Mapperley People likes to recognise the achievements of our residents, and Charles Bell TAYLOR is one that deserves his place in the area’s history.
Charles Taylor was a surgeon oculist, the old term for what we now call an ophthalmologist.
He lived and died at Beechwood Hall on Woodborough Road in Mapperley Park. Beechwood was built in 1887 and Taylor was the first owner. He was at the peak of his career at this time. He had a worldwide reputation and was also known for his charitable work with the poor. It is ironic that the name Beechwood went on to have a more sinister reputation, as a notorious children’s home where abuse was rife.
The Beechwood Hall that Taylor lived in still stands as a private dwelling.
It is the building located at 379 Woodborough Road, and was the main house of the Beechwood Children’s Home, known as Lindens.
Photo credit Google Maps.
Edinburgh, Nottingham and Paris
He took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Edinburgh in 1854 and then continued his medical studies in Paris. He acted for some time as medical superintendent at the Walton Lodge Asylum, Liverpool, then in 1859 returned to Nottingham, where he was the appointed surgeon of the Nottingham Eye Infirmary. He ‘filled that office with great distinction for nearly half-a-century’.
Taylor became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1867, in recognition of his senior role as an eye surgeon.
As an operator he was without a rival, being regarded as the first to perform the operation for cataract without leaving a scar. He had a world-wide reputation. His rooms were crowded. He would have a hundred consultations in a day, and conduct up to ten operations.
He frequently lectured on his profession and many were reported in the Lancet between 1884 and 1895, one of the most valuable was titled Eye Diseases in General Practice.
‘These lectures were models of simple, clear, and incisive style, and they were further illustrated with careful drawings’.’
Healthy Lifestyle
The amount of work he did was enormous. The British Medical Journal suggested that this was down to Taylor’s healthy lifestyle, stating that ‘his abstemious mode of living, combined with his great vitality to produce this result. It also reported that ‘he never had more than two meals a day, and he abstained altogether from alcohol, tobacco, and even from tea and coffee’.
He continued to perform surgery at 80 years of age ‘with a hand as steady as in his prime’ and continued to write articles for the Medical Times right up to a month before his death.
He was a strong individualist, and hated compulsion. He invariably quoted the pope, both in relation to human beings and animals, for they represented the religion of his life.
Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the faults I see.
That mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.
Care For Animals
Charles Taylor’s wider family were veterinary surgeons in Nottingham and he was also known as a great animal lover, regularly campaigning against vivisection. The Animals Guardian was a favourite publication of his. He had two white carriage horses and a four wheeled covered carriage (known as a brougham) that followed him to his burial.
Taylor died in 1909 at the age of 80. He was cremated and his ashes were buried in the Nottingham General Cemetery, near to the top chapel. There is a monument to him that is unusual, as it has a medallion portrait of him and originally included a ‘sleeping dog’ at the base. Interestingly the inscription does not mention his contribution to medical medicine, which was huge. A humble and gifted man
Taylor never married and had no children. Most of his estate of £160,000 was left by his will various charities including the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
This article has drawn the information from various online sites including findmygrave, nottshistory.org , the nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam (on WordPress) and they also credit a publication by Robert Mellors, titled Old Nottingham Suburbs.