DR ERNEST HENRY JACOB MD

Born 5th April 1849 - Died 1st March 1904

 

 

 

A son of Archdeacon Philip Jacob, he was born on 5th April, baptized 20th May 1849, and died 1st March 1904. On 8th September 1903 he married Emma L Fraser. They had a son Ernest Fraser, born on 12th September 1904.

He was admitted to Corpus Christi College Oxford, matriculating on 28th January 1868, aged 18; BA 1871; B Med and MA 1875; D Med 1880

He studied medicine, obtained his MRCS, and worked in St Thomas's hospital in London. He then obtained an appointment at Queen Victoria Hospital in London. I have more research to do to establish how his career developed. He was also a keen organist, playing for a number of churches when asked to do so, which appears to have been quite often.

Reading his and his family's correspondence, of which a good many letters have survived, he showed a rebellious streak not apparent in his siblings, who were totally overwhelmed by their devout Christian upbringing. I have made some extracts from his letters to illustrate him and his times, and the lives of other members of his family. Unfortunately few of the letters are given a year date, and I have not had time to attempt to set them in correct date order.

In a letter dated 29th May 1873, written to his brother Edgar, he states he had moved with his landlady to new house in Lambeth. He is not far from the hospital where he worked (St Thomas's). I went last night to the aniversary dinner of the Literary Society. Uncle George (General Sir George Legrand Jacob) giving me his ticket. The dinner was fair but the wine bad. Gladstone was in the chair supported by the Belgian minister, Lord Stanhope, Bishop Ely.... the speaker was good except part of Lord Stanhope, whom I could not hear. I heard Gladstone speak and was glad of the opportunity of doing so. The music was exceptionally good, Dr von Bilow, one of the greatest pianists in Europe, delayed his departure from England in order to lend his assistance, and the singing was first rate. I shall have to go in for my first MB exams at Oxford in the winter. My gasline is being repaired, so I have stuck a perforated cork into the hole in the ceiling and with a pipe attached burn my ordinary gas reading lamp satisfactorily. No talk of Health and Safety in those days!

In a letter to his brother Edgar, dated 26th March, written from his address in North Brixton (year not given) he states..... I shall qualify at the end of next year and shall try for an honourary physitionship at the hospital...which will give me board and lodging and much experience for 6 months.....I must sit and wait like Mr Macawber for something to turn up.... Edward Long (Jacob) has got the appointment of medical officer of health to a district near town and is living in Ecclestone Square. I have not been there yet. I am in for a tiresome anatomical examination at the college of surgeons on 4th April.....except the Titchborne case very little has been going on....and it even puts the election in the shade.....I hope Mr Whally and Mr G Onslow lose their seats as they deserve, Mr Whally being at present in Holloway gaol.

A letter written on 19th June from North Brixton states: Sam (Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob) and his wife are staying at Queensborough Terrace. I have seen her two or three times. She says very little and that in a low tone with a slight Scottish accent, but there is an awful lot of her, the prevailing dimension being in thickness, and the result of her sitting on anyone would, physically speaking, be complete flatification. Sam was going to take us all to the opera on Friday. but 5/- tickets are selling at 15/-, so we have declined. So ticket touts were operating even then!

He had a wonderful sense of humour, unlike some of his siblings, who had dedicated their lives to God and Godliness; 25th January written from Canterbury Terrace: Dearest Father....you will be pleased to hear that I have just passed my exams.... and have obtained the distinction of MRCS... which entitles me to amongst other things the distinction of killing people....

Writing on 3rd June from 3 St Anne’s Road, North Brixton to his brother Edgar, he informs him he has the appointment at Queen Victoria hospital he wished for... I go therein October....I have also an appointment with Edward Long (Jacob, his cousin) in the morning to go to the city to buy some chemical apparatus, as he wants to set up some water analysis . The qualifications of some of these medical officers of health amuses me very much. A more utter muddle than that idiot Stansfield made is inconceivable... He went in first for the ‘common sense view’ in that any sensible man with a nose could discover the causes of diseases which is simply absurd. What he left was the appointment of officers of health to the different parishes, the result of which is that the whole districts of Reigate, Chertsey, Dorking and Epsom have got one man, more or less good, Edward Long, to work beyond his strength, while another parish I know appointed a local medical man for itself who knows nowt and nothing......... The Princess of Wales and Princess Christian came to the hospital this morning and the wards were decked out in their best...I don’t know whether you saw the death of Edith Hesketh the second daughter. She died after an ovarian operation by Spencer Wells.... Did you hear... Mr Morant of Brockenhurst who advertised for a clergyman who could play the violin cello:

Hey diddle diddle a priest who can fiddle
Is wanted at Brockenhurst Hants
So if any fellow can play the big cello
Let him call in at Johnny Morants

Writing to his sister Edith from Kensington Road on 1st October (year unknown) he says I had a talk with my land lady who told me that she was once at Winchester...her husband supervising the building of St Thomas's church. It appears the furniture of the old church was given over to the contractor and much of it came into the hands of Mr and Mrs Ruddock . They gave away the old stained glass to different people ...and kept the altar and the two stools in the sacrarium... the altar they used for a kitchen table! Till after some time it got rather shaky and Mrs R not knowing the value many would set on it....had it pulled in pieces. She has still got the vestry table and the stools....The altar seems to have been very curious of black oak made of a very large number of small pieces fastened together the work it is said of a crippil who spent his life over it.

March 22nd (year unknown) to his father from St Thomas's Hospital: I got down to Mortlake for the boat race on Saturday going by train to Barnes and walking on....and hit on the tall restless spectacled form of Edward Long (Jacob) and attached myself to him. Herbert Boyce came by with two ladies....both Dixons to one of whom he is engaged and it turned out oddly enough that cousin Edward Long knows them both for years and they used to live at Birkenhead ... cousin Edward had a few people to lunch, his brother-in-law, an architect, an engineer and two medical men, and we had some food and talk. In the evening Edward took me up to the meeting of the Association of the Medical Officers of Health.

He would appear to have been none too good a shot, although like all his family he enjoyed the result of a good shoot - that is eating:

Crawley, 15th November 1872: Last week I went up to shoot for the Episcopal larder at Farnham ... in two days I bagged only two brace of birds and a hare. He was obviously finding it difficult to cope financially, his professional books being in his words very expensive between 15/- to 30/- each and are quickly out of date....I got some beautiful snakes that Augustus (his brother) gave me. I am sending them to Hampshire to be pickled...

And finally a letter dated 31st December 1874, written from Crawley Rectory to his brother Edgar: It is 11-30 on the last night of the year....and Gertie has come down in dishabit to watch the old year out....we are the only able bodied people in the house as Pater has got a bad cold and has gone to bed tho I shall not be surprised if he turns up presently in his night cap. There is some claret on the fire being mulled for us to drink your health and that of other absent members, but it is something to have three out of the family at home for Christmas . We had an Xmas tree last night which seemed to give great satisfaction. January 1st 1875: We are true English people and drink in the first thought on a new year. This time last year August, Sam, Edda and I were here and sang Auld Lang Syne in Scotch style, now dispersed to California, India and Natal, while I remain here shivering, add Edwin and it would be hard to find a more widely scattered family. We heard from Edwin this morning , he seems very happy in his married life and writes in good spirits. I should fancy new Zealand is a more homelike place than America or Australia.

Sources:

History of the Families of Jacob, by Glascott and Jacob, 1875
Jacob MSS (Correspondence, pedigrees)
TC & EC Jack, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, The Anne of Exeter Volume, London 1907.