Licence: In copyright
Credit: In memoriam Alfred Willett / by H.M. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![[Reprinted from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. XLIX.] SAINT BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL butt/?:s. REPORTS. •' • vA 5T N 4 lv:> 3|n cpcmonam ALFRED WILLE T. *llStitX*- si Alfred Willett was bom in 1837, so that, at the time of his death, he was in his seventy-seventh year. He was the son of Mr. William Catt, one of the best known and most highly re- spected citizens of Brighton. In 1863 Mr. Catt, by royal licence, and under the terms of his sister’s will, took the name of Willett. Although our late colleague, in the early period of his life, was Alfred Catt, it will be best to speak of him all along as Alfred Willett, the name under which he was known among us for a period nearly approaching sixty years, and by which he will be held in lasting and affectionate remembrance. He was educated under the Rev. Edward Welldon (father of Bishop Welldon) at Tonbridge School, where he had for his schoolmate Tom Smith, who, later on, was to be his colleague and lifelong intimate. On leaving Tonbridge School he became a scholar at King's Col- lege, London, where he met with his cousin, William Grantham, afterwards Sir William Grantham, Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. When he came to choose a career he was offered an appointment in a bank with the pros- pect of a lucrative commercial future, but he declined it and turned to the medical profession, towhich he had long felt strongly attracted, and was articled to Mr. George Lowdell, a surgeon practising in Brighton. Soon afterwards he became a pupil at the Sussex County Hospital, an institution with which, in after life, he was proud to have been connected, and for which he always entertained a warm interest and regard, for he felt that while there he had gained much valuable experience and VOL. XLIX. .](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22448056_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)