Volume 7 - History of Anaesthesia Society

possibly his father, for a permanent record. There is no doubt that the
cursive style is in Clover's own hand, it matches his letters, but
Marston also shows that Clover, when at school aged 13 was capable of
writing good copperplate. In the days before typewriters people
certainly took the trouble to write out important and permanent records
in a more legible Eocm than they used For casual comnunications, and
Clover may merely have reverted to his tidy schoolboy style from time to
time. Also, a copyist would surely not have copied out the alterations
and corrections such as are shown in the neat version in the Cambridge
papers.
Althuugh Clover worked imnensely hard in his professional life, he and
his wife seem also to have led a busy social life, moving in a circle of
high artistic and intellectual calibre. No doubt bo h could hold their
own in such circles. Gray in his Clover lectureb pointed out that
Clover's notebooks included sketches of quite considerable artistic
merit, as well as quotations showing him to be well read in classical
literature. His wife Mary was also an artist, and a portrait she made
oE Ellen Terry at the age of 15 is now in the 01 Vic Theatre Museum in
Bristol having been prevented by Dorothea Clover. 4
The Clovers had five children, the gdest dying in infancy, and four who
were of widely differing character. It is sad that he did not live to
see any of them grow up. He died in 1882 after more than a year of
deteriorating health, of pulmonary tuberculosis and renal failure, and
he is buried in Brompton Cemetery. In his will he left f29,932.14.2d,
sufficient to keep in cdort his widow, who survived him by 47 years,
and to educate his children at public school and Cambridge University.
Conteroporary opinion
Clover's contemporaries thought highly of him. Quain, editor of the
Dictionary of Medicine of 1882 and a personal friend, described him as a
most precise observe9 intimate in the care of each patient, and expert
in scientific study. A letter in the Macintosh collection quotes his
doctor - Sydney Ringer - who called in Sir William Jenner in
consultation because 'I do not like to be alone in attendance on one wly
belongs to the w~ole profe ion and is so highly valued by us all .
His obituary in the Lancet" written by Cadge, a fellow student a 3
lifelong friend, and a surgeon in Norwich, states: 'To speak of him as a
man and friend is easy enough, Eor surely no blemish or fault can be
found in his blameless life, which friendship might wish to hide but
truth would compel to mention .... his gentle modesty, his absolute
unselfishness, his active sympathy with the joys and sorrows of others
. . . his happiness consisted in honestly doing the duty which lay clear
before him . . .he had hosts of friends, for he made piany and lost none'.
Sir Spencer Wells in his Hunterian oration in 1883 said: 'Clover has
done more for the benefit of the world's suffering millions than almost
anyone of his generation'.
Obituaries eulogise, but 30 years later anothef2surgeon was saying the
same thing, Buckston Browne describing Clover as 'a man of perfect
punctuality and method, patient and kind not only to his patients but to
the younger professional men with whom he came into contact -