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Bruce Curtis Kelly

In 1872 Bruce Curtis Kelly was born in Edinburgh, where he qualified in 1894. His wife Margaret Emma Rose Troup was born in the North West Frontier region of present day Pakistan.

Aged 45 in March 1917 he succeeded Dr Mathews as medical officer for Bow and district “for the period of the war”. In 1918 the Union medical officers were awarded a 10% bonus on account of the war, despite “a great reduction in the number of paupers”. This salary for Bow district had been pegged at £36 15s since 1842.

He, his wife and small daughter had been living in Fair Park for a year before he bought the house for £1150 from Dr King in 1919. But he resigned in February 1920 on the grounds of ill-health, the house contents were auctioned and he moved back to Burnham on Sea in Somerset. Patients presented him with a handsome pair of silver candlesticks as a leaving present. Fair Park was sold to Dr Bastard.

In 1946, his daughter married a former Italian prisoner of war. Dr Kelly died aged 84, in 1956, near Bridgewater.