Henry Kelsall 1802 - 1875

Henry Kelsall (LSA 1822 MD Glasg. 1842 FRCS Hon 1844) 1802 - 1875 graduate of the Apothecaries Hall in 1820, and of the College of Surgeons, Surgeon in the Royal Navy 1827, and Medical Officer to the Exeter Homeopathic Dispensary and the Leicester Homeopathic Dispensary, member of the English Homeopathic Association, member of the Hahnemann Medical Society, Physician to the Hahmenann Medical Institution and Dispensary, and Physician to the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square.

Henry Kelsall was the homeopathic physician of Thomas Egerton 2nd Earl of Wilton and his family.

Henry Kelsall practiced at 3 Surrey Place, Old Kent Road and 1 Brighton Street, New Kent Road. Henry Kelsall is listed in the British Homeopathic Review in 1857 - 1858 working at the Leicester Homeopathic Dispensary, and he also wrote a report on the Indian Mutiny (ended 1858) in the same year. However, Henry Kensall is listed in The British and Foreign Homeopathic Medical Directory and Record in 1855 at 27 London Road Leicester.

Henry Kelsall knew the Staff of the Hahnemann Hospital at 39 Bloomsbury Square which included John Anderson, James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Paul Francois Curie, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Thomas Engall, Joseph Hands, Robert Hamilton, Amos Henriques, Charles Hunt, Joseph Laurie, Henry Victor Malan, James John Garth Wilkinson, David Wilson, William Leaf, George Wyld, Christian Karl Josias Bunsen, Thomas Egerton 2nd Earl of Wilton, Robert Grosvenor, Thomas Roupell Everest, Charles Powell Leslie, James More Molyneux, David Wilson, William Henry Ashurst, William Thomas Berger W A Case, J M Douglas, G H Flatcher, John Fowler, Joseph Glover, Sydney Hanson, Thomas Higgs, T H Johnstone, John Miller, Chas Pasley, Mathias Roth, Frederick Sandoz, W Stephenson, Samuel Sugden, Allan Templeton, Major Tyndale, William Warne, A Wilkinson, S Wilson and many others.

Henry Kelsall was a colleague of John Epps and George Napoleon Epps, and he attended a dinner in honour of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin in 1861, alonside William Edward Ayerst, Hugh Cameron, Matthew James Chapman, Edward Charles Chepmell, Edward Hamilton, Amos Henriques, George Calvert Holland, Joseph Kidd, Thomas Robinson Leadam, J Bell Metcalfe, John Rutherford Russell, George Wyld, Stephen Yeldham, William Bayes, and many others.

Henry Kelsall gave evidence in a Coronor’s case involving the death of a patient from cholera in 1850 which was widely reported at the time.

Henry Kensall is listed in The Homeopathic Medical Directory of 1872.

Henry Kelsall was born in Hilsea, Hants, the the second son of Joseph Kelsall 1753 - 1841 and Sarah Holmes - 1883, born in Ireland to a soldier and a doctor,

Henry Kelsall was a Naval Surgeon, recently appointed for an expedition to Africa in 1824 and an experienced Surgeon Superintendant who visited Sydney on the Andromeda in 1834,

Henry Kelsall’s Obituary is in The British Journal of Homeopathy in 1875.

Henry Kelsall wrote A comparison of prophetic scripture [in the Bible]… , The Manual of Hydrotherapy and Homeopathy, The Connection between magnetic phenomena and epidemic disease, Is Homeopathy to be put down?, and journal articles on Cholera to the British Journal of Homeopathy.

Of interest:

Henry Kelsall (?-?) MD, son of Henry Kelsall, wrote An Army Doctor in the Indian Revolt, 1857-58: The Diary of Assistant Surgeon Henry Kelsall, H.M. 20th Regiment of Foot,

Henry Kelsall (?-?) nephew of Henry Kelsall, married twice, to Susan Hope Waddell and to Susan Trueman. He was a Major in the 16th Regiment. (Charles Trueman ?relation - was Office Manager of the London Homeopathic Hospital),

Henry Kelsall (?-?) Rochdale’s first non conformist Justice of the Peace, proposed an infirmary in Rochdale, with an amendment from Alderman Robinson for a homeopathic ward to be added to the new institution ‘… _in recognitition of the strong tradition of this medical practice in the town, because of the increased subscriptions that would accrue as a result, and with people obviously more likely to subscribe to an institution that encompassed their specific medical beliefs… The proposal was seconded by Counsellor Hoyle and a stormy debate ensued in which is became obvious that the orthodox medical profession in the town, as represented by Doctors Elliott, March and Wood, objected, at times quite vitriolically. ‘No connection with quacks’ was one of the phrases used by Dr. Wood, a Medical Officer in the Dispensary, at the prospect of homeopaths practicing in the proposed Infirmary. Nevertheless despite these objections the proposal was carried and a pledge of £3650 _[£166,805.00 in today’s money] _taken from the various people present…’ _However, the course of the proposed homeopathic Rochdale Infirmary became mired in the perennial argument between old and new medicine. In Rochdale, the supporters of homeopathy were primarily non conformists, dissenters and Liberalists, and included John Bright, Benjamin Butterworth, Dr. Cox, Thomas Hahnemann Hayle,  Dr. Holland, Edward Miall,  George Morris, J K Cheetham, and Joseph Seed amongst many others. The Homeopathic Infirmary in Rochdale was never  built as a result of all this upset. (From Helen Kelsall, The Development of Voluntary Medical Institutions in Rochdale 1832-1872), Transactions New Series Number 4, (1994, Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society)).