John BRISCOE (1820–1908)
St Michael section: Row 6a, Grave C50
IN
MEMORY OF
JOHN BRISCOE F.R.C.S. ENG.
FOR MANY YEARS SURGEON TO
THE RADCLIFFE INFIRMARY
OXFORD
WHO DIED SEPTEMBER 28TH 1908
IN HIS 89TH YEAR
John Briscoe was born in 1820 at Bausley, Crew Green near Alberbury, Montgomeryshire, the son of the farmer John Briscoe senior (born 1765/6).
John junior was apprenticed to Frederick Wood, a surgeon apothecary at St Bartholomew’s Hospital London. At the time of the 1841 census he was home with his father and sister Elizabeth at Crew Green, and although he was only aged 20, he was already described as a surgeon.
In 1845 he was elected House Surgeon-Apothecary at the Radcliffe Infirmary, and at the time of the 1851 census, when he was aged 31, he was living at the Infirmary. He never married.
In 1857 he left the Infirmary when he was appointed Surgeon to H.M. Prison, Oxford, and he also then set up his own practice at 12 Broad Street (now Isola). He can be seen living there in the 1861 census with two servants, one a boy aged 13 who would have acted as a page or house-boy. On 4 June that year he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Oxfordshire Regiment of Militia.
On 29 April 1865 Briscoe was elected Surgeon of the Radcliffe Infirmary, and on 24 March 1869 was promoted to Surgeon of the Militia.
By 1871 he had moved to 5 Broad Street (now replaced by the eastern side of Boswell House), where he was to spend the rest of his life. He was there at the time of the census that year, again with two servants, a woman and a boy; and the situation was the same in 1881. He retired from the Radcliffe Infirmary later that year.
In 1891 and 1901 Briscoe was at 5 Broad Street with two servants, and he died there in 1908:
† John Briscoe died at 5 Broad Street at the age of 88 on 28 September 1908 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 2 October (burial recorded in the parish register of St Michael’s Church).
The following short obituary appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 3 October 1908:
DEATH OF MR. JOHN BRISCOE.
We regret to announce the passing away early on Monday morning at his residence, No. 5, Broad-street, in this city, of Mr. John Briscoe, F.R.C.S.Eng., and member of the Pathological Society, at the advanced age of 88. He had been confined to his bed for upwards of a year, and the end came somewhat suddenly, death being due to natural decay. He was educated at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and at the age of about 25 was appointed house-surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary, retiring some twenty years ago; for a very long period he devoted his energies to improving the general arrangements of that institution, and did so with a remarkable degree of success. He was a very skilful and capable surgeon, and continually encouraged advancement in surgical work. He was Surgeon of the Oxford Militia, and accompanied the Regiment to Corfu at the time of the Crimean War, and he also for many years held the appointment of surgeon at the county gaol. The funeral will take place this (Friday) afternoon at 2.30 at St. Sepulchre’s Cemetery, Walton-street.
He left his entire fortune of £62,799 to the Radcliffe Infirmary. A tablet was placed in the Out Patient Hall, and the Accident Ward was renamed the Briscoe Ward.
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