Samuel Cleverley or Cleverly (28 August 1772 – 9 November 1824) was an English physician. He was Royal Physician to the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Cambridge.

Biography and career

Cleverley was born in

Gravesend, Kent Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is t ...

, the son of William Cleverly, a shipbuilder. After some schooling at Rochester he attended for two years the borough hospitals, whence he removed to Edinburgh and took the degree of M.D. on 24 June 1797 (inaugural essay, ''De Anasarca''). With the object of further studying his profession, he went abroad, visiting

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

, Göttingen, Vienna, and Paris. He was detained a prisoner in France for no less a period than eleven years, being confined successively at

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...

, Verdun, and Valenciennes. At the latter depot, he passed the greater part of his detention. On his arrival he found the prisoners in the utmost need of medical assistance: "He accordingly proposed to the committee of Verdun, an association of the principal British officers and gentlemen in France, charged with the general distribution of charitable succours obtained from England, to give them his gratuitous care, which was gladly accepted, and a dispensary was in consequence established, though not without great difficulties from the French military authorities." Cleverley was allowed to return home in 1814, when he received for his services at Valenciennes the marked thanks of the managing committee of

Lloyd's Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gove ...

. He eventually settled in London, was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 22 December 1815, and appointed one of the physicians to the

London Fever Hospital The London Fever Hospital was a voluntary hospital financed from public donations in Liverpool Road in London. It was one of the first fever hospitals in the country. History Originally established with 15 beds in 1802 in Gray's Inn Road, it mov ...

. He died of fever at his house in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square in 1824, leaving five sons (the eldest 14 years old) "in a destitute state" without him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleverley, Samuel 1772 births 1824 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors People from Gravesend, Kent