Frederick Page

PACE-GRAHAM. On April 28, at the parish church, Sandown, Isle of Wight, Frederick Page, M.D., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to Margaret Graham, daughter of the late John Graham.⁴

Obituary

Frederick Page, M.D.Edin., M.A., D.C.L. Durham, F.R.C.S.,

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

On July 3rd Mr Frederick Page passed quietly away at the ripe age of 79. He had been in indifferent health for the last few years, so that in one sense the end was not unexpected. By his death Newcastle and the north of England have lost a distinguished surgeon. He was the son of Dr. Frederick Page, who many years ago was surgeon to the Portsmouth, Portsea, and Gosport Hospital, and may be said, therefore, to have been born with a taste for surgery.

The future Professor of Surgery at Newcastle was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and for a time held office in the Colonial Hospital, Perth, Western Australia. In 1870 he was appointed house-surgeon to the old Newcastle Infirmary, and when, four years later, he left the infirmary he was the recipient of many presents from patients and friends. Becoming associated with the late Mr Septimus Raine, then surgeon to the North-Eastern Railway Company, whose jurisdiction extended from Berwick to Yorkshire, Mr Page was frequently brought into public notice. On his appointment a few years later to be surgeon to the Infirmary he found the opportunities for which he had been waiting. It was in the operating theatre that he was seen to greatest advantage. A skilful and a quick operator, his results were extremely satisfactory. He was equally successful as a teacher, both in the wards of the Infirmary and in the College of Medicine. For several years he was lecturer in the college on medical jurisprudence. His lectures, which were carefully prepared, were enriched by facts drawn from experience. On the death of Professor G Yeoman Heath, Mr Page was appointed joint professor of surgery along with the late Professor Arnison. Page was nothing if not dogmatic, and to this circumstance he owed much of his success as a teacher, but it sometimes brought him into conflict with his colleagues.

The University of Durham in 1888 conferred upon him the degree of M.A. and subsequently the honorary degree of D.C.L. For a period he acted as examiner in surgery in Edinburgh University; he was consulting surgeon to several of the hospitals in Newcastle, was a J.P. for the city and county of Newcastle, and for several years vice-chairman of the local Licensing Committee.

To the medical journals Mr Page was a frequent contributor. His written articles, like his lectures, were concise and to the point. As he was house-surgeon in the Infirmary when Lister's principles were fast coming into application, he had the opportunity of comparing the older methods of surgical treatment with the more recent. This experience he embodied in an interesting paper, "The results of the major amputations treated antiseptically in the Newcastle Infirmary, 1878-98."

Mrs Page, who was the daughter of Mr John Graham and niece of Professor Graham, F.R.S., a well known chemist and at one time Master of the Mint, predeceased her husband. Their family consisted of one son, Colonel Cuthbert Page, who is in the artillery, and two daughters, both of whom were married. After the sudden death of his younger daughter in Australia a few months ago, Mr Page was never quite the same. in the later weeks of his life he was buoyed up by the hope of seeing his elder daughter, who also lived in Australia, but he died while she was on the voyage homeward. A halo of sadness encircled the passing of Mr Page, for of his relations only his sister was with him; and Colonel Page, who is at present ill in a London hospital, was unable to be present at the funeral. All that was mortal of Frederick Page was laid to rest in Jesmond Old Cemetery on July 5th, amid indications of the deep respect in which he was held by his colleagues, friends, and admirers.¹⁰

Page Frederick of 20 Victoria-square Newcastle-upon-Tyne died 3 July 1919 Probate London 13 November to Charles William Allan Hodgson solicitor and John Cameron Graham county court judge. Effects £16732 0s. 10d.⁹