DR. ROBERT LEWIS WILLCOX, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.
A short biography by Danny Howell.
Written in 1994.
Dr. Robert Lewis Willcox, the son of Mr. C. Willcox of Wareham, Dorset, practised in Warminster for the lengthy span of 44 years. He came to the town in 1870, taking over the practice of Dr. G. T. Vicary. On arriving in Warminster Dr. Willcox took up residence at Melrose (No.5 High Street), a property which had been used as a doctor’s house for nearly 150 years previously.
Robert Willcox married Louisa C. Young, daughter of the late Mr. A. Young of Melbourne, at Christ Church, Kensington, on 30th March 1871. The Venerable Archdeacon Sinclair officiated. Mr. and Mrs. Willcox had five children: Mr. Linzey Willcox (who became an engineer in Newcastle), Hilda Willcox (who died, aged two months, in January 1874), Major Edwy Willcox (who served in the Welsh Regiment), Hubert Liston Willcox (who qualified as a doctor and was eventually in partnership with his father), and Claude Willcox (who became the proprietor and managing director of the Warminster Motor Company).
Robert Willcox soon became closely associated with the daily life of Warminster and was held in high esteem by local residents. In his early days in Warminster he was an enthusiastic bell-ringer at the Parish Church of St. Denys (The Minster). He was the President of the Warminster Volunteer Fire Brigade from its establishment in April 1886 until 1913 when the Brigade was taken over by the Urban District Council. His forced resignation was much regretted by the firemen with whom he was very popular.
Dr. Willcox was the Medical Officer at Warminster Cottage Hospital and was largely instrumental in gathering the funds for the enlargement of the hospital in 1892. He was also active in improving the welfare of the Warminster community, and the town’s waterworks at Crockerton (now replaced) were once a memorial to Dr. Willcox’s support to the scheme proposed by William Frank Morgan. Dr. Willcox and Mr. Morgan were the two chief promoters of the project but were met with considerable opposition from the Local Board (the forerunner of the Urban District Council). Willcox and Morgan won the day and the waterworks they campaigned so hard for provided Warminster with a splendid supply – an example of the foresight of Dr. Willcox.
In 1901 Robert Willcox commissioned the building of a house incorporating a small surgery at Portway, Warminster, a year before his son Hubert passed his medical exams and joined him as an assistant to the practice. Hubert later became a partner in the practice, and a third doctor, Wilfred Lawrence Hogan, joined in 1912. Unfortunately, Hubert died, after contracting blood poisoning from a patient, in 1913.
Robert Willcox resided at the house and surgery at Portway, near the corner with George Street, from 1901 onwards. The property featured his initials “RLW” and the date “1901” on a stone between the ground-floor bay windows on its east facing front. The property remained as a surgery for the town’s doctors until 1990, when a new surgery was built between the Avenue and the Central Car Park. The Portway Surgery was afterwards demolished and its site is now occupied by the residential dwellings known as The Grove.
Dr. Willcox retired (nearly one year after the death of his third son, Dr. Hubert Liston Willcox, with whom he was in partnership with), in November 1914. The practice passed to Dr. W. L. Hogan and Dr. H. L. Blackley.
Dr. Willcox and his wife then moved to Salisbury. On his departure he was presented with an address from the people of Warminster, signed by Lord Bath, which read: “Your many friends in Warminster and the neighbourhood cannot permit you to bid them good-bye after your forty-five years’ residence and work among them without offering some tangible proof both of the warm friendship they feel towards you personally and of their appreciation of your professional skill and unselfish devotion to their welfare. Therefore, they beg you to accept the enclosed cheque for one thousand five hundred guineas, together with their most sincere wishes.” Several hundred people had donated towards Dr. Willcox’s farewell cheque.
Although in retirement at Salisbury Dr. Willcox often assisted the surgeons at Salisbury Infirmary, gave first-aid classes to Salisbury Boy Scouts, and lectured on first-aid to Salisbury Police. He continued to be a trustee of Warminster Hospital and was Honorary Consulting Surgeon to it. A link between Dr. Willcox and Warminster was also maintained because his son, Claude, was the Managing Director of the Warminster Motor Company at George Street.
Dr. and Mrs. Willcox were a devoted couple and were able to celebrate not only their golden wedding but also their diamond wedding anniversary (30th March 1931), on which occasion they received a congratulatory telegram from King George V.
Robert Willcox died during the early part of the afternoon of Wednesday 20th November 1935, at his home, 97 London Road, Salisbury. He was 89 and had been ailing for some years. His funeral service and interment took place at the London Road Cemetery, Salisbury, on Saturday 23rd November 1935. The Vicar of St. Mark’s, Salisbury, officiated, assisted by Canon H. R. Whytehead of Salisbury (a former Vicar of Warminster). Among the mourners were Lord Bath and representatives of Warminster Urban District Council.