For almost 200 years there had been a doctor resident in Bow. I was the twenty-ninth.
This is our story
THE MEDICAL GENTLEMEN OF BOW
George Bent MD
George Bent was born in about 1702 in Jacobstowe in Devon.
In the 1733 list of freeholders in Devon he is listed as "George Bent, doctor of physick, gentleman" of Crediton.
He studied at Oriel College Oxford before graduating MB in 1727 and MD in 1732 at St Catharine's College Cambridge. He was a senior physician at the short lived Paris Street Hospital in Exeter and was appointed to the staff of the Devon and Exeter Hospital in 1754, until his death in 1771.
His son George and grandson Hugh were successively clergymen in Sandford, on the outskirts of Crediton, covering a period of 64 years.
Rev George Bent married twice; in addition to his clergyman son Hugh, he had seven other children.
Sandford Church, and the memorial within to Rev George and Rev Hugh Bent.
Medical Descendants of Rev George Bent.
Rev George Bent's son William Henry Bent had about 11 children, many of whom had distinguished careers. Two were doctors:
John Bent was an army surgeon. He was born in 1817; when he was 20 he entered the army as an assistant surgeon . At the time of his death in November 1874 he was principal Medical Officer at Aldershot Camp. He worked his way up through the ranks attaining the rank of Surgeon General. He served in the Crimea and had been stationed in Gibraltar for the five years leading up to his death. He was buried with full military honours at Aldershot Military Cemetery.
William Henry Bent, named after his father, was a surgeon in the Navy. Born in Woolwich in 1818, he died in New Zealand in 1852. A plaque on the wall of Sandford Church tells the story of his death in New Zealand.
(He joined the Royal Navy and was promoted to assistant surgeon on 1 May 1840; His diary of his experiences on boad HMS Donegal and HMS Britannia in 1840 and other documents are in Plymouth and West Devon Record Office ref 2487/. He was appointed to HMS Albion in December 1843 and HMS Illustrious April 1844, and promoted to surgeon on 1 October 1847.)
Lieutenant William Bent was the ship's surgeon on board HMS Fantome. In March 1851 it sailed from Plymouth, arriving in Tasmania in July. It remained in Australian waters and on 2 Nov 1852 sailed from Sydney to Auckland. When they took the mail ashore to Porirua it was discovered that medical advice was required by one of the settlers there. On the morning of Thursday 11 November, still lying off the Island of Mana, the captain, with the ship's surgeon and a crew of 8 pulled for shore in a ship's boat, but on coming close to shore the surf upset the boat and all hands were thrown into the sea, at which time Bent, a non-swimmer, and 4 men were drowned. Surviving members of the crew of the boat were badly bruised through being dashed against the rocks in the heavy surf.
Back on the Vengeance, another party rowed ashore on the Sunday to investigate why the sailors had not returned. Their whale-boat overturned as well, and another two crewmen drowned.
Dr Bent’s body was found a few days later, taken to Wellington, and buried in St Paul’s Churchyard on November 28, where an inscription was put up by his mess-mates. He was given a military funeral. The crewmen were buried at Porirua.
His gravestone, which now lies flat in Bolton Street Memorial Park in central Wellington, has recently been cleaned, see photographs below.
Above: William Bent's grave no 3308 as recorded in 1939, surrounded by iron railings 4 feet tall since removed.
(Wellington City Council, Karori Cemetery Sexton's Office.)
(Below) Inscription on William Bent's New Zealand gravestone (right)
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM H. BENT
SURGEON ON H.M. SLOOP “FANTOME”
WHO WITH SIX OTHERS OF THE
“FANTOME’S” CREW WAS DROWNED BY
THE UPSETTING OF THE SHIP’S BOAT OFF
PORIRUA HARBOUR, NEW ZEALAND
ON NOVEMBER 1852
AGED 34
THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY HIS
BROTHER OFFICERS IN TOKEN OF THE
HIGH ESTEEM IN WHICH HE WAS HELD
BY ALL ON BOARD
Photographs from New Zealand courtesy Nick Perrin, Friends of Bolton Street Memorial Park.
