OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
www.oldplymouth.uk
 

WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

GEORGE HENRY ECCLES (1841-1918)

George Henry Eccles was born in 1841 to Mr John Henry Eccles, surgeon, of 1 Sussex Street, Plymouth, and his wife, formerly Miss Milly Elizabeth Soltau.  Their marriage took place in Plymouth in 1839.

He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1862 and in 1865 was awarded the Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (LRCP)  and Licentiate of the (Worshipful) Society of Apothecaries (LSA).  For many years he was house surgeon at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital in London then became the surgeon of the Royal Naval Ordnance Department.

On returning to his home town of Plymouth he became surgeon of the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital, the Institution for the Blind, the Female Penitentiary, the Door of Hope, the Home for Friendless Girls, and the Devon and Cornwall Girls' Industrial School. In addition to the many charitable institutions with which he became connected, he was an medical inspector of seamen for the Board of Trade.  He also ran his own private practice, which was described as "lucrative".  It was said that he 'sacrificed much for his religious convictions'.

Mr George Henry Eccles married twice.  The first was to Miss Ellen Tolcher in 1865.  This took place in Plymouth.  They had one son, George Tolcher Eccles (1866).  She died in 1870 and was buried at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery on August 7th.  The second was to the 25-years-old Miss Fanny Herbert Fynghaloni Beatrice Nelson Neale, registered at the time as Francis Herbert B F N O'Neale Neale, at Kingston in Surrey in 1883.  They had two sons, Herbert Nisbet Eccles and George Dunluce Eccles, and four daughters.

While living at Sherwill House in 1891 the family had four servants, Miss Amelia E Kellaway, from Lifton, Devon, cook; Miss Emma Jennings, from Somerset, nurse; Miss Lydia Martin, from Winchester, Hampshire, parlourmaid; and Miss Henrietta E Reeder, from Saxlingham, Norfolk, undernurse.

Mr George Henry Eccles died at his home, Sherwill House, Tavistock Road, Plymouth, on January 28th 1918.  His wife had died in 1907.  They are presumably both buried at the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Cemetery.

Three of Mr Eccles' sons served in the medical profession: Doctor George Tolcher Eccles at Hove, Sussex; Captain Herbert Nisbet Eccles and Captain George Dunluce Eccles in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).