Dr Ellis Henry Ellis and family

Ellis Henry Ellis, (1848-1882), of Bangor, was a physician and surgeon, and a man of wide ranging cultural interests. He was the second son and one of ten children of Dr Henry Ellis, also a surgeon who ran an apothecary business at High Street, Bangor. E.H. Ellis's eldest sister Catherine, to whom many of the letters in this collection are addressed, was one of the first women to aspire to a medical career and began her studies at Queen Charlotte's Hospital, London. However, her medical career was ended by her father's's sudden death in 1869, and for the rest of her life involved herself in social work, being one of the pioneers in the development of reading facilities for the blind in North Wales. Another sister was Grace Ellis, Assistant Librarian at University of Wales, Bangor, formerly University College of North Wales.