Exhibition commemorates 200 years of important medical milestone in Southam

A free exhibition marking 200 years of an important medical milestone in Southam is currently on display.

The Southam Heritage Collection's exhibition 'Medical Matters', in Tithe Place, Southam, opposite Southam Library, commemorates the 200th anniversary of Southam doctor Henry Lilley Smith establishing his Eye and Ear Hospital and Provident Dispensary at Southam (as well as 75 years of the National Health Service).

The exhibition consists of large wall posters and two display cabinets containing old 1950's medical items that would go with any ‘Call the Midwife’ episode!

Dr Alastair Robson is the author of 'A Prophet in his own Country', the biography of Dr Henry Lilley Smith, and his book will be on sale at the exhibition at a reduced price of £12.

Signed copies of the book will be available, and for anyone wishing to speak to Dr Robson, he will be available in Tithe Place on Saturday morning September 9 between 10.30-11.30 am or at Southam Book Festival at the Graham Adams Centre on Sunday October 8.

Dr Robson said: “Henry Lilley Smith was a rural GP with some eye surgery experience gained during his medical training at Guy’s Hospital, and is mainly remembered for establishing an Eye and Ear Infirmary in the town, where he treated patients free of charge, but he should be recognised more importantly for founding his ‘Provident’ (or self-sufficient) Dispensary, whereby the low-paid workers and domestic servants in Southam and the surrounding villages could by making modest annual contributions provide for future medical care for themselves and their families.

"This was very much welcomed in the town: the cost of the scheme was affordable – about 1p/day in today’s money for a family of four – and this model removed the anxiety of doctors’ bills in illness, with the attending fear of debt and possibly the workhouse.

"Many dispensaries were already in existence, of course, but these were charitable. Despite Henry Lilley Smith’s Provident Dispensary being ‘the first in England’, it, and others that followed, continued to attract opposition from the medical establishment, however by the end of the century his scheme had become widely adopted throughout the country.

"Southam born and bred, Henry Lilley Smith’s life was spent caring for the town’s population, and for this he is rightly recognised by the memorial to him on Warwick Road in front of his Infirmary building, but his remarkable philanthropy remains almost totally forgotten beyond it. I hope the exhibition at Southam Heritage and this new biography will make his achievements more widely known.”