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Sir
Frederick Treves was born at
8 Cornhill, Dorchester. For two years
he went to the school run by William Barnes,
who became his life long mentor and whose
influence never left him. Frederick completed
his education at Merchant Taylors in London
but was always hankering for Î...the Dorset
beyond the hillsÌ. He followed his brother
into the medical profession. Treves commenced
his medical studies at the London Hospital
in 1867 and spent all of his professional
life at that institution. He is eponymically
associated with ileocaecal fold. His major
written work was an essay entitled Intestinal
Obstruction published in 1884. |
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He
was sergeant surgeon to the King Edward VII
and performed an appendicectomy and drainage
of an appendix abscess on him in 1902. The
operation was performed two days before the
king's intended coronation. The following
year he was made a baronet.
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While
working at the London Hospital, Whitechapel
he came across the sad and grossly-deformed
figure of Joseph Merrick, known better as
the Elephant Man. |
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| About
Doctor Treves |
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Treves
befriended this pitiful man and made his last
years bearable and happy. He became a distinguished
surgeon and writer of medical books and more
or less discovered that an inflamed appendix
was an operable condition! Treves became
surgeon to several members of the royal family,
including Queen Victoria. His most famous
patient however, was Edward VII, due to the
fact that he was instrumental in cancelling
his coronation, having removed his appendix
the day before! |
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Treves
gave up his medical career to write. He wrote
many surgical and medical textbooks, several
of which are still used today. He also wrote
four travel books. He developed a close friendship
with Hardy. Treves's last book The Elephant
Man and Other Reminiscences, became his most
famous. His ashes rest in Dorchester cemetery. |
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