Edwin Bramwell
This little reel has so much to tell us. We can work out who made it, when and where it was sold, - we can even make an educated guess at who bought it and had it engraved. The reel has all the markers for one of P D Malloch's reels, made in Perth for the tackle trade not just in Scotland but all over Britain. It was sold by Roderick Anderson & Sons, not as you might expect from their fashionable Edinburgh shop, but from their father's old premises in the Perthshire town of Dunkeld. All this we can see from looking at the reel, but we can also see a unique engraving on the winding plate.
Inscribed Edwin Bramwell, 18 - 3 - 1892
Who Was Edwin Bramwell?
Edwin Bramwell was the eldest son of Sir Byrom Bramwell, a leading physician, pioneer neurologist, published author and later, President of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Edwin was born in 1873 in North Shields at a time when his father was in General Practice in order to be able to care for his own father. Like his father before him, Edwin was educated at Cheltenham College for Gentlemen where he must have been a successful scholar because by 1891 he had been accepted into the School of Medicine at Edinburgh University at the age of 18.
The degree course at Edinburgh lasted 5 years and ended with Bramwell graduating MB ChB, that is to say with a combined degree in Medicine and Surgery. He quickly found work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but then moved on to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in London. It was very clear from his interests that Edwin was to follow his father into the field of Neurology.
After a period of study abroad, Edwin returned to Edinburgh where he became a consultant serving in several of the city's hospitals. |
Edwin's expertise in the field of Neurology was to come to the fore with the onset of the First World War when he was appointed Captain in the Medical Corps, working at the Royal Victoria Hospital and The Scottish General Hospital, now better known as Edinburgh's Western General, where he worked with patients with shell-shock and brain injuries. When the War Office appointed a Committee to inquire into this new phenomenon of shell-shock it was natural that Edwin should become a member.
The end of the war saw him take full charge of the medical wards at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary. He had qualified as a lecturer before the war, and was also appointed to the post of lecturer in Clinical Neurology at the University of Edinburgh, and his lectures and courses soon attracted considerable support, particularly interesting since many of them were voluntary.
Edwin's academic career took a further step in 1922 when the unexpected death of Professor Darby Boyd left the Moncrieff Arnot Chair of Clinical Medicine vacant, Edwin was selected and so became Professor Edwin Bramwell.
Edwin's medical and academic career continued to flourish until his death in 1952. He wrote many books and articles, contributed hugely to medical education and is repeatedly lauded for his skills as a clinician, educator and mentor, but what about the reel?
The end of the war saw him take full charge of the medical wards at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary. He had qualified as a lecturer before the war, and was also appointed to the post of lecturer in Clinical Neurology at the University of Edinburgh, and his lectures and courses soon attracted considerable support, particularly interesting since many of them were voluntary.
Edwin's academic career took a further step in 1922 when the unexpected death of Professor Darby Boyd left the Moncrieff Arnot Chair of Clinical Medicine vacant, Edwin was selected and so became Professor Edwin Bramwell.
Edwin's medical and academic career continued to flourish until his death in 1952. He wrote many books and articles, contributed hugely to medical education and is repeatedly lauded for his skills as a clinician, educator and mentor, but what about the reel?
Almost all the biographical writings about Prof. Bramwell mention his love of fly fishing, an interest he shared with his father, Sir Byrom Bramwell. In addition to his medical writings he is also known to have contributed to the pages of the Fishing Gazette, writing under the pseudonym "The Professor".
If we look back again to beginning of his medical career, he became a student at Edinburgh in 1891. Prior to this he had been a boarder at Cheltenham College, this we know. We also know that through part of his career he also collaborated with his father in educational and medical projects, clearly they were close, and the Trout Season of 1892 would have been the first opportunity they would have had to fish together, in Scotland , as equals... Did Edwin's father slip into the shop in Dunkeld, pick out a pretty little red-brass trout winch and have it engraved as a gift for his son, to commemorate their first chance to fish together. I really would like to think so... |