The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Thornton Heath, Surrey on Wednesday the 7th. September 1904 to:
Mrs. R. Snell,
Rose Cottage,
Kilmington,
Nr. Axminster,
Devon.
The message on the divided back is as follows:
"Dear Grandmother,
Will be with you on Friday
if all well.
Coming by the same train
as Aunt A.
If Aunt K cannot meet me,
don't you trouble yourself
as I will try and find my way.
With love from all,
Mabel".
Thornton Heath Pond
The old pond at Thornton Heath is in the middle of the London to Brighton road between Croydon and Streatham. The pond appears on all the earliest maps of Croydon, and was an important public watering place for horses and cattle moving to and from Croydon.
It is possible that the charcoal burners who operated in the area from at least the 16th. century and probably much earlier used the pond as their source of water - hence the name Colliers Water Lane nearby.
However by the late 19th. century, with increasingly heavy traffic, the pond became a potential hazard. In 1891 for example, a parcel mail coach on its way from Brighton to London in fog ended up in the pond.
In 1897 the pond was surrounded by railings, and a new fountain was erected in the middle to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. It is clearly visible in the photograph, although it was in fact much more attractive than the photograph suggests.
In 1953 the pond was filled in and turned into an ornamental garden with a small pool. (I wonder what happened to the fountain???)
Spasmodic vandalism led the council to fill in even this small pool in 1975, and Thornton Heath Pond became little more than a busy traffic roundabout on the A23.
Nevertheless, there are regular calls to get the pond reinstated in some way, and it may be back one day.
One feature which will not be back is the Gallows which stood close by, and which was used in order to hang numerous convicted highwaymen.
The Wheatsheaf
The Wheatsheaf is currently (June 2020) being torn down.
The Wheatsheaf was situated at 757-759 London Road, and was one of three Thornton Heath Pond pubs, all of which are now gone. The Wheatsheaf dates back to the 1800's, and was originally built as a coaching inn. The name reflects the area's rural past.
The Wheatsheaf had a reputation for being haunted, including the ghost of the daughter of a former landlord. Local legend states that bodies were stored in the cellar of the pub after being hanged in public at the nearby gallows.
Sir Ian George Wilson Hill
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted:
Well, the 7th. September 1904 marked the birth of Ian Hill.
Sir Ian George Wilson Hill CBE FRSE FRCP was a Scottish physician. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1963 to 1966, and the official Physician to the Queen in Scotland. He was Chairman of the British Cardiac Society.
Sir Ian Hill - The Early Years
Ian was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire, the son of Jean Robertson Malcolm and Andrew Wilson Hill, a banker. His early years were spent in South Uist where he acquired a love of nature and fly-fishing in particular.
His family then moved to Edinburgh where he was educated at George Watson's College. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh under Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer and William Thomas Ritchie, graduating MB ChB with honours in 1928, and winning the Ettles Scholarship for that year, plus a Rockefeller Travelling Scholarship.
Sir Ian Hill's Medical Career
The scholarship enabled Ian to travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan to work with the leading electro cardiologist Frank N. Wilson. He then spent time in Vienna working with Karl Wenckebach, where his fluent German proved invaluable.
In 1933, he began lecturing in medicine at the University of Aberdeen under Sir Stanley Davidson, moving to the University of Edinburgh in 1937 to lecture in therapeutics under Derrick Dunlop.
Ian's career was disrupted by the Second World War, and as a Territorial Army volunteer his call-up was immediate at the onset of war. He served in the Middle East, Burma and India, rising to the rank of Brigadier by 1945.
He was Consultant Physician to the 14th. Army and the Allied Land Forces in SE Asia. He was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his wartime services.
Ian returned to Scotland in 1947 as Assistant Physician in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, simultaneously acting as Consultant Physician at the Deaconess Hospital. He also had a lucrative private consultancy.
Despite this, he returned to academia in 1950, accepting the position as Professor of Medicine at the University of St. Andrews (based in Dundee), replacing Professor Adam Patrick, and later the University of Dundee following that institution's split from St Andrews in 1967.
Ian was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966. He retired from the University of Dundee in 1969. The University awarded him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1970, just after his retirement.
Ian continued to work, acting as visiting professor in the University of Teheran in Iran, and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Haile Selassie University in Ethiopia.
Personal Life and Death of Sir Ian Hill
Ian married twice: in 1933 to Ellen Audrey Lavender (d.1966), a nurse he met at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, who became Lady Hill, and in 1968 to Anna Hill. He had a daughter and son by his first marriage. His son Alastair Hill became a QC.
Sir Ian died at home on the 5th. May 1982 at Priors Croft, Nethergate in Crail, Fife.
