One day in early June this year, an email popped into my inbox, claiming to be from a medical historian in Ireland called Anne, who was writing a book on one Arthur Leared, inventor of the bi-aural stethoscope, and wondering if I was related.
Indeed I was related, and curious and pleased that someone whom I knew nothing about was taking the time to research and write a book on one of my ancestors. I had always known I had an ancestor from Ireland who had invented the bi-aural stethoscope, but having grown up in Zimbabwe, so far removed from County Wexford, it was never a subject I pursued much or expected to become relevant in the future. Where do you even start the process, in terms of digging around for information, let alone finding the time.
Anne mentioned a process had begun to seek approval from local authorities to install a memorial plaque for Arthur Leared in Wexford where he was born, with the aim of doing a formal unveiling ceremony in October. Being a keen historian with a passion of travel, I began to do some digging on the life and times of my great great grand-uncle, Arthur Leared.
Arthur Leared was born in 1822, to his parents Richard Leared of Glenville of County Cork, and Jane Barrington of Ballycogley Castle, Wexford. He studied medicine at Trinity Collect in Dublin, and practiced first in the fever hospital in Oulart, where he treated patients with tuberculosis, and during that period, invented the bi-aural stethoscope made of gutta-percha, which he exhibited at the Crystal Palace world exhibition in 1851. He moved to London around this time, and he lived in Soho, at 12 Old Burlington Street, was a member of the Royal College of Physicians, and connected to other hospitals including the great Northern hospital, the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest and St. Mark’s Hospital for Fistula.
Coupled with an adventurous spirit, Arthur acted as a physician to the British civil hospital at Smyrna in Turkey, during the Crimean War, and also visited India, Morocco and Iceland several times to pursue his passion for travel and medicine abroad.
As a medical doctor, Leared wrote numerous papers including “The Causes and Treatment of Imperfect Digestion”, “Morocco and the Moors” which was edited by the famous explorer Sir Richard Burton, “A Visit to the Court of Morocco” and “On The Sounds caused by the circulation of the blood”.
He never had children, which perhaps explains his propensity for frequent travel abroad, but was married twice. During his final trip to Morocco, he caught tuberculosis, and died in 1879 at the age of 57, finally buried at Highgate cemetery in North London.
Trip to Ireland
Anne writes to confirm the Wexford County Council have agreed to unveiling the plaque, and I book our flights. We arrive in Dublin, rent a car, and have dinner at a pub in Dublin with one of Tash’s cousins. After that we drive the two hours down to Wexford where we check into a BnB.
The following morning, we arrange a coffee meet up with Anne, where we exchange notes. Anne has dedicated a significant amount of her time over the past few years to researching the life of Arthur, and is now about 70% of the way through the book. She kindly sent a few chapters over to me to read prior to the visit, which gave me some fascinating insights and context.
After the coffee, we explored a few sights around County Wexford, which had significance to Arthur’s life. Firstly, the castles. Again, I had always known there was a connection to some castles in Ireland, that our family apparently owned at one point, and now it was surreal to actually be visiting the castles. We started at Ballycogley Castle, home of Arthur’s mother, Jane Barrington. The entrance was shut however, we couldn’t get in, but believe part of the castle has fallen down recently. Next up was Bargy Castle, now owned by famous Irish pop musician Chris de Burgh. Beautifully draped in a red creeper, and with a pristine and well-manicured green lawn, Bargy was the home of Jane Barrington’s grandmother, Elizabeth Boxwell.
We then visited Lingstown Castle, home to Jane Barrington’s mother, who was a Boxwell, the castle is really rundown, although walking around it, gave me time to reflect and imagine on my ancestors living there, their day to day lives, tending to the horses and cattle, family occasions, taking cover from the raids. Finally the last castle of the day, we visited Butlerstown Castle, home to one of the Boxwell ancestors, and to this day still owned and lived in by descendants of the Boxwell family. We happened to meet the husband of the owner Anne Skrine-Brunton, who gave us a fascinating tour of the 500-year-old castle, how the inhabitants of the castle used to hole up in the castle with their cattle during enemy raids, and how they would protect themselves using various death traps. The family continue to have summer parties to this day.
We drove back to Wexford to get ready for the ceremony which was to start at 2.30pm. After an introduction by Brian Trench, colleague of Anne’s, Anne MacLennan gave a presentation on Arthur Leared, which was very well received by the audience, with many thought-provoking questions and comments. With the ceremony being held on the 12th October, the timing was appropriate since it was nearly 145 years since the death of Arthur, with his passing on the 16th October 1879.
One person of the audience seemed to think there was a “Leared trust” which owned land and would collect rentals. I never knew the family still owned land in Ireland, but if anyone knows anything about this, happy to hear more.
The other comment was about George Camann, an American who is credited with popularising the stethoscope, that is most similar to what is used today. There was some confusion as to who invented the stethoscope first, but it is widely accepted that by virtue of Leared’s stethoscope being displayed at the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1851, and Camann’s prototype coming out after this, the credit for the invention of the bi-aural stethoscope is with Leared. Prior to this, the stethoscope in use was a single tube stethoscope, developed by French physician Rene Laennec in 1816.
Following the presentation, the crowd congregated in the Wexford town square, where the plaque was unveiled by Wexford surgeon Ken Mealy, past president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. What I couldn’t help but think was how many billions of people’s lives, Arthur has changed for the better, by having developed the stethoscope, which has led to progress in health.
Following the event, Tash and I had a the most amazing seafood dinner at the famous Mary Barry’s Bar at Kilmore. The next morning, we stopped in at Glenville House, just outside Wexford, where Arthur’s sister grew up in the 1840s, continued our tour, this time exploring the Ring of Hook, taking in the 800-year-old Hook lighthouse, visiting Templetown Church ruins, Loftus Hall, and the incredible Tintern Abbey, before driving back up to Dublin, and making one last stop en-route at the old fever hospital in Oulart, where Arthur worked, treating TB patients, and also inventing the first prototype.
The most incredible weekend exploring county Wexford, and walking the paths trodden by countless ancestors, and celebrating the mark made on the world by ancestor.
