KIDDERMINSTER MEDICAL SOCIETY         

A very interesting letter was recently received from Chris Stretton, the great Grandson of Lionel Stretton.
Older Kidderminster members will remember Lionel Stretton's reputation as a pioneering surgeon in Kidderminster in the first half of the 20th century.
The letter is self explanatory and augurs well for some very interesting reading in the not too distant future.
If anyone is able to help in any way, please get in touch with me or send photos as email attachments to barrie@flyingdoc.co.uk

Please click here to read the index pages of the book

I am Chris Stretton, great grandson of JLS.
For many years the family has had a copy of the manuscript of a book that he wrote and tried to get published in the 1940s, without success. 
The book is entitled "Fifty six years a surgeon - recollections and reflections".

Last year I tried to interest several publishers to publish the book, again without success.
But I have now found a local company that will publish for a very reasonable price and am thus finally able to proceed to make the book available to a wider audience.

At present I am scanning the manuscript and OCRing it into Microsoft Word, which is the format required by the publisher. 
This will take me several more weeks and I imagine the book will be print-ready early in the new year.

I wish to include some relevant photographs, and have a  lot of albums and loose photos to look through.
I wondered if you might have any photos that I might be able to use, particularly some period shots of the hospital etc.

With many thanks.

Chris Stretton

Presents

‘Around the world in eight wines’

A Wine Tasting Quiz- Wednesday 22^nd February 8.00pm
Kidderminster Education Centre

Dr Judith Hardwick, your president invites you to what promises to be a most enjoyable and fun evening. You will compete in teams to taste eight wines from around the world and challenged to identify grape, country and price under expert guidance of Majestic Wine. There will a prize and other fun and games.

Food with be provided.

No expertise required and it will be a great opportunity to socialise with friends and colleagues.

Cost will be £10 per person

Replies please to paul.williams6@nhs.net

Cheques made payable to Kidderminster Medical Society to

Dr Paul Williams
Church Street Surgery
Callows Lane
Kidderminster       DY10 2JG

The Dr John Wall Walk
25^th June 2011

Although advertised as a historical guided walk about the famous Dr John Wall, our host Chris Gait is a fountain of knowledge of all things historical, and we benefited in great measure from his grasp of the local detail and wider context.  It is fascinating when different strands involving politics, medicine, engineering, commerce, transport and heritage are brought together in one physical location.

Our tour began at the Worcester porcelain Museum and meandered through the old parts of the city via the tranquil cloisters of King’s School, the majestic Worcester Cathedral, the old commercial port, his innovative Silver Street and Castle Street hospitals and the town streets and houses, all of which shaped and were shaped by the life of the good doctor.  On our way Chris pointed out features usually unnoticed and unappreciated by the Saturday morning shoppers, and informed us with legend, fact and myth.   I certainly now look upon the city in a new light.

Born in Powick, John Wall (1708 – 1776) became one of very few local physicians in the country with a far ranging private practice, his consulting rounds taking in Stratford, Ludlow and Kidderminster.   He was instrumental in setting up the first charitable hospital in Worcester, and later, Castle Street hospital which was known a loved by many of us until very recently.  In addition he jointly founded and developed the porcelain factory into the leading manufacturer of its day, and found time to promote Malvern water cures, and to pursue his enthusiasm for painting, and much more besides.

The weather remained fair ( I will take credit for that, as I usually attract the sunshine!) and from the feedback on the day and since, we all enjoyed the tour.  Thank you, Chris, for sharing your hobby and enthusiasm with us - it was much appreciated.

Alan Bennett

Budding Authors Please Take Note !!!

Unfortunately, there appeared to be a desperate shortage of authors left amongst you because I was getting very little to publish. I intend changing the format of the website a little as I don’t think the old format of a thrice yearly paper newsletter is viable. What I intend is to introduce a simple article page where each article will be published in order of their being received. There they will be based on a calendar year and then stored in a separate archive. So please, put pen to paper; your president, Gary Parsons, has promised an article and I will write one describing the comparisons between life here in Cyprus to that in the Wyre Forest. Following my plea by email there have also been promises of a lot more so I must literally have woken a sleeping giant (Japanese ambassador to USA, December 1941)

 You just write the article, put it on an email and I will do the rest. My email address is :-

barrie@flyingdoc.co.uk

I will keep my fingers crossed and look forward to hearing from you

Barrie Davies

Click here to go to the new Author's Den