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Nobody, knowing Day's track record, could claim that he was a dullard. Here is his story:

Dr. Edward Irving Day

Civil Surgeon – Anglo Boer War

- Queens South Africa Medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State, South Africa 1901 & 1902 to Civil Surgeon E.I. Day.

Edward Day was, as events will show, quite a man. Depending on one’s point of view he was either a bounder or a cad or, he might even have been described as a caring man who volunteered his services as Medical Doctor to the Imperial Forces at a time when they were in dire straits, thanks to the ravages of war, and in urgent need of qualified and experienced medical personnel.



Born in the ancient cathedral town of Ely, Cambridgeshire in 1865 to a man of the cloth, the Very Reverend Edwin Day and his wife Eliza, his was a life of relative ease and privilege in a Victorian England which could be kind or cruel depending on which side of the street you were born.

In about 1869 the Reverend Day took his family to Canada to take up the position as an Assistant Priest at Holy Trinity Church in Toronto. Edward and his brothers were enrolled in Upper Canada School, still regarded to this day as the premier Boy’s School in Canada. Tragedy struck the family one Sunday morning the 23 Aug 1874 when Mary Eleanor Day came to the door of the house just at the moment when Edward and his brother Charles were playing with a gun and she was accidentally but fatally shot. The Day’s never recovered from this and cut short, after 5 years of being in the country, their stay in Canada returning to England at the first opportunity. Edward continued his education at Whitgift Grammar School.



Quite how this incident impacted on a young Edward we will never know but it might well have scarred him psychologically. At the time of the 1881 England census the family was living at Shirley Villa, Broad Green Avenue in Croydon. Rev. Day was the Curate at St. Saviour’s and all the other children, save for a 16 year old Edward, had flown the coop. That the family was well-to-do there can be no doubt – the servants in the form of Elizabeth Slater and Amelia Neat almost outnumbered the Day family.

Having completed his elementary schooling Day enrolled as a medical student at the Charing Cross Hospital where he subsequently obtained the degrees of M.R.C.S. England and I.R.C.P. London in 1888. Whilst a student he captained the cricket team at the Hospital and also played with the Rugby and Association teams whilst being a competitive cyclist as well.

Now aged 23 and having recently qualified as a Surgeon he thought it about time to wed and duly tied the knot with Charlotte May Luden, the 21 year old daughter of a Gentleman, Mr William Joseph Luden. This happy event took place on 31 October 1888 at the Holy Trinity Church in the Parish of Waldon, Surrey under the auspices of Edward’s father. The marriage was not destined to be a successful one as evidence will show.

Day started up a practise in several provincial towns but by the time the 1891 England census came round he was resident at 126 Barking Road in West Ham. With him in the house was his wife and the new addition to the family, 9 month old daughter Phyllis. His sister Gertrude, 21 and Alice Hitching, a servant, completed the scene of domestic bliss.

One of the provincial towns in which he practised was the famous racing centre of Newmarket and it was here that he developed a life-long passion for horse flesh and racing in general. In 1897 he was granted a handicapper’s licence by the English Jockey Club.



At the time of the 1901 England census Britain and her Empire had been at war with two puny little Boer Republics in far away South Africa since October 1899. The war that was going to be “over by Christmas” had evolved into a bitter conflict between the two sides with guerrilla tactics being the order of the day. Day was still in England living in Oxford Road, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire with his wife and 10 year old daughter. Leaving his family and his practice behind he sailed for the Cape where he received an appointment with the Royal Army Medical Corps. Medical services were in short supply and Doctors who had the added benefit of being Surgeons even more so. According to an article on Day in the Men of the Times, a South African publication, Day served throughout the remainder of the campaign with Damant’s Horse (formerly Rimington’s Guides) an illustrious outfit which saw plenty of action and where Day would have been able to ply his trade and wield his Surgeon’s scalpel with gay abandon and to good effect.

For his considerable efforts he was awarded the Queens Medal with clasps to the Cape Colony, Orange Free State and South Africa 1901 and 1902. There was also talk that he had been Mentioned in Dispatches but no proof of this can be found.

Peace having been proclaimed on 31 May 1902 Day, instead of returning home to his wife and child, journeyed to Cape Town taking up residence at the Civil Service Club where he set himself up and was soon working the social circuit helped, no doubt, by him becoming a licensed handicapper to the Gymkhana Club. The same article referred to previously quotes that he was “afterwards awarded the highly responsible position of handicapper to the South African Turf Club, which arduous duty he has carried out in the most satisfactory way” The article went on to say that “since Mr. Day has held office the tone and quality of the racing in Cape Town has materially improved, he having always acted with the strictest integrity and is invariably impartial in the performance of his trying duties.”

But there was another side to Edward Day, a dark side probably unbeknown to and cunningly concealed from the circle in which he mixed. This side was revealed in divorce papers filed on 16 July 1906. On that day before the Honourable Thomas Townsend Bucknill it was decreed that the marriage between Charlotte May Day and Edward Irving Day should be dissolved “by reason of the adultery coupled with cruelty towards the petitioner”
So what was this all about? We know that Day had virtually forsaken his young family in England but the true extent and horror of his actions were about to be laid bare before the courts and the world in general. In the petition it was stated that,

Charlotte Day had “lived with and cohabited with her said husband at Benenden in the County of Kent and at divers other places. The said Edward Irving Day is Doctor of Medicine and is at present residing at Coghill’s Hotel, Wynberg, South Africa and at the Civil Service Club, Cape Town.

That the couple had issue of their said marriage one child only and no more, to wit Phyllis Irving Day who was born on 7 July 1890 and that in the month of November 1888 the said Edward Day wilfully communicated a venereal disease to Charlotte Day (it must be remembered that this would have been days or weeks after they had married)

That during the month of October 1890 Edward Day wilfully communicated a venereal disease to Charlotte Day. That during the month of November 1902 Edward Day had communicated a venereal disease to Charlotte Day (here it is unclear whether he had returned to England for a brief period or whether she had travelled to join him in South Africa)

That in the month of August 1893 at Kenilworth Road in Coventry in the county of Warwick Edward Day had committed adultery with one Lizzie Shirley.

That in the months of November and December 1905 at Wynberg in Cape Town Edward Day committed adultery with a woman whose name is not presently known.

That the said Edward Day has frequently committed adultery with Lizzie Shirley and with divers women”

Faced with this litany of accusations Day had no answer and the divorce, an uncontested one, was granted with his wife, now living at 79 Gloucester Terrace, given custody of the child. Free from the apparent shackles of marriage Day continued on his merry way. He wasn’t destined to be a bachelor for long though and, after a suitable period, married Annie Marion Bampton Hartford. On 17 March 1911, whilst living at 1 Warwick Street in Woodstock, Cape Town, daughter Constance Patricia was born.

At some point he set up shop in the small mining town of Pilgrim’s Rest in the Eastern Transvaal. This little town was no longer the bustling mining camp of yesteryear but it still had its charms and would have suited a man like Day as it was off the beaten track. After a long and eventful life Day passed away on 21 April 1944 in the ambulance taking him to hospital. He was 77 years and 10 months old at the time and was resident at 2 St. David’s Lane, Houghton, Johannesburg. Survived by his second wife and two daughters from different marriages he bequeathed the sum of £795 to his wife.

A medical man, a husband and a father one hopes that Edward Irving Day won’t be defined by the philandering of his earlier years. [/size][/size]