Late Nineteenth Century.

 

Eyre Ievers qualified in Ireland in 1869 and proceeded to MD Dublin in1873. Shortly afterwards he joined Gorham as partner in a town that had grown to 7000 people.

Three years later he had a stroke of luck that made his name in the town. He was crossing the Big Bridge in his carriage when he saw a man capsize his canoe and sink. In a moment he stripped his coat off and jumped in. At first he was unable to find the man, but as he was giving up, a hand came to the surface, and he pulled the man ashore alive. As he walked wetly to his carriage, a voice in the crowd shouted “Three cheers for Dr. Ievers”. In the next edition of the Tonbridge Free Press there appeared:

The man appeared ungrateful, and a further comment appeared three weeks later: 

   ‘And still he strives: what is his daily life, but with disease and death a constant strife?’

For this he was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Medal, which was presented at a Grand Dinner. A public subscription paid for a gold watch for him, and a clock for Mrs Ievers.

 

Ievers kept a high profile in the town. He owned the second car in Tonbridge, played cricket regularly, and founded a branch of The St. John’s Ambulance Brigade. For this he was elected an Honorary Associate of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He was appointed the first medical officer to Tonbridge School, a post that is still hel d by the practice.   He retired in 1913. 

 

Figure 1: Dr Iever's car and chauffer in Dry Hill Park Crescent.

As the town increased in size with the coming of the railway to Tonbridge in 1842 and the growing print industry, work became harder for the practice.

When Gorham retired in 1894, Ievers took Isaac Newton as a partner. He had qualified MRCS LRCP in 1892 from Charing Cross Hospital. In 1894 he published a paper describing a small number of patients who developed a short-lived fever and chest pain, which he entitled “Epidemic muscular rheumatism.”(British Medical Journal 1894 2 651).  Two years later he described “A rare form of bronchial cyst” (British Journal of Children’s Diseases 1905). Thereafter he settled to a life of serving his patients until retirement in 1929.