(1799-1878)
John Birt Davies accumulated many distinctions during his long career, including medical specialist, fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians, senior physician at Queen’s Hospital, professor of forensic medicine at Queen’s College Medical School, Justice of the Peace, and first Borough Coroner of Birmingham, a post he held for 36 years.
Doctor
Eldest son of a Hampshire vicar, John moved with his mother and siblings to Wales following the death of his father in 1812. With the help of his grandfather, Alban Thomas Jones Gwynne, they settled in Cardiganshire.
He decided to study medicine. After an apprenticeship in Dorset with his uncle, a surgeon, he enrolled at Edinburgh University medical school. In Edinburgh he gained practical clinical experience as a senior hospital assistant at the Royal Infirmary and the Queensbury House fever hospital. His fellow students elected him senior president of the Royal Medical Society and he graduated with an MD degree in 1822.
He established his medical practice in Birmingham. Determined to use his skills to improve public health, he devoted five hours each day to providing free care for poor people, alongside his fee-paying patients. In 1826 he became physician to the Birmingham General Dispensary. He also spent several years setting up a fever hospital in the town and helped William Sands Cox to establish the Queen’s College Medical School. John Birt Davies lectured at the medical school and eventually became Professor of Forensic Medicine.
Coroner
John Birt Davies’s wife, Sarah Redfern, came from a powerful Birmingham family. Several of her relatives were leading lights in the Birmingham Political Union. This organisation campaigned to extend the franchise. They also wanted more autonomy for provincial towns. This was finally achieved in 1838 when Birmingham was designated a borough. Sarah’s relatives benefited from this development. Her uncle was elected as one of the two local Members of Parliament. Her brother became the Town Clerk. And her husband, John, was appointed magistrate and Birmingham’s first coroner.
John and Sarah had eight children and four of his sisters also moved to Birmingham. Sadly, however, three of his four sisters died at a young age. Hugh Cotterill-Davies was his great grandson.
In 1840, John Birt Davies was an expert medical witness at the trial of Edward Oxford, who had tried to assassinate Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as they rode through Hyde Park in an open-topped carriage. Edward Oxford was brought up in Birmingham and John Birt Davies knew his family. He told the court that he believed Oxford was insane. The jury was impressed and declared him not guilty by virtue of insanity.
It was as coroner that John Birt Davies made his greatest contribution to the town. During the 36 years he held this post he personally oversaw thirty thousand inquests. Showing utter dedication to his post, he never took a day’s absence or appointed a deputy. After his death in December 1878, a clock was erected in the centre of Birmingham to mark this remarkable achievement.
For more information on this story see: Angela Coulter, A Stream of Lives, Matador Press 2021, available from Troubador Bookshop