Arthur John Jex-Blake

Arthur John Jex-Blake FRCP (31 July 1873 – 16 August 1957) was a British physician, specializing in heart and lung diseases.[1]

Biography

After education at Eton, Arthur John Jex-Blake matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated BA in 1894, MA in 1901, BM and BCh in 1901, and DM in 1913. He entered as a University scholar at St George's Hospital Medical School, where he received his medical education. In 1902 the University of Oxford awarded him a Radcliffe travelling fellowship, enabling him to visit Vienna, Copenhagen, and Baltimore. He was appointed to the staff of the Victoria Hospital for Children and then became an assistant physician to St George's Hospital and to the Royal Brompton Hospital. He qualified MRCP in 1905 and was elected FRCP in 1912. In 1913 he delivered the Goulstonian Lectures.[1]

During WWI he served as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France and upon his return was appointed a full physician at St George's Hospital. In 1920 he married, resigned all of his London appointments, and moved with his bride to Kenya, where he lived until his death in 1957.[1]

Family

Arthur John Jex-Blake was a son of Rev. Thomas William Jex-Blake, D.D. headmaster of Rugby School from 1874 to 1887 and a nephew of the famous physician and feminist Sophia Jex-Blake. His siblings included Katharine Jex-Blake, Mistress of Girton College from 1916 to 1922; Henrietta Jex-Blake, principal of Lady Margaret Hall from 1909 to 1921;[2] and Bertha Jex-Blake, physician who studied at the Edinburgh College of Medicine for women established by her aunt. Bertha drowned near Whitby in 1915.[3]

On 5 August 1920 in Wilton, Wiltshire, A. J. Jex-Blake married Lady Muriel Katherine Herbert (1883–1951), daughter of Sidney Herbert, 14th Earl of Pembroke.[4]

They owned a coffee plantation named Kyuna where they created a private botanical garden and co-founded the Kenya Horticultural Society (1923). Lady Muriel published on the flora of Kenya including a popular book illustrated by Joy Adamson.[5]

The couple met in Boulogne in WWI when he was a doctor and she was a volunteer nurse. The Jex-Blakes had one daughter, Daphne Marian Jex-Blake (1923–1970); she married Richard Mason.[6]

Selected publications

References
  1. "Arthur John Jex-Blake". Munk's Roll, Volume V, Royal College of Physicians.
  2. Perrone, Fernanda Helen (2004). "Blake, Katharine Jex- (1860–1951), classical scholar and college head". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48441. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 29 September 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Jex-Blake, Sophia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
  4. "Dr. Arthur John Lex-Blake". thepeerage.com.
  5. "Jex-Blake, Muriel Katherine (1883–1951)". Global Plants.
  6. Mason, Phillip (June 2014). "Jex and Muriel Blake — a personal perspective" (PDF). The Shamba Times, Journal of the North Coast District, Kenya Horticultural Society. 1 (2): 4–5.
  7. Rowland, F. M.; Marshall, F. W.; Menton, J. (7 March 1928). "An unusual case of food poisoning". Br Med J. 1 (3506): 439–440. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.3506.439. PMC 2455496. PMID 20773749.
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