Edward Charles Robson Roose (1848–1905), known as Robson Roose, was an English physician, a fashionable London society doctor of the late Victorian period.
Early life
Born at 32 Hill Street,
Knightsbridge, London, on 23 November 1848, he was third son of Francis Finley Roose, solicitor, and his wife Eliza Burn, and grandson of the brewer Sir David Charles Roose. He went to
Guy's Hospital, London, and afterwards spent some time in Paris. He obtained the licence of the Society of Apothecaries in 1870, and in the same year he was admitted L.R.C.P. and L.R.C.S. Edinburgh. In 1872 he became M.R.C.S. England; M.R.C.P. Edinburgh in 1875, and F.R.C.P. Edinburgh in 1877. He graduated M.D. at Brussels in 1877.[1]
Society doctor
Roose first practised at 44 Regency Square,
Brighton. In 1885 he migrated to 49 Hill Street,
Berkeley Square, London. Here he built up a large and fashionable practice. He owed his professional success to his social popularity.[1]
Later in life Roose became director of a company interested in Kent coal-mining which involved him in litigation. He limited his professional work, and then retired to
East Grinstead, Sussex, where he died on 12 February 1905, of
hepatic cirrhosis.[1][6]
Works
Roose published a number of popular medical works:[1]
Remarks upon some Disease of the Nervous System, Brighton, 1875.
Nerve Prostration and other Functional Disorders of Daily Life, 1888; 2nd edit. 1891. Roose's theories were influenced by
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard.[7]
Leprosy and its Prevention as illustrated by Norwegian Experience, 1890.
Waste and Repair in Modern Life, 1897.
Family
Roose married in 1870 Edith Huggins, daughter of Henry Huggins, D.L.; she died in 1901.[1] They had four sons and a daughter, Katharine Edith.[8] Edith and the daughter made an appearance at court on 4 March 1891.[9]
^Charles E. Rosenberg, The Place of George M. Beard in Nineteenth–Century Psychiatry, Bulletin of the History of Medicine Vol. 36, No. 3 (May–June, 1962), pp. 245–259, at p. 251 note 15. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
JSTOR44450605
^Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1905).
Armorial Families (5th ed.). Edinburgh: T. C. & E. C. Jack. p. 1173.
^Nancy W. Ellenberger, The Transformation of London "Society" at the End of Victoria's Reign: Evidence from the Court Presentation Records, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies Vol. 22, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 633–653 at p. 647. Published by: The North American Conference on British Studies DOI: 10.2307/4051393
JSTOR4051393