Knightwick Sanatorium postcard, 1906.


Photograph/card (Many thanks to Major [Retd] Janet Brodie-Murphy)
showing the main sanatorium house and patients quarters, viewed from the tennis courts, in a 1906 postcard.

The scene also shows what appears to be a summer house on the left for patients to sit in and view the tennis matches from. It must be a warm day as patients, staff or visitors are sitting in the shade of the trees on the right of photo. Also several people are standing and/or sittingto the right of the house, with a patient perhaps on veranda to their right.

Governor and later chairman of King Edward VII Sanatorium, Knightwick, near Worcester.

Coaker, Francis William John (1871 - 1955)
Identifier: RCS: E004960
Full Name: Coaker, Francis William John
Date of Birth: 1871
Date of Death: 14 January 1955
Place of Death: Dulverton, Somerset
Occupation:
General surgeon
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 9 February 1893
FRCS 11 June 1896
LRCP 1893
Details: 
Son of a yeoman farmer of Kingsbridge, South Devon, Francis Coaker studied medicine at the London Hospital. After holding resident appointments there he settled in practice at Bromsgrove in 1897. There he combined a large general practice with the post of surgeon to the Bromsgrove Cottage Hospital, which he expanded and modernised.
Coaker was Medical Officer of Health for Bromsgrove Rural District Council from 1902 to 1946, he was Medical Officer to the guardians for many years, surgeon to the Worcestershire Mental Hospital, and a governor and later chairman of King Edward VII Sanatorium, Knightwick, near Worcester. In 1917 he was elected a member of the Worcestershire County Council and took an active part in the work of its committees, becoming chairman of the health committee.
Coaker played a large part in securing the adoption of the BMA salary scale for public health medical officers in Worcestershire in the mid-twenties before any national scales were in operation. He often acted as arbitrator in disputes. He was chairman of the Bromsgrove Division of the BMA 1921-22, and of the Worcester and Bromsgrove Division in 1935-36, and president of the Worcestershire and Herefordshire Branch in 1937-38. During the second world war he was acting assistant secretary of the Worcester and Bromsgrove Division.
Coaker became the "father" of the medical profession in Bromsgrove; he lived at Sunnymead, New Road until his retirement to Hele House, Dulverton, Somerset, where he died on 14 January 1955 aged 83. His wife, Diana Augusta Coaker, died on 28 March 1960 at Cliffden, Teignmouth, Devon, aged 79.
Author: Royal College of Surgeons of England
Sources:
Brit med J 1955, 1, 359-360, by AJR and appreciation by DCM
Rights: Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date: 3 February 2014
Collection: Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

 

 

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