Herbert Herbert

Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Herbert, FRCS (25 February 1865 – 19 March 1942) was a British ophthalmologist and officer in the Indian Medical Service (IMS), known for his work on trachoma, cataract and glaucoma. Later, he was vice-president of the Ophthalmological Society of the UK. Herbert was commissioned with the IMS in 1887, and served in the Middle East and the Gulf of Aden in 1890, as surgeon. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1891, and around that time took an interest in diseases of the eye. In 1892, he was appointed professor at the Grant Medical College (GMC) and first surgeon at the Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital (JJ Hospital). The following year, he became civil surgeon at Kheda, Gujarat. In India, he reported on cholera epidemics and his papers included "Rainfall and Seasonal Cholera" (1894) and "The Natural History of Hardwar Fair Cholera Outbreaks" (1895). In 1897 he was ophthalmic surgeon to JJ Hospital and professor of ophthalmic surgery at GMC. He described "the pits" in people with trachoma, the "trap-door" method of sclerotomy in glaucoma, features of superficial punctate keratitis, and was the first to document the presence of eosinophils in conjunctivitis. He returned to England following retirement in 1907, and was appointed at first surgeon then consulting surgeon to the Midland Eye Infirmary, Nottingham. He rejoined the IMS during the First World War and held posts on hospital ships, at the Indian Hospital at Brockenhurst, and in India. After the war, he settled in Sussex and continued to consult in matters of the eye, to the Worthing Hospital, and in pathology to the Sussex Eye Hospital, Brighton. Early life and education Herbert Herbert, born Herbert Sherwood, was born on 25 February 1865 at Tranmere, Cheshire, to Richard Sherwood, a barrister and judge, and his second relationship with Alice Sherwood, following three children with his first wife. His surname was changed to Herbert at the age of 12, and the circumstances of his father, and his father's first marriage and relationship with his mother, are unclear. It is possible that Alice Sherwood was really Alice Herbert, who then fell out with Richard Sherwood, possibly because he would not marry her, and then changed her son's surname to her own. Unable to change his Christian name, he became 'Herbert Herbert'. He attended school at Liverpool and gained admission to study medicine at the Leeds Medical School.