 Lieutenant R.
Irving Dacre R.A.M.C. The Best Man - found after more than 85 years ... a triumph for GOOGLE and the Internet ... Pictures scanned and compiled from originals courtesy of John Dacre and David Ord Original contact ... message extract Lieutenant R. Irving Dacre was the best man at the wedding of Henry James Drew Smythe in 1914 ... wondering whether he may have been related to you? Reply from John Dacre ... Lt. Richard Irving Dacre was indeed my father. He was born in 1889 and died in 1947. He lived with my mother, myself and his father and mother at 14, Eaton Crescent, Clifton, Bristol - next door to the Drew-Smythe family at 15, Eaton Crescent. My grandfather, also John
Dacre, was a family doctor and a specialist in women's
and children's diseases. My father was a family doctor,
and the two of them practiced from 14, Eaton Crescent. I
always knew of our next door neighbour's relationship -
best man. My father was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps when he retired and he had a special career note as having served as a Medical Officer in every unit of the British Army during that time of service! I was born in 1926 in Eaton Crescent and lived there until 1947. I am not sure if I visited next door much. I was away at school and the war was a bad time for us all. I left Bristol for University in London. After various appointments, I became a Consultant in Psychiatry. In 1965, I was sent to Barbados to run the Mental Health Services. In 1970 I moved to Canada where I worked for 21 years as a Forensic Consultant in the courts and prison service of Canada and Ontario. My son, Roger, is also a doctor and has a family practice in Toronto. My father wore very light slingback frames until he used pince-nez, and then as he aged he gave up using glasses at all. - John Dacre An article accompanying this cartoon of Richard Irving Dacre reads ...
'John writes
- 'In the 1912 section of my father's
pre-war album I found a cast photo of the 1912 Bristol
Medical Amateur Dramatic Society's performance - my
father in the back row with two lovely ladies arm in arm
- in evening dress of course - and in the front on the
floor H. J. Smythe as (left) Pierot/clown.' Amongst many war and family photographs, I found some of my father with "his babies". This is the traditional record of the midwifery doctors with their midwife nurses showing off their delivery. The second doctor is currently unidentified.' Photograph c. 1920/21 - John Dacre
|
Hand
tinted photograph from web original pre-1914 wedding group. R.I.
Dacre (group right).
