The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.2 | September 2022

Member’s article

1844 read as follows:- “On the 2nd instant, at Bognor, in his 88th year, Sir Isaac Wilson, MD and FRS, for many years physician to the Royal Naval Hospitals at Plymouth and Haslar, and domestic physician to their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent. ” A similar announcement appeared in the Hampshire Telegraph for 7 December 1844 which, on 4 January 1845, in a list of significant deaths during the past year added that Wilson “was senior physician in the medical list of the Royal Navy, being the senior by one year of the late Sir William Beatty”. Announcements also appeared in The Annual Register, The Gentleman’s Magazine and The Illustrated London News . But “It is a curious fact”, comments Marshall’s biography, “that none of the publications mentioned supply any biographical details of one holding such a distinguished position, while an important professional journal like the Medical Times does not even notice his death”. Some attempt is made below to repair that omission with information not least in relation to Wilson’s royal connection. Isaac Wilson’s career The starting point is, however, not with the Duke and Duchess of Kent but with the Duke’s elder brother Prince William Henry. According to Marshall’s biography, Wilson – “entered the British navy as a surgeon on the ship with the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV. The prince being seized with a dangerous fever Dr Wilson attended him during his illness; and to the Doctor’s care and skill the prince attributed his recovery and remained ever after his friend”.

as having died of General Paralysis at Mill Lane, Fareham on 20 September 1872. The deceased’s age is recorded as 58 and her occupation as “Widow of – Leat, Brewer’s Labourer”. Eliza Leal née Stoneham would of course have been about 66 by this time and there is no indication that, after John Leal’s death, she had become involved with a Brewer’s labourer. For the moment her ultimate fate remains uncertain. Isaac Wilson’s final years Rather more information is available about Isaac Wilson’s last years. On his retirement in 1837, he settled in what is still the attractive High Street at Fareham. Time however seems soon to have hung heavy on his hands. On 10 October 1840 the Chichester gossip columnist of the Hampshire Advertiser wrote "Sir Isaac Wilson, of Fareham, who intends taking up his residence in this neighbourhood, is, we understand, a candidate for the office of physician to the Chichester Infirmary." Since 1826 Dr Joseph McCoragher, Wilson's nephew and another former Royal Navy medical man, had evidently been Honorary Physician to the Infirmary and was active in local affairs. As it turned out, Wilson didn't get the job, or perhaps thought better of actually applying as age caught up with him. The 1841 census shows him still at High Street, Fareham, but he evidently kept in touch with his nephew and family. When Wilson died at Bognor on 2nd December 1844 he had probably been holidaying near them. Bognor is only five miles distant from Chichester and only four from the village of Oving with which the McCoraghers seem to have been connected and where Wilson was buried. The announcement in The Times of 12 December

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