{{Short description|British physician (1871–1963)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Wilfrid Edgecombe | honorific_suffix = FRCS, FRCP | image = Wilfrid Edgecombe (1b).jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Edgecombe in the 1920s | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1871|03|02|df=y}}<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /> | birth_place = Huyton, Merseyside, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1963|04|07|1871|03|02|df=y}}<ref name="Probate 2 May 1963" /> | death_place = Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | other_names = | education = | alma_mater = {{hlist|University of Liverpool|University College London}} | occupation = {{hlist|Surgeon|consultant physician|general practitioner|Spa doctor|RAMC captain|writer}} | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | signature = Signature of Wilfrid Edgecombe (1a).jpg }}
'''Wilfrid Edgecombe''' (2 March 1871 – 7 April 1963) was an English surgeon and spa physician. He was initially employed as a house doctor and surgical tutor at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, but for most of his career he was involved with the management of Harrogate Infirmary and with the founding of Harrogate District Hospital. As deputy president of that establishment, he steered its transition from a private institution to a National Health Service hospital. He travelled around Britain's medical schools, giving promotional lectures on the subject of spa treatments. Alongside Henry Simson, he attended the birth of Gerald David Lascelles, the second child of Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood, with Simson and himself receiving media exposure as the first to announce the birth. He served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, and he served as a councillor on Harrogate Town Council.
One of thirteen children of a Huyton fruit broker, Edgecombe became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was the Yorkshire branch president of the British Medical Association, president of Harrogate Medical Society, and president of the Leeds and West Riding Medico-Chirurgical Society. He was a forthright speaker who promoted British spa treatments. He published a number of journal articles and a book on medical matters including spa treatment. He wrote a history of Harrogate District Hospital, a poetry book and, towards the end of his life, a book of quotations from literature on the subject of old age. He was a keen winter sportsman, travelling annually to St. Moritz to take part in skating and curling, and he captained Harrogate Golf Club.
==Background== Edgecombe's immediate paternal ancestors were agricultural labourers in Devon. However some of his own generation in the family achieved professional status via education in the Merseyside area. His paternal grandfather, John Edgecombe,{{Refn|John Edgecombe (Modbury 5 October 1783 – Kingsbridge 1853). |group=nb}}<ref name="1841 Census. Aveton Gifford" /> was an agricultural labourer in Aveton Gifford, Devon.<ref name="1841 Census. Aveton Gifford">{{cite web |title=1841 England Census. HO107/217/1. Aveton Gifford., Devon. Piece 217, book 1, folio 5, page 4. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8978/records/1131250?tid=&pid=&queryId=d4d91859-be53-4f5c-a6b4-55e741ac3b12&_phsrc=HFg517&_phstart=successSource |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=1 August 2025}}</ref> His father was George Edgecombe,{{Refn|George Edgecombe (Aveton Gifford, Devon 18 October 1829 – West Derby, 12 July 1899). GRO index: Deaths Sep 1899 Edgecombe George 69 W. Derby 8b 243. Buried in St Bartholomew's Churchyard, Roby, Merseyside. |group=nb}}<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /> an agricultural labourer and farm servant, born in Aveton Gifford.<ref name="1851 England Census G. Edgecombe">{{cite web |title=1851 England Census. 66 Aveton Gifford. HO107/1876. Page 14/182. Schedule 53. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/8860/images/DEVHO107_1876_1877-0321?pId=6648706 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=27 July 2025}}</ref><ref name="1852 Census sample G. Edgecombe">{{cite web |title=1851 UK Census sample: George Edgecombe. Broomhill, Kingsbridge, Aveton Gifford. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/7918/records/267319?tid=34320108&pid=18873393131&ssrc=pt |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=27 July 2025 |quote=George Edgecombe, age 32, unmarried, farm servant, born Aveton Gifford, Devon.}}</ref> He then became a fruit broker in the firm Pell & Edgecombe, which was later run by his son George Wolton Edgecombe.<ref name="LDP 22 October 1914">{{cite news |title=Funerals: MR F.W. Edgecombe |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000648/19141022/053/0003 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Liverpool Daily Post |date=22 October 1914 |page=3 col.8}}</ref><ref name="1871 census. G. Edgecombe" >{{cite web |title=1871 England Census. Belle View Villa, St Michael, Huyton com Roby. Schedule 129. RH10/3856 (or 3850). Page 31/80. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7619/images/LANRG10_3856_3858-0164?pId=16233990 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=27 July 2025 |quote=Beorge Edgecombe, 41, fruit broker, born Teignmouth, Devon. Fanny M. Edgecombe, 34, born Yorford, Suffolk. Edith H. Edgecombe, 10, born London. Janet Edgecombe, 8, born London. George Robert Edgecombe, 5, born Huyton. Henry H. Edgecombe, 4, born Huyton. Edward C. Edgecombe, 3, born Huyton. Frank N. 1. born Huyton. Baby, 3 weeks, born Huyton. Three servants and a nurse. Edith, Janet and George are scholars.}}</ref> On 14 July 1860 he married Fanny Maria Edgecombe (née Hughman).{{Refn|Fanny Maria (or Marrin) Edgecombe née Hughman (Yoxford c.1836 – 18 August 1905). GRO index: Marriages Sep 1860 Hughman Fanny Maria and Edgecombe George, Hampstead 1a 1054. Deaths Sep 1905 Edgecombe Fanny M. 69 W Derby 8b 189 or 1_3. She was buried in St Bartholomew's Churchyard, Roby, Merseyside. |group=nb}}<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /> They lived at Belle View Villa in Huyton,<ref name="1871 census. G. Edgecombe" /> and the Uplands, Blundellsands, in Crosby, Merseyside,<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" >{{cite web |last1=Trail |first1=Richard R. |title=Wilfrid Edgecombe |url=https://history.rcp.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/wilfrid-edgecombe |website=history.rcp.ac.uk |publisher=Royal College of Physicians |access-date=25 July 2025}}</ref> and had thirteen children.{{Refn|The thirteen children of George and Fanny M. Edgecombe: Edith Harriet Edgecombe (1861–1946), Janet Edgecombe (1862–1948), George Robert Edgecombe (1866–1946), Henry Herbert Edgecombe (1867–1940), Edward Chorley Edgecombe (1868–1944), Frank Wolton Edgecombe (1869–1914), Wilfrid Edgecombe (1871–1963), Helen Mary Edgecombe (1872–1961), Fanny Augusta Edgecombe (1873–1951), Arthur Edgecombe (1875–1929), Alfred Luxton Edgecombe (1877–1952), Walter Russell Edgecombe (1879–1945), Ethel Alice Edgecombe (1880–1946). '''GRO index''': Births Jun 1861 Edgecombe Edith Harriet Hampstead 1a 544. Deaths Sep 1946 Edgecombe Edith H. 86 Newton A 7a 413. Births Sep 1862 Edgecomb Janet Hampstead 1a 503. Marriages Jun 1882 Edgecombe Janet and Potter William. West Derby 8b 607. Deaths Jun 1948 Potter Janet 85 Ross 9a 70. Births Sep 1865 Edgecombe George Robert Prescot 8b 549. Deaths Mar 1865 Edgecombe George Prescot 8b 536. Births Mar 1867 Edgecombe Henry Herbert Prescott 8b 594. Deaths Dec 1940 Edgecombe Henry H. 73 Crosby 8b 1127. Births Sep 1868 Edgecombe Edward Chorley Prescott 8b 557. Deaths Dec 1944 Edgecombe Edward C. 76 Crosby 8b 582. Births Sep 1869 Edgecombe Frank Wolton Prescott 8b 547. Deaths Dec 1914 Edgecombe Frank W. 45 W.Derby 8b 383. Births Jun 1872 Edgecombe Helen Mary Prescot 8b 604. (Married in Mexico). Deaths Sep 1961 Bennett Helen M. 89 Maidstone 5b 547. Births Mar 1874 Edgecombe Fanny Augusta W. Derby 8b 489. Marriages Dec 1901 Edgecombe Fanny Augusta and Robert Marshall Going. W. Derby 8b 495. Deaths Mar 1951 Going Fanny A. 77 Tonbridge 5b 1304. Births Sep 1875 Edgecombe Arthur W. Derby 8b 482. (Died in France, 1929). Births Sep 1877 Edgecombe Alfred W. Derby 8B 500. Deaths Dec 1952 Edgecombe Alfred L. 75 Kensington 5c 1370. Births Mar 1879 Edgecombe Walter Russell W. Derby 8b 529. Deaths Dec 1945 Edgecombe Walter R. 65 Salisbury 5a 164. Births Sep 1880 Edgecombe Ethel Alice W. Derby 8b 511. Marriages Jun 1928 Edgecumbe Ethel A. and Lines Theodore Herbert. Marylebone 1a 1392. Deaths Mar 1946 Lines Ethel A. 64 Marylebone 1a 614. |group=nb}}<ref name="1871 census. G. Edgecombe" /><ref name="Trail 1963" />
thumb|upright|Edgecombe's villa, Craven Lodge Edgecombe was born in Huyton in Merseyside,{{refn|Wilfried Edgecombe (Huyton 2 March 1871 – Harrogate 7 April 1963). GRO index: Births Jun 1871 Edgecombe Wilfrid Prescott 8b 541. Deaths Jun 1963 Edgecombe Wilfrid 92 Claro 2C 76. |group=nb}}<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /> his parents' seventh child and fifth son.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" >{{cite journal |title=Edgecombe, Wilfred (1871–1963) |journal=Lancet|via=Royal College of Surgeons of England |date=1963 |volume=1 |page=895 |url=https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/lives/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ASSET$002f0$002fSD_ASSET:377517/one |access-date=20 July 2025 |quote=Also in British Medical Journal 1963, page 1350, with portrait.}}</ref><ref name="Trail 1963" /> By 1881 he was boarding at Cambridge House School, Cambridge Road, Litherland, with his brothers Edward and Frank.<ref name="1881 Census Cambridge Hse">{{cite web |title=1881 England Census. Cambridge House School, Cambridge Road, Litherland. RG11/3698. Page 3/5. Schedule 12. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/LANRG11_3694_3699-0853?pId=9207065 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=1 August 2025}}</ref> In 1891 the census finds him as a medical student, at home with his parents and eight of his siblings, including his brother Edward, a solicitor, at Burbo Bank North, in Great Crosby, Merseyside.<ref name="1891 Census Great Crosby">{{cite web |title=1891 England Census, Burbo Bank Road North, Great Crosby, Merseyside.. RG12/2983. Page 37/21. Schedule 159. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/6598/images/LANRG12_2982_2984-0184?pId=23646483 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=1 August 2025}}</ref>
thumb|upright|Edgecombe's home in Leadhall Lane thumb|upright|Edgecombe's gravestone (bottom centre) Edgecombe had two daughters and two sons, by his first marriage on 13 January 1897 to Jane Swinburne of Workington, Cumberland.{{Refn|Jane Edgecombe née Swinburne or Swinburn (Workington 31 October 1868 – Harrogate 30 October 1939). GRO index: Births Dec 1868 Swinburn Jane Cockermouth 10b 519. Marriages Mar 1897 Edgecombe Wilfrid and Swinburne Jane, Knaresbro' 9a 127. Deaths Dec 1939 Edgecombe Jane 71 Knaresbro' 9a 349. |group=nb}}<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /><ref name="LM 31 October 1939" /> She was the daughter of landowner John Fawcett Swinburne.<ref name="Edgecombe 1st marriage">{{cite book |title=Church of England Marriages and Banns 1813–1935. Ref. P36/2/2 |date=13 January 1897|url-access=subscription |publisher=Church of England |location=Harrogate |page=79 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2253/images/32355_249494-00410?pId=9775631 |via=Ancestry|access-date=3 August 2025 |quote=1897, St Peter's Church, Harrogate. Wilfrid Edgecombe, 25, physician, son of George Edgecombe, produce broker., and Jane Swinburne, 27, daughter of John Fawcett Swinburn (deceased), gentleman}}</ref><ref name="1871 Census JF Swinburne">{{cite web |title=1871 England Census. 17 Derwent Street, Workington, Cumberland. RG10/5243. Page 8. Schedule 42. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/7619/records/28777612 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=5 August 2025 |quote=John Fawcett Swinburne, age 34. Landowner. Born in Workington Cumberland. Daughter Jane Fawcett Swinburne, age 2 years.}}</ref> His elder daughter was doctor Dorothy Minna Edgecombe,{{Refn|Dorothy Minna Anning/Rutherford née Edgecombe (14 November 1898 – 1981) She married twice. GRO index: Births Dec 1898 Edgecombe Dorothy Minna Knaresbro' 9a 109. Marriages Dec 1924 Edgecombe Dorothy M. and Anning Charles Clifford Paul. Knaresbro' 9a 197. Marriages Dec 1932 Edgecombe Dorothy M. and Rutherford, Raphael Perlee James. Knaresbro 9a 209. Deaths Jun 1981 Rutherford Dorothy Minna 14 NO 1898 Sheffield 3 1376. |group=nb}}<ref name="LM 2 Janury 1925">{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000748/19250102/079/0008 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Leeds Mercury |date=2 January 1925 |page=8 col.1}}</ref> who had a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree,<ref name="Trail 1963" /><ref name="YP&LI 31 December 1924">{{cite news |title=Harrogate Wedding |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19241231/093/0003 |access-date=31 July 2025|via=British newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=31 December 1924 |page=3 col.3}}</ref> from the University of Leeds,<ref name="1921 Census, no 17." /> and whose second marriage was to doctor Raphael Perlee James Rutherford,<ref name="LM 25 October 1932">{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000748/19321025/116/0004 |access-date=31 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Leeds Mercury |date=25 October 1932 |page=4 col.1 |quote=Rutherford-Anning. 22 October 1932, at Knarescorough ... Dr Raphael P.J. Rutherford, St Mungo, Harrogate, to Dr Dorothy M. Anning, Craven Lodge, Victoria Avenue, Harrogate.}}</ref> brother of Kathleen Rutherford.<ref name="1911 England Census" /> His younger daughter was magistrate Joan Edgecombe,{{Refn|Joan Edgecombe (Harrogate 2 December 1904 – Harrogate 30 October 1987). GRO index: Births Dec 1904 Edgecombe Joan Knaresbro' 9a 108. Deaths 1987 Edgecombe Joan 02 De 1904 Claro 2 2168. |group=nb}} director of music at the former Belmont School, 11 Queen Parade, Harrogate, from 1928.<ref name="KP 6 November 1987">{{cite news |title=Obituary: Miss Joan Edgecombe |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005220/19871106/101/0005 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Knaresborough Post |date=6 November 1987 |page=5 cols 5,6}}</ref> His two sons were Paul Swinburne Edgecombe,{{Refn|Paul Swinburne Edgecombe (28 November 1909 – 1987). GRO index: Births Dec 1909 Edgecombe Paul Swinburne Knaresbro 9a 103. |group=nb}}<ref name="YP&LI 30 November 1909">{{cite news |title=Births |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19091130/118/0006 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=30 November 1909 |page=8 col.1}}</ref> a Royal Naval surgeon captain,<ref name="Times 6 May 1987">{{cite news |title=London, England, death notices from The Times 1982–1988 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8791/records/14654?tid=&pid=&queryId=e2c076a4-2169-4f47-be51-ee988379bf62&_phsrc=HFg514&_phstart=successSource |access-date=28 July 2025|via=Ancestry|url-access=subscription |work=The Times |date=6 May 1987 |quote=Paul Swinburne Edgecombe. Died 2 May 1987.}}</ref> and Midshipman Arthur Wilfrid Edgecombe,{{Refn|Arthur Wilfrid Edgecombe (Knaresborough 28 June 1901 – HMS ''Verulam'' 3 September 1919). GRO index: Births Sep 1901 Edgecombe Arthur Wilfrid Knaresbro' 9a 104. Killed in action in the Baltic Sea, 1919. |group=nb}}<ref name="St Marks 29 July 1901" /> who was killed in action on HMS ''Verulam'' during the First World War.<ref name="CWGC - A.W. Edgecombe">{{cite web |title=Midshipman Arthur Wilfrid Edgecombe |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/3047313/arthur-wilfrid-edgecombe/ |publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |access-date=27 July 2025}}</ref><ref name="Forster 2022">{{cite web |last1=Forster |first1=Bill |title=HMS Verulam (1917) |url=http://vandwdestroyerassociation.org.uk/HMS_Verulam/index.html |publisher=V & W Destroyer Association |access-date=27 July 2025 |date=2022}}</ref> In 1901 Edgecombe and his wife Jane were living with their two-year-old daughter Dorothy and three servants at 102 Station Parade, Harrogate,<ref name="1901 Census. Station Parade">{{cite web |title=1901 England Census. 102 Station Parade, Harrogate. RG13/4054. Page 51/161. Schedule 292. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7814/images/YRKRG13_4054_4057-0302?pId=25829155 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=1 August 2025}}</ref> and then 2 Royal Villas.<ref name="St Marks 29 July 1901">{{cite book |title=Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813–1910. Ref. P43/1/1 |date=29 July 1901 |publisher=Church of England |location=St Mark's Church, Harrogate |page=25 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2252/images/32355_249494-01297?pId=159776944 |access-date=3 August 2025 |quote=Arthur Wilfrid Edgecombe. Birth 28 June 1901. Baptism 29 July 1901|via=Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Between at least 1909 and at least 1932 the family was living above Edgecombe's surgery at 17 Victoria Avenue, Harrogate, with three servants and a governess in 1911,<ref name="YP&LI 30 November 1909" /><ref name="1911 England Census" /><ref name="LM 25 October 1932" /> and their two daughters and three servants in 1921.<ref name="1921 Census, no 17.">{{cite web |title=1921 England Census. 17 Victoria Avenue, Harrogate. Schedule 200. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/63150/records/28865344?tid=&pid=&queryId=81f0cec8-d2ea-41e0-b6d2-608d4ef8bea1&_phsrc=HFg516&_phstart=successSource |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=1 August 2025}}</ref> By 1932 the family was living at Craven Lodge, 101 Victoria Avenue, while possibly retaining no. 17, which held the surgery.<ref name="LM 31 October 1939" />
Edgecombe's first wife Jane died of pneumonia on 30 October 1939, at Craven Lodge. She was cremated at Harrogate Crematorium.<ref name="LM 31 October 1939">{{cite news |title=Deaths |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000748/19391031/113/0004 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Leeds Mercury |date=31 October 1939 |page=4 col.1}}</ref> On 18 October 1945 at St Mary's Church, Hawksworth, Leeds,<ref name="YP&LI 20 October 1945">{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19451020/103/0004 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=20 October 1945 |page=4 col.1}}</ref> he remarried to Gabrielle Helen Holgate Butler,{{Refn|Gabrielle Helen Holgate Edgecombe née Butler (17 November 1884 – 3 December 1975). GRO index: Marriages Dec 1945 Butler Gabrielle H.H. and Edgecombe Wilfrid, Leeds 9b 623. Deaths Dec 1975 Edgecombe Gabrielle Helen H. 17 NO 1884 Claro 2 2106. |group=nb}}<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /><ref name="YP&LI 1 October 1945">{{cite news |title=Court and personal |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19451001/024/0002 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=1 October 1945 |page=2 col.1}}</ref> daughter of Hugh Myddleton Butler of Kirkstall, Leeds.<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /> From 1945 they were living at 122 Leadhall Lane, Harrogate.<ref name="YP&LI 20 October 1945" /><ref>{{cite book |title=England electoral registers 1840–1962 |date=1960 |publisher=HM Government|via=Ancestry|url-access=subscription |location=Harrogate |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/3057/images/43353_1831115182_0269-00075?pId=97432915 |access-date=3 August 2025|quote=Wilfrid and Gabrielle Edgecombe, 120 (now 122) Leadhall Lane, Harrogate}}</ref> Gabrielle outlived him.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" />
Edgecombe died at home at Rossett Oaks, 122 Leadhall Lane,{{Refn|122 Leadhall Lane, Harrogate, formerly 120 Leadhall Lane, on the corner of Leadhall Lane and Leadhall Road. |group=nb}} in Harrogate on 7 April 1963.<ref name="Probate 2 May 1963" /><ref name="Trail 1963" >{{cite journal |last1=Trail |first1=Richard R |title=Wilfrid Edgecombe |journal=British Medical Journal|via=Royal College of Physicians |date=1963 |volume=1 |pages=1350–1351 |url=https://history.rcp.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/wilfrid-edgecombe |access-date=20 July 2025 |quote=Also in The Lancet, 1963, 1, 895}} See: [https://archive.org/details/sim_british-medical-journal_1963_1_index/page/12/mode/2up BMJ index, 1963 vol.1] See original text: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20380808?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents BMJ 1963 vol.1 page 1350, via Jstor]</ref><ref name="HMS 2025" /> He left £151,144 19s. 1d. ({{Inflation|UK|151144.95|1963|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}).<ref name="Probate 2 May 1963" >{{cite book |title=England and Wales National Probate Calendar. 1858–1995 |date=2 May 1963 |publisher=H. M. Government |location=London |page=43/28 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1904/images/32858_625537_2403-00027?pId=14830629 |access-date=28 July 2025 |quote=Edgecombe Wilfrid of Rossett Oaks Leadhall Lane Harrogate died 7 April 1963. Probate London 2 May ... Effects £151144 19s 1d.}}</ref>{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}
==Career== thumb|upright|17 Victoria Avenue (left), Edgecombe's home and surgery Edgecombe read medicine at the medical school of the University College of Liverpool, where he studied alongside John Hay.<ref name="Cohen 1965" /><ref name="Globe 13 August 1890">{{cite news |title=University intelligence. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001652/18900813/026/0003 |access-date=31 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Globe |date=13 August 1890 |page=3 col.5 |quote=Physiology and histology: third class: Wilfrid Edgecombe, University College, Liverpool. Materia medica and pharmaceutical chemistry: first class: Wilfrid Edgecombe, University College, Liverpool.}}</ref> Because Liverpool University was not yet authorised to grant degrees, he then continued his studies and qualified at University College London.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Cohen 1965" /> He received his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB, BS) degree in 1893,<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /> and on 9 February of that year became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS).<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> The ''Ballymena Telegraph'' described him as, "the popular Harrogate practitioner, who is an authority on the water baths and climate of the Yorkshire Spa".<ref name="BWT 30 August 1924">{{cite news |title=Dr Wilfrid Edgecombe |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001706/19240830/044/0003 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Ballymena Weekly Telegraph |date=30 August 1924 |page=3 col.1}}</ref>
===Bedside manner=== Around 1951, inspired by ''Cato Maior de Senectute'', Edgecombe published ''de Senectute''. It includes a comment about his own attitude as a medical consultant towards his anxious patients.<ref name="Cohen 1965" />
<blockquote>I have been struck by the large number [of patients] who make their lives a misery to themselves and a burden to others from the habit, ingrained or acquired, of worrying unnecessarily over trifles. They lack the philosophy to realise that a large percentage of their worries are of their own making, and the remainder not worth worrying about! Worry over the past, and anxiety for the future, prevents concentration on the present. After all, the great secret of happiness in this life is just to have a little more to do in the day than one can do comfortably.<ref name="Cohen 1965" /></blockquote>
=== Infirmaries and the First World War === thumb|upright|Liverpool Infirmary thumb|upright|Harrogate Infirmary, in 1883 In 1893 Edgecombe was employed as a house doctor at Liverpool Infirmary. Around that time he was also a surgical tutor and a demonstrator in anatomy.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> In November 1894 he moved to Harrogate. On 12 March 1896, being interested in surgery, he qualified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS).<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /> At this point he came under the influence of George Oliver and was "profoundly affected"{{Refn|"Profoundly affected": see original BMJ obituary via Jstor.|group=nb}}<ref name="Trail 1963" /> by his physiological research. He began to concentrate on medical practice, and qualified as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1895.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="LDP 28 December 1896">{{cite news |title=University of London: local successes |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000647/18961228/064/0003 |access-date=31 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Liverpool Daily Post |date=28 December 1896 |page=3 col.3}}</ref> He ceased to concentrate on surgery.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> In 1907 he qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP).<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /> By 1916 he was a consultant physician and his spa practice and his general practice had become "extensive".{{Refn|"Extensive": see original BMJ obituary via Jstor.|group=nb}}<ref name="Trail 1963" /> In 1916 he worked briefly in a heart unit in Colchester; thereafter he worked only as a consultant.<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /> In 1926 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP).<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /> In that era, few men had become both FRCS and FRCP.<ref name="Trail 1963" />
From 1905, and for most of the rest of his career, Edgecome concentrated on the development of Harrogate's general hospital services. In that year he was employed by the small Harrogate Infirmary, which remained limited in capacity even after it had gained 55 more beds.<ref name="Trail 1963" /> In 1911, Edgecombe was working from home at 17 Victoria Avenue, Harrogate, where he had a general practice surgery.<ref name="1911 England Census">{{cite web |title=1911 England Census. 17 Victoria Avenue, Harrogate. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_25929_0439_03?pId=26620600 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=31 July 2025 |quote=Wilfrid Edgecombe, working at home, born Hutyon, his wife Jane, born Workington, Cumberland, and his four children, all born Harrogate. Daughter Dorothy, age 12, is a student.}}</ref> During the First World War, Edgecombe served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).<ref name="HMS 2025">{{cite web |title=Wilfrid Edgecombe Memorial Award |url=https://harrogatemedicalsociety.co.uk/wilfrid-edgecombe-memorial-award/ |publisher=Harrogate Medical Society |access-date=20 July 2025 |date=2025}}</ref> By 1919 Edgecombe was petitioning the hospital governors to build a new, larger, hospital on Harrogate's outskirts. His efforts kick-started plans for the Harrogate and District General Hospital, with himself as chairman of the building committee.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" />
===Harrogate and District General Hospital=== [[File:Harrogate and District General Hospital 1932 (1a).jpg|thumb|upright|Harrogate District Hospital opened by the Princess Royal, 1932]] The new building was opened on 19 September 1932 by Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood,<ref name="YP&LI 19 September 1932">{{cite news |title=New Harrogate hospital opened by Princess Royal |url= https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000687/19320919/333/0011 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer |date=19 September 1932 |page=11}}</ref> as the Harrogate and District General Hospital on Knaresborough Road.<ref name="Trail 1963" /><ref name="HA 6 July 2018">{{cite news |title=Here's how the NHS in Harrogate looked over the last 70 years |url=https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/news/heres-how-the-nhs-in-harrogate-looked-over-the-last-70-years-851387 |access-date=22 July 2025 |work=Harrogate Advertiser |date=6 July 2018}}</ref> The Princess Royal was a previous patient of Edgecombe's; he had attended her daily at Goldsborough Hall in the last four days of her 1924 pregnancy. He and Henry Simson were the first to announce publicly the birth of the child, Gerald David Lascelles, Edgecombe's name being repeated in many newspapers, such as The Inverness Courier,<ref name="IC 22 August 1924">{{cite news |title=To Princess Mary |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000446/19240822/055/0004?browse=true&fullscreen=true |access-date=5 August 2025 |work=Inverness Courier |date=22 August 1924 |page=4 col.6}}</ref> ''The London Evening News'',<ref name="EN 21 August 1924">{{cite news |title=Happy event today at Goldsborough |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003286/19240821/003/0001 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Evening News (London) |date=21 August 1924 |page=1, cols1,2}}</ref> ''The Daily Express'',<ref name="DE 19 August 1924">{{cite news |title=Princess Mary's doctor |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004848/19240819/310/0007 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Daily Express |date=19 August 1924 |page=7 col.3}}</ref> ''The London Daily News'',<ref name="LDN 23 August 1924">{{cite news |title=Princess Mary's baby boy |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003212/19240823/123/0005 |access-date=5 August 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Daily News (London) |date=23 August 1924 |page=5 col.3}}</ref> and ''The Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail''.<ref name="WDWM 23 August 1924">{{cite news |title=Princess Mary |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0006110/19240823/046/0002 |access-date=5 August 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail |date=23 August 1924 |page=2 col.3}}</ref>
Edgecombe was chairman of the medical staff of the hospital (now known as Harrogate District Hospital) for thirteen years,<ref name="Trail 1963" /> and retired as an active physician there in 1936, although he retained strong interest and influence in the establishment.<ref name="HMS 2025" /> As chairman of its hospital contributory scheme committee in 1946 he was forthright in his approach to the imminent government takeover of British hospitals:<ref name="HH 20 February 1946">{{cite news |title=Future of contributory scheme |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001608/19460220/098/0005 |access-date=31 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Harrogate Herald |date=20 February 1946 |page=5 col.6}}</ref>
<blockquote>We are in the position of the prisoner in the dock awaiting the verdict and sentence ... If the voluntary hospitals are entirely taken over by the Government, and I cannot conceive of a more crass piece of stupidity, then it means the death of the contributory scheme.<ref name="HH 20 February 1946" /></blockquote>
The hospital moved from private ownership to state control under the National Health Service. The Princess Royal became president of the hospital, and Edgecombe was elected deputy president, chairman of the no.1 house committee and subsequently a member of the management committee which took over on 5 July 1948.<ref name="Trail 1963" /><ref name="Edgecombe 1958" /> He retired from those duties in 1959. The ''British Medical Journal'' said, "His skilful chairmanship and wise judgement did much to ensure that the change to State control passed off smoothly and to the best advantage of all concerned".<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" />
===Royal Baths Hospital=== thumb|upright|Royal Baths Hospital in 1907 Edgecombe was in principle supportive of British spas. In 1899 he wrote to the journal, ''Nature'', declaring that not only could British spas equal the variety of treatments offered in other countries, but the bracing climate and freedom from the distractions of home at British spas were conducive to the success of those treatments.<ref name="MT 8 September 1899">{{cite news |title=Why go to foreign spas? |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000504/18990908/021/0005 |access-date=31 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Manchester Times |date=8 September 1899 |page=5 col.7}}</ref>
As a representative of Harrogate Medical Society, Edgecombe was a witness in a 1937 Ministry of Health enquiry regarding the Royal Baths Hospital, Harrogate. He supported an application on behalf of 104 doctors who "had been recommending better accommodation and greater efficiency of treatments at the Baths for the past ten years". Explaining their reasons, he said:<ref name="LM 11 March 1937" />
<blockquote>There was lamentable congestion in some departments ... In some cases several treatments were given in the same room, and this resulted in overcrowding, overheating, and lack of privacy. Patients were hurried out of dressing rooms prematurely because of inadequate accommodation ... If he had the power he would raze the whole of the buildings to the ground and start afresh.<ref name="LM 11 March 1937">{{cite news |title=£66,527 scheme for Harrogate Baths: Doctors' support ... Dissatisfied patients |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000748/19370311/122/0005 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Leeds Mercury |date=11 March 1937 |page=5 col.2}}</ref></blockquote>
==Institutions== [[File:Framed portrait of Wilfrid Edgecombe (3).JPG|thumb|upright|Photo of Edgecombe in The Harrogate Club]] Between 1919 and 1932,<ref name="HMS 2025" /> Edgecombe served for thirteen years as a councillor on Harrogate Town Council. He was one of those instrumental in forming the liaison committee which aligned the Harrogate Medical Society and the corporation. He served on the liaison committee for many years, in support of the spa element of the town.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> Around 1926, and based on his own research work, Edgecombe gave a series of lectures on medical hydrology and spa treatment in the medical schools of Britain. He was attempting at the same time to attract the attention of universities with respect to those subjects or, as Lord Cohen of Birkenhead put it, "in the hope of rekindling the fast-dying embers of Harrogate's earlier fame in the treatment of rheumatic and digestive disorders".<ref name="Cohen 1965" >{{cite journal |last1=Cohen |first1=Lord, of Birkenhead |title=Papers and originals: Liverpool's Contributions to Medicine |journal=British Medical Journal |date=10 April 1965 |volume=1 |pages=945–948 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.5440.945 |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/1/5440/945.full.pdf |access-date=20 July 2025}}</ref> According to Richard R. Trail, Edgecombe was "perhaps the last of the spa physicians".<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" />
thumb|upright|Where Edgecombe lost to Conan Doyle at billiards In 1893 Edgecombe became a member of the British Medical Association, and in 1918 was elected as its Yorkshire branch president. From 1895 he was a member of Harrogate Medical Society,<ref name="HMS 7 February 2022" >{{cite web |last1=Leinhardt |first1=Liz Jayne |title=Welcome to Harrogate Medical Society |url=https://harrogatemedicalsociety.co.uk/welcome/ |publisher=Harrogate Medical Society |access-date=27 July 2025 |date=7 February 2022}}</ref> of which he was president in 1905 and 1939. The ''Ripon Gazette'' described him as "the doyen of the Harrogate Medical Society".<ref name="RG 18 September 1958">{{cite news |title=Harrogate physician retires |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005347/19580918/122/0005 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Ripon Gazette |date=18 September 1958 |page=5 col.5}}</ref> Unusually for a Harrogate doctor, he was elected president of the Leeds and West Riding Medico-Chirurgical Society.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> He was closely involved with The Harrogate Club for many years. He acted as its honorary secretary and treasurer from 1905 to 1907, and was thrice president of the club, in 1912, 1954 and 1957. While there, he lost several games of billiards with Arthur Conan Doyle.<ref name="Edgecombe 1957" >{{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Centenary of the Club: Harrogate history 1857–1957 |date=1957|quote=[Conan Doyle] was a frequent visitor to the Billiards Room, coming in the evening to play with Watts the Steward. He was in the front rank of amateur players and knew the game thoroughly. The writer of this record [i.e. Edgecombe] enjoyed several games with him and incidentally was beaten every time. He was a dour opponent, tramping majestically round the table, smoking his pipe, never uttering a word, and concentrating intensely on every shot, reminding one of Sherlock Holmes in one of his contemplative moods.}} This source is mentioned in the ''Harrogate Advertiser'' [https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/news/restoring-harrogates-mysterious-the-club-that-sherlock-holmes-creator-loved-813366 here].</ref>
==Other interests== In his youth Edgecombe was an "enthusiastic" skater,<ref name="Trail 1963" /> joining curling and skating teams at St. Moritz and once captaining the English team. In 1906, being a "keen" golfer,<ref name="Trail 1963" /> he captained the Harrogate Golf Club.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> However his favourite sport was curling, at which he won prizes for himself and for his team.<ref name="RCP Trail 1963" /> He was also a traveller. In the winter of 1949–1950, Edgecombe and his second wife travelled first-class on the Royal Mail Lines ship ''Andes'' to Buenos Aires, returning on 26 February.<ref>{{cite web |title=UK and Ireland incoming passenger lists 1878–1960 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1518/images/30807_A001265-00256?pId=6757954 |website=ancestry.co.uk|url-access=subscription |access-date=3 August 2025 |location=Southampton |date=26 February 1950}}</ref>
Edgecombe wrote poetry, especially Christmas poems which he shared with his friends. Many of those poems were published in The ''Alpine Post'', ''Punch'' and other papers. In 1914 Edgecombe published those and some hitherto unpublished poems in his book, ''A Mixed Grill''.<ref name="Edgecombe 1914" /> In his latter years he concentrated on his garden at 122 Leadhall Lane, especially the culture of roses, and he and his wife hosted parties there.<ref name="Lancet 1963, 1, 895" /><ref name="Trail 1963" /> He was also a card player, taking it seriously enough to write a letter to ''The Spectator'' when an apparent record occurred when playing a private game of piquet.<ref name="Spectator 21 December 1951">{{cite news |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Piquet records |url=https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/21st-december-1951/18/piquet-records |access-date=27 July 2025 |work=The Spectator Archive |date=21 December 1951 |page=18 col.1}}</ref>
==Obituaries== The ''British Medical Journal'' commented in 1963:<ref name="Trail 1963" />
<blockquote>Dr Edgecombe served his hospital with an unselfishness and singleness of purpose which was outstanding. A brilliant clinician who never lost sight of the personal problem, he also became a skilful administrator. Even to the end of his long life he loved hearing of the welfare of his hospital ... Essentially a kind and friendly person, he loved to entertain his friends and it was as host on these informal occasions that his great personal charm was seen to best advantage.<ref name="Trail 1963" /></blockquote>
In 1965, Lord Cohen of Birkenhead described Edgecombe as, "an outstanding physician, and one of Harrogate's most loyal and devoted citizens ... a man with such versatile gifts of mind and character, which were used for so long in the service of his fellows".<ref name="Cohen 1965" />
==Legacy== Soon after Edgecombe's death in 1963, an endowment from his widow and donations from members of Harrogate Medical Society (HMS) paid for a memorial trust.<ref name="HMS 2025" /><ref name="Cohen 1965" /><ref name="Register of Charities">{{cite web |title=The Wilfrid Edgecombe Memorial Trust Fund |url=https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/?p_p_id=uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_regId=529587&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_subId=0 |publisher=Charity Commission for England and Wales|website= Register of Charities |access-date=27 July 2025}}</ref> Thus was founded the annual Edgecombe Lecture. The inaugural lecture was delivered on 11 March 1964 to HMS by Lord Cohen of Birkenhead.<ref name="HMS 2025" /><ref name="Cohen 1965" /> Together with HMS, the trust also funds the Wilfrid Edgecombe Award which provides prizes for the best papers submitted by resident doctors (specifically foundation year doctors and core trainees) working in the Harrogate area.<ref name="HMS 2025" />
==Publications== <small>''This list is in date order, and may not be complete''.</small> ===Medicine=== thumb|upright|Title page of ''The Physiology'' (1905) thumb|upright|Cover of ''Mixed Grill'' (1914) [[File:Harrogate Club history 1957 (1a).JPG|thumb|upright|Cover of ''Centenary of the Club, Harrogate'' (1957)]] * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The effect of exercise on the haemoglobin with reference to the value of rest in the treatment of anaemia |journal=British Medical Journal |date=25 June 1898 |volume=1 |issue=1956 |pages=1650–1653 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.1956.1650 |pmid=20757922 |pmc=2412001 }}<ref name="Edgecombe Effect of Exercise">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The effect of exercise on the haemoglobin with reference to the value of rest in the treatment of anaemia |journal=British Medical Journal |date=25 June 1898 |volume=1 |issue=1956 |pages=1650–1653 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.1956.1650 |pmid=20757922 |pmc=2412001 }}</ref> * {{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |last2=Bain |first2=William |title=The effect of baths, massage, and exercise on the blood-pressure |date=1899 |publisher=Lancet Office |location=London }}<ref name="Edgecombe: The Effect 1899">{{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The effect of baths, massage, and exercise on the blood-pressure |date=1899 |publisher=Lancet Office |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/b30474309 |access-date=21 July 2025|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |last2=Bain |first2=William |title=The physiological action of certain mineral waters on the blood and on the excretion of urea and uric acid |journal=Journal of Physiology |date=1899 }}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |last2=Bain |first2=William |title=The physiological action of certain mineral waters on the blood and on the excretion of urea and uric acid |journal=Journal of Physiology |date=1899 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61053/records/94554?tid=34320108&pid=18873406944&ssrc=pt |access-date=3 August 2025|via=Medical Directory 1845–1942 and Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Why people go to spas |journal=Nature |date=31 August 1899 |volume=60 |issue=1557 |pages=416–420 |publisher=Springer Nature |location=UK |doi=10.1038/060416a0 |bibcode=1899Natur..60..416E }}<ref name="Edgcombe Why do People">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Why people go to spas |journal=Nature |date=31 August 1899 |volume=60 |issue=1557 |pages=416–420 |doi=10.1038/060416a0 |url=https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1038_060416a0/mode/2up |access-date=21 July 2025 |publisher=Springer Nature |location=UK|bibcode=1899Natur..60..416E |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> * {{cite book |last1=Bain |first1=William |last2=Edgecombe |first2=Wilfrid |title=The Physiology and Therapeutics of the Harrogate Waters, Baths and Climate Applied to the Treatment of Chronic Disease |date=1905 |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |location=London}}<ref name="Edgcombe: The Physiology">{{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |last2=Bain |first2=William |title=The Physiology and Therapeutics of the Harrogate Waters, Baths and Climate Applied to the Treatment of Chronic Disease |date=1905 |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/b21518865 |access-date=21 July 2025|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="B 16 October 1905">{{cite news |title=Medical and surgical |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005087/19051016/216/0059 |access-date=30 July 2025|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |work=Bookseller |date=16 October 1905 |page=59/895 col.1}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfred |title=Effects of baths and certain forms of electricity on the blood, blood pressure and metabolism |journal=Lancet |date=1905 }}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfred |title=Effects of baths and certain forms of electricity on the blood, blood pressure and metabolism |journal=Lancet |date=1905 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61053/records/94554?tid=34320108&pid=18873406944&ssrc=pt |access-date=3 August 2025|via=Medical Directory 1845–1942 and Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Metastatic pancreatitis in mumps |journal=Practice |date=1908 }}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Metastatic pancreatitis in mumps |journal=Practice |date=1908 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61053/records/94554?tid=34320108&pid=18873406944&ssrc=pt |access-date=3 August 2025|via=Medical Directory 1845–1942 and Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Blood pressure in spa practice |journal=Balneol Climatol|date=1908 }}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Blood pressure in spa practice |journal=Balneol Climatol|date=1908 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61053/records/94554?tid=34320108&pid=18873406944&ssrc=pt |access-date=3 August 2025|via=Medical Directory 1845–1942 and Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The significance, treatment and prognosis of high blood-pressure |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=17 April 1913 |volume=6 |issue=Balneol Climatol |pages=77–95 |doi=10.1177/003591571300600120 |pmid=19976489 |pmc=2006732 }}<ref name="Edgecombe 1913">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The significance, treatment and prognosis of high blood-pressure |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=17 April 1913 |volume=6 |issue=Balneol Climatol |pages=77–95 |doi=10.1177/003591571300600120 |pmid=19976489 |pmc=2006732 }}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Visceral Fibrositis |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=1920 |volume=13 |issue=Balneol Climatol |pages=14–22 |doi=10.1177/003591572001300103 |pmid=19980851 |pmc=2152118 }}<ref name="Edgecombe 1920">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Visceral Fibrositis |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=1920 |volume=13 |issue=Balneol Climatol |pages=14–22 |doi=10.1177/003591572001300103 |pmid=19980851 |pmc=2152118 }} Read online [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003591572001300103 here].</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The Principles of Spa Treatment in Great Britain |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=May 1925 |volume=18 |issue=Balneol_Climatol |pages=1–12 |publisher=Royal Society of Medicine |location=London |doi=10.1177/003591572501800101 |pmid=19984216 |pmc=2202400 }}<ref name="Edgecombe Balneology">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The Principles of Spa Treatment in Great Britain |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine |date=May 1925 |volume=18 |issue=Balneol_Climatol |pages=1–12|publisher=Royal Society of Medicine |location=London |doi=10.1177/003591572501800101 |pmid=19984216 |pmc=2202400 }}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=A lecture on the principles of spa treatment |journal=British Medical Journal |date=June 1929 |volume=1 |issue=3569 |pages=981–983 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.3569.981 |pmid=20774720 |pmc=2450787 }}<ref name="Edgecombe 1929">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=A lecture on the principles of spa treatment |journal=British Medical Journal |date=June 1929 |volume=1 |issue=3569 |pages=981–983 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.3569.981 |pmid=20774720 |pmc=2450787 }}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The economic effects of spa treatment |journal=The Journal of State Medicine |date=August 1935 |volume=43 |issue=8 |pages=449–466|publisher=Oxford University Press}}<ref name="Edgecombe 1935">{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The economic effects of spa treatment |journal=The Journal of State Medicine |date=August 1935 |volume=43 |issue=8 |pages=449–466 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45208583 |access-date=27 July 2025|via=Jstor |publisher=Oxford University Press |jstor=45208583 }}</ref> * {{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The Story of a Hospital |publisher=Harrogate People and Places/Harrogate Historical Society |location=Harrogate |date=1958}}<ref name="Edgecombe 1958" >{{cite web |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The Story of a Hospital |url=https://www.harrogatepeopleandplaces.info/publications/generalhospital/1st.htm |publisher=Harrogate People and Places/Harrogate Historical Society |access-date=20 July 2025 |location=Harrogate |date=1958}}</ref> ;Undated * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The baths of Harrogate: their nature, action and uses |journal=Reviser of Arts}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=The baths of Harrogate: their nature, action and uses |journal=Reviser of Arts |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61053/records/94554?tid=34320108&pid=18873406944&ssrc=pt |access-date=3 August 2025|via=Medical Directory 1845–1942 and Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * {{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Constipation; Diarrhoea |journal=Quain's Dictionary of Medicine}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Constipation; Diarrhoea |journal=Quain's Dictionary of Medicine|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/61053/records/94554?tid=34320108&pid=18873406944&ssrc=pt |access-date=3 August 2025|via=Medical Directory 1845–1942 and Ancestry|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
===Other publications=== * {{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=A Mixed Grill, or varied verse on winter sports and other topics |date=1914 |publisher=Engadin Press Col. |location=Samedan, Switzerland |edition=1 }} A copy of this poetry collection was presented by the author to The Royal College of Physicians in 1935.<ref name="Edgecombe 1914">{{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=A Mixed Grill, or varied verse on winter sports and other topics |date=1014 |publisher=Engadin Press Col. |location=Samedan, Switzerland |edition=1 |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/p5an5a77/items |access-date=24 July 2025|via=Wellcome Collection}}</ref> * {{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=De Senectute: quotations from literature concerning old age |date=1951}} This book was quoted by Lord Cohen of Birkenhead in 1965.<ref name="Cohen 1965" /> * {{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Centenary of the Club, Harrogate. History 1857–1957 |date=1957 }}<ref name="Harrogate Club history 1957">{{cite book |last1=Edgecombe |first1=Wilfrid |title=Centenary of the Club: Harrogate history 1857–1957 |date=1957 |url=https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/news/restoring-harrogates-mysterious-the-club-that-sherlock-holmes-creator-loved-813366 |access-date=4 August 2025|via=Harrogate Advertiser|quote= A history of the Harrogate Club}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist|group=nb}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Wilfrid Edgecombe}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgecombe, Wilfrid}}
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