William Gull
Sir William Withey Gull, 1st Baronet was an English physician. Of modest family origins, he established a lucrative private practice and served as Governor of Guy's Hospital, Fullerian Professor of Physiology and President of the Clinical Society. In 1871, having successfully treated the Prince of Wales during a life-threatening attack of typhoid fever, he was created a Baronet and appointed to be one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria.
Gull made some significant contributions to medical science, including advancing the understanding of myxoedema, Bright's disease, paraplegia and anorexia nervosa.
A masonic/royal conspiracy theory created in the 1970s alleged that Gull knew the identity of Jack the Ripper, or even that he was the murderer. Scholars have dismissed the idea, since Gull was 71 years old and in ill health when the murders were committed. The theory has been used by creators of fictional works. Examples for his portrayal as Jack the Ripper include the films Jack the Ripper and From Hell, the latter based on the graphic novel.
Childhood and early life
William Withey Gull was born on 31 December 1816 in Colchester, Essex. His father, John Gull, was a barge owner and wharfinger and was thirty-eight years old at the time of his son's birth. William was born aboard his barge The Dove, then moored at St Osyth Mill in the parish of Saint Leonards, Shoreditch. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Chilver and she was forty years old when William was born. William's middle name, Withey, came from his godfather, Captain Withey, a friend and employer of his father and also a local barge owner. He was the youngest of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Of William's surviving five siblings, two were brothers and three were sisters.When William was about four years old the family moved to Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex. His father died of cholera in London in 1827, when William was ten years old, and was buried at Thorpe-le-Soken. After her husband's death, Elizabeth Gull devoted herself to her children's upbringing on very slender means. She was a woman of character, instilling in her children the proverb "whatever is worth doing is worth doing well." William Gull often said that his real education had been given him by his mother. Elizabeth Gull was devoutly religious—on Fridays the children had fish and rice pudding for dinner; during Lent she wore black, and the Saints' days were carefully observed.
As a young boy, William Gull attended a local day school with his elder sisters. Later, he attended another school in the same parish, kept by the local clergyman. William was a day-boy at this school until he was fifteen, at which age he became a boarder for two years. It was at this time that he first began to study Latin. The clergyman's teaching, however, seems to have been very limited; and at seventeen William announced that he would not go any longer.
William now became a pupil-teacher in a school kept by a Mr. Abbott at Lewes, Sussex. He lived with the schoolmaster and his family, studying and teaching Latin and Greek. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Joseph Woods, the botanist, and formed an interest in looking for unusual plant life that would remain a lifelong pastime. His mother, meanwhile, had in 1832 moved to the parish of Beaumont, adjacent to Thorpe-le-Soken. After two years at Lewes, at the age of nineteen, William became restless and started to consider other careers, including working at sea.
The local rector took an interest in William and proposed that he should resume his classical and other studies on alternate days at the rectory. William agreed, and would continue this routine for a year. On his days at home, he and his sisters would row down the estuary to the sea, watching the fishermen, and collecting wildlife specimens from the nets of the coastal dredgers. William would study and catalogue the specimens thus obtained, which he would study using whatever books as he could then procure. This seems to have awoken in him an interest in biological research that would serve him well in his later career in medicine. The wish to study medicine became the fixed desire of his life.
Early career in medicine
At about this time the local rector's uncle, Benjamin Harrison, the Treasurer of Guy's Hospital, was introduced to Gull and was impressed by his ability. He invited him to go to Guy's Hospital under his patronage and, in September 1837, the autumn before he was twenty-one, Gull left home and entered on his life's work.It was usual for students of medicine to conduct their studies at the hospital as "apprentices." The Treasurer's patronage provided Gull with two rooms in the hospital with an annual allowance of £50 a year.
Gull, encouraged by Harrison, determined to make the most of his opportunity, and resolved to try for every prize for which he could compete in the hospital in the course of that year. He succeeded in gaining every one. During the first year of his residence at Guy's, together with his other studies he carried on his own education in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, and in 1838 he matriculated at the recently founded University of London. In 1841 he took his M.B. degree, and gained honours in physiology, comparative anatomy, medicine, and surgery.
Professional career
In 1842, Gull was appointed to teach materia medica at Guy's Hospital, and the Treasurer gave him a small house in King Street, with an annual salary of £100. In 1843, he was appointed Lecturer on Natural Philosophy. He also held at this time the post of Medical Tutor at Guy's and, in the absence of the staff, shared with Mr. Stocker the care of the patients in the hospital. In the same year, he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the wards for lunatics, and it was largely due to his influence that these cases shortly ceased to be treated at the hospital, and the wards were converted from this use.Throughout this period, Gull's duties gave him extensive opportunities to develop his medical experience. He spent much of his life within the wards of the hospital, at all hours of the day and often at night.
In 1846, he earned his M.D. degree at the University of London, and gained the gold medal. At that time, this was the highest honour in medicine which the University was able to confer. During his M.D. examination, he suffered an attack of nerves and was about to leave the room, saying that he knew nothing of the case proposed for comment; a friend persuaded him to return, with the result that the thesis he then wrote gained for him his Doctor's degree and the gold medal.
From 1846 to 1856, Gull held the post of Lecturer on Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at Guy's.
In 1847, Gull was elected Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a post which he held for two years, during which time he formed a close friendship with Michael Faraday, at that time Fullerian Professor of Chemistry. In 1848, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was also appointed Resident Physician at Guy's. Dr Gull became a DCL of Oxford in 1868, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869, LL.D. of the University of Cambridge in 1880 and of the University of Edinburgh in 1884. He was a Crown member of the General Medical Council from 1871 to 1883, and representative of the University of London in the Council from 1886. In 1871 he was elected President of the Clinical Society of London.
Marriage and family
On 18 May 1848, Gull married Susan Ann Lacy, daughter of Colonel J. Dacre Lacy, of Carlisle. Shortly afterwards he left his rooms at Guy's and moved to 8 Finsbury Square.They had three children: Caroline Cameron Gull was born in 1851 at Guy's Hospital and died in 1929; she married Theodore Dyke Acland MD FRCP, the son of Sir Henry Acland, 1st Baronet MD FRS. They had two children, a daughter who died in infancy in 1889, and a son, Theodore Acland, who became headmaster of Norwich School.
Cameron Gull was born about 1858 in Buckhold, Pangbourne, Berkshire and died in infancy.
William Cameron Gull was born on 6 January 1860 in Finsbury, Middlesex and died in 1922. He was educated at Eton College, inherited his father's title as 2nd Baronet of Brook Street, and later served as the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for Barnstaple from July 1895 to September 1900.
Baronet and Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria
In 1871, as Physician in Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, Gull took the chief direction of the treatment of the Prince during an attack of typhoid fever.The Prince of Wales showed the first signs of illness on 13 November 1871, while at the Royal residence at Sandringham House, Norfolk. Initially, he was attended by Dr. Lowe of Kings Lynn and by Oscar Clayton, who thought the fever was caused by a sore on a finger. After a week, with no sign of the fever abating, they diagnosed typhoid fever and sent for Gull on 21 November, and Sir William Jenner on the 23rd. It transpired that the typhoid attack was complicated by bronchitis and the Prince was in danger of his life for many days. For the next month, daily bulletins were issued by Sandringham and posted at police stations around the country. Sir William Hale-White, author of Great Doctors of the Nineteenth Century, wrote: "I was a lad then and my father sent me every evening to the police station to get the latest news. It was not until just before Christmas that bulletins were issued only once a day."
The following passage appeared in The Times on 18 December 1871:
File:Gull arms 1872.jpg|thumb|left|The coat of arms of the Baronetcy of Brook Street. From The New York Times, reprinted from The Times of London, 1872
After the Prince's recovery, a service of thanksgiving was held at St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, attended by Queen Victoria. In recognition of his service, on 8 February 1872 William Gull was created the 1st Baronet of the Baronetcy of Brook Street.
The coat of arms is shown left. The Blazon of Arms is:
The Motto is:
Sir William Gull was appointed Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria.