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John Griffith [Griffith-8579] c Married: 1841 Sarah Eliza Foster [Foster-23147] c | |||||||||||
| Walter Spencer Anderson Griffith [Griffith-8640] [CFT #2075] Born: 1854 Died: 1946 |
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| b Brighton, Sussex d Surrey From his obituary – The Times 28th Feburary, 1946 “Dr W S A Griffith, C.B.E., M.D. F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S., Consulting Physician to Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital and Consulting Obstetric Physician to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, died on February 26. 1946. Dr Griffith had leased two London properties - 96 Harley Street which served as both a home and consulting rooms, and 19 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. At some point he purchased Holly Cottage, in Grayswood, Haslemere, Surrey which served as a holiday home when he and his wife needed a break from London. Following his death, his second wife Isabella continued to visit the cottage. Walter Spencer Anderson Griffith was born in Brighton on 1st December 1854, son of the Rev. John Griffith, LLD., sometime headmaster of Brighton College. [His mother was Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Foster of Brooklands, Cambridge]. His younger brother, Dr. Francis Llewellyn Griffith, D.Litt. Professor Emeritus of Egyptology in the University of Oxford, died on March 14, 1934. Educated at Brighton College, Griffith began his medical studies at the Royal Sussex Hospital, and completed them in London at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He went to Downing College, Cambridge, soon after he was qualified, kept the statutory terms while he lived in London, by sleeping at weekends in Cambridge, and ultimately became M.D. in 1889. In 1881 he took the F.R.C.S., and in 1893 he was elected F.R.C.P. By that time he had determined to devote himself to obstetric medicine being influenced to some extent by Dr. J. Matthews Duncan, a very great teacher, but chiefly because the study of the diseases of women was then advancing rapidly and there was a cleavage between midwifery and the new department of gynaecology. He was appointed physician-accoucheur to the Great Northern Hospital; teacher of midwifery at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; physician to outpatients at the Samaritan Hospital; physician to Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital; and consulting gynaecologist to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank. When Dr Matthews Duncan died unexpectedly in 1890, Sir Francis Champneys was elected to fill his place at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and Dr Griffith was made physician-accoucheur with charge of out-patients, afterwards becoming full physician, a post he resigned in 1919 on attaining the age of 65. He was then given the title of consulting physician-accoucheur, was made a governor of the hospital, and was chosen to serve on the house committee. For many years he represented the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the Central Midwives Board and was president of the Medical Defence Union. He lectured on midwifery at Cambridge and served a term of office as president of the section of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Society of Medicine. A man of great natural ability, Griffith was an excellent teacher, a master of his subjects and a good operator. He wrote several papers dealing with the pathology and treatment of the diseases of women, but published no independent book. [During the war of 1914-19 he was consultant at the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, and was awarded the CBE for his services.] He was a good musician and as an executant played the violoncello. In 1885, he married Mary Anne, youngest daughter of Thomas Kinder, of Sandridge Bury, St. Albans, and had a son. Secondly he married in 1918 Ella, daughter of the late W. Jackson Kennedy, M.D., of Lisaghmore, Kirkcaldy, Fife.” Walter and Mary actually had three sons: Kenneth Chevallier died aged two years in 1890 and Captain Geoffrey Foster Griffith was killed at Passchendaele in September 1917, aged twenty-six. The son to which the Obituary must be referring to is the eldest son - Harold Kinder Griffith. No children were born to Walter and his second wife Isabella. Walter Griffith was a tall, strong man of serious outlook, conscientious, painstaking, and determined in his own views. He was a lucid and practical teacher, and when instructing his class used to perch on a high stool and usually wore a black velvet skull-cap. In Walter’s Will dated 16th August 1942, he requests his “Trustees to consult with Messrs. W. and E. Hill’s of Bond Street, London as to the best method of disposing of my Violoncellos by Nicole Amati and William Hill and Sons which I value at Three thousand pounds and Sixty pounds respectively and their bows one by Tourte … and others by Hill …”. Unfortunately, there came a day when Walter loaded his precious Amati violoncello into his car which was parked outside his home in Harley Street as he realised he had left something in the house. He hurried inside to find it and on his return found his cello had been stolen from his unlocked car. It was never retrieved. Griffith bequeathed one-third of the residue of his fortune to St Bartholomew's Hospital, for the development of the obstetrical and gynaecological department and another third to the Hospital's medical college. He also bequeathed the Oliver Cromwell silver bleeding bowl to his son Harold who in turn, bequeathed it to his eldest son Anthony Chevallier Griffith. Walter’s request was that this bowl should be treated as an “heirloom” and passed down the family. “If any such descendent did not wish to take on this obligation, then the Trustees were to offer the said bowl free of duty to the Royal Nautical Museum at Greenwich …”. Sadly this request of Walter’s was overlooked and the bowl was sold at auction in a small provincial saleroom in the 1970s." Note: An Amati is understood to be second only to a Stradivarius. His CBE, Will, miniature and original Times obituary are in the family's possession. Vanessa Griffith and Anthony Cobbold August 2013. Cbe Md ✓ |
1: 1886 Harold Kinder Griffithcw W/C 2: 1888 Kenneth Chevallier Griffithcw 3: 1891 Geoffrey Foster Griffithcw | ||||||||||
| 3 Children | |||||||||||
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