DR EDWARD LONG JACOB MRCS

Baptized 3rd January 1834 - Died 25th May 1905

 

 

A son of George Andrew Jacob DD, he was bapized at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on 3rd January 1834, and died on 25th May 1905. He married Jane (Janice) Gordon Mortimer, the daughter of the Reverend George Ferris Whidbourne Mortimer MA.

He practised as a surgeon, commencing his career in Birkenhead in 1861. In a letter to 'his cousin', possibly Edgar Jacob, he tells him that his salary will start in the first year at £400, and rise in the third to £500. He was none too happy at living in Birkenhead however, which he describes as an unfinished town. There would also appear to have been some discord about family jewelry, which had been inherited; details are lacking, but it would appear that his sister and her husband William Jacob, a cousin, had received most of it.

Writing from Birkenhead to his Dear Cousin, he states that he is about to go into a partnership with the leading surgeon in Birkenhead, who has taken a fancy to me... he has a splendid practice. But this did not appear to have happened, as we find him back in London, where he was appointed medical officer for the districts of Reigate, Chertsey, Dorking and Epsom, in Surrey. He was living in Ecclestone Square, London, at the time.

I hope to be able to post a photograph of him shortly, but a description of him is given in a letter by Ernest Henry Jacob, his cousin, also a doctor, writing to his father Philip Jacob from St Thomas's hospital, where he was working: March 22nd (year unknown): I got down to Mortlake for the boat race on Saturday, going by train to Barnes and walking on... and hit on the tall restless spectaled form of Edward Long and attached myself to him. Herbert Boyce came by with two ladies....both Dixons to one of whom he is engaged and it turned out oddly enough that cousin Edward Long knows them both for years and they used to live at Birkenhead ... cousin Edward had a few people to lunch....his brother in law, an architect, an engineer and two medical men, and we had some food and talk. In the evening Edward took me up to the meeting of the Association of the Medical Officers of Health. In his correspondence he used his embossed coat-of-arms on his letterhead as is shown in the letter that can be accessed via the icon below.

His wife signed her letters as Janice, although she was known as Jane. I have a letters from her to my great grandfather George Adolphus Jacob. It would appear they looked after Adolphus's sons Frederick and Harold for much of the time that Adolphus and Emily his wife were in India. The extended family were very close at this time, Claud and Arthur Jacob, sons of Major-General William Jacob, also spending much time during their holidays with George Andrew Jacob, their grandfather, on their mother's side.