41 Facts About James Sawyer

Sir James Sawyer was a British physician and cancer researcher famous in his day as a public educator in health matters, an early proponent of "daily habits".

James Sawyer was born in Carlisle on 11 August 1844, probably at 23 Fisher Street, above his father's chemist shop.

James Sawyer's father had bought the business two years earlier from a man about to go bankrupt.

James Sawyer was lucky to survive childhood, as child mortality in the city was high.

James Sawyer may have attended Carlisle Grammar School, as his father donated one pound to its extension fund in 1851.

James Sawyer's mother died at Sparkhill in 1861, and her father in 1863.

In 1861, she probably helped her nephew, James Sawyer, move to Birmingham to train as a doctor.

In October 1861, James Sawyer began his studies in the medical department at Queen College, Birmingham.

In January 1863, James Sawyer passed, in the first division, the entrance examination for his medical degree.

James Sawyer was awarded a fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians in 1883 and the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1891.

In 1894, Lady James Sawyer presented her husband's portrait, painted by Vivian Crome, to the General Committee of the Queen's Hospital.

In 1897, James Sawyer shared the secret of longevity with a Birmingham audience.

In 1908, James Sawyer delivered the Lumleian Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians.

In 1900, James Sawyer argued that the increased cancer rate in England and Wales was due to the excessive consumption of red meat.

James Sawyer suggested in his 1912 book Coprostasis that colorectal cancer was practically unknown amongst agricultural labourers because they worked in fields and had the opportunity to defecate in the natural squatting position.

In September 1885, James Sawyer was elected president of the Ladywood Conservative Club.

Lady James Sawyer founded the Ladywood Habitation of the Primrose League in 1886 and served as its ruling councillor until 1914.

In 1889, James Sawyer was at the centre of a storm when local politics clashed with Westminster politics.

Four weeks after the election, James Sawyer resigned as president of the Birmingham Conservative Association.

James Sawyer actively supported the Conservative Party until his health declined in 1913.

In 1890, James Sawyer was chairman of the Magdalen Home and Refuge, the General Institution for the Blind, and the Ladies' Association for the Care of Friendless Girls.

In 1910, Lady James Sawyer became actively involved in the British Red Cross and hosted many meetings at Haseley Hall.

James Sawyer's husband shared her enthusiasm and said, in 1911, that if war broke out, he would allow the Red Cross to use his residence.

James Sawyer served as Rector's warden at Haseley from 1892 to 1913, and Lady James Sawyer and her daughters held rummage sales to support the village church.

James Sawyer was actively involved in creating the new Diocese of Birmingham from the scheme's inception.

James Sawyer was interested in heraldry and researched and made the arms of Sir William Harvey, which he presented to the Royal College of Physicians in 1910.

James Sawyer devised a coat of arms for his family.

James Sawyer was an early member of the Birmingham and District Society of East Anglians, formed in 1906, and served as president.

James Sawyer liked to show visitors to Haseley Hall a silver-mounted hoof of Ronald, the charger that Lord Cardigan rode at the Battle of Balaclava.

James Sawyer's wife had inherited the horse's hoof from her father, a friend and chaplain of the Cardigan family.

James Sawyer used his position to educate farmers about tuberculosis.

In October 1885, James Sawyer joined the board of the Birmingham Daily Times, a new Conservative newspaper for the Birmingham district.

In 1902, James Sawyer commissioned the construction of a house on Cornwall Street, Birmingham to the design of the architects T W F Newton and Cheattle in the Arts and Crafts style.

In 1912, James Sawyer sat on the British Re-insurance Company Limited's board of reference.

James Sawyer became adept at fencing and had a dial on his wall at Temple Row that he used for practice.

James Sawyer used 22 Temple Row as his consulting room until 1889 and then 31 Temple Row.

In 1890, James Sawyer bought the Haseley Hall Estate at Five Ways, Hatton, Warwickshire, and lived there for the rest of his life.

Lady James Sawyer depended on him to get about, and male servants were in short supply.

James Sawyer's family kept the details of his illness out of the public domain.

James Sawyer died at Haseley Hall on 27 January 1919, aged 74.

James Sawyer's widow moved to Newark-on-Trent to be close to her daughter Maud, later following her to Burwash, where she died in 1934, aged 84.