John Ash (1723 – 18 June 1798), was an English physician and founder of Birmingham General Hospital.

Biography

Ash was born in

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, Warwickshire, the son of a brewer, and was educated at

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

; was B.A. in 1743, M.A. in 1746, M.B. in 1750, and M.D. in 1754. He settled at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, and soon acquired a large practice. Birmingham General Hospital was founded chiefly through his influence, and he was its first physician. While actively engaged in practice he became affected with temporary mental derangement, for which it is said he found a cure in the study of

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He was admitted a candidate of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

on 22 December 1786, and in the following year resigned his office in Birmingham and removed to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He became fellow of the

College of Physicians A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary school ...

on 22 December 1787, and afterwards practised with success in London. He filled the offices of censor of the college in 1789 and 1793; was Harveian orator in 1790, Gulstonian lecturer in 1791, and Croonian lecturer in 1793. He died on 18 June 1798, and was buried in Kensington Church (since rebuilt). His portrait, by

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

, once in the hospital at Birmingham, was acquired by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2012. It was engraved by Bartolozzi in 1791. In the picture, above his right elbow is the foundation block of the then medical school, on Holloway Head. This became part of the Accident Hospital, since redeveloped as apartments. He is also commemorated by a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

, affixed to the

House of Fraser House of Fraser (rebranding to Frasers) is a British department store chain with 23 locations across the United Kingdom and 2 in Ireland, part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it ...

store in Temple Row, Birmingham.

Works

Ash was a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, described as a physician of great skill, and of considerable other attainments. He founded the social and literary Eumelian Club. The name was a

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

ning allusion to the

ash tree ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergr ...

(Greek or , i.e. with an ashen spear). It was referred to in

James Boswell James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...

's ''Life of Johnson'', in a note to the last chapter. He wrote: * ''Experiments and Observations to investigate by Chemical Analysis the properties of the Mineral Waters of Spa, Aix'', London, 1788. * ''Oratio Harveiana'', 1790.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, John 1723 births 1798 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford People from Coventry 18th-century English medical doctors English medical writers 18th-century English non-fiction writers 18th-century English male writers 18th-century English writers Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians English male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Society