Frederick Howard Marsh (7 March 1839 – 24 June 1915) was a

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

and academic. From 1907 until his death he was Master of

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the oldest of ...

Life

Marsh was born in 1839 in a small village in eastern England, near

Bungay Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at th ...

, on the

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

border. His father, Edward Brunning Marsh,The Cambridge Medical School: A Biographical History, Sir Humphry Davy Rolleston, 1932, pg 221 is described as a "gentleman farmer", of Homersfield, on the

Waveney Waveney may refer to: * River Waveney, a river that forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England * Waveney District, a local government district in Suffolk, England * Waveney (UK Parliament constituency) * Waveney class lifeboat, a class ...

, Suffolk. His mother Maria, née Haward, daughter of Charles and Maria, came from Brook, near Norwich. The Marsh family was 'old-established East Anglian farming stock', originally from

Eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

.A Memoir of Howard Marsh, Violet Susan Marsh, Murray, 1921, pg 1 He studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital ("Bart's") in London, where he signed on in December 1858, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in June 1861. He was appointed house surgeon at the hospital in 1862, working under Frederic Skey. He obtained his F.R.C.S. diploma in 1866 and in 1868 was appointed Administrator of Chloroform. He held a succession of progressively more senior appointments as assistant surgeon before eventually becoming a full surgeon in 1891. By this time he had already, since 1868, worked as a surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street (as it was then known) where he became full surgeon in 1879 and consulting surgeon in 1888. Also in the late 1860s Marsh became surgeon to the Queen Square House of Relief for Children with Chronic Disease of the Joints, an establishment founded "in great part through the exertions of Miss Perceval". Howard Marsh married Jane Perceval, daughter of

Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. He is the only British prime minister to have been as ...

, and the grand daughter of an assassinated British prime minister, in 1870. In 1903 Marsh was appointed Professor of Surgery at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in belated succession to Sir George Murray Humphry (who had died in 1896). Marsh resigned from his post at Bart's and relocated to Cambridge, becoming a fellow of King's College. Four years later he relocated again, half a mile to the south, becoming Master of

. As Master of Downing College Marsh resisted government pressure to restrict access for students from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, then an important

British Colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by England, and then Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English and later British Empire. There was usually a governor to represent the Crown, appointed by the British monarch on ...

. Approximately one third of all Indian students attending Cambridge University during the early years of the twentieth century chose Downing College: Marsh attributed this to the college's reputation for excellent teaching of law, a subject favoured by India's burgeoning mercantile classes. Government pressure was part of a wider political strategy to limit anti-colonial activism in British universities. After consulting with fellow members of the college governing body Marsh politely rejected the British minister's request to restrict admissions in a way which would have been "a rebuff to Indian students".

Family

Marsh was father to the polymath Edward Marsh and father-in-law of the controversial general and writer,

Frederick Barton Maurice Major-General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, (19 January 1871 – 19 May 1951) was a British Army officer, military correspondent, writer and academic. During the First World War he was forced to retire from the army in May 1918 after writing a ...

. A grand daughter was the economist

Joan Robinson Joan Violet Robinson ( Maurice; 31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983) was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge Sc ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, Frederick Howard 1839 births 1915 deaths People from Suffolk Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Masters of Downing College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England British surgeons Physicians of Great Ormond Street Hospital