WEST FALKLAND DOCTORS
‘The healthy condition of the West Falklands is no doubt due to the splendid air and the abundance of water.’ Mr Andrew Joseph Going, Assistant Colonial Surgeon 1888
As sheep farming developed on West Falkland, and settlements and shepherds with their families appeared there was an apparent need for medical care. West Falkland farmers agreed to employ their own doctor and to supply him with food and horses. A house, Marnon House, along with outbuildings including a cow shed, was provided at Doctor’s Creek on the hill above the creek about a mile from the settlement at Fox Bay East. Until there were telephones around 1918, a man had to ride all the way to Fox Bay from other settlements and islands to get the doctor, often to find he was away on a call elsewhere when he got there.
In 1883 Dr Anderson was their first doctor, riding around the farms and going by boats to islands to visit his patients. He died at Doctor’s Creek on May 20th 1887 aged only 42 and is buried in gardens in the valley below where the house stood. The next doctor for West Falkland was Dr Going.
In 1897 there Doctor Melville Keay was at at Fox Bay. We know this because there was an incident resulting in a nasty court case in the Magistrates Court at Fox Bay on 12th February 1897 when his wife, Netty Keay was taken to court by her servant E. Rhodes with a charge of ‘using threatening and abusive language towards complainant on the 9th instant. Dr Keay took on the task dealing with money orders although the constable in the government statiion was permitted to sell stamps from the constable's house (a room next to the gaol) when Magistrate Hurst left in September 1902. He left in May 1903 and Dr Edward Turner Born took over medical duties as well as the Post Office. This included responsibilty for stamps for all West Falkland. For this he was to be paid £36 pa.
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- Drs house
The Doctors house at Fox Bay East government station after it was moved from the top end of the creek.
- drs-creek-poles
The original site of the first West Doctor's House at Doctor's creek before it was moved into the Government settlement at Fox Bay East, seen here in the distance.
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Dr Turner, his wife and three children and two servants departed Stanley for Fox Bay 12 May 1909 having arrived in Stanley from Liverpool on 4 May and being appointed Assistant Colonial Surgeon on 5 May.
After the Government assumed responsibility for providing a doctor Marnon House, probably in the 1930’s, was taken down and removed to within the Government paddock at Fox Bay East settlement. It now looked out over the opposite end of Doctor’s Creek. After 1918 a network telephone lines began to link farms with Fox Bay (5 rings or turns of the handle), and in the 1950s the Government provided all settlements including islands with 'R/T's' , radio telephones. Neither system gave any privacy as anyone could 'listen in' but it was much easier to access the Doctor at Fox Bay. Every settlement had a 'medicine chest'. A responsible person would speak to the doctor on the patient's behalf and then hand out the doctor's prescription.
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Fox Bay doctors included:
1950’s Dr Marshall, followed by Dr Cunningham 1960's, Dr Cox, Dr Malone and Dr Gordon Ferguson in the 1970's.
Dentists travelled around all settlements, it was a typically year or several between visits due to the large area. At Fox Bay he worked in the small surgery, a lean to at the end of the doctor's house. At other settlements he would set up in a room or conservatory in the manager's house.
Today with better communications allowing telephone consultations, medical care for West Falkland is provided by doctors based in Stanley. The modern Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) makes possible regular visits by doctors to remote farm settlements. In the event of an emergency a patient can be flown to Stanley or the doctor can get out to the patient on the plane. |
Sources include: Old registers and documents Fox Bay Post Office
Jane Cameron National Archives/ Burials/ Fox Bay, nationalarchives.gov. /Jane Cameron National Archives/ people 19th century families
Can you add/ correct any information, dates or supply photographs or information on West doctors for this page, ? Contact: falklands.southatlantic@gmail.com
Photographic credits: Header: Charles Maddocks
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