A Victorian silver ewer


by Martin Hall & Co, Sheffield 1868 Elongated neck, ornate ovoid body with later inscription "Presented to Lambert Hepenstal Ormsby Esq, M.D, F.R.C.S.I, by his grateful Patient and Friend, Charles C. Mayne, M.D. Univ. Dublin, 12th August 1895", handle with ivory insulators, height 31cm, weight 20.6oz.
|Sir Lambert Hepenstal Ormsby (1849-1923) was a notable pioneering surgeon in Dublin. He was born in New Zealand, where his civil engineer father had been an early emigrant in 1844 and went on to become deputy Surveyor General. A daring and adventurous boy, Ormsby then embarked for London aged 15 intending to join the Royal Navy. Dissuaded by his experience of the voyage, he was instead apprenticed to Mr (later Sir) George Porter, one of the leading surgeons in Dublin, and when he was 19 he qualified as both a surgeon and physician. He was elected surgeon to the Meath Hospital in January 1872, serving for 51 years, and in 1879 took degrees at Trinity College in Dublin. He wrote the definitive Medical history of the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary in 1888, and today's successor, the Tallaght University Hospital in Dublin has named the Ormsby Orthopaedic Ward in his memory. In addition he wrote Deformities of the Human Body and Diseases Peculiar to Children.Ormsby invented a Pile Clamp, an Aseptic Glass Drainage Tube, and a new type of sheet bandage. Also, the Ormsby Pocket Ether Inhaler which became widely used in anaesthesia worldwide. Taking a special interest in childhood diseases and orthopaedic surgery, he established the National Orthopaedic and Children's Hospital in 1876, later the National Children's Hospital. Always a strenuous advocate of skilled hospital nursing, Ormsby reformed nursing standards, and was the chief founder of the Dublin Red Cross Nursing Sisters' Home and Training School for Nurses in 1885.Ormsby was appointed a Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin in 1879, and served for two years as president 1902 - 1904, and after being recommended unsuccessfully for a baronetcy, was knighted by Edward VII in 1903. He was also a Fellow of Royal Irish Academy of Medicine Ireland, on Board of Superintendence of Dublin Hospitals and General Medical Council, Chairman of Association for Housing of the Very Poor, Fellow of Royal Medical Chirurgical Society of London, Governor of the Lock Government Hospital, and Honorary Consulting Surgeon to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War I.Provenance: By family descent to the current owner.