CB (Civil) recipients

Born in 1865, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, and the Medical Department, King's College London, 1883-1892.  He was House Surgeon, King's College Hospital, 1888, House Physician, 1889, Sambrooke Surgical Registrar, 1889.  Assistant Surgeon to King's College Hospital, 1893.  Consulting Surgeon during the Boer War.  Surgeon Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy, serving at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, Portsmouth and on a hospital ship in the Gallipoli Campaign.  He retired in 1930 and died in 1951.  He published a book called Honing Spruit, South Africa (London, 1902).

Cheyne, William Watson

Born in 1852 and educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh University.  Appointed House-Surgeon to Joseph Lister, Professor of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.  Assistant Surgeon and Teacher of Practical Surgery, 1880.  Surgeon and Teacher of Operative Surgery, 1889.  Civil Consulting Surgeon to British forces during the Boer War.  Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Navy, 1915.  KCMG, 1916.  President, Royal College of Surgeons, 1914-1916.  Member of Parliament for the University of Edinburgh and St Andrews, 1917; Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, 1918-1922.  He died in 1932.

Born on 1870, he was Professor of Surgery, Edinburgh University from 1882.  Member of the Royal Medical and Surgeon Society, Edinburgh.  Honourary Fellow Surgeon Association, America.  Educated Edinburgh and Paris.  Rendered valuable service at a time of extreme pressure on the Army Medical Department.  He died in 1908.

Fitzgerald, T N

Franks, Sir Kendal Matthew St John, Kt, CB, MD

Of Kilmurry Hospital Hill, Johannesburg, was born in 1851, and is son of R F Franks. He served in South Africa during the war in 1899-1902 as Consulting Surgeon to the Forces (mentioned in despatches). He married, first, in 1879, and secondly in 1885, Gertrude (died, 1896), daughter of Lieutenant Colonel T B Butt.

Fripp, Sir Alfred D, Kt, CVO, CB

Born Sep 12, 1862, at Blandford, Dorset, and is son of Alfred D Fripp, RWS. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and Guy's Hospital, graduating MS, MB Lond University, and FRCS Eng. He organised and took out to South Africa the IY Hospital, which during the Boer War did such good service at Deelfontein, Cape Colony, being mentioned in despatches by Lord Roberts, and receiving the medal with two clasps and CB (civil). Served upon Mr Brodrick's Committee for reorganisation of the Army Medical Services and for three years upon the Advisory Board, for which work he was knighted in June, 1903. Sir Alfred is surgeon-in-ordinary to HM the King; surgeon to, and lecturer upon anatomy and operative surgery at, Guy's Hosp., and surgeon to King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers. He married, in 1898, Margaret Haywood, of Woodhatch, Reigate. (RRC for services rendered to sick and wounded in Boer War .)

Assistant Director of Transports

Makins, George Henry

Born at Surbiton, November 3, 1853; was educated at Gloucester, and received his medical training at St Thomas's Hosp., Lond, Halle, and Vienna. In 1880-1 he acted as Under-Secretary to the International Medical Congress in London in 1881, and has held numerous posts connected with medical societies since then. In 1899 he was sent out as Consulting Surgeon to the South African Field Force, and served in that capacity during the first ten months of the Boer War (medal with three clasps; despatches). He has been connected with St Thomas's Hospital and School in various posts since 1875, and is now Surgeon and Lecturer on Surgery-there: also Surgeon to King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers, the Convalescent Home for Officers at Osborne, and the Royal Hospital for Incurables, and is member of the Consultation Board, Royal Naval Medical Service. Dr Makins is the author of Surgical Experiences in South Africa, and numerous papers on surgical subjects in contemporary medical literature. He married, in 1885, Margaret Angus, daughter of Major General Kirkland, and widow of Major General Fellowes.

Naval Assistant to Director of Transports

Thomson, W

Sir William Thomson was born in Downpatrick on 29 June 1843.  In 1867 he graduated in Arts at the Queen’s University, having previously obtained Scholarship and numerous other valuable prizes.  In 1872 he obtained the degrees of MD and MCh from the Queen’s University.  Shortly afterwards he was appointed House Surgeon to the Richmond Hospital, and Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Carmichael School of Medicine.  In the following year he was promoted to the position of Lecturer on Anatomy in this School, and a year afterwards he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.  In 1873 he was elected an Examiner in Anatomy and Surgery.  In 1881 the Queen’s University conferred the Degree of MA on him, and in 1886 he was elected a Representative of Convocation in the Senate of the Royal University.  He filled the post of President of the RCSI for the years 1896-98, and was Knighted in 1897.  He was Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria and also to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.  As head of the Ambulance Corps, which was sent to South Africa, through the munificence of Viscount Iveagh, Sir William Thomson won further honours.  He was awarded a medal and clasps for his services, received mention in several despatches, and was created a Companion of the Bath.  In all philanthropic schemes he took an active part, and he was treasurer of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund in Ireland.  He died in Dublin on 13 November 1910.

The Irish Hospital was offered to the Central Committee of the British Red Cross, in December 1899, by Lord Iveagh, who generously offered to pay for equipping the hospital for service in South Africa. He proposed that ‘it should be as far as possible a mobile unit and that the management should be left to whatever civilian medical gentleman he should select.  The hospital was formally established on 28 December 1899, and the first personnel and equipment sailed for the Cape in the following February.  On arrival at Cape Town the staff went into camp at Green Point and then moved by rail to Naauwport, arriving there on 10 Mar. The following day two surgeons, two dressers and eighteen orderlies, with stores, were sent by rail to De Aar.  The remainder of the unit, being under orders to move to Bloemfontein, were unable to operate at Naauwport.  The final move was made between 10 and 12 April and the De Aar detachment joined the main body on 21 Apr at Bloemfontein.  On 10 May 1900 a section under Sir William Thomson marched out to join Lord Roberts’ force at Kroonstadt, were attached to the 11^th Division on the advance which commenced on 22 May, and reached Pretoria on 6 June.  On 14 June the Irish Hospital commenced operations in the Palace of Justice and by 19 Jun had had 93 admissions.  The original capacity of 100 beds was soon extended to 250 beds and by 10 July there were 500 beds, the staff being supplemented by military personnel.  No patients were admitted after 30 September 1900 and the unit left South Africa on 15 October, handing over its last 180 patients to the Royal Army Medical Corps.

The medal roll for the Irish Hospital shows a total of 67 members entitled to the medal with various clasps.  Also included in the roll are three members of the Royal Army Medical Corps and 25 Nursing Sisters of the Army Nursing Service Reserve.

CB (c) in gold HM 1877, 1897 Jubilee (From the Queen to Sir Wm. Thomson, President RCSI 1897), 1902 Coronation, QSA (3) CC OFS Joh (Sir W Thompson CB).  DNW Sep 98 £1,500.  DNW Dec 06 £2,700.

Treves, Frederick, FRCS, Consulting Surgeon to the Forces in South Africa

Born in Dorchester, Dorset on 15 February 1853.  He married in 1877 to the daughter of Mr Mason of Dorchester.  He was a Member of Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons; Examiner in Surgery at the University of Cambridge and in Anatomy at the Universities of Aberdeen and Durham.  He has written innumerable scientific works, and won the Jacksonian Prize Essay at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1884.  In 1899, he was called to serve as consulting surgeon to the field forces.  In 1900 he published an account of his experiences, in charge of No 4 Field Hospital and his involvement in the relief of Ladysmith, in his Tale of a Field Hospital (1900).  He was later a member of the committee established to report on the reorganisation of the Army Medical Service, after the early months of the war had demonstrated the inadequacies of the care available to the sick and wounded.  Treves had two famous patients.  He was sergeant surgeon to the King Edward VII and performed an appendectomy on him in 1902.  The operation was performed two days before the king's intended coronation.  The king made a full recovery from his surgery and the following year Treves was made a baronet.  His other patient was Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.