Robert Brudenell Carter

Robert Brudenell Carter, FRCS (2 October 1828 – 23 October 1918) was a British physician and ophthalmic surgeon.^[1][2][3]

Born in Little Wittenham, near Didcot, Berkshire, Carter was the son of a major in the Royal Marines and his mother died in giving birth to him.^[3][4][1] His father took no interest in him, and the newborn child came into the care of a family friend, Robert Brudenell, 6th Earl of Cardigan.^[3] As the baby was not expected to live, Brudenell ensured he was baptised, giving him his own Christian names.^[3][1] Carter was subsequently raised and eventually adopted by another family acquaintance.^[3]

Following a private education, Carter was apprenticed to a general practitioner, and entered the medical school of the London Hospital aged 19.^[2] He qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1851 and as a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1852.^[2][1] He opened a medical practice in Leytonstone in the suburbs of London and in 1853 published On the Pathology and Treatment of Hysteria.^[3][5] Soon after he moved to Putney in south London, and published his second book, On the Influence of Education and Training in Preventing Diseases of the Nervous System in 1855.^[6]

Before his second book had been published he had left for the Crimea, where he served as a staff surgeon in the British Army.^[1][2] Returning to England following the end of the conflict, he settled in Nottingham, where he helped to establish the Nottingham Eye Hospital in 1859.^[1][7] From this date Carter devoted his medical career entirely to ophthalmology.^[2] In 1862 he moved to Stroud, Gloucestershire, and was instrumental in the establishment of the Gloucester Eye Hospital in 1866.^[1][8] In 1864 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1868 moved to London and joined the staff of the Royal South London Ophthalmic Hospital in Southwark.^[1] He also began writing leading articles for The Times newspaper and The Lancet medical journal.^[1] From 1870 to 1883 he was ophthalmic surgeon at St George's Hospital and lecturer at the hospital's medical school.^[2] In 1875, he published A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye , based on the lectures he gave to the students of St George's Hospital.^[1][9]

From 1887 to 1900 Carter was a member of the General Medical Council and also served as president of the Royal Medical Society.^[1] He was bitterly opposed to homeopathy, which he roundly condemned in his final book, Doctors and Their Work, Or, Medicine, Quackery, and Disease, published in 1903.^[10][1]

Carter was briefly involved in local politics. In January 1889 the first elections to the London County Council were held, and he was nominated to contest the Islington West division.^[11] There were six candidates for the two seats to be filled, and Carter secured second place and election with 883 votes, 29 more than the third-placed candidate.^[12] Carter aligned himself with the Moderate Party on the council, which was allied to the parliamentary Conservative Party.^[13] When the next county council elections were held three years later, he failed to hold his seat, finishing last of four candidates.^[14]

Carter was a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, and was promoted to a Knight of Justice (KStJ) in the same order on 8 May 1902.^[15]

Carter died at his home near Clapham Common in 1918, aged 90, and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery.^[3][1]

• On the Influence of Education and Training in Preventing Diseases of the Nervous System (1855)
• A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye (1875)
• Eyesight, Good & Bad: A Treatise on the Exercise and Preservation of Vision (1880)
• Our Homes, and how to Make Them Healthy (1883)
• Doctors and Their Work, Or, Medicine, Quackery, and Disease (1903)