doctor

Hindustan Community House

About: 

This organization, founded by the wealthy Indian Kundan Lal Jalie in 1937, aimed to cater to the needs of Indians in east London, especially former lascars, by offering them low-cost lodging, as well as food and clothing, and helping them to secure employment. Further, Indian doctors volunteered at the centre, providing free medical advice to their working-class compatriots, and English classes were offered, both to workers and to children. The HCH was also a social centre, providing a gramophone and records to enable East End South Asians to listen to Indian music, as well as facilities for games and sport. The HCH was made possible by donations from wealthy Britons, including, reportedly, Edith Ramsay, as well as a Cambridge undergraduate named Thomas Tufton who donated £22,000 after hearing Jalie lecture on the plight of Indians in Britain. The centre was razed in the blitz, and its residents taken first to Tilbury and then to Coventry to find work.

Although ostensibly a social organization, the HCH also had political links. A government surveillance report from 1939 remarks on the Communist and anti-British propaganda being carried out among Indian seamen and pedlars at the organization, and suggests that Jalie encouraged this. Surveillance reports on Jalie also remark on his links with the India League and the Indian Seamen’s Welfare League

Example: 

Hindustan Community House First Report, April 1940, Tower Hamlets Archives Collection

Secondary works: 

Solokoff, Bertha, Edith and Stepney (London: Stepney Books Publications, 1987)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Content: 

This report of the Hindustan Community House outlines its aims and objectives under the headings ‘Food, clothing and shelter’, ‘Medical work’, ‘Employment’, ‘Educational’ and ‘Social’, and acknowledges the financial support and social work that made it possible.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1937
Extract: 

Since the completion of the House, fifty men have lived in it and another fifty have taken meals in it. Indian or English food is available for these men. To enable the fullest use to be made of the House its charges for board of lodging are fixed at the lowest possible figure.

The House has been able to accommodate shipwrecked sailors, and Indians stranded in London.

Two Indian doctors, who have returned to India, attended the weekly clinic and gave free medical advice. The new surgery has been equipped by an Indian doctor. It is open three nights a week for free medical advice and attention. A fourth Indian doctor is in charge.

Two classes in English with an average of fifteen to twenty students were held every week night. These were discontinued on account of the war, but have since been restarted.

A class in English and Urdu for Indian children was discontinued owing to the evacuation of the children.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Kundan Lal Jalie

Relevance: 

This extract gives evidence of a developing sense of community among Indians in London in the 1930s and 1940s. The involvement of Indian doctors in the House, as well as the English classes and indeed its very establishment by Jalie, emphasize the existence of significant interaction between the Indian working class and middle class in Britain and the transgression of social boundaries by virtue of a shared national and/or ethnic minority identity. The fact that the residents of the House were offered Indian food as well as English food, and that classes were offered in Urdu as well as English, suggests the combination of an accommodation to British culture with a retention of indigenous cultural practices – perhaps a consequence of the fact that this welfare work was carried out by Indians (rather than by the British).

Connections: 

Lord Halifax (attended the opening centre of the HCH), Edith Ramsay (donated money to the HCH and offered advice and help to the Indians who frequented it), Lord Snell (attended the opening centre of the HCH).

Date ended: 
01 Jan 1941
Archive source: 

First Report, Tower Hamlets Archives Collection

L/PJ/12/630, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Precise date ended unknown: 
Y

Labhu Ram

About: 

Dr Labhu Ram died in Mexborough in 1935, the town where he practised. A plaque in remembrance was put up in Mexborough Free Christian (Unitarian) Chuch.

The inscription on the plaque reads:

Sacred to the Memory of Labblu Ram, M.B. Ch.B, (Edin.)

Died Sept. 30 1935 , aged 59 years

First Chairman of the Church Committee and a Trustee Founder of this Church

His ashes rest here

Connections: 

Dr Bhalla

Secondary works: 

Wilson, Donald M., A Short History of Mexborough Montagu Hospital, 1889-1925

Archive source: 

Commemorative Plaque, Doncaster Archives, Doncaster

Mexborough Montagu Hospital Records (HR8), Doncaster Archives, Doncaster

Census Records for births of Ram children

Location

Mexborough, S64 0AZ
United Kingdom
53° 28' 2.0784" N, 1° 18' 11.7396" W
Date of death: 
30 Sep 1935
Location of death: 
Mexborough, England
Tags for Making Britain: 

Frederick Mahomed

About: 

Frederick Akbar Mahomed was the grandson of Sake Dean Mahomed, the shampooing surgeon of Brighton. He was a pioneer of clinical medical research, especially in the field of blood pressure.

Mahomed was born in Brighton and studied medicine at Sussex County Hospital and Guy's Hospital, London. In 1872, he qualified as Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS), and he married Ellen Clark in 1873. Following jobs in Highgate, Islington and Paddington, he was appointed resident medical registrar at Guy's in 1877. He also qualified for a Bachelor of Medicine from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1880.

Mahomed modified the sphymograph to measure blood pressure and was the first person in Britain to recognize that high blood pressure was a primary condition of kidney damage (and not the other way round). He was also the instigator of a record of clinical, hereditary and anthropological features of disease known as the Collective Investigation Record. He died of typhoid aged 35, and to help his wife and five children a subscription was set up at St Mary's and Guy's by his medical colleagues.

Published works: 

'Chronic Bright's Disease without Albuminuria', Guy's Hospital Reports 25 (1881), pp. 295-416

Date of birth: 
11 Apr 1849
Secondary works: 

Cameron, J. Stewart and Hicks, J., 'Frederick Akbar Mahomed and his Role in the Description of Hypertension at Guy's Hospital', Kidney International 49 (1996), pp. 1491-3

Moore, Norman, ‘Mahomed, Frederick Henry Horatio Akbar (1849–1884)’, rev. Rachel E. Davies, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17797]

Shaw, A. Batty, 'Frederick Akbar Mahomed and his Contribution to the Study of Bright's Disease', Guy's Hospital Reports 101.1-4 (1952), pp. 159-60

Swales, J. D., 'Frederick Akbar Mahomed (1849-1884) Pioneer of Clinical Research', Journal of Human Hypertension 10 (1996), pp. 139-40

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)

City of birth: 
Brighton
Country of birth: 
England
Other names: 

Frederick Akbar Mahomed

Frederick Henry Horatio Akbar Mahomed

Locations

Guy's Hospital SE1 9RT
United Kingdom
51° 30' 11.3616" N, 0° 4' 39.8676" W
Black Lion Street Brighton, BN1 1ND
United Kingdom
50° 49' 24.3984" N, 0° 8' 20.2596" W
Date of death: 
22 Nov 1884
Location of death: 
London, England
Tags for Making Britain: 

Sukhsagar Datta

About: 

Sukhsagar Datta was born in Bengal to father Dwijadas Datta and mother Muktakeshi. He was the youngest of five children. His early life and decision to move to England was very much influenced by the actions of his brother Ullaskar. In 1908, Ullaskar was arrested for making a bomb which was used in the attempted assassination of a local magistrate in Alipore; the magistrate survived but two British women died in the attack. His following death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment and he was released twelve years later. The arrest affected the careers of his father and other brother, Mohini Mohan, and as a consequence Sukhsagar was sent to England in 1908.

In London, Datta enrolled at the London Tutorial College, where he met the writer David Garnett. In The Golden Echo (1953), Garnett describes several meetings and walks with Datta and his two other Indian friends, Niranjan Pal and Ashutosh Mitter. He also describes how Datta introduced him to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar at India House, Highgate (at this time, Krishnavarma was living in Paris). After the assassination of Curzon Wyllie and once India House was closed down, Datta and Savarkar shared a flat 'over a small and extremely dirty restaurant in Red Lion Passage' (Garnett, 148). After Savarkar left for Paris, Datta stayed on a bit longer. The two must have remained in touch, though, because Savarkar persuaded Datta to join Abdul Karim’s resistance against the Spanish in Morocco. However, Datta never made it there and returned to London from Algiers. He then ended all contact with Savarkar.

Datta married Ruby Young on 25 September 1911 and the two of them moved to Milan where Datta wanted to pursue a singing career. However, they soon returned to Bristol where Datta enrolled at the Merchant Venturers' Technical College in 1913 or 1914. He graduated in 1914 and joined the University of Bristol Medical School, where he qualified as a doctor in 1920. He first worked at the Bristol General Hospital in 1920, then the Southmead Infirmary in 1921 and finally the Stapleton Institution (now called Manor Park Hospital) where he stayed until his retirement in 1956.

Datta joined the Labour Party in 1926. He was vocal during the Labour Party Conference in 1944, and passionately spoke in favour of Indian Independence. He became chair of Bristol North Labour Party in 1946. After Indian independence in August 1947, Datta founded the Bristol Indian Association. He died at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, on 3 November 1967. 

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1890
Connections: 

Stafford Cripps (Datta supported Cripps' campaign for election to Parliament), Madan Lal Dhingra, David Garnett, Shyamaji Krishnavarma, Niranjan Pal, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Contributions to periodicals: 

Bristol Labour Weekly, 2 December 1944; 20 January 1945

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Barot, Rohit, Bristol and the Indian Independence Movement (Bristol: Bristol Branch of the Historical Association, The University, 1988)

Barot, Rohit, 'Datta, Sukha Dagar [Sukhsagar] (1890-1967)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/73197]

Datta, David, Farewell to Empire (Monmouth: Clarke Printing, 2007)

Datta, Ullaskar, Twelve Years of Prison Life (Calcutta: Arya Publishing House, 1924)

Esmail, Aneez, 'Asian Doctors in the NHS: Service and Betrayal', The British Journal of General Practice, 57 (2007), pp. 827-34

Garnett, David, The Golden Echo (London: Chatto and Windus, 1953)

Hardie, Peter, Rammohan Roy: Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of His Death in Bristol on 27th September 1833 (Bristol, 1983)

Labour Party Annual Report (1944), pp. 185-9

Nandi, S., 'Datta, Ullaskar, 1885-1965', in S. P. Sen (ed.) Dictionary of National Biography (Calcutta: Institute of Historical Studies, 1972-74)

Nelson, Jean, A History of Manor Park Hospital: 150 Years of Caring, 1832-1982 (Bristol, 1982)

Political Agitators in India ([s.n.]: s.n., 19--) [http://www.archive.org/details/politicalagitato00slsnuoft]

Srivastava, Harindra, Five Stormy Years: Savarkar in London, June 1906-June 1911 (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1983)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Involved in events: 

Labour Party National Conference, 1944

City of birth: 
Bengal
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Sukha Sagar Datta

Sukhsagar Dutt

Locations

Stapleton Hospital, Bristol , BS16 2DD
United Kingdom
51° 28' 38.3808" N, 2° 32' 33.0792" W
140 Sinclair Road
London, W14 0NJ
United Kingdom
51° 30' 4.5864" N, 0° 12' 54.3816" W
Date of death: 
03 Nov 1967
Location of death: 
Bristol, England
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1908
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1908-67

Location: 

Merchant Venturers' Technical College, Bristol

Bristol General Hospital, Bristol

Southmead Infirmary, Bristol

Manor Park Hospital, Bristol

S. A. Wickremasinghe

About: 

S. A. Wickremasinghe was born in Akurassa, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, in 1901. He was schooled in Ananda College, Colombo. He first arrived in Britain for his education in 1926. In 1927 he was joint secretary of the Indian Majlis student society and had active links to the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1929 he graduated with an MBBS from the University of London where he also got his MRCP form the Royal College of Physicians.

By 1931 he had returned to Ceylon and with Philip Goonewardena was involved in social work, helping lower caste communities. Wickremasinghe was a member of Ceylon's State Council from 1931-6, advocating complete independence. He lost his seat in the 1936 election.

He subsequently returned to London with his wife, Doreen Young, to open a doctor's surgery in South London, near Elephant and Castle. During his time in London he became involved in the India League and renewed his links with the Communist Party of Great Britain. Wickremasinghe was a founding member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party in 1938, which convened regular meetings and protests, often in conjunction with the India League in London. He co-organized with Krishna Menon a conference on 'Socialism in India and Ceylon' in 1938. Wickremasinghe and the Sama Samaja Party were closely associated with Ben Bradley and the Communist Party of Great Britain. He founded the Communist Party of Ceylon in 1943. In 1945 he represented Ceylon at the inaugural World Labour Organisation held in France. He continued to campaign for Ceylon's independence and remained involved with leftist politics in Sri Lanka until his death in 1981.

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1901
Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Archive source: 

L/PJ/12/450, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

City of birth: 
Akurassa
Country of birth: 
Ceylon
Current name country of birth: 
Sri Lanka

Location

London, SE17 1DX
United Kingdom
51° 29' 31.1244" N, 0° 5' 29.9508" W
Date of death: 
25 Aug 1981
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1926-9, 1936-43

Buck Ruxton

About: 

Buck Ruxton studied medicine at the Universities of Bombay and London. He also held a Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Bombay, but failed his examination to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of the University of Edinburgh. Before taking up his post in Lancaster in 1930, he had served with the Indian Medical Corps in Iraq and had gained further experiences as a doctor in London. In Lancaster, he took over a substantial practice, which catered largely to a working-class population. He lived there with his wife, three children and their maid Mary Jane Rogerson.

He met his partner Isabella Kerr in 1927, while she was still married to the Dutchman Mr van Ess. She left him and joined Ruxton in London in 1928. She and van Ess subsequently divorced. She and Ruxton never married, but they lived together from 1928 until the time of her murder. Their relationship was often quarrelsome. Ruxton was intensely jealous and had a tendency to verbal abuse and violent outbursts directed against Kerr. Their volatile relationship led to her attempting suicide on a number of occasions. For a time in 1934 she stayed with her sister in Edinburgh, but Ruxton managed to persuade her to return with him to Lancaster.

On 14 September 1935 Isabella Kerr went to Blackpool to meet up with her sisters alone. She returned to Lancaster at 11.30 that night which was the last time she was seen alive, although she had arranged to meet her sisters again the next day. On her return, there ensued a row between Ruxton Kerr, which resulted in her being strangled. The maid was also murdered. Ruxton subsequently drained the bodies of their blood and then dismembered and mutilated them beyond recognition before driving the body parts to Scotland and scattering them in an 80 foot ravine two miles from Moffat. The first body parts were discovered by two women on 29 September 1935. In total, thirty disfigured body parts were found.

In the aftermath of his crime, Ruxton committed a number of errors (for example, bloodstained clothing and carpets were spotted; he wrapped the body parts in newspaper from the Daily Herald dated 6 and 31 August 1935, and a limited local edition of the Sunday Graphic dated 15 September 1935, a copy of which, it was gathered, was delivered to the murderer’s house). These mistakes finally led to his arrest. He was charged with the murder of Mary Rogerson on 14 October 1935, and with that of Isabella Kerr on 5 November. He was tried for murder in March 1936 and sentenced to death. A subsequent appeal was thrown out by the Court of Appeal on 27 April. A Sunday aper (News of the World) subseqently acquired his confession for the sum of £3,000 which was used to cover part of his defence costs. He was hanged in Strangeways Prison, Manchester, on 12 May 1936.

The gruesome nature of Ruxton’s crime captured the imagination of the public, which avidly followed the story in the newspapers. The case continued to obsess the public for years to come. The bath in which Ruxton had dismembered the bodies was used as a horse trough at Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters, Hutton, Preston, while a play based on the case was staged in 1975. It was one of the first cases to use forensic evidence such as fingerprinting, forensic anthropology, and X-rays.

Date of birth: 
21 Mar 1899
Secondary works: 

Bardens, Dennis, Lord Justice Birkett (London: Robert Hale, 1962)

Blundell, R. H. and Wilson, G. H. (eds), Trial of Buck Ruxton (London & Edinburgh: William Hodge & Co., 1937)

Davenport-Hines, Richard,  ‘Ruxton, Buck (1899-1936)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/73638]

Potter, T. F., The Deadly Dr Ruxton: How they Caught a Lancashire Double Killer (Preston: Carnegie Press, 1984)

Archive source: 

MEPO 3/793: Mutilated human bodies found at Gardenholm Linn, Moffat, Dumfriesshire, afterwards named "The Ravine Murder" (Doctor Buck Ruxton), National Archives, Kew

ASSI 52/463: Murder: Ruxton, Buck, National Archives, Kew

HO 144/20678: CRIMINAL CASES: RUXTON, Buck: convicted at Manchester on 13 March 1936 for murder and sentenced to death, National Archives, Kew

HO 144/20679: CRIMINAL CASES: RUXTON, Buck: convicted at Manchester on 13 March 1936 for murder and sentenced to death, National Archives, Kew

DPP 2/306: RUXTON, Buck: Murder, National Archives, Kew

PCOM 9/796: RUXTON Buck: convicted at Manchester 13 March 1936 of murder and sentenced to death, National Archives, Kew

Involved in events: 

Murder of his wife and their maid. The case is one of the most notorious in British criminal history and captured the public imagination at the time.

City of birth: 
Bombay
Country of birth: 
India
Current name city of birth: 
Mumbai
Current name country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Bukhtyar Rustomji Rantanji Hakim

Buck Hakim (changed name by deed poll to Buck Ruxton c.1929)

Location

2 Dalton Square
Lancaster, LA1 1PL
United Kingdom
54° 2' 51.7704" N, 2° 47' 50.6364" W
Date of death: 
12 May 1936
Location of death: 
Strangeways Prison, Manchester
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1927
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1927-36

Location: 

London, Edinburgh, Manchester.

Tags for Making Britain: 

Chuni Lal Katial

About: 

Chuni Lal Katial was a doctor and politician. He moved to England in 1927 after graduating with a medical degree from Lahore University and working for five years with the Indian Medical Service in Iraq. He resigned his position to continue his training in public health. He studied in Liverpool and gained a diploma in tropical medicine. He later became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine. On moving to London Katial established his own practice, first in Canning Town and later in Finsbury, attending mainly to working-class patients. He was a member of the Indian Social Club and the Indian Medical Association, and was involved with the Hindu Association of Europe.

He became heavily involved with the India League and was a supporter of Krishna Menon. During the second Round Table Conference in Autumn 1931, he put himself at the disposal of Gandhi, arranging meetings and effectively becoming his chauffeur. The meeting between Charlie Chaplin and Gandhi took place at his house.

He won a seat for Labour on Finsbury Borough Council in 1934 and served as Deputy Mayor from 1936 to 1938. He became the first South Asian mayor in 1938, a position he held until 1939. In 1946, he was elected to the London County Council to represent the borough. His work as Chairman of Finsbury’s public health committee had the most wide-reaching impact, with Katial being a driving force for the creation of a health centre for the borough, which opened in 1938. It concentrated under one roof a number of services and health provisions for the borough’s population, such as doctors’ surgeries, a TB clinic, a dentist and a women’s clinic. It was a trailblazer for similar provisions which formed an integral part of the National Heath Service, created in 1948.

During the Second World War, Katial worked as a civil defence medical officer and chaired the air raid precautions medical service and food control committee. He also provided training in first aid for the St John’s Ambulance Brigade. For his services to the borough he was made a freeman of Finsbury in 1948. The same year he returned to India and worked as Director-General of the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation of India until 1953. He returned to London in the 1970s and died in Putney in 1978.

Published works: 

 Handbook Relating to Public Health Services in Finsbury (London: Finsbury Borough Council)

 

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1898
Connections: 

Dr Bhandari, G. D. Birla, Durga Das, Mahdev Desai, M. K. Gandhi, Sir Mirza Ismail, A. S. Iyengar, M. A. Jinnah, Zafarullah Khan, Jiwan Lal Kapur, Muriel Lester, Krishna Menon, Indira Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Motilal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Bepin Chandra Pal, Sir A. P. Patro, H. S. L. Polak, K. C. Roy, Tej Bahadur Sapru, Satis Chandra Sen (fellow doctor), Usha Sen, Muhammad Shafi, Said Amir Shah (India League), Purshottamdas Thakurdas.

Hindu Association of Europe, Indian Medical Association, Indian Social Club.

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Visram, Rozina, 'Katial, Chuni Lal (1898–1978)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/71/101071630/]

 
 
Archive source: 

L/PJ/12/448-56, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Oral History Files, Nehru Memorial Library, Delhi, India

Involved in events: 
Other names: 

Dr Chuni Lal Katial

C. L.  Katial

Locations

21 Spencer Street Finsbury
London, EC1V 7HP
United Kingdom
51° 31' 41.3724" N, 0° 6' 10.5048" W
Victoria Dock Road Canning Town
E16 3AA
United Kingdom
51° 30' 35.3448" N, 0° 1' 21.7416" E
Date of death: 
14 Nov 1978
Location of death: 
Putney, London
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1927
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1927-47, 1970-8

Location: 

Liverpool, London.

Jainti Saggar

About: 

Jainti Saggar originally came to Britain to study medicine at University College, St Andrews. He settled in Dundee – becoming, quite possibly, the town’s first South Asian resident – and remained in Scotland for the rest of his life. After completing his medical degree, he went on to gain diplomas in ophthalmic medicine, public health, surgery. He had a keen interest in education as well as in health, serving as chairman of the Public Libraries Committee and as a member of the committee of the local branch of the Nursery Schools Association of Great Britain. His concern for social welfare also led him into the sphere of politics. He joined the Labour Party and was elected town councillor in 1936, becoming the first black or Asian local authority councillor in Scotland – and in a district where there was not a single ‘black vote’. Saggar went on to serve as a Labour councillor for eighteen years, and was instrumental in the adoption of Krishna Menon as parliamentary candidate for Dundee in 1939.

Saggar married Jane Quinn, the daughter of a bailie and a town councillor of Dundee. On his death, the Lord Provost of Dundee, William Hughes, said: ‘He was a man of compassion for everyone in need…he came to Dundee from halfway across the world but no son of Dundee had greater love for its people or worked harder in their interest. Dundee is much poorer by his passing’ (Maan, p. 128). The naming of a Dundee street and local library after Saggar and his brothers (one of whom, Dhani Ram, also worked as a doctor in the town) is further evidence of the great esteem in which he was held.

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1898
Connections: 

V. K. Krishna Menon

Labour Party, National Health Service.

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Maan, Bashir, The New Scots: The Story of Asians in Scotland (Edinburgh: Donald, 1992)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Visram, Rozina, 'Saggar, Jainti Dass (1898–1954)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2012) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/71/101071631/]

City of birth: 
Daherra, Ludhiana, Punjab
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Jainti Dass Saggar

Dr Saggar

Location

Dundee, Scotland, DD1 1DB
United Kingdom
56° 27' 35.6076" N, 2° 59' 19.8024" W
Date of death: 
01 Jan 1974
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Location of death: 
Dundee, Scotland
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1919
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1919 until his death

Dharm Sheel Chowdhary

About: 

Dharm Sheel Chowdhary originally came to England to do postgraduate medical studies, having received a basic medical qualification from Lahore Medical College. He studied at Edinburgh University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, before joining Dr Gilder’s medical practice in Laindon, Essex, as a GP. In 1933, shortly after his Indian wife joined him in Laindon, Chowdhary bought the practice. The couple went on to have two children, remaining in Britain for the rest of their lives.

According to his wife Savitri Chowdhary's memoir, Chowdhary worked around the clock, also offering dentist work, eye tests and a counselling service. He became a hugely popular doctor and hired a number of assistants to help him with his practice over the years. Chowdhary also served in the Civil Defence and the Home Guard in the Second World War. While the Chowdharys had numerous English friends in Laindon, they were also closely connected to the Indian community in London, making frequent excursions there for meals at Veeraswamy’s, Shafi’s and the vegetarian restaurant Shearn’s, and to attend social functions at the Hindu Centre and the India Club both of which he and his wife helped to establish. An Arya Samaj Hindu and trained as a Hindu priest in India, Chowdhary also officiated at Hindu marriage ceremonies, including that of Indian and English acrobat pair, Dickie Pather and Maisie Rogers.

Chowdhary died in 1959, aged 57, and was mourned by the people of Laindon. In 1966, some years after his death, the Chowdhary County Primary School was opened in Laindon and named after him. The plaque on the school (now closed) read: ‘To honour the memory of Dr Dharm Sheel Chowdhary who gave devoted service to the people of Laindon and the local schools throughout the period from 1931–59.’

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1902
Connections: 

Savitri Chowdhary (his wife), Sir Learie Constantine, Krishna Menon (both visited India Club), Dickie Pather, Paul Robeson (visited India Club).

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Chowdhary, Savitri, I Made My Home in England (Laindon: Grant-Best Ltd, n.d.)

Chowdhary, Savitri, In Memory of My Beloved Husband (Laindon: Grant-Best Ltd, n.d.)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002) 

Involved in events: 

Celebration of Indian Independence at the Albert Hall, 1947

City of birth: 
Jullundur, Punjab
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Dr Dharm Sheel Chowdhary

Location

Laindon, SS15 6ET
United Kingdom
51° 34' 31.3176" N, 0° 25' 20.0028" E
Date of death: 
01 Dec 1959
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1928
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1928-59

Harbans Lall Gulati

About: 

Harbans Lall Gulati completed his medical training in Lahore, becoming an officer in the Indian Medical Service in 1916. On his arrival in England, he discovered that his medical qualifications were not recognized and so repeated his training at Charing Cross Hospital, doing unskilled work by night in order to pay his fees. He qualified in 1926 and began work as a GP in Battersea shortly afterwards. In his obituary in the British Medical Journal, he is described as a pioneer of the ‘meals-on-wheels’ service, as well as an active member of the St John and Red Cross organizations. He was also associated with the Royal Westminster Opthalmic Hospital.

In 1934 Gullati became a Conservative member of the local council, resigning from the party in 1947 because of their lack of support for the National Health Service. He went on to join the Socialist Medical Association as well as the Labour Party becoming a Labour member of the LCC for South Battersea and later standing (unsuccessfully) for parliamentary candidature. He was an active member of the committee of the Indian YMCA in London, as well as a magistrate and a Freemason.

He was married and had two sons and a daughter.

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1896
Connections: 

Conservative Party, Indian YMCA, Labour Party, London County Council, National Health Service, Red Cross, Socialist Medical Association.

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Obituary, British Medical Journal (22 July 1967), p. 247

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)
 

City of birth: 
Punjab
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Dr Harbans Lall Gulati

Locations

Charing Cross Hospital
Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8RF
United Kingdom
51° 29' 14.4708" N, 0° 13' 18.2892" W
Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital
City Road
London, EC1V 2PD
United Kingdom
51° 31' 45.318" N, 0° 5' 44.34" W
Date of death: 
13 Jun 1967
Location of death: 
England
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1920
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y

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