Unveiling a memorial to Dr W A Maybury 14 March 2013

Before I talk about Dr Maybury I would like to add my thanks to Councillor Arnold, the Mayor of
Colchester, for doing the Medical Society the honour of agreeing to unveil a new Memorial Plaque to Dr
Maybury, and I would also like to thank our other guests who have turned up on this chilly morning to
witness the event.
This event came about due to the following circumstances: last September my wife Pat and I had a visit
from one of our older grandsons and his girlfriend, and thinking of some way to entertain them before
supper, I decided to bring them into town to show them some of Colchesters famous sights, such as the
Castle with its gorgeous Park, and the new First Sight Gallery, to name but two. Walking up through the
Park, I thought the young people might be quite interested to see the memorial plaque to Dr Maybury,
which had stood near this very spot for as long as I could remember, and which always gave me a thrill
of pride every time I saw it. I was very proud to be a member of a medical practice than could trace its
origins back to the mid 19th century, and even up to the time I retired in 1993, I would occasionally see a
patient whose medical record envelope bore the practice stamp of Dr Maybury. These would have been
quite elderly people, but their records showed that they had been under the care of our practice for
around 70 years, and this was something that gave me great satisfaction.
Imagine therefore my horror when all that remained of the plaque were the stumps of the retaining bolts
damaged when the vandals had torn the plaque from the wall. Next morning I reported that the plaque
was missing, probably stolen, to Mr Penny of our Parks Department, and to Dr Fab Casale, the archivist
and historian of the Colchester Medical Society, and it is thanks to the efforts of these two chaps that we
are standing here today, getting ready to unveil a new Memorial to Dr Maybury.
But who was Dr Maybury?
William Augustus Maybury was born in London in 1846; his father was an Irishman, also called William
Augustus, who had qualified as a doctor in London, and entered general practice, first in the City of
London, and later he moved out to a country practice in the village of Frimley, in Surrey. Maybury trained
at St Thomass Hospital in London, where in 1868 he gained a certificate as teacher of science; this was
accompanied by a prize in Preliminary Medical Science. With such qualifications he might well have
been able to work as a demonstrator in the medical school at St Thomass. Maybury qualified as a
Member of the Royal College of Surgeons two years later, before going on to Queens University in
Belfast where he gained a Doctorate in Medicine, and the further qualifications of Master of Surgery, and
a Licentiate of Medicine, so he was indeed very well qualified. On returning to England, Dr Maybury took
a job as a House Surgeon at St. Thomass Hospital before moving to Newark in Nottinghamshire where
he spent a year as the resident Medical Officer and Hospital Secretary.

Dr Maybury came to Colchester in 1876, going into general practice at 9 West Stockwell Street, where
he was based until his death nearly fifty years later. I think it is distinctly possible that Dr Maybury bought
his practice from a certain Dr Edward Williams MD, who is shown in Kellys Directory for Essex as being
in practice in West Stockwell Street from 1850 until around the time Dr Maybury arrived, but I am still
working on that one. In addition to his general practice work Dr Maybury was a surgeon to the
Colchester police force and the Medical Officer for two of the districts of the Colchester Poor Law Union;
this meant that he would have been responsible for the health care of the inmates of Colchesters old
Workhouses, one of which became St Marys Hospital. Dr Maybury also served as President of the
Colchester Medical Society from 1910 to 1913.
Although shown in the Medical Directory as being in practice until the time of his death in 1924, it seems
likely that Dr Maybury sold his practice to Dr Charnock after the latter had been discharged from the
army in 1921. Supporting evidence for this was the existence of a number of old National Insurance
records with Dr Mayburys name on them which came with the West Stockwell Street patient records,
when the practice premises were merged into 3 East Hill in 1963.
Dr Maybury never married and was looked after by a succession of resident housekeepers. He died
from carcinoma of the colon in August 1924, and was survived by his eldest sister Lucretia, who like
William, had never married, and who still lived at the old family house in Frimley, The balance of his
estate was a little over 18,000, quite a lot of money for those days, and this was shared between his
sister Lucretia and a Dr Lysander Maybury, who was possibly a nephew, and who may have been
responsible for erecting the original plaque.
I will finish by reading a notice of the death of Dr Maybury that I found in a contemporary copy of
the Essex County Standard,
It begins: Death of Dr William Augustus Maybury, 16 August 1924, and it continues:
The Late Dr Maybury
In spite of the fact that the late Dr Maybury led a solitary bachelor life, taking little or no part in public
affairs, and rarely attending social events, he was a well known and popular figure in the town, much
respected for his kindly disposition, and for his punctilious courtesy. This did not prevent his being a
decidedly outspoken and an insistent upholder of his own notions and of his opinions, as in his dress, his
manner of speech, and in his manner of life. Dr Maybury, ever since I knew him, and even when he was
a comparatively young man, was old-fashioned. He was the last doctor to make his rounds in his
brougham, and to wear a top hat and frock-coat. Nothing, I think, would have induced him to vary his
Victorian professional attire or to start a motorcar.
Thank you for listening.