This month has brought some exciting news to my thesis. As I reach the tail end of the chronological time period I’m researching, I enter into the world of the Gamgees – a familiar name not because of their veterinary role, but because of Samwise Gamgee in the works of JRR Tolkien.
While I visualise Samwise when I am researching, I had assumed it was a coincidence – until I had a meeting with my supervisors and the relationship between Tolkien and the “real” Gamgees was mentioned.
Word association
Although it appears Tolkien did not know the Gamgees personally, he knew of the family name and the surgical product that Sampson Gamgee had created. As Samwise was married to the Cotton family, Tolkien chose to use Gamgee as he knew it as associated with cotton wool.
In a letter, Tolkien wrote:
“The reason of my use of the name is this. I lived near Birmingham as a child, and we used ‘gamgee’ as a word for ‘cotton-wool’; so in my story the families of Cotton and Gamgee are connected.
“I did not know as a child, though I know now, that ‘Gamgee’ was shortened from ‘gamgee-tissue’, and that [it was] named after its inventor (a surgeon I think) who lived between 1828 and 1886.”
SOURCE: https://apilgriminnarnia.com
One man, one health
However, as well as a successful surgeon, Sampson Gamgee was a vet. Having wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, he attended the London veterinary college and, despite then moving to human practice, he remained active on the council and committees of the RCVS.
As a surgeon he was taught by Professor Sharpey of University College [London] who was also on the RCVS examiners board for England. The reciprocal relationship between the veterinary profession and the surgical profession is evident on these personal, but also at institutional levels.
Gamgees’ place in the veterinary field would have been beneficial as in the human field he was reported as taking:
“…a forceful interest in medical politics, playing an active part in the BMA’s attempts to obtain direct representation of the medical profession on the General Medical Council.”
SOURCE: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
One health
When the RCVS and the profession were negotiating to protect the title of veterinary surgeon, Sampson would have been available to share knowledge of the attempts to amend the medical act of 1858. Although, somewhat surprisingly, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, they state:
“He never took part in affairs outside his profession (The Lancet, 590, 607).”
SOURCE: www.oxforddnb.com
…although this may be because veterinary history is often overlooked, or it may be that the biographer felt veterinary and surgery were synonymous professions.
Interesting aside
Finally, under the heading of “that’s quite interesting”, it appears it was:
“…Gamgee’s suggestion in 1880 to Robinson & Sons, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, that led to the first manufacture of absorbent sanitary towels.”
SOURCE: www.oxforddnb.com
As I go further into my research there are amazing connections to discover. I’m just not sure where they will all fit in my thesis!
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