Newcastle University

This exhibition of material in the Robinson Library Special Collections intends to focus on the papers of Dr. Charles John Gibb (of the Blaydon Races song fame) and highlight his connection with the Newcastle Infirmary and the University's medical school through the abundance of material held in the library's Special Collections.

The display makes extensive use of the Charles Gibb Papers which were given to the Robinson Library in 1996 and of the Pybus Collection, Medical Collection and Hospital Archives.

The exhibition cases run chronologically looking at the early papers of Charles J. Gibb, which include his apprenticeship indenture and certificates of attendance at lectures at the medical school, through to his setting up in private general practice in Newcastle and living in a large house in Sandyford.

Highlights in the exhibition include his travel journals, when he spent time studying and observing medical practice in Scotland and in some major European cities, letters concerning the dissolution of the Newcastle School of Medicine in 1851 and a copy of the painting of the Blaydon Races by W. Irving (on display with the permission of Tyne and Wear Museums).

Dr Gibb : an Introduction and brief biography

Charles John Gibb was born in 1824 and was the son of Mr. Joseph Gibb, a surgeon who had a practice at the Ouseburn, Newcastle for nearly forty years.

Gibb was apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Common, the resident surgeon at the Gateshead Dispensary and studied at the School of Medicine, Newcastle upon Tyne between 1842-1845. During the latter part of his apprenticeship Gibb spent time as the resident assistant to the house-surgeon, Mr Taylor. Between 1847 and 1848 he studied further medicine in Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin and Vienna and spent some time travelling in the Highlands of Scotland and in Europe, especially in the Alps.

In 1846 he was disappointed not to secure the position of house-surgeon to the Newcastle Infirmary, but on his return in 1848 he was more successful and remained in the role until 1854. After six years in the post he was awarded a testimonial when he left to go on to private practice. During Gibb's time as house-surgeon to the infirmary he coped with two major emergencies; the Cholera epidemics of 1849 and 1853 and the great explosion and fire of Gateshead and Newcastle in October 1854

At the end of 1854 he left the infirmary to set up in private general practice and established his surgery on Westgate Road. He remained a general practitioner throughout the rest of life, continuing until his death in 1916.

He was an Honorary Surgeon at the Newcastle Infirmary from 1855 to 1870.