Abercorn Park,
Abercorn Terrace, Edinburgh EH15 2EF
Edinburgh
Council's description of Abercorn Park reads “The
park contains a fountain in memory of local doctor Hugh Dewar, who
cared for the sick in the area from 1866 to 1914”
but that doesn't tell the whole story...
The
inscription on the grey granite drinking fountain informs visitors
that the foundation was erected in remembrance of Dr Hugh Dewar
“by
his grateful patients and numerous friends, who deplore the loss in
the prime of manhood of a kind friend and skillful and beloved
physician. His quiet charity was known to the needy”.
And still, we are no closer to the whole story.
Jane Anderson, died
at his hands on 4 February 1914, a day after Dr Dewar called to her
house to deliver her first child.
In the third stage
of labour, while trying to remove the placenta and umbilical cord, Dr
Dewar noticed a 'tube' which he proceeded to pull. He had in fact
removed the 4m mucous membrane lining of the large intestine.
Quite how a
medically qualified person could make such an appalling mistake is
utterly incomprehensible but, it happened, and Jane Anderson died, in
agony, aged 25.
Dr Dewar was never
brought to justice – on the day before his trial for culpable homicide,
he took his own life, most likely with narcotics.
