Sir Raymond Henry Payne Crawfurd
FRCP (9 November 1865 – 9 March 1938) was a British physician and writer who, in addition to being active in post graduate medical education, took up numerous clinical and administrative responsibilities, including
Registrar and examiner to the
Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the
Dean of
Kings College Hospital Medical School, now King's College London GKT School of Medical Education (GKT), and
Chair
A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...
of
Epsom College
Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a boys' school to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orpha ...
Council.
After studying
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and medicine at King's College, he became a physician and also lectured in
pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
and ''
materia medica''. As Dean and then later Emeritus Lecturer in Medicine, he was a major participant in the move of King's College Hospital from
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
to
Denmark Hill
Denmark Hill is an area and road in Camberwell, in the London Borough of Southwark. It is a sub-section of the western flank of the Norwood Ridge, centred on the long, curved Ruskin Park slope of the ridge. The road is part of the A215 road, A21 ...
in 1933, an achievement for which he was awarded a knighthood. Simultaneously, in his roles on its council, he raised the profile of Epsom College, secured the admission of women to the benefits of the Royal Medical Foundation, improved pay for masters and founded a building dedicated to learning
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
.
An illness in his early forties left him with mobility difficulties, causing him to stop clinical practice and turn to writing a number of history of medicine articles and historical books, including one on the controversial death of
Charles II. He gave the
FitzPatrick Lectures in 1911 and 1912, the first which was expanded into one of the most comprehensive accounts of the
royal touch
The royal touch (also known as the king's touch) was a form of laying on of hands, whereby French and English monarchs touched their subjects, regardless of social classes, with the intent to cure them of various diseases and conditions. The th ...
and
scrofula (''the King's evil'') and the second into a book about
Plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
in art and literature. Throughout the early 20th century, he remained consistently involved with the
History of Medicine Section of the
Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London.
History
The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers ...
(RSM), becoming the section's president from 1916 to 1918.
Early life and family
Raymond Crawfurd was born in
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town in West Sussex, England, near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders, south of London, northeast of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Situated in the extreme northeast of the county, the civ ...
on 9 November 1865, the youngest of the six sons of the Reverend Charles Walter Payne Crawfurd and Mary, daughter of
James Adey Ogle,
Regius professor of medicine at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
Four of his brothers also attended Oxford.
In 1898, he married Ethelberta Ormrod, daughter of Colonel Arthur Bailey, J.P., of Bolton. They had three sons.
Education
Crawfurd was schooled at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
,
after which he attended
New College, University of Oxford, from where he graduated in 1888 with a degree in classics.
He subsequently studied medicine at Kings College Hospital Medical School, London, where he was awarded both junior and senior scholarships and then passed the
B.M. and B.Ch., degrees in 1894.
In the same year, he founded the Musical Society at Oxford in 1894.
Medical career
Crawfurd took up resident posts at the
King's College Hospital and became assistant physician to the
Victoria Hospital for Children
The Victoria Hospital for Children, which later merged into St George's Hospital, was a hospital in Tite Street, London.
History
The hospital was established at Gough House in Tite Street as the South Western London Hospital for Children in Octob ...
. In 1896, the
Royal Free Hospital
The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...
appointed him as assistant physician, however, he resigned in 1908.
In 1902, he wrote his doctorate thesis on
Grave’s disease.
Later, in 1909, he was elected fellow of King’s College and served as chairman of the medical board from 1912 to 1914, following which, in 1930, he retired from active staff at King's. Other appointments included physician to the National Provident Institution and the Life Association of Scotland.
At the turn of the 19th century, he became Registrar to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP),
a position he retained for thirteen years.
Subsequently, he delivered the FitzPatrick Lectures (1911–12) and in 1919, was
Harveian Orator.
At the
London School of Medicine for Women, he lectured on pathology and on ''materia medica''.
Postgraduate medical education
The importance of post-graduate medical education in maintaining "up-to-date" knowledge was increasingly realized as the 19th century approached, leading to the foundation of organisations such as the London Post-Graduate Association (LPA) which was established in 1898. The LPA offered London’s practitioners clinical material courses from numerous major London hospitals and Crawfurd soon became its secretary.
In 1913, Crawfurd was a major contributor at an International Conference on postgraduate medical education. At the time, he was also a member of the Board of Examiners at the RCP
and the Chairman of the Medical Graduates’ College and Polyclinic and his request was to see better organization of postgraduate prospects with a “central bureau”
that could co-ordinate London’s postgraduate medical education opportunities.
In 1925, he became a representative on the committee of management of the Conjoint Board, which later, in 1937, sent him to visit the
Medical faculty of the Egyptian University, to report on its progress.
King's College
Between 1900 and 1904, he was appointed the Dean of
Kings College Hospital Medical School, later becoming King's College London GKT School of Medical Education (GKT).
At the time, the hospital was in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
However, by 1900, much of the area around the hospital had changed. Around one-third of admissions were arriving from South London and an argument was put forward to relocate.
As Director of Medical Studies in the Medical School,
Crawfurd, along with his old schoolfriend,
Rev Dr A C Headlam, played a major part in moving King's College Hospital to
Denmark Hill
Denmark Hill is an area and road in Camberwell, in the London Borough of Southwark. It is a sub-section of the western flank of the Norwood Ridge, centred on the long, curved Ruskin Park slope of the ridge. The road is part of the A215 road, A21 ...
, having also become Emeritus Lecturer on Medicine at King’s in 1930.
Lord Dawson of Penn described them as “master”
founders of the new college. In addition, Crawfurd later helped Lord Dawson search for a new site for the RCP in the planned move from Pall Mall East.
In 1933, he was awarded a knighthood for his achievements in the completion of the new medical school.
Epsom College
Crawfurd became a member of council at Epsom College in 1915, following which he was elected chairman of the school committee in 1918, and vice-chairman of council in 1921.
Between 1923 and 1936, whilst chairman of the council, he raised considerable revenue for Epsom College.
He secured the admission of medical women to the benefits of the foundation, influenced acts of parliament and made administrative changes. Under his guidance, the standard of scholarships improved, master's pays increased and a biology block was built.
Having been on the football team during his early education at Winchester, Crawfurd was a keen follower of
rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
and frequently went to matches in Blackheath and Twickenham, hospital matches and to see Epsom College boys play.
Crawfurd House, a building at Epsom College, is named after him.
History of medicine
In his early forties, a chronic illness affecting his bones and requiring surgery to one of his knees,
left Crawfurd immobile and incapable of medical practice and he turned his interest to writing and the
history of medicine
The history of medicine is both a study of medicine throughout history as well as a multidisciplinary field of study that seeks to explore and understand medical practices, both past and present, throughout human societies.
More than just histo ...
. His works included ''The Last Days of Charles II'' (1909), ''The King's Evil'' (1911) and ''Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art'' (1914),
a topic he had lectured on the previous year at an international congress.
''The Last Days of Charles II'' (1909)
The sudden death of King Charles II of England was initially recorded as due to being poisoned. It had therefore received much attention over the years and Crawfurd’s publication, ''The Last Days of Charles II'' (1909), became a respected revision of the facts. His conclusion that Charles II died from chronic
interstitial nephritis
Interstitial nephritis, also known as tubulointerstitial nephritis, is inflammation of the area of the kidney known as the renal interstitium, which consists of a collection of cells, extracellular matrix, and fluid surrounding the renal tubules. ...
resulting in
uraemic convulsions have since been endorsed by other biographers of Charles II.
''The King's Evil'' (1911)
Published in 1911, ''The King's Evil'' covered the subject of his first of two FitzPatrick lectures,
given in the same year at the RCP.
His wish was to "make the subject part of the general history of England" and his view he declared, was that "to isolate medical history from general history is, in my opinion, to sterilize it".
He described how the 11th century French custom of
touching for
the King's Evil was observed by virtually all kings of England from
Edward the confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
to
George I. Crawfurd explained how medical men gained courage to be sceptical after
William III's dismissal of the touch. His research went on to encompass the use of coins bearing images of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
as alternatives to the touch, and how these coins were passed down through generations.
Extensively documented in history, scrofula was also known as ''the King's evil'' and was thought to be cured by the ''touch'' of the
monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
. Having already written about Charles II, who happened to have also touched almost 100,000 people,
Crawfurd's account in ''The King's Evil'' (1911), of how the royal touch was thought to cure scrofula, has been acknowledged as one of the most comprehensive accounts,
frequently compared with the works of
Marc Bloch
Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (; ; 6 July 1886 – 16 June 1944) was a French historian. He was a founding member of the Annales School of French social history. Bloch specialised in medieval history and published widely on Medieval France ov ...
.
The custom suited both monarch and individual, appearing to be linked to an interplay between politics, religion, and medical knowledge.
Monarchs of England and France were the only Christian royals to practice this "gift transferred by the Gods",
(due to the high esteem in which God held the royals) and historians have dealt with the matter from various angles, from "ridicule"
and "absurd",
to Crawfurd's fascination, in what Sturdy describes as Crawfurd's "dubious if exotic"
views. Crawfurd wrote: "I can therefore explain my feeling in a word: the King’s touch may still be beneficial if it ever was: often it is apt to be intellectual, but it can never be harmful". Others have merely found it puzzling and evidence of “mass delusion”.
However, Crawfurd also recognised that scrofula was a general term given to a number of diseases.
He clearly stated that "no word in the whole of medical terminology has been more ill-used than the word 'scrofula'".
[Crawfurd, ''The King's Evil'', 1911, p.14]
''Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art'' (1914)
''Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art'' (1914) was a general account of
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
up to the 18th century, the subject of his second series of FitzPatrick lectures and contributions to the ''proceedings of the Royal society of Medicine journal''.
Bray describes Crawfurd’s work on plague as “delightful”, as a reference is made to his story of one Roman writer who believed the
Aurelian
Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited t ...
plague so dangerous that even a single glimpse could cause it.
History of Medicine Section
Crawfurd was a firm supporter of
Sir William Osler in forming a dedicated section to history of medicine at the RSM and recorded how Sir William's influence had been an attraction in recruiting members.
When the first ''History of Medicine Section'' meeting was held in 1912, Crawfurd, along with
D'Arcy Power
Sir D'Arcy Power, (11 November 1855 in Pimlico, London - 18 May 1941) was a British surgeon, medical historian, and contributor of some 200 articles on famous surgeons and other related figures to the ''Dictionary of National Biography''.
Med ...
were appointed the section’s secretaries.
In addition, at the inaugural meeting, he spoke on contributions from the history of medicine to the problem of the transmission of
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
. He later became president of the Section in 1916 and took up responsibilities on the library committee at RSM, both following on from
Sir Norman Moore.
Death and legacy
Crawfurd died at 11 Beamont street,
in London,
from a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
,
on 9 March 1938, at the age of 72.
Selected publications
Crawfurd co-authored the fourth and fifth editions of Burney Yeo’s ''Manual of Treatment'' and made contributions to numerous medical journals including ''
The Lancet
''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823.
The journal publishes original research articles, ...
'', ''
Edinburgh Medical Journal'' and ''Practitioner'' in addition to many books on various history of medicine topics.
Books
''The Last Days of Charles II'' Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1909.
''The King's Evil'' Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1911.
''Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art'' Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1914.
* Yeo, Burney. ''A Manual of Medical Treatment''. 4th & 5th editions (Co-author)
Articles and lectures
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawfurd, Raymond
20th-century English medical doctors
1865 births
1938 deaths
People from East Grinstead
Alumni of New College, Oxford
English non-fiction writers
Alumni of King's College London
Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians
People educated at Winchester College
Presidents of the History of Medicine Society