The Sole Society, a Family History Society researching Sole, Saul, Sewell, Solley and similar names

Samuel SOLLY, an Eminent Surgeon

By Bob Solly

This article was originally published in the July 2000 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society.

Samuel Solly was a descendant of the earliest ancestor we have recorded - Peter Soly who was born in about 1418 in the area of Ash in Kent.

Born in London in May 1805, the son of Isaac Solly and Mary Harrison, Samuel Solly was christened on 13 May 1805 at St Mary Axe.

He was educated at Higham Hill Northampton (Disraeli, Russell Gurney & Dr. Hampden were fellow scholars). Later he was articled to Benjamin Travers, surgeon of St. Thomas' Hospital. In 1828 he was admitted as member of the Royal College of Surgeons. Studied in Paris. By 1830 he was practicing at St Mary Axe in father's premises. He married Jan Barrett on 22 May 1834.

His list of activities makes interesting reading:

1833-9 Lecturer in Anatomy and Physiology at the Medical School at St Thomas' Hospital

1836 Made a Fellow of the Royal Society

1837 Practiced in St Helens

1840 Practiced in Savile Row, London

1853 Full surgeon and lecturer on surgery

1865 Called on to resign above office at age 60 years due to new rule, but re-appointed for a further term until ill-health forced resignation.

1865-7 President of the Royal Medical and Clirosurgical Society.

His watercolour pictures adorned the walls of the Royal Academy. A marble bust was presented to St Thomas' Hospital and the "Solly Prize and Medal" in Medical School was established with the proceeds of public subscriptions to his memory. He also contributed to medical and surgical journals and "expert in diseases of the joints and diseases to the head"

He died on 21 September 1871 having fathered eleven children including Richard Harrison Solly who obtained an MA at Cambridge and became a Professor of Botany.

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