Alfred Baker Cutfield

4 Lower Street
6 Lower Street

Occupation: Naval Surgeon and G.P. 

As a Naval Surgeon, he was awarded service and campaign medals and in May 2018 the London auctioneers, Dixon Noonan Webb sold Alfred’s medals with copied records and other research that we found printed in their online catalogue. This information, plus some of our own research, has helped us tell his story.

Alfred was apprenticed for five years to Mr Nathanial Grant an Apothecary in Thayer Street, London from 3 December 1829 and at the same time, he was also a student of the North London Hospital (later known as University College Hospital, London). Then in January 1836 he passed the examinations for membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS), and as a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA) in March 1836. (At this period the MRCS qualification allowed independent practice and the LSA qualification the prescription and dispensing of medicines).

Shortly after qualification Alfred joined the Navy as Assistant Surgeon in the Medical Service and his first appointment was at the Royal Navy’s Haslar Hospital in Gosport, and he remained there until 3 August 1837 when he joined, or in naval terms ‘was discharged to’, HMS Edinburgh.

HMS Edinburgh between 1838-1839 was part of a squadron looking after British interests off the coast of Mexico and returned to Portsmouth on August 1839. Alfred then took and passed the necessary examinations of the ‘College of Surgeons’ in London and the ‘Physician of the Navy’ to enable him to be considered as a Surgeon, when a position became available.

Silver, St. Jean d’Acre 1840

In July 1840 the Edinburgh was dispatched to patrol off the coast of Syria, where in November 1840 it was part of a combined fleet which bombarded and retook the town of Acre, which had been held by the Egyptians since 1832. For his services on the coast of Syria, Alfred Cutfield was specially promoted to the position of Surgeon on 4 November 1840. He was later awarded the Naval General Service medal 1793-1840 with the clasp ‘Syria’. Also, the St Jean d’Acre Medal 1840 which was given by the Sultan of Turkey in silver to all junior officers who served in the campaign.

By 1841 Alfred is back in Deal where the Census for that year tells us he is on Navy Half-Pay. He is staying with his father, John Cutfield, who is a retired Naval Officer and is also listed, on the census, as on Navy Half Pay. Later that year he is appointed Surgeon on HMS Champion, an 18-gun Sloop on which he served until November 1844, mainly patrolling along the coast of South America. In the May of 1843 while in Mexico he was subjected to an unprovoked assault by two Mexican sentries, suffering injuries to his face from being struck by the butt of a musket, resulting in a formal complaint to the Mexican Authorities.

On his return home, he was again placed on Navy Half-Pay. It was during this time that he married Elizabeth Kennett in Dover and went into partnership with Robert Woollaston as ‘Surgeons and Apothecaries’ in Tottenham. The partnership, however, didn’t last long as in March 1846 it was dissolved. He continued to practice as a surgeon, and in 1847 we find him at the Old Baily giving evidence at the trial of one of his patients, Thomas Mackintosh Davidson who was indicted for the wilful murder of Lewis Monkford. The Old Baily record says

“The prisoner did not plead to the indictment; and upon the evidence of Mr. Alfred Baker Cutfield, surgeon, of Tottenham, who had attended the prisoner for two years, and that of Mr. Gilbert M’ Murdo, surgeon, of Newgate, and Mr. Charles Holding, the assistant-surgeon, both of whom had examined the prisoner while in the gaol, the Jury found him to be of unsound mind.”

On several occasions, after he left HMS Champion, he was allowed to turn down further appointments on various grounds including his wife’s confinement and his own ill-health. Then in February 1855, he was appointed to HMS Hastings but a month later he was removed from the Navy List.

Kentish Gazette – Tuesday 12 January 1858

By 1851 he is back in Deal with his wife and two children and working as a General Practitioner (GP) in partnership with William Watt. In 1858 the partnership was dissolved and Alfred carried on in practice on his own. The following year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) and in the next year qualified as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) at Aberdeen University.

On 10 July 1862, Alfred became a Freemason being admitted to the Wellington Lodge, Deal.  A year later on 11 May 1863, at Lower Street, he died of a ‘Disease of the brain’.

Sources and further reading:
The London Gazette 24 April 1846
Ancestry.com. UK, Naval Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1972
DIX NOONAN WEBB Saleroom auction catalogue https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/dixnoonanwebb/catalogue-id-dix-no10052/lot-9d952be6-c4ee-4e6a-a573-a8c400880589
ADM 196/74  (The National Archives)
ADM 196/8 (The National Archives)
London & Provincial Medical Directory
Old Bailey Proceedings Online
Pall Mall Gazette (Marriages and Deaths)

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).