Goodness and Guinness – Tony Corcoran on pioneering doctor Sir John Lumsden

How would you feel if you opened your front door to find your employer’s doctor standing there, telling you that he had come to check the condition of your living quarters? Well, this happened, in 1900, to my grandparents, then living in a neat redbrick terraced house located just off Meath Street in Dublin’s Liberties. My grandfather was an employee of the great Guinness brewery and the doctor was Dr John Lumsden, the Guinness chief medical officer.
In fact, this was just one initiative of a progressive and social-minded Dr John Lumsden as he set out on a damp day in November 1900 to spend two months visiting and inspecting the living conditions in almost 1800 homes. He had, of course, informed all employees of his intentions and he did so with the approval of the Guinness board.
The project was, of course, a benevolent one to ensure that the Guinness workers and their families, for whose health and well-being he had responsibility, were living in suitable accommodation. Lumsden then used the resources of the Guinness administration to have people moved from unsuitable accommodation to one more suited to their needs and well-being.
Earlier initiatives of Lumsden were the publication of pamphlets for mothers to ensure that they were giving adequate nutrition to their children. He realised that the women in the household had responsibility for feeding their families and that they held the key to family health. He had also proposed classes for women in household management and even extended the scope of these classes to include music appreciation.
As part of ensuring that young employees were fit and healthy, he conducted daily drilling in the brewery yard. This practice then developed in two directions in 1903. Firstly, he enrolled the men in the St John Ambulance Brigade and, as no Irish branch of the brigade existed, he founded the Irish branch and became its first commissioner. Secondly, he also established a Guinness sports association which later became the Guinness Athletic Union.
Remarkably, Dr John Lumsden found time to sit in his consulting room in the newly established Guinness Dispensary in Robert Street which opened in 1900. During his consultations with the workers and their families, he became renowned for his understanding and benevolence.
He was particularly popular with the widows of Guinness workers who had financial difficulties rearing their families. There are many letters in the company archive from him to the board recommending an increase in these widows’ pensions.
He took a particular interest in ensuring that the children of these widows were prepared for employment and, in many cases arranged for the children to attend the Guinness Dining Room to receive one hot meal daily. When, on one occasion, he was informed that the numbers had dropped off in cold weather due to the fact that they had no shoes, he arranged that they be given suitable footwear.
As commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade, John Lumsden came into prominence during the Great War in 1915. In particular, he is remembered for his fearless management of brigade members in Easter Week 1916. He had members report for duty at the brigade HQ, then in Dawson Street. They commandeered a motor car from the Royal Automobile Club and set about, carrying a white flag, to collect injured and dead from the streets of Dublin and take them to the Adelaide Hospital.
But it was later that week when Lumsden came to particular notice. As the ill-prepared Sherwood Foresters landed at Kingstown and marched into Dublin to quell the rebellion they came under fire from strategically-placed rebels, with over 200 men killed or injured. As they lay dying on the road, John Lumsden, in the uniform of the St John Ambulance, moved among them tending to the injured and the dying. An army chaplain who witnessed this, and who had been in Gallipoli, said afterwards that he had never seen a braver man.
Later, in 1917 and 1918 Lumsden served as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France.
For this work and his work in the St John Ambulance Brigade he was invested as a Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918 by King George V.
John Lumsden, born on November 14th, 1869, in Drogheda, was the son of Provincial Bank manager, also John Lumsden. As a young man he helped his father set up the Royal Dublin Golf Club, currently based in north Dublin. Every year club members compete for the perpetual Lumsden Cup, in memory of John Lumsden senior.
After 1918, Sir John returned to his post as Guinness chief medical officer. He was also very active within the St John Ambulance in caring for British army personnel returning from active service. When, in 1926, when he was granted a coat-of-arms his motto was “Dei dono sum quod sum”, “By the Grace of God, I am what I am”, a fitting tribute to a great man. Finally, after a lifetime of service to others, the great and gracious Sir John Lumsden died at his residence, Earlscliffe, on the Hill of Howth, on September 3rd, 1944, 80 years ago this month.