Dr. Edward Mason Wrench

Obituary appeared in The London Times on March 14, 1912. His diaries (1862-1912) are in The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England.

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel, V.D., M.V.O., F.R.C.S. He was the son of the Reverend T. W. Wrench, Rector of St. Michael's, Cornhill. He received his medical education at St. Thomas' Hospital, and obtained the diplomas of M.R.C.S. and L.S.A. in 1854, which year he went out to the Crimea. He was first placed in charge of the wounded from Inkerman, in the hospital in the Russian Military School, Balaclava, and was afterwards attached to the 28th Regiment, with which he served in the, trenches during the attack of December, 1854. He had been gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 34th Regiment in November, and joined it on its arrival in the Crimea. He served during the terrible-winter of that year, and was present at the capture of the quarries, the successful assault on the Redan of June 18th, and the final capture of Sebastopol on September 8th, 1855. He was mentioned in dispatches, and received the Crimean medal and clasp for Sebastopol, and the Turkish Medal. Returning from the Crimea in 1856, he was transferred to the 4th Dancers, went to Madras with that regiment in the following month, and served with it during the whole of the Indian Mutiny. For his services in India he received the Indian medal and clasp for Central India. He returned to England in 1860, and married in 1861 his cousin, the daughter of Mr. William Kirke, of Markham Hall, Nottinghamishire, by whom he survived. He retired from the army in 1862, and settled at Baslow on his appointment as surgeon to the seventh Duke of Devonshire. During his long connection with Chatsworth, he had the medical care of many notable and distinguished persons, and on one occasion attended the late King Edward VII professionally. The decoration of a Member of the Victorian Order was conferred upon him by King Edward on the occasion of his last visit to Chatsworth. He took the diploma of F.R.C.S.Eng. in 1870, and was Consulting Surgeon to the Whitworth Hospital, Darley Dale. In 1864 he joined the 3rd Battalion of the Derbyshire Volunteers, serving as Ensign and Lieutenant, until gazetted Surgeon in March, 1870. In 1892 he was promoted to Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the following year received the V.D.; he retired in 1900 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He had held the office of President of the Midland Branch, and after the Annual Meeting of the Association at Sheffield in 1908, he conducted a large party over the park and house of Chatsworth. He was appointed a magistrate in 1898, and was a regular attendant at the Bakewell Sessions. He was deeply interested in archaeology, local history, and geology, was president of the Bakewell Naturalist Field Club, and was an authority on place names.