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Old 10-06-2010, 10:19 AM
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Default James Calvert Spence

I see it has been announced that three Amble area Schools will be renamed after 'Local Hero' James Calvert Spence who served in WW1 and became a famous social paediatrician.

Coquet High School
Amble Middle School
and
Druridge Bay Middle School (South Broomhill)

become:

James Calvert Spence College, Acklington Road
James Calvert Spence College, South Avenue
and
James Calvert Spence College, Hadston Road




Sir James Calvert Spence M.C., M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P

© Image courtesy and copyright Newcastle University. ©
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Old 10-06-2010, 10:19 AM
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Wikipedia..........

James Calvert Spence MC & Bar (March 19, 1892 – 1954), was a pediatrician who was a pioneer in the field of social pediatrics.

Early life
Spence was born in Amble, Northumberland, the fourth son and seventh child of an architect (David Magnus Spence) and his wife Isabella Turnbull. After being educated at Elmfield College, York, he attended the Durham College of Medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Medical career
After World War I, where he served in Gallipoli, Egypt and the Western Front winning an MC and later a bar, Spence worked as a house physician at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle upon Tyne and then moved on to work as a casualty officer at Great Ormond Street in London. He returned to Newcastle in 1922, where he took up the post of medical registrar and chemical pathologist at the RVI. He also joined the medical staff of a day nursery, in West Parade, Newcastle, which had been set up by a local wealthy lady to look after the children of munitions workers. The day nursery eventually became the Newcastle Babies' Hospital and provided the foundation for much of Spence's future work.

In this institution, Spence and his staff developed the practice of Social Paediatrics, which will always be associated with his name. In 1926-27 he spent a year at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, returning to the RVI in 1928. The period 1928-34 saw the publication of many of his most important works on scientific medicine. During the depression years, Spence was invited by the Newcastle city health committee to carry out a comparative study of 'The Health and Nutrition of Certain of the Children of Newcastle upon Tyne between the Ages of One and Five Years'. Spence showed that 36 per cent of the children from 'poor districts of the city were unhealthy or physically unfit.' The correlation with malnutrition was not found in the control group of better class families showed that the problem was preventable.

Spence began the practice, then unique in Britain, of admitting mothers to hospital with their sick children, so that they might nurse them and feel responsible for the child's recovery. Spence had begun receiving offers of professorial chairs, but declined them all as it would mean leaving Newcastle and the work to which he felt dedicated. He was by now paediatric physician at the Newcastle General Hospital and honorary physician to the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He also became Nuffield Professor of Child Health at Newcastle in 1942, and in 1948 when the National Health Service was established, Spence was a government adviser.

A subsequent study into infant mortality, again commissioned by the City Council, found the highest levels of infant mortality to be in the poorest areas of the city. The main cause of the excess mortality in these areas appeared to be infection. These two studies led on to one of the first ever longitudinal birth cohort studies, the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, although with the outbreak of the second world war, it was not until 1947 that the members of this cohort could be recruited. The Thousand Families Study was the basis of much of community paediatrics for the next 50 years.

Medical Philosophy
Spence always laid stress on the inclusion of the home as well as the hospital in the care of the sick child and throughout his teaching emphasised the preventive as well as the curative aspect of paediatrics. Spence combined clinical skills with great sensitivity as a doctor and his whimsical charm made him a most attractive personality. As a teacher and leader, he was outstanding and wrote: 'The first aim of my department is comradeship, not achievement.' His own achievements were of course great, and for his services to British medicine and medical education, he was knighted in 1950. He summed up the practice of medicine as follows:

The real work of a doctor is not an affair of health centres, or laboratories, or hospital beds. Techniques have their place in medicine, but they are not medicine. The essential unit of medical practice is the occasion when, in the intimacy of the consulting room or sick room, a person who is ill, or believes himself to be ill, seeks the advice of a doctor whom he trusts. This is a consultation, and all else in the practice of medicine derives from it.

The Yellow Brick Road Children's Medical Research Centre at the Royal Victoria Infirmary is officially dedicated to Sir James Spence. The cost of £5 million was raised entirely from people in the North East of England in less than four years by the North-East Charity, the Childrens' Foundation.
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Old 10-06-2010, 10:29 AM
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The double award of the Military Cross ('Military Cross and Bar') is quite scarce, we will dig around and see what the citations read....
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Old 10-06-2010, 11:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Coquet View Post
I see it has been announced to rename three Amble Schools after 'Local Hero' James Calvert Spence who served in WW1 and became a famous social paediatrician.

Coquet High School
Amble Middle School
and
Druridge Bay Middle School
Hi, yes i think its a bit long winded and American like, but i think we will all get used to it, but i don't really agree with it, i think they should leave as is
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Old 10-06-2010, 11:26 AM
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Not sure how long the Spence family lived in Amble but they are in Lanchester, Durham 1901 and 1911 census.
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Old 10-06-2010, 11:37 AM
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Anyway, citiation for the initial award of the MC published in the London Gazette 17th September 1917 as follows:


Capt. James Calvert Spence, M.B., R.A.M.C., Spec. Res.

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in proceeding to a battery that was suffering heavily from intense enemy shell fire, and continuing to search blown-in dugouts and tend the wounded under heavy fire. He displayed exceptional coolness and gallantry on this occasion, and on many previous occasions he has carried out his duties with magnificent devotion.



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Old 10-06-2010, 11:42 AM
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citiation for the Bar to the MC published in the London Gazette 30th July 1919 as follows:


Capt. (A./Maj.) James Calvert Spence, M.C. Royal Army Medical Corps (Special Reserve), attached to 34th Field Ambulance

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while in command of a bearer division, during the attack on Oisy le Verger and the subsequent operations from September 28th to October 2nd. 1918. In addition to handling his bearers with marked skill and initiative, he reconnoitred and selected sites for regimental aid-posts under heavy fire. Throughout the operations he showed untiring energy and complete disregard of danger. His fine leading of bearers on several occasions through heavy barrages enabled the wounded to be rapidly cleared and undoubtedly resulted in the saving of many lives.
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Old 10-06-2010, 11:47 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jane100 View Post
Hi, yes i think its a bit long winded and American like, but i think we will all get used to it, but i don't really agree with it, i think they should leave as is


Hi Jane, welcome to the forum, yes I thought 'USA Style' when I first heard it, but it's happening to lots of colleges and schools over here now.
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Old 10-06-2010, 12:46 PM
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His Kighthood was announced in the London Gazette 8th June 1950:




CENTRAL CHANCERY OF THE ORDERS

OF KNIGHTHOOD.
St. James's Palace, S.W.I. 8th June, 1950.


The KING has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of the Celebration of His Majesty's Birthday, to signify his intention of conferring the Honour of Knighthood upon the following: —




Professor James Calvert SPENCE, M.C., M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P., .Professor of Child Health, University of Durham.
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Old 13-06-2010, 02:25 PM
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Default Why College?

I was wondering if anyone knew why the schools will be renamed James Colbert Spence College? A college is an establishment for higher educaction. Though the middle schools provide both primary and secondary education, it will be mostly secondary education provided by the whole 'college', so wouldn't the term 'secondary school' be more appropriate?
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Old 14-06-2010, 11:24 AM
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Quote:
I was wondering if anyone knew why the schools will be renamed James Colbert Spence College? A college is an establishment for higher educaction. Though the middle schools provide both primary and secondary education, it will be mostly secondary education provided by the whole 'college', so wouldn't the term 'secondary school' be more appropriate?



Not sure why they've done that, yes can see it causing some confusion.

no mention in the gazette piece as to why college rather than school.
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Old 25-07-2010, 08:41 PM
Newbiggin born Newbiggin born is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jcvamp View Post
I was wondering if anyone knew why the schools will be renamed James Colbert Spence College? A college is an establishment for higher educaction. Though the middle schools provide both primary and secondary education, it will be mostly secondary education provided by the whole 'college', so wouldn't the term 'secondary school' be more appropriate?
It's all part of the dumbing down process like "student" instead of "pupil."

To me, a pupil is someone who is being taught and has not yet developed the skills of independent study, whilst a "student" has developed those skills.

also, has anyone noticed how schools no longer have "grounds" but a "campus?"
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