By Ross Horsley
The lives of two influential figures from Leeds’s health history will be illuminated in a new talk for this month’s Heritage Open Day at the Thackray Museum.
Sharing the same forename, both men received a historic tribute in 1925, when the city’s expanding hospital came to be christened St James’s in their honour.
James Ford had served for decades as Clerk to the Board of Guardians, a governing panel who administered everything from water supplies to workhouses under the remit of tackling poverty. Known as ‘Ford of Leeds’, he was so illustrious that his signature was required on up to 1,500 documents a week. His dedication eventually resulted in a knighthood in 1930.
Dr James Allan was credited with leading the development of the original Workhouse Infirmary, which grew from a treatment centre for inmates to one of the largest hospitals in the North. Under his guidance, staffing increased from a handful of untrained nurses to a skilled team of over a hundred medical specialists, with the capacity to tend to a thousand patients from the wider city.
Despite the fact that their names – and legacies – live on, neither of the two Jameses could really be called a household name, even in Leeds. Here at the Thackray, the largest of our conference rooms bears the moniker James Allan, but misinformation around the spelling of his surname nearly resulted in an incorrectly dedicated space!
The source of this inaccuracy may lie in one of the few publications to address Allan’s achievements: St James’s University Hospital, Leeds: A Pictorial History by Paul Bedford and David N. Howard. Now out of print, it’s a worthy tribute but makes the mistake of referring to Dr ‘Allen’ throughout. A little digging by our heritage volunteers confirmed the correct spelling, visible below in the entry for the ‘Medical Superintendent and Head of the Infirmary’ on the 1921 national census.
Our volunteers’ research has uncovered many long-forgotten facts about the two Jameses and forms the basis of this month’s talk, which will be given by heritage coordinator, Lesley Collins. Much has been drawn from local newspapers, including photographs and personal accounts that illustrate the lives and careers of two deeply committed individuals.
What we’d particularly like to see is a Wikipedia page for Dr James Allan, to join those of such other medical pioneers from Leeds as Charles Thackray and Lucy Osburn. If you could volunteer your editing skills to help make this a reality, we’d love to hear from you. You can join us at the talk and/or arrange access to our research by contacting: [email protected]
Our Heritage Open Days talk, ‘A Tale of Two Jameses’, takes place on Saturday 14 September at 11am and 1.30pm. Free tickets can be booked here via our What’s On page.