One of Oxford's most intriguing inscriptions is hidden from public view on the wall inside the Main Hall of the Old County Hall of Oxfordshire in New Road. It reads:

Near this spot stood the ancient Shire Hall, unhappily famous In history as the scene in July 1577 of the Black Assize, when a malignant disease known as Gaol Fever caused the death within forty days of the Lord Chief Baron (Sir Robert Bell), the Lord High Sheriff (Sir Robert D'Oyly of Merton) and about three hundred more.

The malady from the stench of the Prisoners developed itself during the Trial of one Rowland Jenkes, a saucy foul-mouthed Bookseller, for scandalous words uttered against the Queen.

Anno 1875. JMD pie posuit.

(JMD erected this monument out of piety, 1875)

From the time of the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century until the second half of the nineteenth century, Oxford was regularly visited by plague, cholera, smallpox and typhoid fevers. In 1348 the Black Death reduced the city's population to such an extent that Gloucester College (from which Gloucester Green gets its name) was forced to close. In 1571 the University had to postpone the start of term because of an outbreak of plague, and the 'gaol fever' six years later may have been part of the same epidemic, being considered more worthy of note because its victims included the Lord Chief Baron and the Lord High Sheriff. Outbreaks of plague were also recorded in 1625/26 and 1644; and in 1643 Royalist soldiers encamped in Oxford were struck down with typhoid, then known as 'Camp Fever'. Smallpox was noted by Anthony Wood in 1661, 1675 and 1683; and in the nineteenth century there was an outbreak of typhoid and three epidemics of cholera. The areas most affected were the crowded and insanitary slums of St Ebbe's, St Thomas's and St Clement's. A public health survey of 1848 found filth and open sewers in most working- class districts, and in 1854 the drainage, sanitation and water supply were again condemned, this time by Sir Henry Acland (q.v.), Regius Professor of Medicine. It was not until 1873 that sewerage was introduced, to be followed soon after by clean piped water. (Also see Drinking Fountains)

Before the Reformation, Oxford had been comparatively well provided with centres where the sick and elderly could be tended, since the care of the sick had been in the hands of the religious houses. One consequence of the dissolution of the religious houses around the 1540s was therefore a reduction in the number of what we should nowadays call hospital beds. It took over 150 years before the nation was roused by the great charity movement of the eighteenth century to make good this deficiency. Some results of the charity movement have been noted under Schools above, but predating these by a few years is an almshouse, still in use, on the south side of St Clement's opposite the entrance to Caroline Street. The inscription in the pediment above the door reads:

William Stone was buried in the church of St Michael at the North Gate where there is a memorial to him on the west wall of the north aisle. The octagonal slab with its Latin inscription is half obscured by a new staircase leading up to the tower, but the text, with an English translation, is given in a framed copy above the monument:

Here lies William Stone LLB of Dorset, a man of outstanding learning, judgement and piety: indeed so precocious beyond belief was his genius that he was compelled to defer his academic degree, which he fully deserved, because he was not of an age to take the oath. The surpassing cleverness of his youth he kept with equal progress right up to old age, and as soon as his age allowed he was appointed to the benefice of Wimborne, his native place, in accordance with the fervent wishes of the people. When the Civil War broke out, being exposed to the outrages inflicted by the rebels, he joined the Royal Army in which he strenuously performed his duty amidst many hardships, losses and dangers. When at length his noble cause was lost, he wandered over foreign countries acquiring remarkable wisdom and learning. After the happy return of Charles II, he was restored to his Wimborne, caring nothing for higher honours. Then, when age and disease began to weigh upon him, he returned to Oxford and sought some manner of rest as Principal of New Inn Hall where, though long afflicted with bodily illness, he retained a vigorous memory and judgement until the end. He committed his wealth to the needy, his soul to heaven on June 22nd 1685 in the 70th year of his age.

Attached to Stone's Almshouses is a more recent block, Parson's Almshouses, which were formerly in Kybald Street off Magpie Lane, where there is a handsome stone on a wall, with the arms of University College and the inscription:

In 1959 this buildlng became part of University College through the generosity of Helen and Frank Altschul of New York Clty who built a new Parson's Almshouse In St Cement's.

Another almshouse inscription is to be found on the top facade of 2/3 Fisher Row (near its junction with St Thomas' Street):

Tawney left enough money to keep three poor men and three poor women who "should be of good fame and character, who had lived well and been reduced in circumstances, single and unmarried, and of 50 years of age at the least . . should be of the established church and regularly attend divine worship at the parish church of St Thomas".

Dr John Radcllffe (1652-1714)

One of Oxford's major benefactors, Dr John Radcliffe, bequeathed £140,000 for the enlargement of University College, the endowment of travelling medical scholarships and the building of a library. Any residue, his trustees were to apply "to such charitable purposes as they in their discretion should think best". His testamentary wishes were gradually implemented during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

He was buried in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. In spite of an impressive funeral service, no monument was erected there, as had been originally intended, and his grave was rediscovered only by chance in 1819. As recently as 1953, a memorial tablet was placed in the church on the north wall of the nave:

John Radcliff MD, born 1652, Scholar of University College, Fellow of Lincoln College, MP for Buckingham, Physician to Queen Anne, a benefactor to the University, was burled in this church near the north west corner of the organ screen.

The first major beneficiary was his old college, University College, where the Radcliff Quadrangle was built between 1716 and 1718. Here a statue of him by Francis Bird (1667-1731) stands holding the staff of Aesculapius, god of medicine. On the pedestal is a Latin inscription:

On graduating from University College, Radcliffe became a Fellow of Lincoln College (1670-77) and then practised medicine in Oxford for several years before going to London where he proved himself to be one of the most successful physicians of his time. Notwithstanding attempts by jealous rivals to disparage his abilities as a doctor, his skill at diagnosis soon established his reputation among the moneyed classes and brought him to the notice of the royal family. He thus amassed a considerable fortune.

The Radcliffe trustees applied the residue of the estate to other major enterprises in Oxford:

-The Radcliffe Library was built in 1737-49 to the design of James Gibbs, architect of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Its present name, the Radcliffe Camera, dates from 1869 when it was taken over by the Bodleian Library. Inside the building are a statue of Radcliffe by J.M.Rysbrack and the original of a portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

-The bicentenary of the opening of the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1770 is recorded on a plaque above a doorway to the left of the main entrance:

A copy of Kneller's portrait of Dr John Radcliffe hangs in the impressive Board Room above the main entrance.

-The Radcliffe Observatory (now part of Green College) was begun in 1772 to a design by Henry Keene, but after Keene's death in 1776 it was completed to a design by James Wyatt, based on a small Tower of the Winds in Athens dating from the first century BC. The Observatory continued to be used for its original purpose until the 1930s when the trustees decided to sell it and to erect a new observatory in South Africa where it was hoped there would be a clearer night sky. The purchaser of the Oxford Observatory was Lord Nuffield who presented it to the hospital authorities and in 1936 established the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research there. In 1979 the Institute was moved to new premises in the grounds of the John Radcliffe Hospital when the Observatory site was acquired by Green College. On the circular staircase of the Observatory are portraits of Dr John Radcliffe (a reproduction of the Kneller portrait) and of Lord Nuffield in academic robes.

-In 1861 the medical and scientific books from the Radcliffe Camera were transferred to the newly opened University Museum, forming a separate Radcliffe Science Library. A new building for the Science Library was erected in 1901-02, to which extensions have since been added and for whose organisation the Curators of the Bodleian Library are now responsible. Another copy of the Kneller portrait of Dr John Radcliffe hangs in the Medical Reading Room on the top floor. On the outside north wall is a metal plaque with the inscription:

The Worshipful Company of Drapers in the City of London erected this building for the use of the Library founded and endowed AD 1714 by Dr John Radcliffe, Doctor of Medicine, and presented it to the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford the 18th day of June 1901.

[Here follow the names of office holders in the Drapers Company]

In 1934, a new entrance was made to the original building from Parks Road (opposite Rhodes House). The lettering of the words RADCLIFFE LIBRARY on the lintel above the door was carved by Eric Gill.

In more recent times, Radcliffe's name has been given to the vast hospital complex on Headington Hill, the John Radcliffe Hospital, familiarly known as the 'J.R. One' and the 'J.R. Two'. (The Radcliffe Infirmary, formerly known as 'The Radcliffe', has had to find a new abbreviation and is now referred to in medical circles as 'The R.I.'). Reproductions of the Kneller portrait are scattered round the Headington site. Copies have been discovered in the main foyer of the 'J.R. Two', on the stairs of the Academic Centre and in the Manor Buildings.

Radcliffe Square is of course named after him, and there is a Radcliffe Road off the Iffley Road south of Donnington Bridge.

The first object to strike the eye of the visitor to the Warneford Hospital is a life-sized statue in the entrance-lobby of Samuel Warneford (1763-1855), after whom the hospital is named. The inscription on the face of the pedestal reads:

and on either side of the pedestal is a long eulogy in Latin and in English.

Samuel Warneford came from a wealthy family and added to his fortune both by inheritance and by marriage. After the death of his wife, he found himself with what the Dictionary of National Biography describes as 'superfluous wealth', and the rest of his life he spent finding worthy causes to give it to. Starting in his own parish of Bourton-on-the-Hill, he refitted the church (where he is buried) and built a 'retreat for the aged'. He then turned his attention to nearby Moreton-in-Marsh where he refurbished the church and built a school. After that, he looked further afield. The Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum had been opened in Headington in 1826 with Warneford as one of its most generous benefactors, and it was as a tribute to his continued financial support that in 1843 the institution was renamed 'The Warneford Asylum'. He also provided endowments for hospitals in Leamington, Birmingham and for King's College, London. Another venture was the purchase of land near Canterbury for a school for the son of clergy, which still exists as St Edmund's School.

Not far from the Warneford Hospital are Warneford Lane and Warneford Road.

Advising Warneford on the disposition of his charitable funds was the vicar of Yarnton, The Rev. Vaughan Thomas (1775-1858), whose marble bust stands near the statue of Warneford in the entrance-lobby of the hospital. On the pedestal is another long eulogistic inscription.

Vaughan Thomas was a pluralist cleric who held livings in Gloucestershire and Warwickshire as well as that of Yarnton. A man of wide interests and a voluminous writer on historical and social problems, he published a stream of letters and pamphlets on a bewildering variety of subjects. His publications include A sanitary survey of the parish of Yarnton (1853) and a series of printed broadsheets entitled Advice, pastoral and medical, to those who stand in need of it now that the cholera has reappeared although at a distance from this village. Those who stood in need of his advice were 'cottagers and others of the parish of Yarnton' to whom he offered free lime for dispelling 'filthiness and foul smells', free flannel for making 'belly-bands' to keep the stomach warm, and coal at half price so that fires might be kept up in cold cottages. Another letter was addressed to 'All Drunkards and Revellers and to the thoughtless and imprudent of both Sexes' and contained a prayer 'For protection against cholera and for Edification in Faith and Holiness'.

Also in the entrance-lobby of the Warneford Hospital is a wall- tablet to the memory of Dr James Neil who worked at the hospital first as assistant physician from 1886 to 1897 and then as Medical Superintendent from 1897 to 1914. Dr Neil died in harness, as did his successor, Dr Alexander Neill, who served until his death in 1938.

In 1984, a disused stable behind the Manor House in Headington was rebuilt to provide offices for the Oxfordshire Health Authority. Lying forgotten in a corner was an inscribed stone which has now been re-erected on a wall just inside the main entrance to what is now known as The Stable Block

This stone was laid by the Rt Hon The Viscount Valentia*, CB, MVO, President, to mark the first extension of the hospital upon this site due to the inspiration of Sir William Osler, Bart., Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Oxford and honorary consulting physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary 1905-1920.

The Osler Pavilion had been demolished in 1969 when the site was cleared for the building of the John Radcliffe Hospital. However, OsIer's name survives in nearby OsIer Road, in William OsIer House (a social club for medical staff), in the OsIer Chest Unit at the Churchill Hospital and in the OsIer Ward at the Radcliffe Infirmary. There is also a bronze plaque (by a French artist, F. Vernon) with his portrait in profile, formerly in the University Museum but now on the stairs of the Academic Centre at the John Radcliffe Hospital. A portrait by the American artist, Seymour Thomas, hangs in the Medical Reading Room on the top floor of the Radcliffe Science Library.

Osler's house at 13 Norham Gardens became known as "The Open Arms" on account of the open-handed hospitality which he extended to his many friends and colleagues. The house is marked with a blue plaque high up on the wall:

Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine, lived in this house 1907-1919

A Canadian, OsIer had been a professor in Canada and in the USA before his appointment as Regius Professor in Oxford. He had been appointed Professor at McGill University, Montreal, at the age of 25, and from there he had gone on as Professor at the American Universities of Pennsylvania (1884-88) and Johns Hopkins, Baltimore (1889-1904). He was also the author of a medical textbook, The Principles and Practice of Medicine, which became a standard work after its publication in 1892 and which was still in print - in its sixteenth edition - in 1947. At the time of his death, he was the best known physician on either side of the Atlantic and was described in The Lancet as 'the greatest personality in the medical world'. His life's work may be summed up in his own words: "I desire no other epitaph than the statement that I taught medical students in the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work that I have been called upon to do" .

* Lord Valentia, of whom there is a portrait in the Assembly Room at the Town Hall, was Member of Parliament for Oxford from 1895 to 1917. Valentia Road, Headington was named after him in 1930.

In his A short history of the Radcliffe Infirmary, Dr A.H.T.Robb-Smith reports that, despite Lord Valentia's name being on the inscription at the Osler Pavilion, the stone was actually laid by LadyOsler.

Wartime Hospitals

In both World Wars, Oxford was a centre for the care of the wounded.

During World War I, the main military hospital was housed in the Examination Schools, overflowing into University College next door and into the garden of New College where the wounded were cared for under canvas. The hospital is commemorated on an obscurely sited stone in the garden of New College on the south wall adjoining Queen's Lane above a woodpile and about seven feet from the ground:

This stone has been placed to commemorate the use of the garden as part of the Third Southern General Hosp1tal throughout the War of 1914-18 and to .mark the spot where a way of access was made to the hosp1tal in the Schools.

The wounded were also accommodated in the Town hall, in Somerville College (whose normal occupants spent the war as guests of Oriel College) and in the Littlemore Hospital which was temporarily renamed as the Ashurst War Hospital.

In World War II, the wounded were cared for in St Hugh's College and in the Churchill Hospital.

The military hospital at St Hugh's College is commemorated on a handsome memorial designed and executed by Richard Grasby, which was unveiled on 6th June 1988 (the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6th June 1944) above the entrance to the college library on the first floor:

St Hugh's College became the Military Hospital for Head Injuries from 1939 to 1945.

Sir Hugh Cairns's pioneering work in neuro-surgery resulted in a spectacular improvement in the recovery rate of patients with missile wounds to the brain during the Second World War compared with the high mortality rate in the 1914-18 War

Sir Hugh Cairns (1896-1952), a first-generation Australian of Scottish parentage, first came to Oxford in 1919 as a Rhodes Scholar. After holding a house appointment at the Radcliffe Infirmary for a few years, he moved to London where he specialised in neuro-surgery. He returned to Oxford in 1938 on his appointment as the first Nuffield Professor of Surgery in the newly expanded medical school at Oxford. During the war, he was consultant neuro-surgeon to the army with the rank of Brigadier, and in addition to establishing the hospital for head injuries at St Hugh's, he was largely responsible for the design and introduction of crash-helmets for motor-cyclists and of mobile surgical units, both of which measures saved innumerable lives. He died at the age of 56 when at the height of his powers. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, his grave being by the path near the east end of St Cross Church.

Both the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Academic Centre at the John Radcliffe Hospital have a Cairns Library named after him, and the Infirmary also has a Cairns Seminar Suite.

On the wall just inside the entrance to the Churchill Hospital is a coloured photograph of Sir Winston Churchill, beneath which is an inscription on a brass plate:

Churchill Hospital was formally opened on Jan 27 1942 by HRH The Duchess of Kent. From that time until July 15 1942 the hospital was staffed by the American Hospital in Britain, a reconstruction unit of surgeons, physicians, nurses and technicians who came from America in September 1940 to give help to Britain in her hour of need, The unit, previous to its transference here, had been located at Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke.

At the base of the flagstaff in the main square in front of the hospital is a metal plate with the names of the medical officers of the US Army who commanded the 23rd General Hospital (July 1942 - April 1944) and the 91st General Hospital (April 1944 -July 1945), both of which occupied the Churchill Hospital.

Just inside the main entrance of the Radcliffe Infirmary is an oval plaque of polished black marble:

Penicillin made in the William Dunn School of Pathology was first used in the systemtatic* treatment of infection in man at the Radcliffe Infirmary on 12 February 1941

* [ According to Lennard Bickel's biography of Lord Florey, Rise up to life (1972), the word 'systematic' should read 'systemic'].

It is hardly possible to exaggerate the enormous impact on medical treatment that was made in the early 1940s when Sir Howard Florey (later Lord Florey) and his colleagues in Oxford made the first clinical use of penicillin, the antibiotic drug produced from a mould, first observed by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928. The public were convinced that the new drug was a panacea that would wipe from the face of the earth a whole list of ills which had plagued human beings for centuries. Certainly, its use brought a dramatic rise in the recovery-rate of sufferers from a wide range of infections, and its introduction was especially timely for the treatment of war- wounded.

The names of members of the medical team who pioneered the clinical use of penicillin are recorded on another memorial near the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. At the entrance to the rose-garden near the Dan by Gate is an inscribed stone slab on which are the words:

This rose-garden was given in honour of the research workers in the university who discovered the clinical importance of penicillin for saving life, relief of suffering and inspiration to further research. All mankind is in their debt. Those who did this work were E. P. Abraham, E. Chain, C. M. Fletcher, H. W. Florey, M. E. Florey, A.D.Gardner, N.G.Heatley, K.A.Jennings, I. Orr-Ewing, A. G. Sanders.

Presented by the Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation, New York. June 1953.

Of the names mentioned on the slab, at least five subsequently had distinguished careers in medicine and science:

H.W.Florey (1898-1968), who (like his near-contemporary Cairns) originally came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from Australia, became Professor of Pathology at the University in 1935. He received the Nobel Prize for medicine (with Sir Alexander Fleming) in 1945, was awarded the Order of Merit and was made a life peer. He later became Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford, and gives his name to the Florey Building (an annexe of the college) in St Clement's. There is a memorial tablet to him in the porch of St Nicholas Church, Old Marston. His medals are deposited in the Heberden Coin Room at the Ashmolean Museum. He is also commemorated in Westminster Abbey by a stone on the floor of the nave near the entrance to the north choir aisle.

Ernst Chain (1906-79) came to Oxford as a refugee from Germany in 1935 and worked as a demonstrator then as a lecturer here until 1948. He too received the Nobel Prize in 1945, was knighted in 1969, and became Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College, London.

A.D.Gardner (1884-1978) became a Fellow of his old college, University College, and was Regius Professor of Medicine from 1948 to 1954.

E.P.Abraham (b.1913) was knighted and became Professor of Chemical Pathology at Oxford from 1964 to 1980.

C.M.Fletcher (b.1911) became Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at London University and became known to many for his appearances in medical programmes on television.

N.P.Heatley was in 1990 awarded the first honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine ever to have been conferred by the University of Oxford in recognition of his contribution to the development of penicillin. A Norman Heatley Lecture fund has been established in his honour.

There is an exhibit of penicillin material in the Museum of the History of Science in Broad Street.

The full title of the senior heart specialist in Oxford is 'The Field Marshal Alexander Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine', and the inauguration of the Chair is recorded in the John Radcliffe Hospital where there is a large bronze bust of the Field Marshal by Oscar Nemon. The bust was originally in the Radcliffe Observatory but was moved to the hospital site when the Observatory was acquired by Green College. On the plinth is the inscription:

This bust was unveiled by H. M. Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine established at the University of Oxford as a memorial to the Field Marshal by the British Heart Foundation, 31 October 1973, with funds raised throughout the United Kingdom, the British Commonwealth and the United States of America.

Alexander's commands as Commander-in-Chief, Middle East (1942-43) and later as Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theatre, confirmed him as one of the outstanding generals of the 1939-45 war. His subsequent appointment as Governor General of Canada (1946-52) made him well known on the other side of the Atlantic too. He rounded off his working career as Minister of Defence (1952-54). He died following a heart attack and is buried at Ridge, Hertfordshire, where his gravestone is inscribed with the one word ALEX, the name by which he was always known to his troops.

A fine bronze statue of him by the sculptor James Butler was unveiled in 1985 in front of the Guards' Chapel at the Guards' Headquarters in Birdcage Walk, London.