The Fernhurst Society
Tales from the Archives - 31
The Gladstone Bag
Have you ever wondered about the battered old brown Gladstone bag in the display cabinet in the Community Room in the Village Hall?
It belonged to Dr Stanley Duke who was the village doctor for many years in the early 1900s.
Maureen Duke recalls her grandfather moving from the Hedges in Church Road to Nirvanah, now Fernhurst Rise, He added a wing to include a surgery, waiting room and pharmacy and also a couple of rooms above for people who had been discharged from hospital but still needed care. He also did minor operations. It was like a tiny cottage hospital and it saved Dr Duke driving in the snow and ice. His form of transport changed over the years, originally he would go on horseback, then a motorbike and latterly by car.
The Gladstone bag was a gift from members of his First Aid class and as he was unable to thank them collectively, he put an open letter in the Parish Magazine of 21 March 1910 expressing ‘my deep gratification of this mark of good-will’ and thanking them very fulsomely, adding that ‘their taste in selecting the present was only equalled by their craft in finding out exactly what I wanted most.’
If you would like to know more about this story, or research other local topics, the Archive is open on Tuesdays, 2.30-5pm in the Village Hall. Other times by arrangement.
Christine Maynard
Fernhurst ArchiveOne of a series of short articles bringing you some of the incidents from our rich village history. Collated by Christine Maynard, based on documents preserved at the Fernhurst Archives, these originally were published in the monthly Fernhurst News.
The Fernhurst Archives
Fernhurst History
