| Authorised form of name | Nettleship; Edward (1845 - 1913); ophthalmic surgeon and eugenicist |
| Dates | 1845 - 1913 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Kette ring, Northamptonshire, England |
| Date of birth | 03 March 1845 |
| Place of death | Longdown Hollow, Hindhead, Surrey, England |
| Date of death | 30/10/1913 |
| Dates and places | Cremated at Woking on 3 November 1913.
His remains were interred at St Stephen's Church, Shottermill, on 4 November 1913. |
| Occupation | ophthalmic surgeon |
| Research field | Genetics |
| Eye pathology |
| Ophthalmology |
| Activity | Education: Kettering grammar school (until 1860); Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester (1861–3); Royal Veterinary College; King's College Hospital MRCVS (1867); licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (1867)
Career:
Returned to the Royal Agricultural College as a lecturer prior to deciding to focus on human medicine; obtained membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (1868), and its fellowship (1870); attracted the patronage of Jonathan Hutchinson as his assistant at the London Hospital and the Blackfriars Hospital for Skin Diseases; published the first description of the skin disorder urticaria pigmentosa (1869); appointed as librarian and curator of the Museum at Moorfields (1871-3), during which time he established himself as a meticulous scientific investigator, initially on eye pathology, and later on a variety of clinical topics; left Moorfields and took up the post of medical superintendent at the Ophthalmic School at Bow (1873–4) where he worked with pauper children and as a result was commissioned by a Local Government Board to report on conditions in the metropolitan poor law schools; took up staff appointments at the South London Ophthalmic Hospital (1873–8), St Thomas's Hospital (1878–95), Great Ormond Street Hospital (1880–81), and Moorfields (1882–98); conducted a successful private practice from 5 Wimpole Street, London (1875); operated on the former prime minister William Ewart Gladstone, to extract a cataract (May 1894); examined Queen Victoria for the same condition but advised against surgery (1896); retired from clinical practice (1902); began concentrating on application to his speciality of the developing science of genetics; suffered complications as a consequence of prostatic surgery (1911); developed cancer of the lower bowel and died despite receiving radiotherapy treatment (1913).
Memberships:
FRCS (1870)
President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom (1895–7) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 02/05/1912 |
| Relationships | Parents: Henry John Nettleship (1807–1870), solicitor, and Isabella Ann (1818–1898), daughter of the Revd James Hogg, vicar of Geddington, Northamptonshire.
Siblings: Seven siblings, including Henry Nettleship, John Trivett Nettleship, and Richard Lewis Nettleship.
Spouse: Elizabeth Endacott Whiteway (b. 1843/4) from Compton in Devon, daughter of Richard Whiteway, a farmer (2 January 1869). |
| Published works | RCN 56744 |
| General context | Remembered for his work with hereditary eye disorders.
Contrivuted to the research of ocular albinism, retinitis pigmentosa, and hereditary night blindness.
In later life he actively supported the eugenics movement, whilst engaged on a study of albinism with Karl Pearson (FRS 1896). |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB |
| Royal Society code | NA1422 |
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1912/11 | Nettleship, Edward: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| CMB/10/23 | Report on the Glassworkers' Cataract Committee | 19 July 1911 |
| NLB/24/233 | Copy letter from Theodore E James, to Edward Nettleship, [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 8 April 1902 |
| NLB/38/156 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr Hugh Kerr Anderson, Fellow of the Royal Society, and others | 20 June 1908 |
| NLB/43/169 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [Edward] Nettleship, [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 12 November 1910 |
| NLB/43/133 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to [Edward] Nettleship, Nutcombe Hill, Hindhead, [Fellow of the Royal Society] | 9 November 1910 |
| NLB/43/136 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Dr T Llewellyn | 9 November 1910 |
| MC/27/19 | Letter from [William] Bateson, The Manor House, Merton, Surrey, to Sir John Rose Bradford, [Royal Society] | 13 February 1912 |
| NLB/46/93 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Edward Nettleship, Fellow of the Royal Society | 8 June 1912 |
| RR/19/68 | Referee's report by Edward Nettleship, on a paper 'The relation between capillary pressure and secretion. II.— The secretion of the aqueous and the intraocular pressure' by Leonard Erskine Hill and Martin Flack | [June 1912] |
| MC/25/166 | Letter from [Edward] Nettleship, Long Down Hollow, Hindhead, Surrey, to the [Royal Society] | 8 November 1910 |
| MC/26/193 | Letter from Karl Pearson, 7 Well Road, Hamsptead, N.W, to the [Royal Society] | 2 April 1911 |
| NLB/46/112 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Edward Nettleship, Fellow of the Royal Society | 11 June 1912 |
| MC/27/255 | Letter from [Edward] Nettleship, Hotel Regina, Venise, to the [Royal Society] | 10 May 1912 |
| MC/27/256 | Letter from [Edward] Nettleship, Longdown Hollow, Hindhead, Surrey, to Mr [Robert] Harrison, [Royal Society] | 9 June 1912 |
| MC/28/20 | Letter from [William Maddock] Bayliss, St Cuthbert's, West Heath Road, Hampstead, N.W, to [John Rose] Bradford, [Royal Society] | 2 November 1913 |