Our more mature readers will be able to recall the time when your doctor was not only the family doctor, but also a pillar of the community. That is not to denigrate our GPs today but merely to reflect on how times have changed.

This week our Nostalgia story is not just about one family doctor, but a family themselves, of two doctors. These were the Bannermans, two brothers.

We first met the brothers last year when the Nostalgia pages featured the tragic story of the murder of Sarah Gibbons by her husband Albert in the bathroom of their house No. 84 Oxford St, High Wycombe in June 1909.

ALSO READ: The murder of Sarah Gibbons - a horrific incident that shocked High Wycombe

They lived next door to the Bannermans at No.85 and it was Walter who attended the scene of the murder and disarmed Albert of the razor he had used to kill his wife and was trying to kill himself with.

George and Walter were the sons of James and Elizabeth Bannerman, born in Torpoint just across the estuary from Plymouth in 1868 and 1875 respectively. Their father James was a Fleet Engineer in the Royal Navy, later becoming a Captain.

After qualifying as a medical practioner in London George’s first appointment was at Leicester Infirmary, a large hospital which had 300 beds.

In the mid-1890s he came to Wycombe, initially establishing a doctor’s practice in premises on the corner of Brook Street and Oxford Road. This he successfully built up, so that by 1901 he had taken a lease from Albert Gibbons on No.85 Oxford Road. There his surgery would have been on the ground floor, with the family living in the upper floors.

The procedure of building up a practice was unusual for the time, most doctors having purchased one from another doctor who was moving or retiring.

George married 18 year old Margaret H Affleck, the daughter of Wycombe draper John Affleck, on August 18 1900. Earlier that year, on January 13, George’s sister Elsie had married Charles Henry Hunt, the son of Wycombe auctioneer Charles Harman Hunt.

The family was therefore getting firmly entrenched in the tradesmen’s and businessmen’s echelon of High Wycombe society.

The Battle of Wycombe Cottage Hospital

However, this had not been achieved without considerable controversy, and resistance, from the higher echelons.

For example, a meeting had been convened by the Amalgamated Friendly Societies (AOF) of High Wycombe at the Town Hall on November 30 1897 to “register a protest against the refusal of the Cottage Hospital Committee to allow Dr Bannerman to serve on the medical staff. With Mr Ron Goodearl JP presiding, the building was densely packed in every part”.

The dispute arose because the Cottage Hospital, which had four Medical Officers (MOs), had declined to appoint Dr Bannerman, the nominee from the AOF as a fifth MO. It was clearly demonstrated during the meeting that in comparison with other local hospitals, such as Marlow and Maidenhead, Wycombe was entitled to have seven Medical Practioners.

It was also pointed out that with 2,000 benefit members the AOF was a major contributor to the funding of the Cottage Hospital. There was also frequent reference at the meeting that the four existing MOs had all purchased their practices, whereas Dr Bannerman had developed his from scratch. The inference of this was that the existing MOs were somehow superior to George Bannerman, something which the meeting keenly refuted.

After many speeches and much discussion two resolutions were adopted unaminously, and were to be presented to the secretary of the Cottage Hospital.

The Hospital Committee considered these resolutions at a meeting in January 1898 and rejected them, and therefore the addition of Dr Bannerman to the Medical Officers, by 4 votes to 3, with several abstentions.

This issue was not resolved for nearly another two years, until finally George Bannerman was appointed a Medical Officer at the Cottage Hospital late in the year 1900.

George’s brother Walter came to Wycombe in the early 1900s, having married Maud Lay in late 1900 in Hackney, London. Sadly Maud died in 1910 in Wycombe. In 1911 George, his wife Margaret and two children Margaret and Gerald, brother Walter, a Governess and two servants were still living in the same ten room house, No.85 Oxford Rd. By 1912 Walter was living in a house called Riversdale in the London Road and had been appointed as Wycombe’s Medical Officer of Health.

So clearly the brothers, who were now describing themselves as Physicians and Surgeons, had established a considerable reputation and following amongst the residents of High Wycombe. They were also keen on promoting good health amongst the town’s inhabitants, particularly by participation in athletics. How they did that we shall see in a second article.

To be continued