2012 September
2012 August
Colchester doctors honour 18c founder with Head Street 'Blue Plaque'
Colchester Medical Society are to place a plaque to the Society's founder, the young surgeon and apothecary, Robert Richardson Newell, outside his former home, 39 Head Street - now Ellison Solicitors - a fine porticoed property left of the Odeon Cinema.
The plaque will be unveiled on August 31st by Alderman Dr Chris Hall, ex mayor and retired GP, at a gathering at Ellisons - main reception entrance a few doors left of No 39.
Colchester Medical Society facilitates professional and social interaction between doctors in the North East Essex area and senior members will be present at the reception. Dr Adrian Beckingsale, current President of the society, comments "Modern medicine owes much to the heritage and work of great men and women who served our community in earlier centuries. We are proud to remember the contribution made by Dr Newell and to publicly mark his home in the heart of Colchester. Recognition of his initiative, still strong after nearly 250 years, is long overdue".
The plaque will be prominently affixed on the Head Street premises in the days following the unveiling.
2012 July
Following recent redecoration of Outpatients we were able to rehome a painting the Medical Society donated when the General opened. This is now in an excellent position in the Lecture Hall at the Post Graduate Centre and we have added a plaque featuring the MS logo.
Following recent redecoration of Outpatients we were able to rehome a painting the Medical Society donated when the General opened. This is now in an excellent position in the Lecture Hall at the Post Graduate Centre and we have added a plaque featuring the MS logo.
The Colchester’s Caring Past exhibition at the Primary Care Centre has been enlarged with displays of the Society’s artefacts in windows by the main entrance.
We shortly plan further to enhance the exhibition with photographs of vintage equipment taken by Colchester’s Sixth Form College students.
Early Minute Books of the Society are being transcribed by Jane Pierson, Lecturer at Essex University.
The four etched glass panels which were in the children's ward at ECH are to be placed, thanks to Simon Blaxill, in the new Children's unit at CHUFT.
It is hoped to organise a display/talk /lunch at Essex University featuring some of the Society's medical book collection .
Thanks to John Grice, Honorary Member, our two free websites are flourishing.
Fab Casale Archivist
January 2012
www.colchesterscaringpast.weebly.com Medical Men>PastCaring memories now displays summary biographies of past CMS Members, thanks to help of Colchester Royal Grammar School students. A series of amusing historical vignettes has also been started. Fab Casale
2012 November 19 th
At a ceremony hosted by Dr Gordon Coutts, CHUFT Chief Executive, and Mr Adrian Beckingsale, CMS President, four etched glass panels which had originally been in Children’s
Ward 5b at Essex County Hospital, were unveiled in the new CGH Children’s Unit.
Present were representatives of the Blaxill family
- of Kent Blaxill who donated their instalment. The Alport
and Gott families (present at the unveiling in Ward 5 in 1957), CHUFT Management, Medical and Nursing Staff, Colchester
Civic Society and Colchester Museum Society.
At a ceremony hosted by Dr Gordon Coutts, CHUFT Chief Executive, and Mr Adrian Beckingsale, CMS President, four etched glass panels which had originally been in Children’s
Ward 5b at Essex County Hospital, were unveiled in the new CGH Children’s Unit.
Present were representatives of the Blaxill family
- of Kent Blaxill who donated their instalment. The Alport
and Gott families (present at the unveiling in Ward 5 in 1957), CHUFT Management, Medical and Nursing Staff, Colchester
Civic Society and Colchester Museum Society.
PAST EVENTS 2012
Charity Dinner Friday 16th November
As members and guests entered the lovely Moot Hall in Colchester, a refreshing drink was on hand to start the evening. Very quickly, the noise level increased as people met and chatted to each other. There was no speaker, and the evening was devoted to charitable work, in aid of the RMBF, and the RNIB. There was an informal, but lively atmosphere as those present were encouraged to donate to these worthy causes, in various ways, including a really good raffle. During the excellent meal, one of the “waiters”appeared to suddenly shout out his love for one of the ladies! Of course, it was a set up. He and his female accomplice were, in fact, talented opera singers, who proceeded to enchant us with a selection of well known works, including Nessun Dorma. After a short break, they completed the entertainment with some show tunes. It was as delightful as it was unexpected. There was plenty of time to continue talking with friends and colleagues between courses, and after the meal. The outgoing President, Mr Adrian Beckingsale, ended the evening with “thanks” to key people during his year, and expressed his good wishes to Dr Wendy Faerestrand for her Presidential year 2013. The meeting was unusual in its format, but really enjoyable, even though wallets were a little lighter at the end of the evening. Dr Paul Rasor |
"Well done indeed to the committee for pulling together a very enjoyable and I hope financially successful dinner"
"Congratulations, Adrian, on your successful year which ended with a bang at the Dinner which my non medical guests enjoyed, both the food and the waiters. I feel sorry for the members who missed it" "Thank you very much for organising a splendid evening. We loved the singing waiters!" £1900 raised supporting Royal National Institute of Blind People Royal Medical Benevolent Fund The offer by Dr Colin Macallan to sculpture a head was bought by Dr Wendy Faerestrand for her husband Harvey, for £180. The offer by Mr Andrew May to rebind a book was bought by Dr Ian Gooding for £120. Thank you to all who contributed. |
SEPTEMBER DINNER Friday 14th September
Firstsite Visual Arts Centre Speaker: Isabelle Russell-Eggitt Art and the Eye
Miss Russell-Eggitt is a renowned Paediatric Ophthalmologist, trained at Addenbrooke’s, Leicester and Moorfields Eye Hospital. She is currently Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmologist at Great Ormond Street, at The Portland Hospital for Women and Children,and Honary Consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital. She has written and lectured extensively with many publications and
book contributions to her name. She is a past President of the Section of Ophthalmology of the Royal Society of Medicine.More importantly she is a superb clinician and has for 20 years been an invaluable source of advice and provided an invaluable tertiary referral service for the more complex Paediatric Ophthalmology patients of Colchester and North East Essex.
Miss Russell-Eggitt gave an amusing and thought-provoking analysis of the works of various painters whose peculiarities of style could have resulted from ophthalmological conditions such as astigmatism (El Greco – probably not), Cataract (Monet and Turner) and dichromatic colour vision. The latter seems reasonably well proven for John Dalton and his brother, but dubious for Constable.
Vitreous detachment and haemorrhage seems explain the visual distortion described by Eduard Munch and also Joshua Reynolds – advised at the time to rest his eyes and “stop painting women” – advice he appears to have failed to heed as he had a contra lateral vitreous haemorrhage a few months later. Among the many beautiful illustrations was one of the President dressed
up to carve the Ward turkey.
The vote of thanks was given by Mr J Evans Jones who recalled seeing the egg timer in theatre used by his father to
ensure adequate scrub up time prior to cataract surgery – performed without gloves.
Miss Russell-Eggitt was presented with the society’s goblet.
SUMMER ENTERTAINMENT Saturday 7th July Day Trip to the Hampton Court Flower Show
Every year in July hundreds of exhibitors fill an enormous exhibition site in the Grounds of Hampton Court Palace. Not only plants are displayed and sold by specialist growers but all manner of enhancements for the garden. Travelling by coach with refreshments served en route by the Beckingsales meant no parking problem and no journey across London on the tube. Lunch was also laid on for us - a great opportunity to meet up and tell one another what we had seen and what everyone must see, including the extraordinary replica of an underwater coral reef made of sedums and cacti. We saw community gardens complete with washing lines, met bee enthusiasts, saw novel ways of deterring slugs and a lavender grower who had created an Olympic race track from seven different colours of lavender. It was lovely to find favourite plants displayed with their less familiar relatives and equally good to meet old friends and new members of the society. This was an excellent day out, meticulously planned, and at the all-inclusive price of £75.
PS It was tremendous value. Laurel Spooner
FARM WALK Sunday 24th June
Mell Farm, Tollesbury
Adults and children enjoyed a walk down to the sea wall and back to the barn for tea.
The second annual Colchester Medical Society Farm Walk . In the morning there was the most tremendous downpour which discouraged some attendees from coming, but those who were brave enough to attend were rewarded by a dry afternoon (although underfoot Gumboots were definitely the order of the day). Beautiful views and lots of wild life and cattle around made for a most enjoyable walk out along the sea wall and for some a lift back in the landrovers by our hosts Vivien and Andrew St Joseph. The afternoon was rounded off by a splendid tea in the old Essex barn with wonderful home-made cakes and other goodies. Next year it would be great to welcome more children to the event as once again it was a most enjoyable afternoon.
Adrian Beckingsale
Mell Farm, Tollesbury
Adults and children enjoyed a walk down to the sea wall and back to the barn for tea.
The second annual Colchester Medical Society Farm Walk . In the morning there was the most tremendous downpour which discouraged some attendees from coming, but those who were brave enough to attend were rewarded by a dry afternoon (although underfoot Gumboots were definitely the order of the day). Beautiful views and lots of wild life and cattle around made for a most enjoyable walk out along the sea wall and for some a lift back in the landrovers by our hosts Vivien and Andrew St Joseph. The afternoon was rounded off by a splendid tea in the old Essex barn with wonderful home-made cakes and other goodies. Next year it would be great to welcome more children to the event as once again it was a most enjoyable afternoon.
Adrian Beckingsale
CRICKET MATCH 30th June Myland Cricket Ground Hospital doctors v GP's
On a surprisingly sunny day we met at the Mile End Recreation Ground to contest the re-inaugurated Colchester Medical Society consultants versus GPs cricket match. At stake was an impressive trophy and of course personal and collective glory. It appeared that different participants had been given different starting instructions but eventually enough players were present to make a start; 11 consultants against 9 GPs, a very late consultant and a ringer. After all players had tried to remember whatever skills they may have had in the past during a high level warm up the toss took place and the GPs were invited to bat. The match format was 35 overs a side with batsmen retiring if they managed to score 25 runs. The GP innings featured useful contributions from Drs Aurora, Pickering and Rudge, wagon wheels of each innings making interesting viewing. Most of the consultants had a bowl, the pick being Dr Sivakumar, doing a passable impersonation of Muralitharan, and Dr Ramali who wrapped the tail and re-introduced retirees pretty rapidly. In the field Mr Stanton put his new cricket shirt to the test by diving around like Derek Randall after an espresso. The GPs left the consultants 119 to win and realising that this was possibly not a big enough total put all their eggs into the opening bowling with Dr Kuppaswamy. Drs Robinson and Aftab set off in physicianly pursuit, not doing a lot but accumulating 25 runs each. Drs Watling and Ramali then swiftly followed on and got sufficiently close to the required total that on their departure the consultants were unable to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, despite trying quite hard. By this time the crowd had been swelled by the arrival of the dignitaries who presented the trophy to the winning captain. All that remained was for the contestants to repair to the pavilion to replace all the calories consumed on the pitch through a splendid tea obtained from a willing provider in Hadleigh. All agreed that it had been a great way to spend the afternoon and a re-match was proposed for later in the season.
Saturday 16th June
Essex University
Members viewed the CMS collection of medical books.
Please contact Fab Casale for more information about the collection:
[email protected]
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
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PRESIDENTIAL MEETING
Friday January 20th The Moot Hall Colchester After dinner the society was addressed by Mr Adrian Beckingsale whose talk was entitled “My Old China and a Chinaman” His speech started with a song – recorded by the medical group Transplant, - “ Consultation Skills”. This connected seamlessly with the belated presentation to Mr Roger Motson, President 2010, of his tie pin. Mr Beckingsale then described his lifelong passion for collecting, from boyhood chocolate wrappers through stamps and coins to a vast and varied array of eye baths. A fascinating biography of Josiah Wedgewood followed, with medical references to the lung damage from salt glazing and the impact of smallpox on Wedgewood, affecting his ability to power the potter’s wheel and leading him to turn his attention to design. Members then enjoyed a tour of some of Mr Beckingsale’s spectacular collection of china – from a functioning dog whistle to a candleholder, with teacups, mugs and teapots included. He demonstrated how their decoration can be used to chart the social history of the time, with illustrations of games, hunting scenes, eating and drinking. Dr Mike Vernon gave the vote of thanks for what was agreed to have been a most enjoyable and entertaining talk. |