Francis Laking
English physician and Surgeon-Apothecary in Ordinary to Queen Victoria
Sir Francis Henry Laking, 1st Baronet, (9 January 1847 – 21 May 1914) was an English physician who was Surgeon-Apothecary in Ordinary to Queen Victoria, and Physician-in-Ordinary to King Edward VII and King George V.
Life
He was educated firstly at St George's Hospital taking diploma of L.R.C.P. in 1868, afterwards at Heidelberg taking L.S.A. as well as the degree of M.D. in 1869. He was house-physician at St. George’s Hospital in 1870, medical registrar from 1871 to 1874, and was at one time assistant physician to the Victoria Hospital for Children, Chelsea. Soon after leaving St. George’s he entered into partnership with M. Du Pasquier, Apothecary to the Royal Household, and his connection with the Court in various capacities of ever-increasing distinction continued until his death. He became Surgeon-Apothecary-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria, Apothecary-in-Ordinary to the Royal Household, and to the household of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Duke of Connaught, an office which he retained under King Edward VII and King George V.
On 29 March 1901, after the accession of King Edward VII, he was appointed one of three Physicians in Ordinary, together with Sir William Henry Broadbent, Bt, and Sir James Reid, Bt. But even before the new King could be crowned Laking was the royal physician. He diagnosed appendicitis in March 1901 urging the King seek advice and elective surgery from Sir Frederick Treves, the royal surgeon. The correct decisions were taken and an ailing monarch's life was saved by Laking's presence of mind.
Family
Francis Henry Laking, born 9 January 1847, was the son of Francis William Laking (Middlesex, ca.1797 –25 November 1874), of Addison Road, Kensington, Middlesex, and (m.
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This entry incorporates text from “Francis Laking” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.