royalarmymedicalcorps

A quite remarkable man. Dr Josiah Oldfield died, two weeks short of his 90th birthday, in 1953 at Doddington, near Sittingbourne, in Kent. As a student he read Theology at Oxford, gaining an Honours Degree, before pursuing Law and being called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1892. He then studied medicine and qualified as a doctor in 1897, becoming the Warden of the Oriolet Hospital at Loughton in Essex, before founding his own hospital, The Hospital of St Francis in the New Kent Road, London. He wrote a thesis on 'Capital Punishment' at Oxford for which he received a Doctorate in Civil Law - prior to founding the 'Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment' in 1901, as mentioned above. Dr Josiah Oldfield evidently had money to invest and was involved in several business ventures, some of which foundered in the mercurial economic environment at the turn of the century. These included "The Bromley Autocar Company Ltd" which voluntarily wound-up in 1903, and "Millenium Ltd", which folded in 1907. Josiah Oldfield's connections with the Army date from 1898 when he was at the Oriolet Hospital. Aged 25, he was Commissioned as the Surgeon Lieutenant to the 1st Volunteer Battalion, The Essex Regiment, on 2nd April 1898, [LG 1 Apr 1898]. By 1910 he was Major Josiah Oldfield MD, RAMC, in the 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance. In 1913 Major Josiah Oldfield wrote a informed paper on 'Regimental and Field AmbulanceTraining in the Territorial Force' which was published in the Journal of the RAMC. He was 51 at the outbreak of the First World War. Josiah Oldfield commanded 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance during the war. This was a 2nd Line unit which provided military ambulance evacuation of disembarking wounded to hospitals in the East of England. There is a photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Oldfield and some of his men at www.campaigns.homecall.co.uk/fsarticles/vegearmy/ On 11th May 1918 Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Oldfield RAMC was awarded the Territorial Decoration. [LG 21 May 1918]. After the Great War Dr Josiah Oldfield bought the almost derelict estate of Lady Margaret Manor, near Doddington in Kent. Here, at Ellens Court, with typical energy and vision, he set about setting up a specialist convalescent hospital where treatment was based on a Fruitarian Dietary regime. Further detail of this is at www.doddington-kent.org.uk/historicalbuildings_files/lady... //

Gary Donaldson Thanks for adding this extra info Gary, he certainly lived a very full life.

OBITUARY Dr. Josiah Oldfield (1864-1953) With the passing of Dr. Josiah Oldfield one of the few remaining links of the vegetarian movement with the Victorian era has been broken. How far back that link stretches is uncertain since he loved to make a mystery of his years, for, though his obituary notice states "in his 90th year," he had the foible of being thought much older. When I was a boy of some ten years, I remember him - a middle-aged man in my eyes - coming on a bicycle to my father's country cottage to a meeting of fellow vegetarians over fifty years ago. Many and varied have been his life's activities, for he originally trained for the legal profession and was called to the Bar at Linclon's Inn in 1892, and then proceeded to qualify as a doctor at Bart's in 1897. Before these professions were acquired he was a schoolmaster, and with his savings (amplified by earnings as a stonbreaker in vacation time) he payed his university fees, a proceeding common enough amongst indigent students to-day, but surely exceedingly rare in those times. Like my father, he was a friend of Gandhi's in the latter's student days, and I believe both have claimed to have converted him to vegetarianism.* Of his legal activities I know little, but there must be many who know much of his advocacy of food reform, for throughout his professional life he frequently took the platform, and even more frequently the pen, to disseminate his humanitarian and dietic views. Even in advanced years his writings retained the lucidity and elasticity of enthusiastic youth. He was at one time Secretary of the London Vegetarian Society and for about fifty years he was physician to the Lady Margaret Fruitarian Hospital at Doddington, a somewhat remote village appropriately situated in the heart of the Kentish orchards. As a practical and practising idealist in the cause of humanitarianism and vegetarianism, his influence has been great. A number of popular booklets in a lively and incisive style testify to his skill as a propagandist. His advocacy of fruitarianism (what we should term lacto-vegetarianism with emphasis on fruit) was especially valuable in the early days when the orthodox medical profession was outspoken against the so-called folly and danger of a meatless diet. In addition to law and medicine he obtained a degree in divinity and went to India at the beginning of the century where, by his own account, he "lived for some time in a Yogi's cave." It is evident that he was well endowed with the moral courage so necessary to the championing of unpopular and idealistic reforms. Dr. Oldfield was a living advertisement of his views, and if there be some who unkindly criticise vegetarians for living an unconscionable time, these same critics would be equally eager to denounce the practice if the exponent should have the misfortune to die relatively young. Dr. Oldfield, in continuing in health and vigour to the end, must have confounded his critics, the majority of whom he no doubt outlived. We offer all sympathy to his daughter in a loss that is as much ours as hers. B.P.A. From The Vegetarian News of Spring 1953

He died at Margaret Manor, Doddington on 2nd February 1953 leaving an estate valued at £33,200. Probate was granted to Josie Magdalen Oldfield, spinster. He had married Gertrude Hick, a nurse, on 29th September 1899 at Wakefield Cathedral. Josiah was then a Physician, living at 122 Harley Street, London. Gertrude was the daughter of Matthew Bassey Hick, a Chemical Manufacturer. In 1911 Gertrude was living at Orchard Cottage, Chapelthorpe, Crigglestone, West Yorkshire. She described herself as a Laundry Proprietress and had living with her their twin daughters: Josie Margaret and Irene Dorrien Oldfield aged 9, born in Bromley, Kent. Public family trees confirm that they were twins and were born on 9th March 1902. Irene died in 1997 and Josie in 1996. Gertrude stated that she had been married for 11 years and had had only two children. Josie Magdalen Oldfield is something of a mystery. She was born circa 1906 in Broadstairs Kent and living with Josiah, described as her father, in 1911. Although Josiah also states that he has only 2 children. According to online trees Josie Magdalen was formerly a medical officer with the London borough of Greenwich. She died on 31 December 1984 after a short illness. She was 78. Josie Magdalen Oldfield qualified in medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women (Royal Free Hospital) in 1933 and began her career by holding residential appointments in medicine at Haslemere Hospital and in anaesthetics at Queen Charlotte's. She then chose general practice. However, faced with the ethical dilemma of trying to make a living during periods of unrest among the Kent mining community when the families were unprotected by the panel system, she eventually opted for public health and worked for 30 years as a medical officer in the London borough of Greenwich with particular responsibility for deaf and mentally handicapped children. The skill, knowledge, and compassion with which Josie Oldfield carried out her work were widely recognised and applauded, but for much of her life the advancement of her career remained in the shadow of her care and devotion to her famous, nonagenarian father, Dr Josiah Oldfield, who was a doctor of medicine, law, and divinity, eminent vegetarian, and friend of Bernard Shaw and Gandhi, with whom he had shared digs as a law student . She inherited from her father many sparkling attributes, conversational repartee, the quiet mocking unorthodoxy of her views, and the strength of her friendships. She travelled widely and in retirement indulged her interests in music and the activities of the Kipling Society.

Help piece together the Life Stories of more than 8 million men and women who made a contribution during the First World War at www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org/

London Gazette, 2 November 1918, p. 12954:
“War Office,
2nd November, 1918.
[…]
“ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.
Capt. (actg. Maj.) R. Proudfoot, M.D., relinquishes his actg. rank on ceasing to be specially empld. 28th June 1918.
Lt.-Col. E. J. Lawless, from T.F. Res., to be Lt.-Col., with precedence from 19th Sept. 1914. 18th Oct. 1918.
Lt.-Col. E. M. Callender, M.D., from Gen. Hospital, to be Lt.-Col., with precedence from 13th Mar. 1912. 3rd Nov. 1918.
Capt. A. McGillivray, M.B., to be Maj. 5th, Oct. 1918.
Capt. J. E. Adams, M.B., F.R.C.S., is seconded for service overseas. 31st Oct. 1918.
Lt. R. McKenzie to be Capt. 28th Feb. 1918.”
www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/30988/supplements/12954/

London Gazette, 26 January 1923, p. 612:
“War Office,
26th January, 1923.
[…]
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS.
[…]
The undermentioned Offrs. relinquish their commns., 30th Sept. 1921, under A.O. 166/21, as amended by A.O. 332/21. And retain their rank except where otherwise stated: --
[…]
Capt. J. E. Adams, M.B., F.R.C.S.”
www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/32790/pages/612/

A surgeon named J. E. Adams also features in the St. Thomas's Hospital Reports from the early 1920s, where "J. E. Adams, M.B., MS., London, F. R.C.S." is described as one of the editors (Vol. XLVI, 1924, t.p. +p. 45), also in giving classes in advanced operative surgery (Vol. XLVI, 1924, p. 232). His address in the list of subscribers is given as: "19 Harley Street, W.1"
archive.org/details/reportssth46sainuoft
archive.org/details/reportssth47sainuoft

He also features as a subscriber in an earlier edition (Vol. XLIV, 1918, p. iii), where his address is given as "40 Devonshire Place, W," and where he is described as a specialist in the diseases of children (p. 13)
archive.org/details/reportssth44sainuoft

There is a short biography of Joseph Ebenezer Adams (1878 - 1926) available on the Royal College of Surgeons website: livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E000645b.htm

This states that "during the war he acted with the rank of captain on the à la suite staff of the Fifth London General Hospital (the St Thomas's unit), and at King George's Hospital."

There is also a very interesting obituary published in the British Medical Journal in 1927 that points out that Mr Adams had been prevented from serving overseas due to a disability, and that this had been a very real grief to him. The condition (a congenital diaphragmatic hernia) contributed to his early death at the age of 48. The photograph is definitely of the same person (and the obituary is well worth a read).

Br Med J 1927;1:44.1
doi: dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.1.3443.44
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2453826/?page=1

As a surgeon, he published a book (The diagnosis and treatment of acute abdominal diseases, 2nd ed., 1923, the revised version of a book first published by Adams and a colleague in 1913) and number of research articles, including several on appendicitis and one in the BMJ (1925) on abdominal crises in children. This last describes his affiliations as: Senior Surgeon at East London Hospital for Children and Surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital:
europepmc.org/articles/PMC2227879/pdf/brmedj05738-0001.pdf

A photograph his grave in Chislehurst (and that of his wife, Muriel Emma) is available at: billiongraves.com/pages/record/JOSEPHEBENEZERADAMS/5793182

Gavin Alexander Elmslie Argo Born on25th March1891at Kincardine O’Neil, Aberdeen, Scotland. Oldest child of Rev. Gavin E Argo [b.1854] and Anne Whyte Thompson Argo [b.1857]. The 1891 census records him as a baby [under one month old] living with his parents at The Manse [picture below], Kincardine O’Neil, Aberdeen. His father is the local Minister. The 1901 census records him still living at the Manse with his parents and a younger sister, Ruth [b.1894] Not found in the 1911 census. His Medals Records Card shows that he served with the RAMC 21st Field Ambulance as a Lieutenant, was promoted to Captain and later Major and that he was eligible for the 1914 Star because of his service with the BEF and that he later served in India. London Gazette entries read; 30th December 1941 - Award of the Military Medal; Royal Army Service Corps. Major [Temp. Lt Col.] G A E Argo O.B.E M.C 5th September 1944 – Royal Army Medical Corps; Maj. G A E Argo ceases to belongto the Reserve of Officers on account of ill heath. With effect 1st August 1944 and is granted the hon. Rank of Lt. Col. His entry on the University of Aberdeen Roll of Honour reads as follows; “Son of the late Rev. Gavin E. Argo ; born Kincardine O'Neil, 25 March 1891 ; educated at Robert Gordon's College. He graduated M.B., Ch.B. in 1913 and in the following year joined the R.A.M.C. During the first world war he gained the M.C., while in 1923 he was awarded the O.B.E. for services in Waziristan. Later on he went into general practice at Greenwich. In 1939 he was mobilized and sent to France. After Dunkirk he took command of a Field Ambulance and was "mentioned in dispatches" for his work in Iraq. Falling ill in August 1942 he was two years later invalided out of the Army. He died in Durban in March 1945.” Died 15th March 1945. His entry in the National Probate Calendar reads “Argo Gavin Alexander Elmslie of 15 Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, London SE10 died 15th March 1945 at Central Hotel, West Street, Durban, South Africa. Administration (with Will) at Llandudno 5th September to Beatrice Alice Gwendolen Argo, widow. Effects £5158 16s 7d. His name is commemorated on the Stellawood Cremation Memorial, Durban, South Africa.