Samuel Sproule, President of the Medical Board of Bombay
It is a long, long way
from the green fields of the Sproule farm in County Tyrone, Ireland to the hot, humid streets of Bombay. In 1797,
when the 21 year old Samuel Sproule of Tullymoan first made the journey, it would have taken over
three months in a rolling sailing ship to travel the four and half thousand
miles from Liverpool to Bombay.
The young Dr Samuel Sproule, recently qualified Member of the Royal College of Physicians, was a cadet in the service of the East India Company. He was going to take up his first position in the Bombay Medical Service.1 Samuel Sproule, brother of my great, great grandfather Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan, Urney, County Tyrone, was to finish his career at the very top of the medical world there, as President of the Medical Board of Bombay.2
The young Dr Samuel Sproule, recently qualified Member of the Royal College of Physicians, was a cadet in the service of the East India Company. He was going to take up his first position in the Bombay Medical Service.1 Samuel Sproule, brother of my great, great grandfather Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan, Urney, County Tyrone, was to finish his career at the very top of the medical world there, as President of the Medical Board of Bombay.2
Samuel's Early Career
The Honourable East
India Company began as a co-operative of powerful merchants who eventually controlled
all of the trade on the Indian sub-continent. It was a private Company that grew to become
ruler of India with its own armies and with control of all administrative
functions. The Directors of the East India Company were the elite, and they
became rich and powerful men.
It was into this world
that young Dr Samuel Sproule arrived as an assistant Surgeon in 1797. In June
1803, he was promoted to Surgeon3, and in 1808 he distinguished
himself by driving a major campaign to test small pox vaccination in the area
of Kattywar, in Gujarat.4 The
expedition to Kattywar was led by a Major Alexander Walker, from Scotland, who was to become one of Samuel’s life-long
friends.5
Mixing with the Elite
Despite having come
from a modest farming background in County Tyrone, Samuel Sproule seems to have
survived well in the social world of the East India Company Raj. He was a
member of the Literary Society of Bombay and of the Asiatic Society.6 His friend Alexander Walker had become an influential General and another
friend, Major James Rivett-Carnac, became a Director of the East India Company.
The Summit of Dr Sproule's Career
By 1821 Samuel was on the Medical Board of
Bombay, and that year was appointed ‘Third Member’.10 The East India Company had divided
India into three ‘Presidencies’, and Bombay was one of these. So effectively,
the Medical Board of Bombay controlled one third of British India.
Samuel Sproule
became first Member of the Medical Board of Bombay on November 11th 1826,
with the title of President11. He was at the top of the tree, he had
achieved the most senior medical position in the Presidency of Bombay.
Unfortunately, Samuel’s career at the top was a short one. Within a year of his appointment,
in November 1827, his wife Eliza died at just 31 years old.12 She was at their home in Cheltenham in England
at the time of her death and I can only speculate that they had left for
England due to her illness. It was in Cheltenham just 18 months later that Samuel himself died on 30th May 1829, aged 53. 13
The Legacy of Samuel Sproule
The only daughter of Samuel and Eliza, Ann
Jane, went on to live in Bombay. Samuel’s good friend James
Rivett-Carnac became Chairman of the East India Company and then Governor of Bombay.
Ann Jane Sproule married his son, Sir John
Rivett-Carnac on 19th December 1840. 14 The grandson of Dr Samuel Sproule was the heir, Sir James Henry Sproule Rivett-Carnac, the 3rd Baronet.
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By
1821 Samuel was on the Medical Board of Bombay, and that year was
appointed ‘Third Member’.10 The East India Company had divided India
into three ‘Presidencies’, and Bombay was one of
References:
1 Joined Bombay Medical Service, 10th March 1797, British
Library, Bombay Med Svce; bond & covs 30 Mar 1797; O/1/4 ff.4-7
2 The Oriental Herald and Colonial Review [ed. by J.S. Buckingham]. -
Page 429 James Silk Buckingham - 1826
3 The Asiatic Annual Register, For the Year 1804
By Lawrence Dundas Campbell p.166
4 S. Sproule, Surgeon, Report Relative to the First Introduction of Vaccination
in Kattywar, 22 February, 1808.
5 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, Volume 7, p206 – Major Alexander
Walker in Kattywar
6 Glimpses of old Bombay and Western India, with other papers (1900), by Douglas,
James, 1826-1904, reference Asiatic
Society in August, 1823
Transactions of the Literary
Society of Bombay. - London, Longman 1819-23 p.553
7 The
East India Company Man: Brigadier-General Alexander Walker by Ken Hall
8 The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany, Volume 82, July to Dec
1818
9 Bombay Almanac 1820
Birth date 29 Sep 1819 . FIBIS, Families in British India Society
10 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, Volume 11 - Page 192 Asia –
1821
11 The Oriental Herald and Colonial Review [ed. by J.S. Buckingham]. -
Page 429 James Silk Buckingham – 1826
12 Gentleman's Magazine (Bombay) Date Nov 1827
13 Gentleman's Magazine (Bombay) Date June 1829
