Jasper Blaxland
Athelstan Jasper Blaxland (14 September 1880 – 7 December 1963) was an English physician, beginning his career as a general practitioner in Norwich and later becoming a consultant general surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Jasper Blaxland FRCS | |
|---|---|
| Born | Athelstan Jasper Blaxland 14 September 1880 |
| Died | 7 December 1963 (aged 83) |
| Education | Westminster School University College Hospital |
| Years active | 1907–1946 |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Physician |
| Institutions | University College Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital Royal National Hospital Norfolk and Norwich Hospital |
| Sub-specialties | consultant general surgeon |
During the First World War, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps on active service in France.
Life
Blaxland was born in 1880, the only son of William Athelstan Blaxland, solicitor to London County Council, and was educated at Westminster School and University College Hospital. After graduating, his house appointments were at UCH, the Great Ormond Street Hospital, and the Royal National Hospital, and then for more than a year at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. In 1907 he joined an uncle who was in general practice in Norwich.[1]
In 1909, Blaxland became an assistant surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, but he went on working as a general practitioner.[1] In 1911, he moved into 29, Surrey Street, Norwich, a large Georgian property, from where his general practice was run.[2] Then came the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, and in March 1915 Blaxland was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps as a temporary Captain,[3] serving mostly in France as a clearing station surgeon, treating battle casualties. After his return to Norfolk at the end of the European war, Blaxland gave up general practice, building up a practice as a consulting surgeon.[1]
In 1925, he was appointed as a full surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, where in 1927 Geoffrey Gillam became his house surgeon.[4] In 1930/1931 he was elected as President of the Norfolk branch of the British Medical Association, and he also became a Vice-President of the Medical Defence Union.[1]
He retired in 1946, when his portrait was painted by Faith K. Sage for the Hospital. This is now at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital[5]
Private life
In 1912, Blaxland married Marion Andrews, at Henstead, Suffolk,[6] and they had four sons, Mark, John, Gregory, and Stephen, of whom Mark died at the age of two.[7] In 1928 the Blaxlands took up residence at St Catherine's Close, All Saints Green, Norwich.[8] One son followed his father into the medical profession.[1]
Jasper Blaxland played tennis and golf and also enjoyed shooting. He died in 1963 in a nursing home in Norwich, and his funeral was in Norwich Cathedral. An obituary called him "unorthodox... altogether a whimsical but lovable character."[1]
Notes
- "A. J. Blaxland M.S., F.R.C.S.", British Medical Journal (Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1964), 1, 123
- Joe Mason, The Story of a House (1), accessed 27 April 2019
- Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Vol. 24 (1915), p. 82: "Athelstan Jasper Blaxland, F.R.C.S., to be Captain (temporary), dated March 26, 1915."
- "Geoffrey Gerrard Gillam" (sic) in William Munk, ed., The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London: Continued to 1975 (The Royal College, 1982), pp. 196–198
- Athelstan Jasper Blaxland (1880–1963), Consultant Surgeon (1909–1946) at artuk.org, accessed 28 April 2019.
- "BLAXLAND Athlestan J & Andrews Anna M" in Marriages in England and Wales, Henstead, vol. 4b (1912), p. 515
- Mark Blaxland, findagrave.com, accessed 2 October 2021
- A new chapter in the history of St Catherine's Close on All Saints Green, Norwich, from EDP Norfolk magazine, June 2005, bawdeswell.net, accessed 4 October 2021