William James Clement (1802 – 29 August 1870) was an English surgeon and a

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politician who was active in local government and sat in the

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from 1865 to 1870.

Life

Clement was the son of William Clement who was a medical practitioner in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

for over sixty years. He was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

and at the

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. He was an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations ...

, a Fellow of the

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, surgeon to the 1st battalion of the Shropshire Rifle Volunteers, and in actual practice as a surgeon. He authored ''Observations in Surgery and Pathology'' and in 1834 was awarded the Fothergillian Gold Medal of the

Medical Society of London Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

.Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1870
/ref> In writing ''An Account of Two Cases of Intestinal Obstruction, in which the operation for the formation of an artificial anus was performed; one in the ascending, the other in the descending colon'' he claimed to have been the first surgeon in Great Britain who successfully opened the ascending colon for intestinal obstruction.Royal Society of Medicine Press 1852
/ref> He was an

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, Mayor of Shrewsbury for 1861–62, a Deputy Lieutenant and J.P. for Merionethshire and a J.P. for Shrewsbury borough. At the 1865 general election Clement was elected Member of Parliament for

. He held the seat until his death aged 68 in 1870. He was buried at the General Cemetery in Longden Road, Shrewsbury. Clement married Tryphosa Freme, daughter of W. P. Freme of Wepre Hall, Flintshire in 1845.

Commemorations

In 1873 a memorial

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and obelisk was erected to his memory in the forecourt of Shrewsbury railway station where it stood until 1897 when it was moved to The Quarry park in the Shrewsbury town centre. In the parish church of Stanton Lacy, Shropshire, Clement is portrayed in the west window of the chancel, which is a memorial to Dr Joseph Bowles, its vicar until the latter's death in 1879. Bowles is portrayed as St Peter, while Clement, a personal friend of Bowles, appears as St Paul. Both faces were taken from life.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clement, William James 1802 births 1870 deaths UK MPs 1868–1874 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Deputy lieutenants of Merionethshire Councillors in Shropshire English surgeons Mayors of places in Shropshire People educated at Shrewsbury School Politicians from Shrewsbury Medical doctors from Shrewsbury