Hidden down a corridor
Lies the oft time dreaded door
To exercise and treatment sore,
And deep massage from Shillinglaw,
In the tiny P.M.D.
And in and out the patients go
To cries of “Ouch” and “Help” and “Oh”,
I never asked for Physio!
In the tiny P.M.D.
The staff comprises of six, and two
Doctors Duff Stewart and Curwen who
With Mrs. Shelley know what to do
With patients who form up in a queue
In the clinics in the O.P.D.
Slings, springs and manipulation
Short wave, wax and ionization,
And ultra violet irradiation
Are given in P.M.D.
The patients get an awful fright
When confronted with Miss White
Winding up the traction tight
And pulling necks with all her might
In the tiny P.M.D.
“Where is your pain?”, she sweetly said
To the patient prone upon the bed,
Who quietly wished the doctor dead,
In tiny P.M.D.
At nine o’clock the girls all go
To spread despondency and woe
“A deep breath in, now let it go,
And move your ankles to and fro”,
Say the girls from the P.M.D.
Cannon, Morgan and Dandridge three
Seize blue forms with cries of glee.
“Another one! Who shall he be?”
say the girls from P.M.D.
The following biography of Dr Sells is written by our researcher Liz Lloyd:
“Forty Six Years of Service without Thought of Reward”
Charles John Sells, born in Guildford in 1846, was the second son of Thomas Jenner Sells and his wife Charlotte and was baptised at St Mary’s church. After being educated at the Royal Grammar School he followed his father into a medical career.
In 1867 the Surrey Advertiser reported, “C. J. Sells and Reginald Eager, the sons of our most respected medical practitioners in Guildford have passed their examination in science and the practice of medicine and have received certificates to practice.”
C. J. Sells went into practice with his father, based at their home in Guildford High Street. In 1873, aged 26, he married Emily Schofield in her home town of Grantham and as his father was now living in Leapale House, the young couple set up home at 109-110 High Street. By 1881 Charles presided over a household of 18 individuals. He and Emily had seven children under the age of 7, one daughter having died as an infant. In addition to his immediate family, his widowed mother-in-law and Emily’s sister Helen were resident and the family were served by a cook, a housemaid, 3 nurses and 2 other servants. Subsequently four more children were born to the family.
Like his father, C. J. Sells became a borough magistrate and mayor of Guildford.
As well as being surgeon to Guildford Union Infirmary, he was also appointed medical officer to the Union by the Board of Guardians. Later he became honorary consulting medical officer to the Royal Surrey County Hospital. In the early days of his tenure at the workhouse, the patients were cared for by the inmates but Dr Sells always welcomed improvements. Following the 1876 Act, provision for poor law infirmaries had to be separately, medically supervised rather than under the jurisdiction of the Master of the Workhouse, and in 1891 the minutes of the Board of Guardians report that a separate infirmary was to be established at the Union Workhouse. In 1896 the infirmary was enlarged to contain 170 beds. In 1889 C. J. Sells was appointed President of the East and West Surrey branch of the British Medical Association.
One tragic event which occurred while Dr Sells officiated at the Infirmary took place in February 1893. The Surrey Mirror reported the inquest when a verdict of , “Accidental death,” was returned for William John Short aged 3, who died in the Infirmary from burns received two weeks earlier. “He had been left in the kitchen for a few minutes and appears to have reached through the fire-guard to light a piece of paper. The result was that he caught his clothing on fire and sustained extensive injuries.”
After the death of his wife, Emily in 1897, Charles moved to White Hall, at the present day junction of the Epsom and London roads. His sons were all at school, training in medicine or independent, but his unmarried daughters, Violet and Sybil still lived with him and were described, in the census of 1901, as artists. Dr Sells went on his medical rounds in a horse and cart and on one occasion his horse slipped and fell sideways trapping Charles on the ground, but luckily he was not badly hurt. He was always interested in medical research and submitted a case study to a project on epidemiology. This was a case of acute poliomyelitis suffered by an 8 year old boy in the Workhouse Infirmary. Dr Sells reported that immediately before his death the boy’s temperature had risen to 106.4°.
In 1905 Charles married for the second time, on this occasion to Edith Willoughby Darvel, and they moved to Four Paths, Epsom Road. Dr Sells had lost 3 of his children as infants. His son Reginald Wilfred died at the age of 19 in a shooting accident and Lieutenant Archibald Jenner Sells died in Flanders in 1916. Charles Bernard Sells died at Delfontein, South Africa while serving on the medical staff of the Imperial Yeomanry hospital. Lionel Sells was also gravely ill during the Boer War, suffering from enteric fever. Thankfully he recovered and went on to become an expert in the use of X-rays. Hugh Lancelot Sells, trained in medicine in Edinburgh and was a Major in the RAMC during the first world war. After the war he became Deputy medical officer of the East Indian Railways.
On the occasion of his retirement from the position of medical officer to Guildford Poor Law Institution in 1922, a warm tribute was made to C. J Sells at a meeting of the Board of Guardians. The vice-chairman, Mr C. T. Bateman, said that, “Dr. Sells had always shown the greatest kindness to all his patients. He was always ready to do anything which might benefit the health of the people in the (Work)House.” Mr Bateman described Dr Sells as “an old-time doctor,” who had given his services without thought of reward. To mark his 46 years of service the chairman of the Board of Guardians unveiled a portrait of Dr C. J. Sells to be hung in the Board room and presented a copy to Mrs Sells.
In 1925 Charles and Edith retired to Llandrindrod Wells in Radnorshire. Although he died in Wales in September 1931, Charles John Sells was buried in the Mount cemetery in Guildford, where his first wife and infant children are also commemorated. Dr Sells was also remembered in the naming of the Sells ward at St Luke’s Hospital.
Resources:
Census and Parish records from www.Ancestry.co.uk
British Newspapers Archive www.findmypast.co.uk
Minutes of Guildford Board of Guardians:- Surrey History Centre
Guildford Biographies, Scrapbook Albums at Guildford Institute
…..if you claimed poor relief, you lost your right to vote?
People entering the infirmary through the receiving system therefore lost the vote. A law was passed in 1885 to exclude people from this penalty if they were entering only and directly into the infirmary. The result was a dramatic increase in the number of patients entering the system. Guildford’s infirmary was enlarged and improved with new hospital wards built in 1896 following a very poor inspection report.
(Our researchers often come across unusual changes in the statistics held in the archive records and it is always interesting to find out some of the reasons why. )
The St. Luke’s Hospital and Social Club Magazine, invited the staff to contribute their favourite comments from patients. These are a few of the responses, published in the magazine for December 1961:
“Is this the Ante Natural Clinic?”
“Where is the Pre Ante Natal Clinic please?
“I am waiting for the Genology clinic.”
Patient for the Chiropody clinic: “Please can you direct me to the Carpenter’s Clinic?”
During our research we came across this story, which is relevant to us and to those researching in deaf history.
In 1901 among the many inmates of Guildford Union Workhouse could be found the Standing family, Priscilla, aged 39 and her three sons, Harry, aged 5, Thomas, aged 4 and Edwin, aged 2.
Priscilla Cinderalla Standing (nee Cooper) 1930’s. With kind permission of Dorothy Lauder.
Priscilla Cinderalla Cooper was born in Lurgashall, Sussex, the daughter of a farm labourer. The 1881 census tells us that she was deaf, although this is not mentioned when she was at the Workhouse. At the age of 22, she was working as a servant, probably a housemaid, for the Standing family. Thirty eight year old, James Standing and his wife Emma were living in Copse Green, Northchapel, Sussex with their four children. James was Under Bailey for the Petworth Estate. But three years later, his wife Emma died and in 1895 Priscilla married James Standing in Petworth. James moved on to greater responsibility as the Bailiff of a farm in Surrey. By 1899 their third child, Edwin, had been born but James died in the same year.
Edwin Standing c. 1940. With kind permission of Dorothy Lauder.
As a deaf widow with three very young children, Priscilla was probably no longer able to stay in the tied cottage provided by her husband’s work and inevitably ended up in a workhouse. Perhaps she had walked to Guildford to look for housekeeping work. Although the 3 brothers had each other, they were taken from their mother at a very young age and she must have missed them terribly. Priscilla’s stepson, William Standing, was 21 in 1901 when she and her young sons entered the workhouse, so he was able to earn a living as a carman lodging in Angel Gate, Guildford. Her other stepchildren were also old enough to make their own way in the world.
Henry Standing mother Priscilla at Sunny Bank c. 1947. Henry Standing mother Priscilla at Sunny Bank c1947
Priscilla was still living at Guildford Union Workhouse ten years later when the 1911 census was compiled, but her sons had all moved to other accommodation. Edwin, aged 12, now lived at the Scattered Home for Boys at 37 Recreation Road, Guildford, with eleven other boys 5-13 years old and a foster mother appointed by the Guildford Board of Guardians. Thomas, now 14, was still in Warren Road, but in the Children’s Receiving Home where John William Sowers, the Superintendent, was aided by a Matron and two foster mothers in looking after 12 children aged 3 to 15.
Thomas and Henry Standing c.1947
Henry (Harry) Standing was now 16, so he had been sent to the Training Ship Exmouth at Grays in Essex. He later married Gertrude Brown and they had eleven grandchildren before he died in Liverpool in 1972. Thomas served in the Army Service Corps in the First World War and in 1923 he married Agnes Smallbone in Hambledon. He died in south west Surrey in 1952.
Standing Priscilla and Friends at Sunset Home at Merrow c. 1947. With kind permission of Dorothy Lauder.
Despite their earlier separation, Priscilla and her sons kept in close contact throughout their lives until her death in Surrey in 1953. She was described by one of her grandchildren as, “a lovely grandmother,” who was able to lip read and communicate well. She spent her last years living happily at the Sunset Home in Merrow House.
