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Begins: |
Jonathan Evans looks at The Elephant Man's relationship with the Whitechapel Hospital (now the Royal London Hospital), an article which appeared in : THE LINK, May 1997. |
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Without doubt Joseph Merrick, the so-called Elephant Man, has become the best-known patient of the London (now Royal London) Hospital, past or present. He lived in the hospital for nearly four years, from June 1886 until his death in April 1890, and so qualifies as one of the longest-staying patients in the hospital's history. |
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Most people know him by another name, however, since a great many people encountered his story through watching David Lynch's film 'The Elephant Man', which appeared in 1979, or perhaps even through seeing Bernard Pommerance's award-winning play of the same name, first staged in London two years earlier. |
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In these fictional works the character of the title is called "John Merrick", a name which derives from Frederick Treves' own account which appeared in a book entitled The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, published by Cassell & Co. in 1923. |
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| Rescue |
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Treves' story about his rescue of the deformed and destitute Merrick remains an absorbing account. Late in life, Treves had planned and then abandoned a project to publish an autobiography, featuring his famous patients, who included King Edward VII: Treves had performed a successful operation to relieve the King's appendicitis at Buckingham Palace in 1902. |
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Instead Treves decided to write about what he termed his "queer unknown patients, from the great army of suffering men and women I've been mixed up with". His book of reminiscences includes an essay entitled "The Old Receiving Room" about the Accident and Emergency Department at the London Hospital and elements of that story were woven into the screenplay of Lynch's film about Merrick.
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In the film the nature of Joseph's deformities (graphically portrayed by the actor John Hurt) are shown with anatomical accuracy; picture research ensures that the film depicts the hospital's wards with historical authenticity and yet the film-makers, in common with the playwrights (several have been written) choose to perpetuate the myth that Joseph Merrick was called "John" in spite of the plentiful historical evidence to the contrary. |
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The manuscript of Frederick Treves' last book was sold by its British owners a decade ago and is now in America, but before an export licence was granted, photocopies were taken and one of these was deposited with the Archives at the Royal London. |
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The manuscript indicates that Treves wrote at the first instance, with minimal alterations. He originally entered Merrick's forename as "Joseph", but deleted it and substituted the name "John". Writers have conjectured the reasons for this change of name: some have said Treves' memory failed him, the book having been written just a few months before the author's death and at a time when his health was failing. Moreover, the events described had taken place more than 30 years earlier and Treves mixes up facts contained in some of the other reminiscences in the book. It has also been argued that the form of Joseph's mouth and lips would have made it difficult for him to enunciate clearly and that Treves may have misheard his name. Overgrowth from Joseph's upper lip had been excised some years earlier and his remaining teeth were probably extracted at the same time.
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| Neither of these explanations appears convincing: Treves had met Joseph on a very regular basis for four years and would have come across a pamphlet entitled "The Autobiography of Joseph Merrick" which was sold at the show where he was exhibited. |
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| Memory |
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Whilst Treves' memory might not have been what it was, his writing in his final published work is lucid and many regard it as his best book. It seems much more likely that Treves called Merrick "John" because it suited the character of the man he was portraying in his story: someone who was previously traumatised and unable to express himself, but who was able to do so with the help of Treves and his hospital colleagues. |
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This theme is poignantly made in the film, which also crucially alters the facts and the sequence of events so that Merrick is inaccurately portrayed as being abducted from the Hospital and taken to the Continent after being exhibited by an insensitive porter. In reality, Joseph was much more in control of his own affairs than is depicted in these accounts. He was born in Leicester in 1862 and began to experience skin and bone changes whilst still a young child. |
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| Jonathan Evans' article |
| (current Curator of the Royal London Hospital's Museum and Archives) |
| After the early death of his mother, Mary Jane, his father, Joseph Rockley Merrick, an engine driver, married again. Joseph's sister was also crippled and he was obliged to try to earn a living, first as a cigar maker and, when his right hand became too deformed to allow him to do this, by hawking trinkets through the streets: this became impossible when he was repeatedly mobbed by children. |
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After living for a time with his Uncle Charles, Joseph entered the Leicester Workhouse in 1879 and spent two miserable periods there over the next few years. |
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Eventually Joseph had the idea of trying to make some money from his misfortunes and he approached the showmen, Sam Torr and Tom Norman (known as "The Silver King") with a plan to exhibit himself in a travelling freakshow. Norman ran the show and was comparatively kind to Joseph, in contrast to the depiction of the cruel showman by Treves and Lynch.
Treves' students, who knew he had published articles about cases of monstrous disease, alerted him when the show was temporarily located in an empty shop opposite the London Hospital in 1884. |
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Treves examined Merrick at his rooms in the medical college and presented him to a meeting of the Pathological Society, subsequently writing up the presentation in the proceedings of the society as "a case of congenital deformity".
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| Sideshow |
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Returning to the sideshow, Joseph was not a success but he put by what money he could and went to the Continent with a man named Ferrari in the hope that it would be more successful there. His hopes were not fulfilled and were cruelly dashed when Ferrari abandoned him and stole Joseph's money. |
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After a nightmarish journey via Harwich to London, Joseph was mobbed at Liverpool Street Station: the police found Treves' card in Joseph's pocket and brought him to the London Hospital. Struck by the pathos of Merrick's plight, the Hospital Chairman, Francis Carr Gomm wrote to The Times appealing for support. A Merrick Fund was established and £250 sent in by readers with an annuity of £50 promised by a Mr. Singer if he could be kept at the hospital, which was what Joseph himself desired.
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He was not, strictly speaking, admissible as a patient under the hospital's byelaws, not being acutely ill, but the hospital's House Committee made him its only "Inmate", a term usually reserved for the inhabitants of workhouses and asylums.
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A bed-sitting room and a bathroom (Joseph had to bathe every day to prevent the extruberences on his skin becoming foul) were converted for his use in the basement of the East Wing facing Bedstead Square. Treves' students and the devoted Nurse Ireland attended to him and he received visitors. In 1887 he was introduced to the Princess of Wales, the future Queen Alexandra. |
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The hospital authorities also arranged for Joseph to have holidays in the country, visits to Treves' home and to a theatre. He enjoyed making and giving presents and one of these, a church made for the actress Madge Kendall, has survived. |
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Joseph was found dead lying on his bed on April 11, 1890. His death certificate records that he died of asphyxia occasioned by the weight of his head: he had for years slept with his head resting on his knees and experienced distress when lying down: perhaps he had fallen onto his back and was not able to right himself? Treves records that Joseph had always wanted to sleep "like other people". |
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A memorial service was held in the Hospital Chapel, Treves having preserved some of Joseph's remains* as anatomical curator. Frederick Treves retired as Surgeon to the London Hospital in 1896, but continued to be an honorary consultant and an active supporter of the hospital for the rest of his life: recently a new ward has opened at the Royal London and has been named after him. |
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The above article has been reproduced here with the very kind permission of the author, Archivist Jonathan Evans of the Royal London Hospital. |
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The Webmaster thanks Mr. Evans for his permission to use this article.
* Joseph's preserved remains were destroyed during the Blitz. |
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