Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet

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Sir Frederick Treves

Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet, GCVO, CH, CB (February 15, 1853 Dorchester - December 7, 1923) was a British physician of the Victorian era, famous for his friendship with Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man (sometimes inaccurately referred to as "John").

[edit] Life

Born at 8 Cornhill Street, Treves was the son of an upholsterer in Dorchester, Dorset. He became a surgeon, specializing in abdominal surgery, at the Royal London Hospital in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

He married in 1877 to Ann Elizabeth.

In 1902, Treves was sergeant surgeon to King Edward VII and performed an appendicectomy and drainage of an appendix abscess on him when his appendix ruptured. At the time, the surgery had a high risk of death. The rupture also occurred shortly before King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, were to have their coronation. The king was against surgery for this reason, but Treves insisted, saying that if he weren't allowed to operate, it would be a funeral. When the king was crowned six weeks later, the name of Sir Frederick Treves was high on the Coronation Honours List. He was rewarded with a residence in Richmond Park and was able to take an early retirement.

He was also the author of many books, including The Elephant Man and other reminiscences (1923), Surgical applied Anatomy (1883), The Highways and Byways of Dorset (The area of Britain in which he was born), Students Handbook of Surgical Operations (1892), Uganda for a Holiday, The Land That is Desolate, And The Cradle of the Deep (1908) An account of his travels in and among the West Indies intermixed with portions of their histories, which describes (among other things) The death of Blackbeard the pirate, an eruption of Mount Pelée (which destroyed the city of St. Pierre), and a powerful earthquake at Kingston, Jamaica, at which he landed shortly after the event. From 1902 to 1910 he was Serjeant Surgeon in the Royal Household. Was one of the founders of the Red Cross Society, and was the first president of the Society of Dorset Men.

Around 1920 Sir Frederick went to live in Switzerland where he died at the age of 70. Ironically, he died from peritonitis, which is commonly caused by a ruptured appendix.

In the David Lynch film The Elephant Man, Treves is played by Anthony Hopkins.