History Matters: Robert Storrs, pioneering Doncaster Doctor

To mark NHS 70 and Doncaster Royal Infirmary’s 150th birthday, we are looking back at the Trust’s illustrious history – today’s topic is Dr Robert Storrs.

Robert Storrs was born in Doncaster in 1801. On leaving school he became apprenticed to a local surgeon, Mr. Moore, and later to Benjamin Popplewell, Apothecary to the Doncaster Dispensary. Robert then spent two years ‘walking the wards’ at Guy’s Hospital, London, where he was influenced by such medical luminaries as Sir Astley Cooper, James Blundell, Thomas Addison and Richard Bright.

In London, too, he met his future wife, Martha, though it was to be three years before he was sufficiently financially secure to marry her.

Returning to Doncaster in 1824, he decided to set up practice on his own account. At that time little was known about the causes of disease, and even less about treatment. Doctors were private practitioners; the poor and indigent would receive their treatment free at either the Dispensary or the Doncaster Union (the ‘Workhouse’), while the more affluent would settle their doctor’s bills directly. The average practitioner gained the bulk of his income from midwifery and making up his own medicines.

In due course, Robert lived and practised at No. 7 Hall Gate, a large house for his growing family. From the outset, and unusually for a country doctor, he made copious notes about his more interesting cases. These notes show that he continually questioned the causes of the diseases he was called upon to treat. Fevers were commonplace, though their origins were often a mystery to the medical fraternity, and the remedies they applied were either innocuous or actually harmful. People recovered or died despite their efforts – and death rates were high, especially among children. Purging and bloodletting were believed to cure most ailments, together with counter-irritants such as cupping and seton’s needles. Puerperal fever killed large numbers of women after childbirth and Robert Storrs’ work on the causes of this condition is now seen to be historically important. As a general practitioner, Robert was also frequently called upon to perform surgical procedures; without anaesthetic, any operation would have been agonising for the patient. Amputations were common, but Robert also operated on obstetric, orthopaedic and ophthalmic cases.

Cholera is a disease caused by contaminated water supplies; the poorer classes often obtained their drinking water from the river, which was also used as a sewer. In 1832 a severe nation-wide outbreak of the disease resulted in the deaths of a number of Doncaster people; Robert was commended by Doncaster Corporation for his work in treating sufferers. Typhus was also prevalent; carried by lice, it is common among malnourished people living in crowded and deprived conditions. Robert was one of the few Doncaster doctors who were willing to treat its victims, and as Medical Attendant at Doncaster Workhouse, he would have been in frequent contact with sufferers. Perhaps inevitably, he contracted the disease, and died of it in September 1847 at the age of 46, leaving his beloved wife Martha with twelve children aged between 18 years and three months.

Robert Storrs’s pioneering work in the causes of puerperal fever have in the past been commemorated at the Trust’s annual awards ceremony by the Robert Storrs Memorial Award, given to the person or persons showing innovative or effective practice in preventing and controlling infection. It is hoped that at some time in the future a memorial plaque will be placed on his former house in Hall Gate.

Stories such as this can be found in the Trust’s new book ‘Good Health – A Pictorial History of Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals’ available from 5 July, to find out more click here.