma in 1831. During the following year he volunteered for service as a medical officer in the British Marine Brigade, which fought during the Miguelite War in Portugal from 1832 to 1834. After that campaign, he transferred to the British Auxiliary Legion of Spain in May 1835 for service in what later was called the First Carlist War (1835–37). After serving for one year as a surgeon he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals. He had hoped to return to King's College Hospital, London, to the Chair of Military Surgery, with an associated assistant surgeonship at the Westminster Hospital but, because of a severe bout of what is now believed to have been rheumatic fever, he lost the use of his thumbs and decided he could not continue as a surgeon. Accordingly, he decided not to take up the Chair of Military Surgery at King's on his return to Britain. In 1839 he was appointed to a lectureship in surgery at Sydenham College and, for a brief period in 1842, he was the Home Office Inspector of Anatomy. He then decided to explore other career opportunities and initially was British consul to China, at Fuchow in 1844, at Shanghai in 1846 and at Canton in 1854. In 1858 he transferred to the Diplomatic Service. He retired in 1871 after a successful and distinguished career.
References
1.
According to Michie's biography of Rutherford Alcock, Alcock returned to his father's house at the age of 15 to begin his medical education, having spent his earlier years in the north of England with relatives. His childhood had been miserable because of the loss of his mother, and his father ‘was not equal to filling the void in his young life’. See: MichieA. The Englishman in China During the Victorian Era: As Illustrated in the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., D.C.L. Many Years Consul and Minister in China and Japan (2 vols). Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1900: vol. I, p. 1.
2.
ChantreyFrancis LegattSir (1781–1841). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963–64: vol. IV, pp. 44–7.
3.
Michie indicated that Rutherford Alcock's father was also an artist. See: MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, p. 1.
4.
Michie indicated that Rutherford Alcock's father was also an artist. See: MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, p. 5.
5.
The equivalent contemporary value of £1 in 1830 is about £46. Information from Public Enquiries Office, Bank of England. Thus the equivalent contemporary value of 30 and 50 guineas is approximately £1500 and £2500, respectively.
6.
Biographical sketch of GuthrieG. J., esq., F.R.S., late President of the College of Surgeons. Lancet1850;i:726–38. GuthrieGeorge James (1785–1856). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959–60: vol. VIII, pp. 818–19.
7.
This hospital was founded in December 1816 with the financial assistance of Guthrie's friend Lord Lynedoch and under the auspices of the Duke of York and the Duke of Wellington. The latter acted initially as President of the Hospital's Board of Governors.
8.
O'MearaBarry Edward (1786–1836) was one of the medical staff in attendance on Napoleon at St Helena. See: PeterkinAJohnstonW. Commissioned Officers in the Medical Services of the British Army 1660–1960 (2 vols). London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library (reference number 2338), 1968: vol. I, pp. 154–5.
9.
According to his entry in the Modern English Biography, Alcock was appointed surgeon to the Marine Brigade of Portugal in July 1833 and served in this capacity under Dom Pedro until December 1834. Then he was appointed Deputy Inspector of Hospitals in the British Auxiliary Legion from 5 May 1835 to December 1837. According to the Dictionary of National Biography he was appointed surgeon in 1832 to the British–Portuguese forces and transferred in 1836 to the Marine Brigade. Similar dates are provided in Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. He was appointed to the British–Portuguese force in 1832 and transferred to the British Legion of Spain in May 1835. See: PowerD'A. Alcock, Sir Rutherford (1809–1897). In: Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Bristol: John Wright and Sons, 1930: vol. I, pp. 12–13. Alcock, Sir Rutherford (1809–1897). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964–65: suppl. XXII, pp. 29–30. BoaseF. Alcock, Sir Rutherford. In: Modern English Biography. London: Frank Cass, 1965: vol. IV, cols 66–7.
10.
Also called the War of the Two Brothers.
11.
For additional details, see: WebsterC. The Foreign Policy of Palmerston 1830–1841. Britain, the Liberal Movement and the Eastern Question (2 vols). London: G Bell and Sons, 1951: vol. I, pp. 237–53.
12.
Colonel Hodges wrote a book on the Miguelite War, though this has been much criticized as a particularly biased and unreliable account. See: HodgesGL. Narrative of the Expedition to Portugal in 1832, under the Orders of His Imperial Majesty Dom Pedro, Duke of Braganza (2 vols). London: James Fraser, 1833.
13.
In the summer of 1831 he was sent to watch over British interests in the Azores. In February 1833 he accepted the command of the Portuguese fleet. To Whom It May Concern: avoid the penalties of the Foreign Enlistment Act he went to Oporto under an assumed name. On 8 June 1833 he was commissioned Vice-Admiral, Major-General of the Portuguese Navy and Commander-in-Chief of the fleet. See: NapierCharlesSir (1786–1860). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963–64: vol. XIV, pp. 38–45, 40–1.
14.
Shaw had been a soldier of fortune. He had seen active service in the Peninsula and in the Low Countries, but had missed Waterloo (June 1815). He had been offered a commission in the service of the young Queen of Portugal, Donna Maria, and rose rapidly from his initial rank of major in the British–Portuguese force to that of its force commander. See: ShawCharlesSir (1795–1871). In: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963–64: vol. XVII, pp. 1370–1. He was the third son of Charles Shaw of Ayr and a brother-in-law of Sir Charles Bell. Two of his brothers entered the medical profession, John and Alexander, each of whom was a close associate of Charles Bell at the Great Windmill Street School of Anatomy.
15.
The impression is gained that there were very few medical officers associated with the British battalion. According to Shaw, in a letter written to his family, their surgeon and senior medical officer, Souper was shot and killed, and assistant-surgeon Rutherford Alcock took his place. Other medical officers are not mentioned by name. In the same letter, he described ‘the dreadful conditions in which the wounded were crowded together, without beds, without nurses, without clothes, and even without medicine, died in numbers’. He continued, in relation to Alcock that: ‘The scarcity of medicines was dreadful; but with the active and willing assistance of Alcock, and the Portuguese medical gentlemen, it is quite wonderful what has been accomplished’. See: MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, pp. 15–17.
16.
HodgesGL (op. cit. ref. 12): vol. II, pp. 382–3.
17.
A printed label inside the front cover of this volume, with its several hundred lined pages, contains Portuguese text and indicates that Alcock bought it locally specifically for this purpose. The University of Edinburgh Library Special Collections manuscript reference number of this volume is E62/45 Gen.596.
18.
Only the first 143 pages of this notebook are still available for analysis; the rest of the pages that formerly contained text were removed at some earlier date.
19.
Certainly these days, the author of such scathing criticisms of his colleagues would almost certainly be brought before the General Medical Council for unprofessional conduct and probably struck off the Medical Register. Even in those days, it is unlikely the named doctors would have taken a particularly charitable view of his severe criticisms.
20.
See, for example: GuthrieGJ. On Gun-Shot Wounds of the Extremities, Requiring the Different Operations of Amputation, with their after-treatment: Establishing the Advantages of Amputation on the Field of Battle to the Delay usually recommended, &c. With Four Explanatory Plates. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815.
21.
He was decorated with the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. Further details are not available. It is relevant to note that Napier was awarded the Grand Cross of this Order.
22.
De Lacy Evans had previously fought as a junior officer on the Quartermaster-General's staff during the Peninsular War and ended his military career fighting in the Crimean War. For details, see: SpeirsEM. Radical General, Sir George de Lacy Evans 1787–1870.Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983.
23.
For further details, see: HoltE. The Carlist Wars in Spain. London: Putnam, 1967.
24.
For further details, see: KaufmanMH. Clinical case histories and sketches of gun-shot injuries from the Carlist War during the period between May 1836 and December 1837. Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh2001;46:279–89. KaufmanMH. Musket-Ball and Sabre Injuries from the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh: Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 2003.
25.
SomervilleA. History of the British Legion, and War in Spain, 1835–1837. London: James Partie, 1839: p. 663.
26.
For detailed list of the medical officers associated with specific regiments, see: SomervilleA (History of the British Legion, and War in Spain, 1835–1837.): pp. 653–62.
27.
Callander was appointed Inspector General of Hospitals to the British Legion of Spain on 4 August 1835. He was the only medical officer who served on the staff of the British Legion of Spain who had been commissioned in the Medical Service of the British Army. He served in the Peninsular War from 1809 to 1814, gaining the Peninsular Medal. During the Peninsular War he acted as a surgeon on the staff of Lieutenant General Sir William Carr Beresford. He was a veteran of both Walcheren (between July and October 1809) and the Battle of Waterloo (he was awarded the Waterloo Medal). He retired on 25 June 1829 on half-pay from the service with the rank of surgeon. He died on 21 July 1854. See: PeterkinAJohnstonW (op. cit. ref. 8): vol. I, p. 181, reference number 2730. For information on the Walcheren expedition, see: CantlieN. A History of the Army Medical Department (2 vols). Edinburgh and London: Churchill Livingstone, 1974: vol. I, pp. 395–405.
28.
SomervilleA (op. cit. ref. 25).
29.
This volume was entitled ‘Statistical Returns of the Sick and Wounded admitted to the general Military Hospitals of the Legion’ and formed the basis for Alcock's monograph on the medical aspects of the First Carlist War. It also formed the basis of a substantial series of papers he published in the Lancet shortly after his return to Britain. See: AlcockR. Notes on the Medical History and Statistics of the British Legion of Spain; Comprising the Results of Gun-Shot Wounds in Relation to Important Questions in Surgery. London: J Churchill, 1838. See also: Alcock R. Lectures on amputation. Lancet 1840–41;i:105–11, 217–20, 393–8, 457–62, 601–5, 713–18, 777–81; Lancet 1840–41;ii:1–6, 65–70, 113–17, 209–19, 289–93, 385–91, 497–504, 529–34, 609–16, 641–8, 705–13, 737–42, 801–14, 849–59.
30.
For further details, see: KaufmanMHPurdueBNCarswellAL. Old wounds and distant battles: The Alcock-Ballingall Collection of Military Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh1996;41:339–50; Kaufman MH (op. cit. ref. 24, Musket-Ball and Sabre Injuries).
31.
The titles and manuscript Collection reference numbers of these volumes are as follows: (1) Gun-shot wounds. Compound fractures of the bones of the head and face. May-December 1836 General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. No. 1 (72 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 597. (2) Gun-shot wounds of abdomen and chest also penetrating wounds into joints. May-December 1836. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. No. 2 (140 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 598. (3) Gun-shot wounds. Compound fractures of the femur. May-December 1836. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. No. 3 (151 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 599. (4) Gun-shot wounds. Compound fractures of the extremities exclusive of the femur. May-December 1836. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. (117 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 600. (5) Amputations. Primary and secondary. May-December 1836. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. (168 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 601. (6) Gun-shot wounds. Compound fractures of the spine and ilium. (65 pp.). Part II. Series of flesh wounds producing contractions, also Some anomalous cases of injuries of bone, muscle, testicle & abdomen, and a case of spontaneous salivation. May-December 1836. (36 pp.). General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. E62/46 Gen. 602. No. 6, Part I. (7) Gun-shot wounds and Fractures of the Bones of the Head and Face. January-December 1837. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. (71 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 603. Second series, No. 1. (8) Gun-shot wounds of the abdomen and chest, from January-December 1837, and a series of cases of tetanus, also lesions of nerves. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. (94 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 604. Second Series, No. 2. (9) Amputations. Primary and secondary. January-December 1837. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. (135 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 605. Second series, No. 3. (10) Compound fractures and injuries of the extremities. January-December 1837. General Military Hospital of San Telmo. San Sebastian. (308 pp.). E62/46 Gen. 606. Second series, No. 4. (11) Statistical returns of the sick and wounded admitted in the General Military Hospitals of the Legion. E62/47 Gen. 607.
32.
KaufmanMHThe Regius Chair of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, 1806–55.Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi BV, 2003.
33.
The equivalent contemporary value of £1 in 1843 is about £52. Information from Public Enquiries Office, Bank of England. Thus the equivalent contemporary value of £150 is about £7800.
34.
For further details, see: Edinburgh University Library, manuscript reference number Da 46.1, Reid Fund Minutes Book, covering the period between 1838 and 1853, pp. 85 and 121.
35.
BallingallG. Catalogue of the Museum attached to the Class of Military Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: R and R Clark, 1855.
36.
Nearly all of these items are to be transferred on long-term loan to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where they will complement the College's collection of similar items principally from the Peninsular War. Many of these are described in: Kaufman MH (op. cit. ref. 24, Musket-Ball and Sabre Injuries). The most important items that will remain in the Special Collections Section of Edinburgh University Library will be the manuscript volumes of clinical case histories prepared by Alcock during the Miguelite (i.e. E62/45 Gen. 596) and Carlist Wars (i.e. E62/46 Gen. 597–607).
37.
As another individual was not considered or appointed to this post, a chair in this discipline was never established at King's College or indeed elsewhere in the University of London.
38.
MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, p. 27.
39.
MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, p. 23.
40.
See: PowerD'A. Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins, Bart. (1783–1862). In: Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Bristol: John Wright and Sons, 1930: vol. I, pp. 144–8.
41.
A Collection of the Public General Statutes, passed in the Second and Third Year of the Reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth: Being the Second Session of the Tenth Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Cap. LXXV. An Act for Regulating Schools of Anatomy. 1st August 1832. London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, 1832: pp. 713–18.
42.
PowerD'A (op. cit. ref. 9).
43.
One of these wax models displayed the upper and lower surfaces of the brain, the second was a model of a dissected arm, while the third was a dissection of the abdomen in which the intestines, with enlarged and diseased mesenteric glands, were displayed beautifully. Information supplied by Ms Jane Hughes, Audience Development Officer, Royal College of Surgeons of England. See also: MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, pp. 2–8.
44.
His first marriage was in May 1841;after his wife died in 1853, he married again in 1862. His second wife died in 1899. See also the entry on Alcock in the Dictionary of National Biography (op. cit. ref. 9): p. 30.
45.
Alcock's labour in each commission was given without remuneration in order, as he said, that his judgement might thereby be unbiased. The only consideration he received for these labours was bestowed some years later, when his entry into the service of the Foreign Office was antedated to 1840 so as to include the period of the Peninsular commissions. See MichieA (op. cit. ref. 1): vol. I, p. 25.
46.
For additional biographical details, see AlcockRutherfordSir, K.C.B., D.C.L.British Medical Journal1897;ii:1377–8; Michie A (op. cit. ref. 1); Dictionary of National Biography (op. cit. ref. 9); Boase F (op. cit. ref. 9).
47.
At the completion of his military service in the Peninsula, he was awarded the Order of the Tower and Sword, the War Medal for three years' service in Portugal, the Cross of the Order of Charles III, the Commander's Cross by Isabella the Catholic, and medals for the two principal actions against the Carlists. He was appointed KCB on 19 June 1862 and in March of the following year was awarded the honorary degree of DCL from the University of Oxford.
