The photographic collection of Charles John Bond (1856-1939

During the history of the Leicester Royal Infirmary from its foundation in 1771, Charles John Bond (1856-1939) emerges as one of the most distinguished members of the medical staff. He was born at Bittesby House in Leicestershire and brought up on his father's farm, where his early interest in natural history was fostered, and was further developed when he want to Repton school, nearby. His medical career began in February 1875, when he was apprenticed to Dr C M Sidley, a general practitioner of Welford Road, Leicester. For a short time he was an "outdoor" pupil at Leicester Infirmary before proceeding to University College London in the following October. He gained gold medals in physiology and anatomy and silver medals in surgery, midwifery, and medical jurisprudence, qualified in 1879 and was appointed house surgeon to Bedford General Infirmary. He returned to London in 1882 to study for the FRCS and shared rooms in Charlotte Street with his lifelong friend Victor Horsley, who in that year was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology at University College Hospital. In the same year Charles Bond returned to Leicester and became house surgeon to Sir Charles Marriott. He did much to extend the use of Lister's recently introduced antiseptic methods. In the short period of four years he was appointed full surgeon at the Infirmary, and in 1893, because of his distingugished career and wide interests, he was offered the opportunity of joining the staff of University College Hospital. However, he preferred to stay in Leicester in spite of the limited opportunities for scientific investigation and research. In 1890 he married Edith, daughter of George Simpson, a justice of the peace in Derbyshire, and in 1910 they moved to a large Victorian house, Fernshaw, in Springfield Road on the then outskirts of Leicester, where various animals and birds could be kept for use in his experimental work. In this year he took the unusual step of giving up his large private practice to devote more time to study and to his research interests. three years later, at the age of 57, he retired from the staff of the Infirmary, and the governing body made him an honorary consultant surgeon and also elected him a vice president, the only doctor to be so honoured. Thus he retained a close association with his hospital until his death in 1939.