North Tawton: Okehampton Poor Law Union Doctors

Although only 3 miles away from Bow, North Tawton formed part of the Okehampton Poor Law Union.

From May 1836, Medical Officers were appointed to No 3 District, comprising Bondleigh, Broadwoodkelly, Exbourne, Honeychurch, North Tawton, Sampford Courtenay and Spreyton.

Samuel Budd (1772-1841) was the first Medical Officer, appointed in 1836 when he was 64. He held this post until his death.

Christian Budd (1813-1891) held this post after his father's death in 1841, until he fell out with the Poor Law Union and resigned in November 1842. He was reappointed when Dr Lane, his successor, resigned after a year in the post. He finally resigned in 1848 after his request for an increase in salary was refused.

Charles Henry Butler Lane (1815-1853). Appointed in May 1843. He resigned after a year and moved to London.

Charles Drew (1826-1857). His parents farmed at Alfordon, between Okehampton and Sampford Courtenay. He was appointed in September 1848 and lived at Exbourne. He too fell out with Okehampton Union and resigned after less than two years. He moved to Wiveliscombe where he married Matilda Newton. He was a surgeon to the East India Company and also a botanist, sending plant samples from India to Kew Gardens. He died in Vellore aged 31 leaving a widow and two sons.

John Martin Birom (1819-1870). He was Medical Officer for about a year 1855-56. He had married Elizabeth Crossley Tharp in 1845. They had no children. He died in Topsham. His widow later married Rev John Arundell Leakey, Perpetual Curate of Topsham.

William Densham (1833-1872). He was born in Chulmleigh where his father was a saddler (and whose apprentice in 1827 was William Partridge Longman). He was appointed in 1856 on an annual salary of £50. The following year he married Mary Ann Turner Cole in Bideford. He died aged 40 in North Tawton.

John Deans (1839-1918). Born in Leicester, a vicar’s son, he married Jane Bousfied in 1871. After her death he came to North Tawton in about 1881 with his sister and his children. He resigned and left North Tawton in 1883. He gained an MD and in Bristol in 1889 married a nurse tutor, Mary Robinson. In about 1891 they settled in New Norfolk, Tasmania. She died in 1894. 4 years later he married Jeanne Gard. They then moved to Melbourne where he died aged 80 in 1918.

John Arthur Kempe (1852-1913). Another clergyman’s son, he was born at Bicton. He qualified from University College Hospital in 1875. In 1883 he married Elizabeth Cock Netting in Plymouth and in July that year was appointed medical officer in North Tawton. He resigned in November but continued to live in the village at Broad Hall. No other doctor being willing to move into the village, he applied and was re-appointed in April 1884 before being asked to resign in September 1884. In May 1885 he was fined £2 plus costs for being both drunk and incapable in a public street in North Tawton. He and his wife separated and were divorced in 1894 on the grounds of her adultery. At that time he lived in Birmingham where he taught anatomy at the Medical School. He wrote “Diseases of the Eye, a Manual for Senior Students” in 1896. He remarried prior in 1894 to Harriet Ann Davies; they had one daughter. He died in New Street Railway Station, Birmingham, in 1913.

Gervas Miles Wasse (1857-1926) was the son of the curate of Melbourne in Derbyshire. After his father died in 1874, Gervas spent some time with his uncle Dr John Deans (see above) in North Tawton before qualifying from St Thomas’s Hospital in 1880.

He was an assistant to a GP in Knighton, Radnorshire, before becoming Surgeon Superintendent on the emigrant ship “Oxford” which sailed from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1883 with over 300 passengers. The voyage was a near disaster. The ship first left Plymouth on 27January but was dismasted in a ferocious gale in the Bay of Biscay. It limped back to Cardiff for repairs. The passengers were billeted in Plymouth while the ship was repaired. A few of the passengers developed Typhoid.  Wasse was appointed surgeon for the resumed voyage; the “Oxford” eventually sailed on 26 April. During the voyage the Typhoid reappeared, affecting eight passengers, two of whom died and were buried at sea. The ship reached New Zealand on 23 July and its passengers were quarantined on Somes Island off Wellington. Several more of them died of Typhoid over the next few weeks. A Royal Commission investigated the complaints of the passengers.