Charles Scudamore

Sir Charles Scudamore (1779–1849) was an English medical doctor, known for his writings on gout.

Life

The third son of William Scudamore, a surgeon, and his wife Elizabeth Rolfe, he was born at Wye, Kent, where his father was in practice. He was educated at Wye grammar school, of which the Rev. Philip Parsons was then master. He began his medical education as apprentice to his father, and continued it at Guy's Hospital and St. Thomas's Hospital in London for three years. He then settled in practice as an apothecary at Highgate, and there remained for ten years. He began medical study at Edinburgh in 1813, and graduated M.D. at Glasgow University on 6 May 1814. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London, 30 September 1814, and began practice as a physician in Holles Street, London.

Every year Scudamore spent time at Buxton, and was physician to the Buxton Bath Charity. In 1820 he was appointed physician to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Gotha. He attended the novelist Ann Radcliffe at her death in 1823; surviving records have led to the suggestion that Scudamore's prescriptions worsened her condition. In 1824 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Scudamore went to Ireland in March 1829 in attendance on Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland, then appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who knighted him at Dublin on 30 September 1829. He was also admitted an honorary member of Trinity College, Dublin, during his stay in Ireland. He died in his London house, 6 Wimpole Street, of disease of the heart, 4 August 1849. He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.