Dr. William Kerr

References:

"New block set to put town hospital on map" (and here and here), Lily Canter, Northants News (website of Northampton Chronicle and Echo and Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph), 23 June 2005.
Sources yet to be consulted:
- Amputation through the hip joint during the pre-anaesthetic era, M.H. Kaufman, S.J. Wakelin, Clinical Anatomy, Volume 17, Issue 1, Pages 36-44, 2004. Reference to "William Kerr, Surgeon to the Royal Regiment of Horse-Guards Blue".

Dr. William Kerr, of Northampton Hospital.
Portrait by Thomas Phillips, prob. late 1790s (seems to be painted around the time Northampton Hospital was founded 1793, though Phillips did not really start portrait painting until the late 1790s).
"A .. full length, seated portrait of the eminent physician William Kerr. He is seated in an embroidered armchair, at his desk, with the newly built Northampton Infirmary visible through an open window in the background. On his desk are medical textbooks, an ink standish and the ground plans of the Infirmary, which he helped found. The infirmary in Billings Road is now Northampton General Hospital."
A detail engraving of this was printed in 1813 [NPG].

The above is an engraving by William Say of the full-length portrait, printed London, 30th Nov 1819.
See full size and alternative scans here and here.

William Kerr, M.D. (see here and here),
of Northampton, born 12th Jan 1738,
descendant of Robert III, King of Scotland and of Henry I,
Surgeon in the Royal Horseguards (Blue),
mar 1stly, 30th June 1764, to Charlotte Dicey and had issue:

John Manners Kerr, of Maesmor, Wales, born 30th Oct 1766, or 1767.
Mary Anne Kerr,
mar 1802 to Colonel Warden Sergison, of Cuckfield Park,
she died 10th Sept 1804, no issue,
he died 9th July 1811.
Charlotte Kerr, mar John Forster, of Leicester Grange, Sheriff of Worchester.

surgeon at Northampton Infirmary [founded 1744, later Northampton Hospital] pre-1769 to 1821,
mar 2ndly to Mary Thompson [dau of --- Thompson, alderman of Northampton],
he helped found the new Northampton Hospital at Billing Rd (NOT Billings Rd), Cliftonville, Northampton, 1793,
this is where it is today, as the Northampton General Hospital, see map,
[Canter, 2005] says "Dr William Kerr .. founded medical education in Northampton. He was the principal fundraiser for a new, larger hospital on the present hospital site, which opened in 1793.",

portrait painted around the time the hospital was founded 1793,
at the time of the 1819 engraving of portrait he is referred to as: "William Kerr M.D. Surgeon to the Northampton Infirmary upwards of 50 Years",
[Canter, 2005] says he practised at the hospital until he was 83 (1821),
died 4th Sept 1824, age 86 yrs.

Close-up of above portrait. See larger and full size.

Detail of above portrait, showing the new Northampton Hospital.
From close-up here (and larger and full size).

A new student accommodation block at Northampton General Hospital was named the William Kerr building after him in 2005 [Canter, 2005].

Send me additions and corrections to this site