British Medals from the Collection of James Spencer

Medical: Ireland, Belfast, Campbell Memorial Trust, a bronze medal by Rosamond Praeger for Sir Thomas Houston on behalf of Pinches, bust of Robert Campbell left, rev. Campbell examining the leg of an infant being held on his mother’s lap, named (Thomas Houston, BA, MD, 1924), 76mm (Storer –; MJP p.19). Tiny spot of verdigris in centre of reverse, otherwise about extremely fine and very rare; a poignant award to an original trustee and close friend of Robert Campbell (£60-80)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, British Medals from the Collection of James Spencer.

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Illustrated on the Plates. Robert Campbell (1866-1920), born at Carnanee, Templepatrick, co Antrim; studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and at Queen’s College, Belfast; graduated from the Royal University of Ireland, 1892; house surgeon at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, then resident physician at Chester Infirmary; appointed honorary surgeon at the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, 1898, then in positions at the Belfast Royal Hospital and Royal Victoria Hospital; surgeon to the Ulster Volunteer Force in World War I. Following his death over 100 of his friends and colleagues subscribed £874 to what became the Robert Campbell Memorial Fund, administered by Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Houston (†June 1949), then president of the Ulster Medical Society and the recipient of this medal, who became pro chancellor of Queen’s University, Belfast. The medal, designed by the Ulster sculptress Rosamond Praeger (1867-1954), was awarded periodically for distinguished work in any branch of medical science in Ulster. Much further background detail is sold with the lot