Dr. Elkin Percy Cumberbatch

Isabel Cumberbatch nee Gibbons, Eileen Cumberbatch, Dr. Elkin Percy Cumberbatch and Richard Elkin Cumberbatch abt 1928

ALL pictures remain the copyright of © Helen Ashton and are gratefully reproduced here with her permission.

CUMBERBATCH, Elkin Percy b. 20 June 1880 d. 28 Mar 1939
MA Oxon (1909) BM BCh OXON (1909) DMRE Cantab (1925) MRCP (1911) FRCP (1933)

Elkin Cumberbatch, son of Charles Walter Cumberbatch and his wife, the former Pamela Pillinger, was born at Queen Charlton, Somerset, was educated at St. Paul's School, and entered Keble College, Oxford, with an open science scholarship in 1899. He was a Christopher Welsh prize winner, and in 1904 was awarded the senor university scholarship to St. Bartholomew's, where his uncle, Elkin Alphonso Cumberbatch, had been appointed as the first aural surgeon in 1882. Just before qualifying [about 1908] he had a serious motor-cycle accident which left him with a permanent hemianopia and an exaggeration of certain mannerisms of speech and gesture [Hemianopia is the loss of vision for one half of the visual field of one or both eyes]. After graduating he held a house surgeon post at the Dorset County Hospital before returning to St. Bartholomew's as house physician to Sir Wilmot Herringham. Later he became a demonstrator in physiology and clinical assistant in the electrical department. At that time Dr. H. Lewis-Jones was head of the department, but on his retirement in 1912 it was split into the X-Ray and electrical departments and Cumberbatch, at the age of thirty-two, was appointed medical officer in charge of the latter. When the 1914-18 War started he was put in charge of the electrical department of the 1st London General Hospital (Camberwell), where he made a special study of muscle-nerve testing on which he soon became the leading expert.

Cumberbatch was an enthusiast, but a critical enthusiast, for electrotherapy, demanding of himself and of others satisfactory evidence before he would accept the claims of any new method. The same reservations in his attitude to medical diathermy were displayed in the work which he did with C.A. Robinson on the use of diathermy in gonococcal infections.

As a teacher he was pre-eminent, whether lecturing to medical students, visitors or post-graduates studying for the D.M.R.E. [Diploma in Medical Radiology and Electrology]. His lectures, like his writings, were clear and concise, delivered in perfect English and enlivened with flashes of humour or apt quotations, for he had a remarkable memory and the gift of explaining difficult points by diagrams or homely similes. These lectures were the foundations of some eighty articles and books. They formed the basis of his Lectures on medical electricity (1934) which proved very popular, as did E.R. Morton's Essentials of medical electricity, of which he edited the third edition but afterwards rewrote, so that the five subsequent editions (1919-1939) appeared under his own name.

Cumberbatch had a somewhat reserved manner. He was seldom ruffled, and showed the greatest consideration for all his patients who, like his staff, felt for him a real sense of affection. In the company of his friends he was a genial and indeed brilliant conversationalist, but he had few outside interests. As a student he had played golf, but after his accident he took to billiards, and was a very keen motorist. He married Isabel Gibbons, of Vasparaiso, in 1918, and had a son and a daughter.

[Brit. J. phys. Med., 1939, 2, 116-17 (p); Brit. J. Radiol., 1939, 12, 317-18; Brit. Med. J., 1939, 1, 752; Lancet, 1939, 1, 792-3; St. Bart's Hosp. J., 1938-9, 46, 161-2 (p); St. Bart's Hosp. Rep., 72, 1-6. bibl.]

Source: Munk's Roll, Vol: V; pp 91-92; R926/1 Guildhall Library, Richard R. TRAIL Ed.; London: Published by The College [Royal College of Physicians] 1968.

CUMBERBATCH, Elkin Percy; Medical Officer in charge of Electrical Dept. St. Bartholomew's Hospital since 1912; Consultant to the Miller Hospital, Greenwich; and during war at the First London General Hospital (Military), Camberwell; b. Queen Charlton, Somerset, 20 June 1880; s. [son] of Charles Walter CUMBERBATCH; m. [married] 1918, Isabel, 2nd d. [daughter] of late Richard Gibbons, Valparaiso; one s. [son] one d. [daughter]. Educ.: St. Paul's School; Oxford University; St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Senior Foundation Scholar, St. Paul's School; left in 1899 with senior science exhibition; entered Keble College Oxford, with open scholarship in science; B.A. 1903, obtaining first-class honours in the School of Natural Science; Welsh-Memorial Prizeman, Oxford University, 1904; entered St. Bart.'s Hospital, 1904, with senior university scholarship; B.M., B.Ch (Oxon), 1909, and graduated M.A.; House Surgeon to the Dorset County Hospital, 1909-10; House Physician to St. Bart.'s Hospital, 1910-11; Member of Royal College of Physicians, 1911; and Fellow Royal Coll. of Physicians, 1933; Demonstrator in Physiology at the St. Bart.'s Medical School, 1911-13; Chief Assistant to the X-Ray Dept. St. Bart.'s Hospital, 1911-12; Fellow of Royal Society of Medicine, 1912 (President of section of Electro-therapeutics, 1921-22); President of Section of Electrology, Bi-Lingual Congress, London, 1922; President of Section of Electrotherapeutics, 6th International Congress of Physical Medicine, London, 1936; D.M.R.E. (Camb.), 1925; Examiner in Medical Electrology, Cambridge University, 1921-23 and 1927-37. Publications: Essentials of Medical Electricity, 7th edition; Treatise on Diathermy, 3rd edition; Treatment of Gonococcal Infection by Diathermy (joint author); Lectures on Medical Electrology, 1934; various papers on Electrotherapeutics in the medical journals and text-books. Recreation: motoring. Address: 18 Manchester Square, W.1. T.[Telephone]: Welbeck 3036, Ealing 0623. (Died 24 March 1939)

Source: Who Was Who 1929 - 1940 R920/042 Guildhall Library p. 315

The Times Newspaper Index: January - March 1921 CUMBERBATCH, Elkin P.:-"Diathermy" -noticed (L.S.) Mar. 24, 198d

ALL pictures remain the copyright of © Helen Ashton and are gratefully reproduced here with her permission.

Dr. Elkin Percy Cumberbatch's funeral service was held at St. Bartholomew-the-Less Church, Smithfield, London on 29th March 1939 and was attended by: Family attendees: Mrs. E.P. Cumberbatch (widow), Mr Richard Cumberbatch (son), Miss Eileen Cumberbatch (daughter), Mrs. G.W.S. Willins (sister) Mr Hugh Willins, Mr & Mrs Norman Evans plus numerous staff from St. Barts Hospital. He was buried in All Souls' Cemetery, Kensal Green, London. [The Times 30 Mar 1939 p. 17 Col E].

Richard Elkin Cumberbatch

Percy's son Richard joined the 137th Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery and was killed whilst a Prisoner of War at Nong Pladuk Camp Siam on 3rd December 1944. Alice Beatrice Martha C Cumberbatch was particularly fond of her nephew Richard and was heartbroken to learn of his death. Alice was probably responsible for the many "In Memoriam" messages to be found in The Times:

In Memoriam - CUMBERBATCH - In honoured and loving memory of Richard Elkin Cumberbatch 137th Field regiment R.A. [Royal Artillery]. Killed while a Prisoner of War at Nong Pladuk Camp Siam on 3 December 1944. Dear and only son of the late Dr. E.P. Cumberbatch and Mrs Cumberbatch.

This memorial was placed in The Times 3 Dec 1947 p1 Col A and was repeated on 3 Dec 1948, 4 Dec 1950, 3 Dec 1951, 3 Dec 1955, 3 Dec 1958, 3 Dec 1962, 3 Dec 1963 and 3 Dec 1966.

Read the account of his death from a friend to Richard's Mother dated 1^st  December 1945.