Papers of Sir Thomas Longmore

Sir Thomas Longmore's papers have been grouped into: Professional papers (LP); Personal papers of Sir Thomas and his family (L); and some `Strays' connected with section LP (S).

LP Professional papers

These relate to the whole term of Sir Thomas's army medical service, in the United Kingdom, the West Indies, the Crimea, and India during the Mutiny. They also deal with the period when he held the position of first Professor of Military Surgery at the Army Medical School. Reports, memoranda and minutes of Senate meetings deal with various problems arising during the School's early days, and are supplemented by correspondence with Sidney Herbert, Sir William Jenner, Sir William Muir and others.

Sir Thomas was one of the British Delegates at the Geneva Conference of 1864 which resulted in the Convention of Geneva and the foundation of the Red Cross. Correspondence and conference papers relate to this, as well as to later conferences at Berlin and Baden.

Case histories of some of Longmore's patients include an account of the last illness and death of Lord Clyde (Colin Campbell).

L Personal papers

These include the letters of several generations of Longmores. Sir Thomas's father was a surgeon's mate, and later an assistant surgeon, in the Royal Navy between 1799 and 1806. Among the MSS are the letters which he wrote while serving in the gun brig Pelter, the sloop Atalante, and H.M. ship Lion. Some of these letters, with replies from his mother and brother, are concerned with the consignment of contraband spirits to temporary concealment in the family carpet warehouse in Lambeth. The private correspondence of Sir Thomas contains letters from many English, and some French, army surgeons, among the latter the two Barons Larrey. There is also a good deal of correspondence from other members of the family about a claim to land in Nova Scotia, inherited through a member of the Moorsom family.

S Strays

Correspondence of Dr E.A. Parkes, Professor of Hygiene at the Army Medical School, and Sir James Clarke, Physician in Ordinary to Queen Victoria, relate to the development of the School, and include a series of letters from Florence Nightingale.

This list reproduces the HMC list, amended for readers' convenience, but retaining the arrangement and references assigned by the HMC.

N.B. For the sake of brevity, Sir Thomas Longmore is referred to throughout the following list as 'Longmore'. Lady Longmore (née Rosalie Moorsom) is referred to as 'Rosalie Longmore'.

The papers of Inspector General Sir Thomas Longmore were inherited by his son, Mr H.F. Longmore, and afterwards by his great nephew, Mr T.R.W. Longmore of Gofts House, Byworth, Petworth, Sussex.

The papers fall into two main sections; those of the Longmore family, and those of the Moorsom family, derived from Rosalie Moorsom, Sir Thomas' wife. The Longmore papers were deposited by Mr T.R.W. Longmore in the Library of the Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, London SW1. These are the papers listed below.

The Moorsom papers were deposited in the India Office Library, Blackfriars Road, London SE1. The Commissioners are grateful to the late Mr H.F. Longmore and Mr T.R.W. Longmore for allowing these papers to be sorted and listed.

These papers were listed by the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1968 (their ref. 12602). The arrangement and references assigned by the HMC have been retained.

The stages in Sir Thomas Longmore's career were as follows:-

1843, Assistant Surgeon;

1854, Surgeon;

1858, Deputy Inspector General;

1860, Professor of Military Surgery;

1867, C.B.;

1872, Inspector General of Hospitals;

1856, knighted.