Dr John Gilpin

A BOURNE family doctor, John Gilpin, was an early pioneer of the motor car and a silver medal he won in 1905 for completing a 100-mile non-stop run in one of the first Peugeot cars has recently come to light.

The event was organised by the Lincolnshire Automobile Club, founded in 1900 and one of the oldest motoring organisations in the country and still in existence as the Lincolnshire Louth Motor Club after amalgamation in 1976. The medal was offered to them by a collector in Hampshire earlier this year and has now been purchased by officials and will be retained as part of their archives.

The doctor was a member of the club with his close friend, Thomas William Mays, who was also an early car owner and it was this enthusiasm that influenced his son Raymond who went on to establish the internationally famous BRM company with workshops in Eastgate.

William John Gilpin, who preferred to be known as John, was born at Bedford in 1864 but after completing his education and qualifying as a medical practitioner, he moved to Bourne in the late 19th century to take over the practice at Brook Lodge in South Street. In 1900, he married Ada Maria Bott (née Slater), aged 38, widow of Arthur Bott, owner of the Angel Hotel, who had died in 1899, thus becoming step-father to their son Henry Malcolm Bott who had been born on 1st December 1898. Life was a comfortable one at Brook Lodge with servants to look after them, a cook and a handyman, and a domestic nurse or nanny to care for the child.

The doctor soon became a familiar figure out on his rounds in a pony and trap until he purchased a car, becoming one of the first people in the town to own one, and was often seen driving around at the wheel of his Peugeot, later a French Gregoire, sometimes with his wife or another companion in the front passenger seat, and occasionally the family nanny, Jessie Moore, a local girl in her early twenties. He earned himself a reputation as a flamboyant character, plain speaking but kindly, a man who enjoyed the pleasures of life, particularly his pipe which he was known to smoke during surgery hours. He also liked shooting, fishing and walking and could often be seen strolling around town with his two pet spaniels while his wife was renowned for serving a delicious walnut fruit cake whenever anyone came to tea.

Motoring was his great passion and he joined the Lincolnshire Automobile Club, an organisation that had been formed in 1900 and had 91 members within two years and by 1914 the figure had risen to 322, one in every six of them being a doctor, professional men who could afford such a luxury. In 1904, he read a paper to the club on the economics of motoring giving some facts concerning car ownership based on his own experience.

He estimated that if £25 a year were spent on tyres, 6,000 miles of motoring would be possible in that period. Allowing for 15 shillings (75p) as a weekly wage for a man to look after the car and also to do the work in the garden and various other odd jobs, then reckoning the further expense of petrol, clothes, accumulators, licences and repairs, he estimated the cost of his motoring worked out at 3½ pence a mile [92p by today's values]. This contrasted very favourably with horse transport for in earlier days, when the doctor had relied on that, it had cost him sixpence a mile.

He had paid £200 for the vehicle itself and in his opinion, each year would see more uniformity in the types of cars while depreciation would be limited to the wear and tear of tyres. He was right about the proliferation of the different car models although motoring expenses overall appear to be much higher today.

Dr Gilpin became an active member and competitor of the club with Mays and in March 1910, the two of them were successful in the speed trials held at Grimsthorpe Park when Mays won the Newsum Challenge Cup for the third time and therefore the trophy became his property. He was driving a De Dion and Dr Gilpin took second place with his new Gregoire car.

During the Great War of 1914-18, Dr Gilpin was appointed commandant of the military hospital run by the Red Cross which was established at the Vestry Hall in North Street from November 1914 until December 1918 during which time 945 wounded soldiers from the front line were cared for and in June 1918 he was awarded the MBE for his services in conducting the unit in such an efficient manner. There were fears for his health in 1917 when he contracted blood poisoning while carrying out a post mortem examination and although he was seriously ill for a time, he recovered and was back at work within weeks.

Dr Gilpin remained in Bourne until retiring in 1929 when he went to live in Skegness but returned to medical duties for a time at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 because of the country-wide shortage of doctors. There was speculation that he needed the money, having lost a large part of his income through bad investments, but this is unlikely because he died a wealthy man in 1943, aged 79, leaving almost £10,000 in his will, which would be worth around £300,000 by today's values.

His work for the community was recognised by Bourne Town Council in the spring of 2004. Streets on the new housing estate being built on the site of the former Bourne Hospital in South Road were being given names with medical connections and one of them has been called Gilpin Close in his memory.