Thomas Jeeves Horder, 1st Baron Horder, GCVO (7 January 1871 – 13 August 1955) was a British physician best known for his appointments as physician-in-ordinary to Kings Edward VII, George V, and George VI, and extra physician to Queen Elizabeth II. He was also the chosen physician of three prime ministers. He was knighted in 1918, made a baronet in 1923 and raised to the peerage in 1933.
Horder began his career at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where his first junior post was under Samuel Gee.[2] When still quite young, Horder successfully made a difficult diagnosis on King Edward VII which made his reputation.[1] In 1908 he was appointed as the first physician to the Cancer Hospital, later known as the Royal Marsden Hospital.[3][4]
He was involved in many official committees including advising the Ministry of Food during World War II.[1] After the war he opposed many of Aneurin Bevan's plans for a national health service and may have helped modify some of those less palatable to the medical profession.
He held the positions of Deputy Lieutenant County of Hampshire; Extra Physician to the Queen (formerly Extra Physician to King George VI); and Consulting Physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital (1912–1936). Knighted in 1918,[5] he was created a Baronet in Bonar Law's resignation honours list (issued on 25 May, 1923).[6] He was raised to the peerage as Baron Horder, of Ashford in the County of Southampton on 23 January 1933.[7]
In 1902 Horder married Geraldine Rose Doggett (1872–1954),[1] of Newnham Manor, Hertfordshire, whose maternal grandfather was James Smith Rose of Arley House, Bristol, who in 1873 was the Mayor of Totnes. Their son was the publisher Mervyn Horder (1910–1997). Their daughter Joy Horder married Edward Cullinan, chief physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital; their son was British architect Edward Cullinan.
Endowed with abundant health and vitality to the end [?]; he was succeeded in his title by his son.
^ abcdefghij"Horder, Thomas Jeeves, first Baron Horder (1871–1955), physician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33985. Retrieved 13 June 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^Trail, Richard R. "Thomas Jeeves Horder, Baron Horder of Ashford | RCP Museum". history.rcplondon.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
^Walford, Edward (January 1860). The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 679.
Obituary. British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 4937 (August 22, 1955): 493+. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4937.493.
Lawrence, Christopher. "A Tale of Two Sciences: Bedside and Bench in Twentieth-Century Britain." Medical History, vol. 43, no. 4 (October 1999): 421–449. doi:10.1017/S0025727300065686.
"...a study of two distinguished English physicians, Thomas Horder and Walter Langdon Brown ... one of these I deem patrician: the world of aristocracy, privilege, deference, tradition, genteel leisure pursuits, face-to-face social relations and charitable service. The other was professional or meritocratic: the world of citizenship, rationally driven progress, impersonal social relations and expert opinion." (p. 421)
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