Life story retold by Paul Beecroft
W.T. FREEMAN
LT. COLONEL
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS (T)
23RD DECEMBER 1918
William Thomas FREEMAN was born in the last quarter of 1856 in Burnham Overy, Norfolk and was baptised on January 6th 1857. His parents were Henry Charles and Sarah FREEMAN. Henry was a farmer and employed 11 men and 6 boys. William’s siblings were John Henry (1856), Kate (1858), Annie (1861) and Richard William (1863). The family also had a Governess and 3 servants. William was educated at the Guildhall School, East Dereham, Norfolk.
After leaving school he went to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and there trained to be a Doctor. On January 24th 1879 he became Dr. William Thomas FREEMAN M.D., M.R.C.S. (Member of the Royal College of Surgeons) and the following year, F.R.C.S. (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons).
After leaving St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, he became a House Surgeon at the Brighton and Hove Hospital for Women and Children. It is not known how long he was there but after leaving he had a practice in Pangbourne and was also Medical Officer to Bradfield College.
On September 5th 1885 he married Caroline Beatrice WILKINS at the Holy Trinity Church, Ealing St. Mary, London. Caroline was the daughter of Henry WILKINS who was a Surgeon. The marriage resulted in two children – Edith Kate (1886-1969) and Royden Thomas (1889-1936). Both were born in Pangbourne.
In 1890 the family moved to Reading and he had a practice at 30, Portland Place, London Road, Reading now part of Reading University and resided at Sidmouth House, 41, London Road, which is now part of Kendrick Girls’ School. He took an active part in the local branch of the British Medical Association becoming President of the Reading Branch 1898-1899. He became Senior Assistant Physician, Physician for Diseases of the Skin and then Full Physician at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. He also took on the role of Medical Officer for Reading Prison and Medical Referee to the Provident Life and other Assurance Companies.
Freeman was a person who would give praise to others doing good work. On Tuesday, November 6th 1900 The Queen Victoria Nursing Institute held their AGM. This organisation arranged for nurses to call at homes and provide comfort to the sick as much as they could. The Reading Mercury recorded that this valuable Institution should be better supported by the inhabitants of Reading, and it was felt that this was due to the fact that they were not widely known in Reading. Freeman wrote a letter to the Reading Mercury and it appeared in the November 17th issue:-
THE QUEEN VICTORIA
NURSING INSTITUTE AT READING
To the EDITOR of the READING MERCURY.
Sir, – I notice your report of the meeting concerning the Queen Victoria Jubilee Nursing Institute at Reading. This good work that this Institution is doing is I believe very little known in the town, and it surely deserves a very much larger measure of support. I have had several opportunities of watching the results of the nurses’ efforts, which were eminently successful. In every instance that I have personally had to do with, or have heard about, the patients and friends have expressed their warmest gratitude for what has been done.
I hope soon to hear that two more nurses have been added to the Staff.
A great many well-wishers like myself were probably not aware that the meeting referred to was going to take place.
I am Sir, yours very truly,
W.T. FREEMAN. M.D.
Sidmouth House, 41, London Road, Reading.
November 11, 1900.
Being the Medical Officer for Reading Prison, would, most likely, at times, have been a difficult undertaking. None more so than when he had to be present at an execution at the prison, which took place in November 1907. The person in question had been found guilty of the murder of a 13 year old child. The condemned man was hanged at 8.00 am. At 11.00 am the same day the Inquest was held in Reading Prison. Many newspapers reported on this, one of which was the Berks and Oxon Advertiser.
Following confirmation by the Governor of Reading Prison that the sentence had been carried out the jury then heard from Dr. Freeman who said:-
I was present at the execution this morning, and I have since made a post-mortem examination. The cause of death was a broken neck. I have every reason to be satisfied with the way in which the sentence was carried out.
A juror asked: May we take it that death was practically instantaneous?
Dr. Freeman replied: I believe it was instantaneous. I noticed hardly a quiver at all.
The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence and expressed themselves as satisfied that the execution was properly carried out.
On March 31st 1908, Freeman was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorials, Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Exactly how this occurred remains unknown but in later years it was to be of great benefit to many people.
The census for 1911 shows the Freeman family now living at 30, London Road. This was Portman Place where he had his practice. Also resident is a cook and a house/parlour maid.
In 1912-1913, he was President of the Oxford and Reading Branch of the British Medical Association and also Vice President of the Reading Pathological Society.
Freeman also had two outside interests. He enjoyed the countryside and was a shooting man and also an angler, particularly enjoying trout fishing. He was a member of the Reading and District Angling Association. He is known to have written several papers on both subjects.
In 1914 everything changed. In August of this year Britain entered World War I or The Great War as it was also known. At the outbreak of the war Freeman went to Oxford and was a medical officer at the Third Southern General Hospital which officially opened on August 16th 1914. The hospital was able to accommodate 336 officers and 1210 other ranks. He spent three months there but returned to Reading following the formation of No. 1 War Hospital in Oxford Road, Reading where he became the officer in charge of the Medical Division. This war hospital was one of the biggest and best equipped of all the war hospitals in the country. Reading had a number of war hospitals, one of which was Redlands War Hospital in Redlands Road which Freeman took command of. These hospitals in the main were run by the RAMC. He also took on the role of President of the Officers’ Medical Board at Reading War Hospitals
It would have been a busy time for Freeman and all the medical staff. Hundreds and hundreds of wounded servicemen from many nations came to one of the war hospitals in Reading, many with horrendous injuries requiring surgery.
The war ended in November 1918 but there were still many wounded servicemen arriving and many others still in hospital. Freeman carried on working many hours tending to the wounded, when suddenly, on December 23rd 1918 he had a heart attack and died.
Many newspapers reported on his death:-
The Reading Observer – Very widespread regret will be felt in the town at the sudden death on Monday night at his residence, 30, Portland Place, Reading of William Thomas Freeman, M.D., Lieut.-Col R.A.M.C. . . . For some time past he had felt the great strain of his work at the War Hospitals and of the recent influenza epidemic, but would not relax his efforts. It was always his wish to keep hard at it as long as there was the work to do at the War Hospitals, and he was pleased at the time of the armistice to think that his share of war work would soon be drawing to a close. The end came quite suddenly on Monday night from heart failure following the great strain. . . He always derived a great deal of satisfaction from his work among the poorer people of the town and in the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
The Reading Standard –
THE LATE LIEUT.-COL. W.T. FREEMAN, R.A.M.C. (T)
IMPRESSIVE SCENES AT THE FUNERAL
The deepest regret was felt in Reading at the announcement of the death at Portland Place, 30, London Road, Reading, of Dr. William Thomas Freeman, who passed away suddenly on Monday, 23rd December 1918, from heart failure. Dr. Freeman was M.D., F.R.C.S., and Lieut.-Col of the R.A.M.C. Death was undoubtedly accelerated by the strain of overwork at the military hospitals and otherwise.
Dr. Freeman had practised in Reading for 29 years, having previously resided at Pangbourne. . . .How devotedly Dr. Freeman carried out his onerous duties few outside the ranks of his family are aware; he had been feeling the strain for a long time, and when the armistice was signed he expressed his pleasure that he had been able to carry on the hospital work to the end.
The widespread regret felt at the death of Dr. W.T. Freeman was manifested in a remarkable manner at the funeral. Full military honours were accorded, and at St. Giles Church, where the service was held, there was a crowded congregation, practically the whole of the medical profession being represented in addition to a very large number of personal friends, prominent townsmen and the general public, while outside the building there was also a large crowd.
The party following the coffin was composed of the Reading War Hospital R.A.M.C. staff, under Major Joyce, the Company Officer, with Colonel Maurice, Chief in Command, patients of Battle, Wilson and Katesgrove War Hospitals, while the pall bearers were the following senior officers: Lieut.-Col. Johnson, R.A.M.C., Major Abram, R.A.M.C. (T), Major Ritson, R.A.M.C. (T), Major Price R.A.M.C. (T) and Major Exton, R.A.M.C. The coffin was borne into the church by sergeants of the R.A.M.C.
The service was conducted by the Rev. F.J. C. Gillmour, S.C.F., Vicar of St. Giles’, assisted by the Ven. Archdeacon Ducat and Canon Trotter. The passage of the coffin, which was covered with a Union Jack, down the nave of the church was preceded by the choir and clergy with an acolyte being an unlifted cross. The service was choral and included the hymns “Now the labourer’s task is o’er” and “God of the living in whose eyes.” As the cortege passed out the organist (Mr. Scrivener) played Chopin’s Funeral March on the organ. The escort remained on guard until the coffin was placed in the hearse. The body was afterwards conveyed to Golders Green for cremation.
Following his cremation it is believed that his ashes were scattered in Norfolk.
Freeman is commemorated on the wall at Reading Old Cemetery.
Division 71-72, War Plot