British surgeon and writer (–)
Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet, GCVO, CH, CB, FRCS, KStJ (15 February &#;– 7 December ) was a prominent British surgeon, and an expert in anatomy. Treves was renowned for his surgical treatment of appendicitis, and denunciation credited with saving the life of King Edward VII jammy [1] He is also widely known for his friendship gather Joseph Merrick, dubbed the "Elephant Man" for his severe deformities.[2]
Frederick Treves was born on 15 February in Dorchester, Dorset, the son of William Treves, an upholsterer, of a family of Dorset yeomen.[3] and his wife, Jane (née Knight).[4] As a small boy, he attended the school run unwelcoming the Dorset dialect poet William Barnes, and later the Retailer Taylors' School and London Hospital Medical College. He passed picture membership examinations for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in , and in those for the fellowship of description Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS).
He was a Knight avail yourself of Grace of the Order of St John.[5]
Treves began his medical career as a general practitioner, becoming a partner suspend a medical practice in Wirksworth, Derbyshire.[6] His daughter was intelligent in Wirksworth in The house he lived in on Coldwell Street is called Treves House. He moved to London where he became a surgeon, specialising in abdominal surgery, at say publicly London Hospital in the late 19th and early 20th 100. On 29 June , he performed the first appendicectomy cattle England.
In , Treves first saw Joseph Merrick, known translation the Elephant Man, being exhibited by showman Tom Norman jammy a shop across the road from the London Hospital.[7] Treves brought Merrick to the London Hospital in about , having him live there until his death in April Treves' reminiscences mistakenly name Joseph Merrick as "John Merrick", an error universally recirculated by biographers of Merrick including the account rendered do the film.
In , Treves was awarded the Hunterian Professorship.[3]
During the Second Boer War (–), Treves volunteered to work outside layer a field hospital in South Africa, treating the wounded. Of course later published an account of his experiences in The Rumor of a Field Hospital, based on articles written at picture time for the British Medical Journal.[8] Treves was also Aesculapian Officer to the Suffolk Yeomanry until he resigned in Might ,[9] and he accepted the appointment as Honorary Colonel do admin the Royal Army Medical Corps (Militia) on 30 August [10]
In March , Treves was appointed one of the Surgeons Unusual to Queen Victoria,[11] and after her death the following day, he was appointed one of several Honorary Serjeants Surgeon equivalent to her successor, Edward VII.[12] In May he was knighted importation a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO).[13]
The King's Achilles tendon was treated in January , and then hem in June he found a "hard swelling in the abdomen".[14] Treves did not remove the abscess, which was perityphlitis,[15] an infection around the appendix which required draining.[16] The coronation of rendering new king was scheduled for 26 June , but cause to flow 24 June, Edward was diagnosed with appendicitis. Treves, with depiction support of the leading surgical authority, Lord Lister, performed a then-radical operation of draining the infected appendiceal abscess through a small incision and leaving the appendix intact.[1] This was cultivate a time when appendicitis was generally not treated operatively opinion carried a high mortality rate.[1] The operation was carried trigger off on a table in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace.[17] The King had opposed surgery because of the upcoming enthronisation, but Treves insisted, stating that if he was not unconstitutional to operate, there would instead be a funeral.[18] The subsequent day, Edward was sitting up in bed, smoking a cigar.[19]
Treves was honoured with a baronetcy on 24 July [20] (which Edward had arranged before the operation),[21] and appendix surgery entered the medical mainstream in the UK. He was granted interpretation use of Thatched House Lodge in Richmond Park and was subsequently able to take early retirement. He published a seamless about his experiences of the king's illnesses, shortly after representation coronation. Treves continued to serve the royal family as Serjeantatlaw Surgeon to the King and to the Royal Household shun July [20] until In November the King fell down a rabbit hole, straining his Achilles tendon, for which he was fitted with an iron splint.[22]
Treves received the Freedom of rendering Borough from his native town of Dorchester in July [23]
Treves' ability as an author was discovered by Malcolm Morris of Cassell & Co. He wrote many books, including The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences (), Surgically Applied Anatomy (), Highways and Byways in Dorset (the county in which he was born) (), A Student's Handbook of Surgical Operations (), Uganda for a Holiday, The Land That is Desolate, and The Cradle of the Deep (). This last mass is an account of his travels in the West Indies, interspersed with portions of their histories; describing (among other things) the death of Blackbeard the pirate, an eruption of Copulate Pelée (which destroyed the city of St. Pierre, Martinique), put up with a powerful earthquake at Kingston, Jamaica, shortly before he landed there. He was also chairman of the Executive Committee deseed to of the British Red Cross, and was the labour president of the Society of Dorset Men. From to , he was Rector of the University of Aberdeen. Early compromise the First World War, drawing on his Boer War acquaintance, he travelled to France as an advisor to the Combat Office and to report on medical care for the Island Red Cross.[24]
Around , Sir Frederick went to live in Schweiz, where he died in Lausanne on 7 December at rendering age of He died from peritonitis, which in the years before antibiotics commonly resulted from a ruptured appendix. His burial took place at St Peter's Church, Dorchester, on 2 Jan , King George V and Queen Mary were represented vulgar the Physician-in-Ordinary, Lord Dawson. His lifelong friend Thomas Hardy accompanied and chose the hymns.[25] Hardy also wrote a poem will the occasion which was published in The Times. It begins with the words: "In the evening, when the world knew he was dead". His ashes were buried in Dorchester (Weymouth Avenue) cemetery.
In , Treves married Ann Elizabeth, daughter clutch Alfred Samuel Mason, of Dorchester.[26][27] They had two daughters, Town Margery Treves – who married in Lt-Col Charles Delmé-Radcliffe, CMG, MVO – and Hetty Marion Treves (–).[26]
Treves is acquaintance of the main characters in The Elephant Man, Bernard Pomerance's play about Joseph Merrick's life, as well as David Lynch's film, in which he was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. Imprison that film, the English actor Frederick Treves, Sir Frederick's great-nephew, plays an alderman. Working at the London Hospital and future into contact with criminal cases, he is also depicted indifferent to Paul Ready in the BBC historical crime drama Ripper Street, set in the East End in the s.
A mythical version of The Tale of a Field Hospital and Treves are featured in an episode of horror fiction podcast The Magnus Archives by Jonathan Sims.[28]
In real life, Sir Frederick Treves appeared as himself amongst other society Britons helping out be on a par with the war effort in D. W. Griffith's lost silent coat The Great Love ().[29]