Barlow, Helen Alice Dorothy, 1887-1975

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Thomas Barlow was born on 4 September 1845 at Brantwood Fold, Edgworth, near Bolton, Lancashire, the eldest son of James Barlow (1821-1887), mill-owner, and his wife Alice n?e Barnes (d. 1888). He attended local schools and in 1863 went to Owen's College Manchester to read natural science, graduating BSc. (London) in 1867. He went up to University College London to study medicine in 1868, and on qualifying in 1870 was appointed house physician to Sir William Jenner at University College Hospital. He was awarded his MB and BS in November 1873 (MD 1874). In April 1874 he was appointed medical registrar at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, which was to be the principal locus of Barlow's research activities. He later served successively as assistant physician and full physician at Great Ormond Street until 1899. He also held the posts of assistant physician at Charing Cross Hospital (1875 -77) and at the London Hospital (1877-80), and assistant physician and later full physician at University College Hospital from 1880 to 1910. From 1895 to 1907 Barlow held the Holme chair of clinical medicine.

Barlow made his name as a specialist in childhood diseases in the 1870s and '80s; he is above all associated with the isolation of infantile scurvy - so-called 'Barlow's disease' - as a disease distinct from rickets, with which it was routinely confused prior to the 1880s. In 1883 he published his first findings on infantile scurvy in a paper entitled 'On cases described as "acute rickets" ... the scurvy being an essential and the rickets a variable element', in Medico-Chirurgical Transactions ,1883, 66: 199-220. He greatly expanded the number of cases investigated for his Bradshaw lecture of 1894, entitled 'Infantile scurvy and its relation to rickets'. Barlow also made significant research contributions in the areas of meningitis and rheumatic illness in children. Later he turned his attention to neurological illnesses such as Raynaud's disease and erythromelalgia.

Barlow enjoyed a successful private practice, based first in Montague Street, Bloomsbury, and from 1887 at number 10, Wimpole Street. His patients eventually included members of the highest social circles, such as the dukes of Grafton and Rutland, lords Selborne and Salisbury, and Randall Davidson, archbishop of Canterbury. In 1896 he was appointed physician to the royal household, and spent part of September 1897 deputising for Sir James Reid at Balmoral; from 1899 to 1901 he was physician-extraordinary to Queen Victoria, being present at her deathbed. He continued to hold appointments at court under Edward VII and George V. In 1901 he was created a baronet and later the same year appointed KCVO. In 1902 Barlow was one of the royal doctors who successfully piloted Edward VII though his appendectomy.

Barlow's was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1909, and served as President of the Royal College of Physicians from 1910 to 1914; in August 1913 he presided at the 17th International Medical Congress in London.

In December 1880 Barlow married Ada Helen Dalmahoy, a former ward sister at Great Ormond Street Hospital; they had three sons and two daughters, the younger of whom died in infancy. The eldest son was Sir (James) Alan Noel Barlow (1881-1968), the second was Sir Thomas Dalmahoy Barlow (1883-1964); the third, Patrick Basil Barlow ( 1884-1917), died on the Western Front.

Barlow was brought up as a Methodist, and was a lifelong teetotaller. From 1923 to 1930 he was President of the National Temperance League. In retirement he spent more time at his country home, Boswells, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire. He continued to travel, at home and abroad, accompanied by his surviving daughter, Helen, who never married. Barlow died at no 10 Wimpole Street on 12 January 1945, aged 99.

From the guide to the Papers of: Barlow, Sir Thomas (1845-1945), 1794-1981, (Wellcome Library)

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creatorOf Papers of: Barlow, Sir Thomas (1845-1945), 1794-1981 Wellcome Library
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Relation Name
associatedWith Barlow Alice d 1888 person
associatedWith Barlow, Andrew Dalmahoy, b. 1916 person
associatedWith Barlow Helen Alice Dorothy 1887 person
associatedWith Barlow James mill 1821 person
associatedWith Barlow Lady Ada Helen 1843 person
associatedWith Barlow, Lady, Ada Helen, 1843-1928 person
associatedWith Barlow of Lancashire and London person
associatedWith Barlow Patrick Basil 1884 person
associatedWith Barlow Sir James Alan Noel 2nd Baronet 1881 2nd Baronet civil servant person
associatedWith Barlow, Sir, Thomas, 1845-1945 person
associatedWith Barlow Sir Thomas 1st Baronet 1845 1st Baronet physician person
associatedWith Barlow Sir Thomas Dalmahoy 1883 person
associatedWith Bradford Lady Mary d 1937 person
associatedWith Bradford Sir John Rose 1st Baronet 1863 1st Baronet President of the Royal College of Surgeons person
associatedWith Bridges Robert Seymour 1844 person
associatedWith Bryce James 1838 person
associatedWith Cecil Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne 3rd Marquis of Salisbury statesman person
associatedWith Clinical Club corporateBody
associatedWith Coupland Sidney 1849 person
associatedWith Curzon Mary Victoria 1870 wife of 1st Marquess Curzon person
associatedWith Dalmahoy of England and India person
associatedWith Davidson Lady Edith Murdoch fl 1878 person
associatedWith Davidson Randall Thomas 1848 person
associatedWith Edward VII 1841 person
associatedWith Godlee Sir 1849 1st Baronet surgeon person
associatedWith Greenfield William Smith 1846 person
associatedWith Jenner Sir William 1st Baronet 1815 1st Baronet physician person
associatedWith Palmer William Waldegrave 2nd Earl of Selborne 1859 2nd Earl of Selborne statesman person
associatedWith Parker Robert fl 1875 person
associatedWith Quinn Square Social Centre Society, Southwark corporateBody
associatedWith RAMC, Royal Army Medical Corps corporateBody
associatedWith Reid Sir James 1st Baronet 1849 1st Baronet Royal physician person
associatedWith Roberts William Page Dean of Salisbury person
associatedWith Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh corporateBody
associatedWith Southwark Boys Aid Association corporateBody
associatedWith Sturge William Allen 1850 person
associatedWith University College Hospital Ladies Association corporateBody
associatedWith Victoria 1819 person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Balmoral Castle Crathie Aberdeenshire Scotland
Southwark London England
India South Asia
Darmstadt Hessen Germany
Subject
Alcohol education
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Birth 1887

Death 1975

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