JOHN HEAVISIDE

Surgeon Extraordinary to

His Majesty King George III.

 

This John Heaviside was quite a well known, one might say notorious, character in his day. His father,

another John, was also a surgeon in the town of Hatfield just north of London and had origins in Auckland,

County Durham. Quite how he became a wealthy medical man in Hatfield is obscure but wealthy and

well-connected he was.  In his will he left considerable sums of money.

 

John junior entered the same profession, training under a famous surgeon, and eventually was appointed

to the position of surgeon extraordinary to King George III (the one who went mad). Exactly what this

entailed is not known.

 

What is known is that he built up a collection of medical curiosities which he exhibited in a museum.

 

Heaviside’s Museum

Parts of his collection remain in the possession of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons although not on display

 

Further notoriety came with his attendance as resident surgeon at a duel between a Lt. Colonel Montgomery and a Captain Macnamara R.N. (resulting from a quarrel over a dog!) at which Cl. Montgomery was killed and Macnamara wounded. Rather than run away, as was the usual form, Heaviside stayed to attend the wounded man. He was charged with “aiding and abetting a murder” but was acquitted. Some wag remarking “can we never have a suicide or a homicide without a Heaviside?”