Monocled doctor dispensed in a simpler age

Dr Edgar Rudge wearing his familiar black monocle with his wife Jane and son Peter

Bygones featured an account of the life of Dr Edgar Rudge, a well-known and popular GP in Derby from 1922-62. As a child, Derby playwright Don Shaw was one of his patients – as he recounts here.

“Dr Rudge lived in a house in Nottingham Road, Chaddesden, at the junction with Reginald Road. A large wooden hut was attached, kept warm by a coke stove. Patients turned up – there was no appointment system – and he signalled his next customer by ringing a bell, once for Dr Rudge and twice for his partner, Dr Plant.

“I lived in Arridge Road, a quarter of a mile away. I recall handing him 3d for a bottle of cough mixture, well before the advent of the National Health Service in 1948.

“Dr Rudge offered a one-stop service. Having left him in the dining room, you then went into what had been the kitchen to be given your medicine which was frequently liquid in a bottle.

“I was rarely prescribed tablets. I suffered from high fever on more than one occasion but my parents stoically refused to call the doctor unless you were at death’s door.

“It was a fairly easy life for doctors in those days as there were few comebacks, little pressure from any kind of authority and they shared the same elevated social class as the bank manager and the solicitor.

“Dr Rudge would refer patients to the hospital and off they would go with a note from him addressed to the consultant concerned. Once I was badly bitten by a dog and he cleaned the wound, applied some antiseptic and that was that. This was prior to the advent of penicillin. He was never under threat of being sued. Patients didn’t have the money and would never have thought of it.

“As a child, Dr Rudge frightened me. It was his pair of spectacles which fascinated and concerned me. One eye was blind and hidden by a lens painted white. Then he took to wearing a black monocle.”

FEEDBACK

Did you enjoy this article? If so, why not comment on it? Perhaps you disagree with something in it, or you know something the writer doesn't and can add some extra facts. You may want to ask a question about this article. Making a contribution is easy - either click 'edit' to insert more information or 'discussion' and then 'add comment.' This is your site. Please feel free to use it to the full and share your memories, thoughts and knowledge about Derbyshire with others.

If there is no 'edit' link showing it means the article has either previously been published in the Derby Evening Telegraph, or it has been protected by the site administrator and cannot be edited.'

Other tags that are relevant to Monocled doctor dispensed in a simpler age

Help us to improve Bygone Derbyshire by adding more tags to this article. Simply edit this page, find this area and add the words in a list separated by commas next to the *.

To find out more about tagging please click here.

Return to You_and_Yesterday