Sir Thomas Barlow, 1st Baronet KCVO FRS FRCP (November 4, 1845 – January 15, 1945) was a British royal physician.
He was the son of a Lancashire cotton manufacturer, James Barlow (1819-1887). The family were well known as philanthropists in their home village of Edgworth where they funded charities connected with the Methodist church including the Childrens' Home.
He studied as an undergraduate at Manchester and London. University College London (UCL) Bachelor of Medicine (BM) in 1873 and Doctor of Medicine (MD) 1874. He became a registrar at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and later a physician and in 1899 a consultant. He was professor at the UCL from 1895 to 1907, initially of paediatrics and later of clinical medicine.
He was Royal Physician to Queen Victoria and attended her on her death, and to King Edward VII and King George V. Barlow's disease is named after him. In 1902 he was created a Baronet, of Wimpole Street in St Marylebone in the County of London.
Barlow married Ada Helen Dalmahoy, daughter of Patrick Dalmahoy, on 28 December 1880. They had the following children:
- Sir James Alan Noel Barlow, 2nd Bt. (1881-1968),
married Emma Nora Darwin, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin - Sir Thomas Dalmahoy Barlow (1883-1964)
- Patrick Basil Barlow (23 October 1884-18 January 1917), killed in the First World War[1]
- Helen Alice Dorothy Barlow (4 May 1887 -16 September 1975), died unmarried.
- Gertrude Mary Barlow (August 1888- 22 July 1889), died in infancy
Vanity Fair - 1906
SIR THOMAS BARLOW,
VICTORIA'S PHYSICIAN
LONDON, Jan. 14 (U.P.) -- Sir Thomas Barlow, physician to England's royal families during the reigns of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, died Friday at the age of 99.
Sir Thomas was physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria and attended her in her last illness. Later he became physician to the household of her son, Edward, who was the father of King George V and grandfather of George VI.
He served as president of the Royal College of Physicians here from 1910 to 1915 and was president of the International Medical Congress here in 1913. He had received honorary degrees from several universities, including Harvard, Montreal and Toronto.
Sir Thomas, who had held the post of Director General of Civilian Clothing in the present war, was created a Baronet in 1900. He made his reputation as a children's doctor, and was the first to diagnosis the disease of "scurvy rickets" in infants, which became known to the German medical profession as "Barlow's disease." In his active days he made a large income, being unable to attend half the patients who tried to see him.
In 1880 he married Ada Dalmahoy, who died in 1928. Two sons and a daughter survive. The heir to the title is Sir James Alan Noel Barlow joint Second Secretary to the Treasury.
New York Times Obituaries Index
page created by John F. Barlow