When the Medics came to Norwich: The BMA Conference of 1874
Phyllida Scrivens SpeakerNet Sponsor
- Region:
- Norfolk
- Notice Period:
- Short (maybe less than one month's notice)
- Type:
- FROM END MARCH 2025 ON LINE ONLY, speaking about my published biographies
- Fee:
- Paid: £75 online
- Category:
- History
- Updated:
- 11th June 2024
- Tagged:
- Medicine | 19Th Century | Norwich | Biography
When the good doctors of Great Britain, Europe and the World descended upon Norwich in August 1874, the city welcomed their status, knowledge and wealth with open arms. With the Assembly House as Committee HQ, traders, hoteliers and restaurateurs took full advantage. Excursions throughout Norfolk, art exhibitions, garden parties, magnificent dinners and receptions, were all arranged for the entertainment of delegates and their wives, an extravagant backdrop to the programme of expert presentations exploring medical advancements of the day, including the basics we take for granted today such as anaesthetics, antiseptics and water quality. Phyllida Scrivens invites you to attend the grand dinner held by Jeremiah and Caroline Colman, meet some notable guests and listen in on conversations covering the highlights of the week, including the emerging animal cruelty scandal, ultimately resulting in an infamous court case brought by The Royal Society for Cruelty to Animals, then celebrating its fiftieth year. What the officers, delegates and guests did NOT know, was that within four weeks, doctors from Norwich would be involved in the Great Thorpe Railway Disaster, officially described as the ‘most serious collision between trains meeting one another on a single line of rails […] that has yet been experienced in this country’, one senior medical man losing his life as a result.
Views: 38 | Enquiries: 0About Phyllida Scrivens
Phyllida Scrivens lives with husband Victor in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, UK, overlooking the picturesque River Yare, only a short walk from the site of The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster, the subject of her third published book. She has been in Norfolk for just under 20 years, having moved up from Surrey. Her secretarial post at University of East Anglia inspired her to apply to study there for an MA in Creative Non-Fiction with Biography, graduating in 2014, when aged 60. This led directly to the publication of her first biography Escaping Hitler: A Jewish Boy’s Quest for Freedom and His Future, the story of legendary Norfolk businessman and former Kindertransport refugee, the late Joe Stirling. When Pen and Sword Books offered her a publishing contract it was a life-time dream fulfilled. Her second book, a group biography entitled The Lady Lord Mayors of Norwich 1923-2017, won the Best Biography Prize at the East Anglian Book Awards in November 2018. The third, The Great Thorpe Railway Disaster 1874 (Pen and Sword Books 2021) was also shortlisted for this award. September 2024 will mark the 150th anniversary of the Disaster and plans are afoot for a bronze plaque, commemorating the 26 who died, to be commissioned and dedicated by the Bishop of Norwich inside Thorpe St Andrew Parish Church on 15th September. Phyllida has been a popular public speaker for nearly ten years, sharing stories from her work throughout Norfolk and more recently reaching audiences further afield via Zoom. She plans to retire from face to face speaking at end March 2025, but hopes to continue sharing her stories via Zoom.
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