Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet, (15 February 1853 – 7 December 1923) was a prominent British surgeon, and an expert in anatomy. Treves was renowned for his surgical treatment of appendicitis, and is credited with saving the life of King Edward VII in 1902. He is also widely known for his friendship with Joseph Merrick, dubbed the "Elephant Man" for his severe deformities.
Life and career
Frederick Treves was born on 15 February 1853 in Dorchester, Dorset, the son of William Treves, an upholsterer, of a family of Dorset yeomen, and his wife, Jane (née Knight). As a small boy, he attended the school run by the Dorset dialect poet William Barnes, and later the Merchant Taylors' School and London Hospital Medical College. He passed the membership examinations for the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1875, and in 1878 those for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS).
He was a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John.
Eminent surgeon
Treves began his medical career as a general practitioner, becoming a partner in a medical practice in Wirksworth, Derbyshire. His daughter was born in Wirksworth in 1878. The house he lived in on Coldwell Street is called Treves House. He moved to London where he became a surgeon, specialising in abdominal surgery, at the London Hospital in the late 19th and early 20th century. On 29 June 1888, he performed the first appendicectomy in England.
In 1884, Treves first saw Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man, being exhibited by showman Tom Norman in a shop across the road from the London Hospital. Treves brought Merrick to the London Hospital in about 1886, having him live there until his death in April 1890. Treves' reminiscences mistakenly name Joseph Merrick as "John Merrick", an error widely recirculated by biographers of Merrick including the account rendered in the 1980 film.
