When William Osler was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine in Oxford he also became, ex officio, Master of the Almshouse at Ewelme in Oxfordshire. The link with the Almshouse, its inmates and the villagers of Ewelme gave great pleasure to both Osler and his wife, who spent much time there. This paper explores reasons why Osler found the position so attractive and rewarding.
Cushing, ref. 1, p.744. WW Francis was Osler’s second cousin but Osler referred to him as a nephew, a description which perhaps better reflects the generational difference between the two men.
36.
Ewelme Village Archive. File 2.1, ref. 28.
37.
Ewelme Village Archive. Parochial Notes, January 1910.
38.
Cushing, ref. 1, p.1093.
39.
Langstaff, ref. 31.
40.
Goodall, ref. 9, p.204.
41.
Ewelme Village Archive, File 2.1, ref. 28.
42.
Ticknor, ref. 25.
43.
British History on line, ref. 18.
44.
Cushing, ref. 1, p.742.
45.
Ticknor, ref. 25.
46.
Cruttwell, ref. 19, p.19, 25, 28–30.
47.
BlissM. William Osler: a life in medicine, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 347–347.
48.
McGovern JP and Davison WC. Osler and children. JAMA 1969; 210: 2241–2244. Anecdotes of Osler’s remarkable rapport with children are to be found in many sources. See also Bliss, ref. 47, p.100–101, 115–16, 374, 446–447, 455, 467. Children never seemed to think of him as an adult but as someone of their own age.
49.
Cushing, ref. 1, pp.742–743.
50.
Ewelme Village Archive. File 34.80d. R. Calderon. The Treasure of Ewelme.
51.
Dodd JA. Ewelme. Transactions of St. Paul’s Ecclesiological Society 1917–1920; 8: 194–206.
52.
BryanCSToodayanN. Osler studies enter second century. Journal of Medical Biography2019. .
53.
FranklinAW. Osler transmitted – a study in humanism. Medical History1972; 16: 99–112.
54.
Osler W. Sir Thomas Browne. In: An Alabama medical student and other biographical essays. London: Oxford University Press (American Branch, New York), 1908, pp.248–277, quotation on p.276.
55.
GardnerAD. Some recollections of Sir William Osler at Oxford. JAMA1969; 210: 2265–2267.
56.
HobsonFGSir William Osler, Bart. In: DewhurstK (ed). Oxford medicine: essays on the evolution of the Oxford Clinical School to commemorate the bicentary [sic] of the Radcliffe Infirmary, 1770–1970, Oxford: Sandford Publications, 1970, pp. 88–93.
57.
Osler W. Aequanimitas with other addresses to medical students, nurses and practitioners of medicine. 2nd ed., 3rd impression. London: HK Lewis, 1914, p.473. ‘Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.’ Holy Bible (King James Version) Matthew 7:12, p.12.
58.
Osler, Aequanimitas, ref. 57, p.9.
59.
Osler, Aequanimitas, ref. 57, p.363–388.
60.
Bliss, ref. 47, p.275, 346, 502.
61.
Bliss, ref. 47, p.197; Cushing, ref. 1, p.1225.
62.
Bliss, ref. 47, pp.413–414, 437–438, 467.
63.
Bliss, ref. 47, pp.439–440. Revere was named after a paternal great-great grandfather, the American patriot Paul Revere, a Boston silversmith, who rode all night to warn of the approach of the British during the American Revolution in 1775.
