Morpathia: The latest article about the Morpeth Dispensary - Dr. Paton's later career

The others typically stayed three years or less. It was always regarded as essentially a position for young men at the start of their careers, so it is interesting, where we have the information, to find out where some of the house surgeons came from and what happened to them afterwards.

Frederick Erskine Paton took up post on May 1, 1883, and served for just a year. He submitted his resignation on March 7, 1884, and, rather unusually, worked his three months’ notice, thus giving the Committee more than enough time to act.

A few weeks later, on May 1, his friends gave him a farewell dinner at the Earl Grey Hotel: “A timepiece ... with appropriate inscription, a binocular field glass of delicate chisel, a hunting whip … and a coffee cup of antique pattern were presented to Dr Paton on Thursday evening, at the Earl Grey Hotel, by Dr Clarkson on behalf of many friends and well-wishers.

“Dr Paton thanked them most heartily for the generous gifts, and said, they would remind him (altho’ that was unnecessary) of the many happy days he had spent in Morpeth. The evening was enlivened with sentiment and song suitable to the occasion, until 11 o’clock ... with the chorus of Auld Land Syne.”

Frederick Erskine Paton came from Broughty Ferry near Dundee, one of seven children of a wealthy Dundee merchant. He trained at Edinburgh, took his degrees in August 1882 and was appointed to Morpeth Dispensary less than a year later.

He was clearly a social animal and a sportsman, but what is odd is that, except for his farewell dinner, I have only one instance of him taking part in an event in Morpeth.

After leaving here he spent some time in Canada, but came back in November 1885. By March 1887, he was at Leven House, Abergavenny, where he had his surgery.

In October, he was appointed Acting Surgeon to the 4th Battalion, the South Wales Borderers, and in 1888 began a St John Ambulance class for ladies, 13 of whom took the examination – and all passed.

On December 20 1888, the Fifeshire Journal announced the birth of a son: “At Leven House, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, on the 16th inst., the wife of F. Erskine Paton, M.B., C.M., of a son.”

In 1892, he was appointed a magistrate for the County of Monmouth and some years later was elected a councillor for the Urban District (later Borough) of Abergavenny, the County Council and the Abergavenny School Board.

He was much involved in sports, including athletics, golf and cycling, was a racehorse owner in a modest way, with successes at local race meetings and horse shows, and a patron of the Eisteddfod at Abergavenny.

Life, however, did not always go smoothly for him. He and his brother and sisters had almost constant trouble with another brother who had become bankrupt in France. The family made financial arrangements for the maintenance of his wife and son, and indirectly of himself, but there was frequent litigation – mostly about their father’s estate, but sometimes on other matters.

An incident occurred in September 1900 that threatened to cast a shadow over his public and political life. Dr Paton was found guilty at the Abergavenny petty sessions, together with a Mr Lord, of being drunk and disorderly at the horse show in the town park and subsequently in the Hereford Road near the County Club.

He took his appeal to the quarter sessions, where several police officers deposed that he and Mr Lord were drunk and fighting each other at different times and places.

Dr Paton maintained that he had only been trying to assist Mr Lord, who really was drunk; he called a number of respectable witnesses who saw him at various times during the afternoon and evening, who confirmed that he was perfectly sober.

He had been trying to restrain Mr Lord at the showground and was seen guiding and pushing him along the Hereford Road to the County Club, where he asked the steward to call a cab to take Mr Lord home.

The chairman halted proceedings before all the witnesses had been called, saying that the conviction could not be supported. It was quashed with costs, amidst applause.

In December of that year, the Abergavenny Amateur Athletic Association, of which Dr Paton was the President, presented him with an illuminated address and a silver loving cup, suitably inscribed.

“The President said it was a complete surprise to him to be the recipient of such a handsome present. ... He hoped that when his two boys were grown up, and he had taken his departure for the land from which no traveller returns, they might look on that loving-cup as a memento of the esteem in which their father had been held, and prove an incentive to them to do their best in aid of sport.”

Despite being so well established in Abergavenny, in September 1902 he and Mrs Paton removed to Jersey. He was given a farewell banquet, presided over by the Mayor, who presented him with a salver for himself, a gold and diamond bracelet for Mrs Paton, and many kind words of appreciation.

It is not obvious why they did so, but it was perhaps for health reasons.

He continued to practise in Jersey, played golf and was President of the Jersey Eastern Golf Club. He retired from practice in Jersey in 1913 and returned to England some time after that. The last notice I have of him as a medical practitioner is in Leighton Buzzard in 1917, when he gave evidence at an inquest.

He died on March 11, 1930, at the Albion Hotel, Leighton Buzzard, but was described as being of St Margarets, 544, Banbury Road, Cutteslowe, a 1930s suburban villa on the northern outskirts of Oxford.

His effects were £4,313. Administration was granted to a solicitor acting for John George Paton.

Morpeth Dispensary, The Early Christian Landscape of the Wansbeck Valley, Victorian Dispensary and The Origins of Morpeth, by Roger Hawkins, are available at Newgate News and the Old Herald Office in Morpeth, or from Amazon.