Francis Mark Farmer
{{short description|Dental surgeon and lecturer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use Irish English|date=December 2020}}
Sir Francis Mark Farmer (7 October 1866 – 24 December 1922) was a dental surgeon and lecturer on dental surgery and pathology at the London Hospital. He made contributions on facial restoration after gunshot wounds.{{Cite journal|date=March 1923|title=Obituary|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dencos/0527912.0065.001/354:139?rgn=full+text;view=image|journal=The Dental Cosmos|volume=65|issue=3|pages=334|via=The University of Michigan Library}}{{Cite news|url=http://tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/Bzfjf7|title=Sir Francis Farmer|date=27 December 1922|work=The Times (London)|page=13|via=The Times Digital Archive}}{{Cite news|url=http://tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/BzfjnX|title=Deaths|date=29 December 1922|work=The Times (London)|page=11|via=The Times Digital Archive}}
Early life
File:Sir Francis Mark Farmer, from V65 p334, 1923 The Dental Cosmos.jpg
He was born at Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1866.{{Cite web|date=17 October 1866|title=Ireland Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=IRE%2FPRS%2FBAP%2F3783397|website=Find My Past}} His family later moved to Chelsea where in 1881 he was in an apprenticeship with a dentist.England and Wales Census, 1881. RG11, Piece/Folio 82/40, page 28 He qualified in 1894 after studying at the National Dental Hospital and at Middlesex Hospital. He was Dental Surgeon to St. Edward's School, Totteridge, and to St. Hilda's Home for Waifs and Strays.{{Cite book|last=Walford|first=Edward|title=The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland|publisher=Spottiswood, Ballantyne & Co Ltd|year=1919|pages=455}}
Career
His work on facial reconstruction{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/dentalannual190400bail/dentalannual190400bail_djvu.txt|title=The dental annual and Directory 1904 : a year book of dental surgery|publisher=Bailliere, Tindall and Cox|year=1904|location= London|pages=126, 127, 246}} in the Boer War was recognised in 1902 by the Secretary for War with a silver service.
He had an office at 17, Great Marlborough Street{{Cite journal|date=1895|title=THE ODONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN|url=https://archive.org/stream/dentalrecord15euro/dentalrecord15euro_djvu.txt|journal=The Dental Record|volume=XV|pages=201|via=Internet Archive}} and later at 53, Wimpole Street, London.{{Cite web|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBM%2FRED-CROSS%2F214287|title=British Army, British Red Cross Society Volunteers 1914–1918|website=Findmypast}} In 1911 he was a founder member of the London Dental School.{{Cite book|last=Fish|first=S. Francis|title=The Dental School of the London Hospital Medical College, 1911–1991: The Story of the London's Dental School|publisher=London Hospital Dental Club and London Hospital Medical College|year=1991}}{{Cite journal|last=Gelbier|first=Stanley|date=22 August 2013|title=The London Hospital Dental School: A Century of Achievement|url=https://issuu.com/qmalumni/docs/barts_and_the_london_chronicle_-_su/19|journal=Barts and the London Chronicle|volume=Summer 2013|pages=17–31}} The Dental School of the London Hospital Medical College opened in 1911 to provide specialised treatment to patients and training and research opportunities. Surgeon Dentists had been appointed by the Hospital from 1857, and a Dental Department established.{{fact|date=December 2020}}
He worked at Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, which was a major hospital for jaw injuries. He was appointed consulting dental surgeon to the London Hospital in 1899 and to the Queen's Facial Hospital, Sidcup. At the Queen's Hospital, Sidcup, he worked alongside Sir Harold Gillies.{{Cite book|title=Plastic Surgery of the Face; based on selected cases of war injuries|last=Gillies|first=Harold D|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=1920}} He was knighted in the 1916 Birthday Honours for his services in World War I.{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19161123.2.72|title=MAGIC OF THE SURGEON|date=23 November 1916|work=Star|issue=11862|via=Papers Past}}{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DUNST19161113.2.31|title=JAW-BONE FROM A MAN'S LEG|date=13 November 1916|work=Dunstan Times|issue=2841|via=Papers Past}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBOR%2FKNIGHTS%2FREALM%2F011625|title=Britain, Knights Of The Realm & Commonwealth Index|website=Findmypast}} He served from 1917 in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a temporary Honorary Major.{{Cite journal|date=18 May 1915|title=Royal Army Medical Corps|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29168/supplement/4874|journal=The London Gazette|volume=29168|pages=4874}}{{Cite journal|date=6 May 1919|title=ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/31329/page/5749|journal=The London Gazette|volume=31329|pages=5749}} In 1900 he donated his dental collection to the London Hospital.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Dental Association and the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics.
Personal life
File:Hampton Cemetery, grave of Sir Francis Mark Farmer (1).jpg
He lived at St. Winifred's, 39 Belgrade Road, Hampton,England and Wales Census, 1911. RG14, Piece/Folio 397, page 1 where his father Michael had moved in 1888. In 1909, at Paddington, he married Gwendoline Mary Winstanley, who died on 1 October 1914. They had two children, Margaret Jessie (b 1910) and Edmund (b 1911). In 1922, he married his second wife, Kate Mayor Thomas (1874-1957) in West Derby. Later that same year, he died suddenly of a heart attack at Hampton.{{Cite news|date=28 December 1922|title=The Late Sir F. Farmer|page=10|work=Western Daily Press|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/IS3242636757/BNCN?u=rtl_ttda&sid=BNCN&xid=bcbb3540|access-date=4 October 2020|via=British Library Newspapers}} On 28 December there was a solemn requiem at Brompton Oratory, where he had once been a choir boy, followed by burial at Hampton Cemetery.{{Cite web|url=https://www2.richmond.gov.uk/lbrburials/(S(qjc1bmww33ejsyh4z3kq30uz))/DeceasedDetails.aspx?t=dec&id=319679|title=Deceased details: Sir Francis Mark Farmer|website= London Borough of Richmond upon Thames|access-date=30 April 2020}} Queen Alexandra sent a wreath inscribed "For my dear Sir Francis Farmer, with deepest regret and sorrow." Princess Victoria sent a spray of flowers from Sandringham.
His widow, Dame Kate Mayor Farmer, died at St Winifred's, Hampton, on 8 December 1957.{{Cite web|date=1958|title=Find a will {{!}} GOV.UK|url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/|access-date=2021-09-03|website=probatesearch.service.gov.uk|language=en}}
Legacy
In 1924 a memorial mural tablet was unveiled at the London Hospital Medical College and an endowment scholarship set up in his memory. At the unveiling Mr Asquith said that in the particular branch of surgery to which Sir Francis was devoted he was certainly not surpassed by any of his contemporaries.{{Cite news|url=http://tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/BzfbT1|title=A Great Dental Surgeon|date=27 June 1924|work=The Times (London)|page=16|via=The Times Digital Archive}}{{Cite journal|date=July 1924|title=The unveiling of a tablet in memory of Sir Francis Farmer|journal=London Hospital Gazette|location=Archives, Barts & The London School of Medicine and Dentistry|volume=XXVII| issue = 7|pages=220–221}}
FRANCIS FARMER
This tablet is put up
in the place where much of his life work
was done
to keep alive the memory of
a brilliant surgeon
devoted to his profession and his patients
never sparing himself
where he could serve others
most loyal of colleagues
most unselfish of friends
References
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Category:British Army personnel of World War I
Category:British plastic surgeons
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine
Category:People from Bray, County Wicklow
Category:Health professionals from County Wicklow
Category:Honorary medical staff at King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers