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Physicians in literature. Part VIII: yet to be discovered: Francis Brett Young By W. E. Swinton Brett Young was doctor, poet, soldier, ham Quay, where his patients were the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was writer and musician but seems never mainly the fishermen and sailor folk, posted to a Rhodesian unit that ended to have got the acclaim he should have who combined a hard life with uncer¬ in East Africa. It was part of the drive had. His name is not much in encyclo- tain earnings and whose integrity much against the Germans in German East pedias, but perhaps his death is too impressed the young physician. Brett Africa, and he was one of the many recent for that. His books are still listed Young had stated with assurance that officers under the command of General in "Books in Print" but one will find he would be a poet, but that was when Smuts, whom he always admired and them more readily in the public li¬ he was 5 years old and his own gifts came to know well. His services as cap¬ braries than in the bookshops. Yet he in that direction were not yet to be tain and eventually major were much wrote eminently readable novels, he seen, though he had a keen apprecia- interrupted by sickness, and he was composed songs and set others' poems tion of others' . especially the poems finally invalided with a 60% disability to music, he was the companion to of Robert Bridges, the physician and because of malaria. During his con¬ famous writers and statesmen, but his current poet laureate. He was, how¬ valescence he wrote a novel and a book name is not among those that are read¬ ever, an able pianist, and when he mar¬ of poems. He was not well enough off ily recognized today. ried Jessica Hankinson in 1908 he was to adopt an idle life in a more pleasant In some ways he is like Conan Doyle, climate. Visiting Ana Capri, he and his in others like Somerset Maugham in CMAJ concludes the series by Dr. wife found a beautiful villa at an in- that he travelled widely and had ac- Swinton on physicians who have con¬ credibly low rent. Here was a cool rest¬ with ministers and tributed to literature. The articles, ing place in a setting, complete quaintance prime In¬ lovely men of affairs; all three shared an sponsored by the Jason A. Hannah with a shady garden. As for neighbours, early interest in historical tales and stitute for the History of Medical and what aspiring writer could ask for more Related Sciences, were stimulated by than Axel Macken¬ mythology. the interest of the CMA committee on Miinthe, Compton zie and D.H. who were He was born June 29, 1884 in Hales archives. The illustration is supplied Lawrence, all Owen, Worcestershire, England, the son by the Metropolitan Toronto Library concentrated on the island at that time of T. Brett Young, MD. His mother Board. Reprints of the series are avail¬ with their wives? Here Brett Young be¬ came from a medical family, her father able from the institute at 50 Prince came a warm friend of all of them, John Jackson, being a well known Arthur Ave., Ste. 105, Toronto especially of his physician colleague "hunting" doctor hunting for foxes M5R 1B5. Axel Miinthe. rather than patients. Hales Owen was The scene was surely set for some a mining and industrial town, its cul¬ beginning a lifelong pattern of accom- form of concerted literature or for tural fame resting on William Shenstone panying her as a well known singer and high-level indolence, but it was not so. (1714-1763), the poet who had some also of setting Robert Bridges' songs to Brett Young wrote and wrote, earning influence on one of Brett Young's music for her. a living meantime by translating. And characters and earlier was the subject Their life in Brixham was happy, cer¬ although the gentle climate and the of a biography by Samuel Johnson. tainly in retrospect, and continued so glorious sea might inspire an author to Young Francis was brought up by until 1914. The sea was to become one localized writing, he wrote as he felt his mother on the romantic tales of of Young's favourite subjects and the about anywhere and anybody that cap- Scott and Stevenson (as was Conan theme of his first novel, "Deep Sea" tured his fancy or was begotten in his Doyle), and these must have had a (1914). To share the fishermen's ex¬ mind. While he passed some of the days lasting effect upon him. Unfortunately, perience he interrupted his practice for in medical conversation with Axel his mother died when he was 14, and nearly 2 years to be a ship's surgeon on Miinthe (one of the favourite topics ap¬ in any case he was shortly sent to voyages to and from Japan. It may be parently being pederasty), 13 of Brett school at Epsom College in Surrey, presumed that the practice was not un- Young's most English works were writ¬ which has had a long connection with duly disturbed by this hiatus, though ten in Capri. The streets of Bromsgrove the medical profession and where he one of the most notable aspects of his and the medical wards of its hospital won a prize for English literature. From life was the very deep affection that he are as clear as if they had been written Epsom he went quite naturally to med¬ and his wife had for each other and in Warwickshire. ical school, that of Birmingham Uni¬ their sense of deprivation, even desola- Nor did he forget the war and its versity where in due course he took his tion, at the other's absence. toll on his contemporaries. His "Elegy MB, ChB in 1907. When World War I came, he was at in Whitehall", from his novel in verse He began practising in 1907 at Brix- once anxious to play his part. Joining "The Island", written for Nov. 11, 1920, CMA JOURNAL/MARCH 20, 1976/VOL. 114 557 may be quoted for its contrast to that books were not successes or good of John McCrae's writings. novels. All perhaps show that a medical man has an initial advantage as a writer. Gladly they fell - and we who live complain He can observe details, combine the Not that they died, but that they died in symptoms of character as well as he vain. can those of disease and he can diag- In vain? Ah let no bitterness dispraise nose the moral and the immoral. Like Their shining valour, nor with doubt many another writer, Brett Young's becloud genius was itself most accurately diag- Their vision of the peace they dreamed nosed when he was dead. But there was they won not only his writing. It is interesting For us, the heirs of sovereign sacrifice. that when he was invited to address the But see... the impatient crowd Royal Society of Literature in London Stirs, its brief rite of reverence is done. 4 Hark! The shrill silver of reveille shakes he chose as his subject "The Doctor in The stillness of grey skies, Literature". Here he dealt with Rabe- And, with a mighty shudder, London lais, Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, wakes! Lodge and Campion (the Elizabethan In her huge heart the quickening pulses poets), Vaughan the Silurist, Locke the swell philosopher, Crabbe, gentle Goldsmith, Their rhythmic beat. Dear Dead, we wish Smollett, Keats and Shelley (who both you well. walked the London hospitals), Francis Their stay in Capri was not uninter- Thompson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, rupted. They visited South Africa in Robert Bridges, Chekhov and Balzac. 1922 and made two visits to the United He had a heart attack in 1944 after States. Despite his fluency with prose writing "The Island", and recovery was and verse and his industry in fiction, he slow. He and his wife decided to re- was almost unknown until, in 1927, he move themselves to South Africa, near won the James Tait Black memorial Cape Town, whose climate he had en- joyed and where he had made friends, prize for "Portrait of Clare". Francis Brett Young during World War I He declared, about this time, that including his old commander, Smuts. "My task is, by the power of the writ- of fishermen and deep sea sailors, had He still wrote, but the days were grow- ten word, to make you hear, to make come a long way, but he never forgot ing shorter for him, and he died Mar. you feel - before all to make you his medical background. As early as 28, 1954. His ashes were brought back see." 1918 the writer and critic Edward to England and laid in Worcester The call of England, its green fields Garnett wrote to him about "The Cres- Cathedral. and the villages that smell of flowers cent Moon": "This book raises the It may be of interest to those who after rain, began to be heard. Even sun- question - on what lines might you overlooked his novels that he was shine becomes tiresome and England develop your quite considerable talent? greater than the bookshops seem to can be relied upon for climatic variety, It might help you to study the example know. John Masefield named him so in 1932, thanks to the success of of Chekhov who was also a medical "The most gifted, the most interesting "My Brother Jonathan", they took a man." and most beautiful of mind among the house in the Lake District, a handsome Brett Young himself analysed author- younger men writing English." Comp- house with gracious rooms, and a good ship. "Does the author really enjoy the ton Mackenzie praised him for his "pen room in which to write. But a year was writing of a book? The process of writ- for landscape". More comprehensively, enough of this and in 1933 they moved ing is in some ways comparable to that J.C. Squire wrote, "He is a poet with a to another fine house, this time in Per- of parturition; and though it is doubt- sense of fact, a feeling for history, and shore, a small but ancient town on the less delightful to have a large family, I an interest in character. He has written River Avon in his native county of have never yet met a woman who en- 20 good novels in which poet, physi- Worcestershire. joyed that part of it. Writing a book is cian, romancer and realist have col- The flow of books continued. His for me a protracted agony." laborated. Let him now attempt an wife gave concerts and he accompanied Agony or not, he continued his pro- integration and let himself go." her at the piano. They entertained creative activity. Book followed book. When it was too late for that, The and were themselves the guests of His medical experience is shown best Times wrote, "He achieved breadth famous men - Lloyd George, Winston in "The Young Physician" and two rather than depth - attained a level Churchill and others - and their cor- long, if rather sad novels, "My Brother just short of what might have been respondence was voluminous. They Jonathan" and the nostalgic "Dr. Brad- hoped for him, but he had a fertile seem always to have lived in elegant ley Remembers". Here, once more, is gift of narrative and increasing skill houses that suited the personalities of Birmingham University and the hos- and assurance." the devoted pair. pitals: professional jealousy and all the The novels remain; the bookshops Brett Young was tall and fair, with difficulties of private practice, almost may yet remember them and a new a clipped moustache and spectacles. He certainly in his father's time. "My generation rediscover this particular looked like a distinguished army of- Brother Jonathan" ends with Jonathan's doctor in literature. ficer. Music was his pleasure and trav- death from septicemia and perhaps, on Bibliography elling was his recreation. His pipe and that account, disappointed an audience YOUNG FR: My Brother Jonathan, London, (like Chekhov) his dogs were his con- that likes a story (as Charles Darwin I-feinemann, 1928 stant companions. His wife, the ac- always did) with a happy ending - at Idem: Dr. Bradley Remembers, London, Heine- mann, 1938 complished musician, was a beautiful least for the hero. Dr. Bradley will Idem: The Young Physician, Birmingham, Cam- bridge Jackson, 1919 woman, according to her women remind all older practising physicians Francis Brett Young: a biography, in Dictionary friends, and a gracious hostess. of other days and other manners. of National Biography, London, Oxford U Pr, 1951 The young medical man, the friend This does not mean that his other The Times, Mar. 29, 1954 558 CMA JOURNAL/MARCH 20, 1976/VOL. 114 British specialists back off from final confrontation in pay-beds hassle By Alan Massam The British Medical Association has personal embarrassment of having her¬ the lengthy dispute, tried hard, at a suffered a severe setback in its cam¬ self been treated last year in a private press conference called to announce the paign to resist government plans to bed an issue gleefully pounced upon result of the ballot, to maintain a nego¬ phase private practice ("pay beds") out by her opponents. tiating position. of national health service (NHS) hos¬ In essence the Goodman compro¬ He stressed that, although only a pitals. mise, as it came to be called, allowed small proportion of consultants had Allowance for private practice within for the fairly rapid phasing out of a shown they regarded the pay beds plan NHS facilities was agreed upon by the proportion of private beds in public as a resignation issue, 73% of those chief architect of the national health NHS hospitals where there were ade¬ answering the ballot had said they ob¬ service, Aneurin Bevan, when it was set quate alternative facilities for private jected to the proposals and 85% had up in 1947. The idea was to attract the practice. An independent board would said they also objected to additional best talent into the NHS and to keep study the phasing out of remaining pay control by government of the inde¬ doctors located in one unit. beds. pendent medical sector (by licensing of Despite repeated claims of solidarity The compromise was also to include private clinics). within the profession and determination a government commitment to the But the newspaper Doctor an to resist "the state takeover of medi¬ maintenance of private practice in independent publication mainly for cine" when it came to the crunch, most Britain outside the NHS. family physicians subsequently British medical specialists were pre¬ After leaders of the profession pub- headlined the result as "The big flop", pared to accept the government pack¬ licly acknowledged that Lord Good- declaring in an editorial: age. man's compromise was an acceptable "Most of the profession will see the This is shown by the result of a "peace formula" (and it had privately result. ... as a bitter blow to their BMA ballot among 13 000 hospital been suggested that the consultants' hopes of defeating the government's "consultants" (specialists) in which the sanctions had not had the bite expected plans for the future control of med¬ doctors were asked whether they would of them) the BMA was left with no icine. accept proposals made by Lord Good¬ alternative but to ballot consultants for "Response from only 7039 of a total man for the pay-bed phaseout "as a their views. of 13 000 consultants must be consid¬ basis for negotiation". Only 7039 of the 13 000 recipients ered a flop and a vote of 4438 on Goodman, a lawyer friend of Prime of the form actually replied, and of Lord Goodman's proposals for the Minister Wilson, was called in to help these, 4438 opted for accepting the phasing out of pay beds, with a mere after the consultants slowed down their Goodman proposals on the understand¬ 2048 for the alternative course of re- work within the national health service ing that they would be incorporated signing, will certainly weaken the to protest the pay-beds proposals. into any legislation passed. BMA's stand against the government's Originally the government, through Further, a mere 2048 of the consult¬ tightening grip." Health Secretary Barbara Castle, had ants said they rejected the Goodman As a sign that the militants (few indicated determination to dispose of all proposals and were therefore prepared in number as they now appear to be) NHS pay beds rapidly, so that hos¬ to submit their undated resignations were not yet defeated, national news- pital private practice would be re¬ from NHS appointments. papers have, since the ballot, carried stricted to private clinics only. Ms. Surgeon Anthony Grabham, chief large advertisements explaining "why Castle pushed this policy despite the negotiator for consultants throughout the fight for freedom and high stand¬ ards in British medicine must con¬ tinue." The advertisements, placed by the "Campaign for independence in med¬ icine (British Medical Association, Hos¬ pital Consultants and Specialists Asso¬ ciation, British Dental Association and Independent Hospital Group) claim that the government proposals would: . Fail to shorten NHS waiting lists. . Cost the British taxpayer substan¬ tial sums. . Lead to further shortage of med¬ ical staff in the NHS. . Lower medical standards gener¬ ally. . Destroy "a precious liberty" at present patients have freedom of choice between private and state medi¬ cine within the NHS. If doctors had felt this a resignation Former secretary of health and NHS architect Aneurin Bevan and British Secretary issue, somehow those advertisements of Health Barbara Castle. would have carried more impact. ¦ CMA JOURNAL/MARCH 20, 1976/VOL. 114 559