DR RICHARD GAINSBOROUGH [1885-1969]
and his son John

With the impending outbreak of the second world war, Dr Richard Gainsborough with his wife and son moved out of London to Mannings Heath in West Sussex and then in 1941 settled in Fletching during a very cold winter .   He  took over the practice of Dr Alec Cooke who at the beginning of WWII in 1939 had his surgery at Stroods.

This photo is of Dr Gainsborough and his
wife  Eileen in London on their
wedding day in 1936. 

Dr Gainsborough had a huge country practice based in Fletching, with subsidiary surgeries at Maresfield and Nutley, and these continued throughout the war.  He was one of the first people to have a phone in the village and his number was Newick 6.  [not sure why it would be Newick].   His main practice in Fletching was at The Stroods, whereas  at Nutley his surgery was for one day a week at Bay Tree Cottage.  A lot of doctors went to war and those remaining had to cover a wide area, hence Fletching, Maresfield and Nutley.

During the War  it was not possible for most of the doctor’s patients to get to him, except for those who lived very locally, so he had to drive to make home visits. Because he was a country doctor he had a huge petrol ration and could make these visits without difficulty. Whenever  a patient lived on Ashdown Forest he had to get a special pass to visit them as there was tank training taking place.

One of these patients who resided  on the Forest lived in what appeared to be a long shed.  He was a clock repairer and had his workshop at one end of his accommodation - he looked after all the clocks in the area, particularly the grandfather clocks.

Dr Gainsborough’s  wife was a celebrated artist working in her own right under the name of Eileen Mayo, but also at the same time she acted as Dr Gainsborough’s  manager.  At this time Eileen set up a studio at their house in Fletching combining her work with helping run the practice in what was an exceptionally busy period.

In October 1941 Dr Gainsborough was a witness to an inquest where strychnine poisoning  had occurred.  Olive Grover of Kenmuir in Newick had confessed  “I have poisoned the lot of you” after she had spread strychnine on  the bread and butter she had prepared for the family’s tea.  Within an hour Mrs Grover and her 76-year old father, Mr Harry Pitcher were dead. 

At the inquest it was revealed Mrs Grover had written in pencil, on orange coloured notepaper “Poison on bread and butter…. Have done the only decent thing left to do as these dear ones shall not face the scandal which must follow”. 

Mr Cecil Frederick Grover [Mrs Grover’s husband] , Mrs Pitcher [wife of the dead man] and Ann the 3-year old daughter of Mr and Mrs Grover, who sat down to the tea, were all treated for poisoning but made a good recovery.

Dr Richard Gainsborough had been attending the family for the past six or seven months and Mrs Grover had been worried about TB but on his examination of her the Doctor found no signs of the disease.  He had last seen Mrs Grover in the street about three weeks before and passed the time of day with her, and she had seemed quite alright.

Dr Gainsborough said he had received an urgent call to attend a house and found Mr Grover lying on the floor who was conscious and who told the doctor ’Hurry doctor, give me something quick, its strychnine”.  After attending to Mr Grover he found Mrs Grover in the adjoining house on the floor and several times she said ‘God, forgive me’ but she died.

Dr E F Hoare ’s verdict [Coroner for East Sussex] was that Olive Grover had  murdered her father Harry Pitcher, and then committed suicide while her mind was unbalanced. They were both still alive at the time of the doctor’s  arrival. 

Dr Gainsborough continued with his practice until about 1947 when the Health Service came into force which he thought was a very good idea and he was pleased that this was happening - he felt that it was then the right and proper time to retire.  His brother, Hugh Gainsborough was a physician at St George’s Hospital in London and he had had a lot to do with the founding of the Health Service.

Upon Richard Gainsborough’s retirement he  and the family moved back to London in Royal Avenue, Chelsea.  With his long- standing and consuming interest in the visual arts he found himself frustrated by the lack of regularly published information on art exhibitions and events in the capital and he became the Editor of a fortnightly magazine  Arts News and Reviews to provide just such information.  He was also associated with the Tate Gallery. 

Photo of Dr Richard Gainsborough then editor of the re-titled Arts Review
with his wife Eileen in Venice in 1950. 

Dr Gainsborough’s son,  John, told me he went to Fletching School from 1941 - 1942 and then to Lewes County Grammar.  He had to cycle through Sheffield Park from Fletching to Sheffield Park Station every week-day morning to catch the train at 8 a.m. for the journey,  by steam train, which took approximately half an hour to get to Lewes.

Sheffield Park was being used as an army camp, and in 1941/2 one of the first regiments was the Royal Welch [not a mis-spelling] Regiment, who had a goat mascot.  Every Sunday morning the Regiment would march to Church and the goat would accompany them.

Later in the war, about 1944, around the time of D Day, or shortly before, John had to get a pass to enable him to go through the camp, and the pass was checked very carefully on each occasion.  By then it was the Canadian troops, or the French Canadians.

During the war and the resultant rationing, John said the family basically ate very well.  The system of rationing was good and it worked, and they had sufficient to eat.  Fruit and vegetables were home produced and the ducks which they kept provided eggs.

My thanks to John Gainsborough and to Malcolm Lill - volunteer at Sheffield Park who arranged this introduction for me.

Jill Rolfe