| Description | This collection represents three generations from the Kirker family of the Casino in Malahide. Gilbert Kirker (1853-1903), his grandson John Gilbert Kirker (1922-2011), and his great-grandson and John's son, Stephen Kirker (b.1961).
Gilbert Kirker series contains four files of documentation and objects. The documentation and objects present reflect his service during the Russo-Turkish War and his medical Royal Navy career for the period 1877-1903.
John G Kirker series contains seven subseries and three files. The documentation is arranged as, medical training (1948-1949), career (1952-2011), patient records ([1950]-2000), personal (1935-1998),
photographs (1949-2012), publications (1964-2011), newspaper clippings (1978-2000), artwork (1940-1977), slides (c.1948-2000), and objects (1950-2011). Patient records are closed with an opening date of 2035-2077.
Stephen Kirker's series is small, containing seven documents relating to his research for the period 1985-2000. |
| History | This collection represents three generations from the Kirker family of the Casino in Malahide. Gilbert Kirker (1953-1903), his grandson John Gilbert Kirker (1922-2011) and his great grandson and John's son, Stephen Kirker (b.1961).
Gilbert Kirker (1853-1903) graduated with a MD from the Royal University of Ireland in 1876. Before entering the Royal Navy, Gilbert served with the Turkish forces in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, as part of the Stafford House Commission. He joined the Royal Navy as a Surgeon, it is noted in The London Gazette, 12 March 1880, that Gilbert Kirker entered as a surgeon to Her Majesty's Fleet, with seniority on the 01 October 1879. Gilbert Kirker entered active service in 1882 onboard H.M.S Iris during the Anglo Egyptian War. We also know that he serviced on H.M.S Amphion of the Mediterranean Squadron c.1893-1894.
The London Gazette informs us that he was promoted to Staff Surgeon within the Admiralty on the 01 October 1891. During the 1890's Kirker was stationed at the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, Gosport. Gilbert Kirker advanced through the service with appointments as Assistant Professor at the Navy's new medical College at Haslar Hospital, surgeon at the Royal Hospital in Vancouver and finally as Instructional Fleet Surgeon and Principal Medical Officer at Haslar Hospital.
Gilbert published on a number of subjects, including a design for an ambulance sleigh of his own devising, infant mortality at Cairo and Damietta and treatment of the wounded in naval actions.
He died suddenly on the 24 November 1903. Four days earlier he pricked his finger while preforming surgery and symptoms of blood poisoning and acute nephritis followed. At the time of his death Fleet Surgeon Gilbert Kirker held the dual posts of Instructional Fleet Surgeon and Principle Medical Officer of the surgical division at Haslar Hospital.
Gilbert Kirker was married to Mary Ann[e] Kirker (neé Dickie) of the Casino in Malahide. They had four children, Agnes, James, Mary and Gilbert. James Kirker studied medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He joined the Royal Army Medical Core and served with them between 1914-1916. He then transferred to the Royal Navy, leaving in 1940. On this return to Malahide, Dublin, James took up the position of Resident Medical Officer in the Royal Hospital for Incurables, Donnybrook between 1954-1964.
Gilbert Kirker also studies medicine and join the Royal Navy, becoming Sergeant Lieutenant and Sergeant Lieutenant Commander in 1928.
John Gilbert Kirker (1922-2011), was born in Norfolk, England. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin in the c.1945 and later secured a travelling scholarship to work at Boston Children's Hospital with Doctor William Gordon Lennex and Doctor Gibbs in 1948. While in the United States he had the opportunity to work at Massachusetts General Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital, Canada and The Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital. It was in the United States that Kirker studied epilepsy and electroencephalography, an area which Kirker devoted his career to.
Kirker left the United States in December 1949 and took up the position of Assistant Physician at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital. Kirker had an extensive career working across a number of hospital in Dublin. He held the position of Director of EEG Department at St. Brendan's Psychiatric Hospital, Senior Physician at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Consultant Neurologist at St. Laurence's Hospital, Consultant Neurologist at the Adelaide Hospital and Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist at Beaumont Hospital. Kirker also briefly worked in the Britain in 1959, when he was awarded a W.H.O Fellowship at Park Hospital for Children in Oxford. Outside of his hospital positions, John Kirker was President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland for two terms, the first from 1983-1985 and the second in 1989, following the death of Ivo Drury. He was also Director of Examinations in the 1980s.
Kirker was a member of the Medical Council of Ireland and chaired the Education and Training Committee and reviewed Ethical Conduct and Behavior within the medical profession. He devoted his life to advocating for those with epilepsy and was a member of the International Bureau for Epilepsy. He found the Irish Chapter - International League Against Epilepsy and Brainwave. He attended many national and international conferences and often spoke on the issue of epilepsy and driving. In 2007 he was awarded the Social Accomplishment Award. The award was in recognition of outstanding achievement in the international struggle against epilepsy.
John Kirker was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and a honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, American College of Physicians and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Kirker had a strong connection with Trinity College Dublin. Having graduated from the college in 1945, he returned in 1995 to undertake a Masters in Arts. Kirker had also lectured in pharmacology at Trinity and was President of the Dublin University Biological Association. Kirker left a bequest in his will to fund an annual lecture on epilepsy, the first Kirker Memorial Lecture took place in 2013.
John Kirker married Mary Elizabeth Bamford in c.1959. They lived at the Casino in Malahide with their son Stephen and two donkeys Salt and Pepper. John retired in 1998 at aged 76 and passed away in 2011.
Stephen Kirker Bamford is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at Cambridge University Hospitals. |