1941: Following a Ministry of Home Security circular on the carrying of gas masks, a Mrs Mellows organised four lectures aimed principally at housewives of active servicemen, on how to handle a gas situation. The second talk was held on this day. Each lecture covered: latest information about gas attacks; first aid for gas casualties; how to protect yourself and dealing with incendiary bombs and fires. All lectures were very well attended. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
Alfred Caleb Taylor was born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire in 1861 and came to Peterborough aged ten. He worked at the Peterborough Infirmary on Priestgate from 1880 as a dispenser. He also served as Secretary of the Infirmary from 1889 until his retirement in 1926.
Mr Taylor had a keen interest in photography and chaired the Peterborough Photographic Society. This carried over into an interest in X-rays being an early advocate of X-ray technology. In 1896 he designed and built his own equipment under the stairs in the infirmary. This device, the first X-ray machine in the United Kingdom outside London, was powered by accumulators. They were recharged at a local flour mill as there was no public electricity supply at that time. When an electricity supply was available in Peterborough, Mr Harry Cox, from London, was consulted regarding a larger installation. Many people made donations towards the new x-ray apparatus; Mr Andrew Carnegie, Peterborough’s first Freeman kindly donated £125 towards the installation. As with the photography of the time the images produced by the X-ray machines were positives rather than negatives.
As the science of radiography was so new, the danger of exposure to X-rays was unknown. Taylor worked with the x-rays so often, that it badly affected his health. He contracted radiation poisoning resulting in the loss of four fingers, three on the left hand and one on the right. Despite this he never expressed any regrets and said,
“I have only done my duty, and if I have sacrificed bits of my fingers so that I am not able to tie up my shoes laces, I feel I have been compensated, for I have loved the x-ray work and its excitements. For all the trouble I had at the beginning I have been more than compensated by your appreciation, and although I have lost bits of fingers, I would still do the same if I had my life to come again.”
Alfred Caleb Taylor died on the 6th of July 1927, a pioneer and martyr.
References:
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5982837 - Paul Bryan
Peterborough Museum
Alfred Caleb Taylor is best known for his pioneering x-ray work in Peterborough, and rightly so, but there is another story worthy of mention, that demonstrates his kind nature.
On Christmas Day 1890 Mr Taylor, who was a dispenser at Peterborough Infirmary, visited the children who had to spend Christmas in hospital. He dressed as Father Christmas 'with a large hirsute appendage of cotton wool'1 or cotton wool beard. Unfortunately, as he was handing out presents from the Christmas Tree to the children, his beard caught alight 'and his moustache, eyelashes and eyebrows were singed off, and his face, ears and head were badly burned.'2 Thankfully expert care was right to hand and he avoided any lasting injuries from the incident, as his later photograph demonstrates.
This event happened only a couple of years after a fire engulfed the infirmary, so it was fortunate that nothing else set alight and no damage occurred to the building.
References:
Alfred Caleb Taylor was born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire in 1861…
Alfred Caleb Taylor is best known for his pioneering x-ray work in Peter…