There have been more eminent ophthalmologists, although Nathaniel Bishop Harman achieved much in his own right, but to have two of one’s children connected to the defence of two of the 20th century’s most notorious killers is surely unique. In one case, however, the word ‘alleged’ must be applied, as it was due largely to the testimony of Harman’s son that the accused was acquitted of murder.
Nathaniel Bishop Harman was born in 1869, the seventh child but only son to survive, of a well-connected City family. He attended City of London school, and did his medical training at the Middlesex Hospital in addition to taking a double first in Natural Sciences at Cambridge. After volunteering to serve as a surgeon in the Boer War, he returned from South Africa to work at Moorfields. By taking the post of ophthalmic surgeon at the Belgrave Hospital for Children in 1901, he ignited a lifelong interest in reforming the education of children with poor sight. He began other long associations with the West London Hospital and the British Medical Association, and was consultant oculist to the National Institute for the Blind.
Despite contributing to many other ophthalmic bodies, it is his educational campaigning for which he is primarily remembered. His success in getting established special classes and, later, special ‘myope’ or ‘sight-saving’ schools for vision-impaired children in London, gained him international renown, not least in America, as many countries followed the city’s example. His ophthalmic legacy includes various devices that he invented, including the ‘diaphragm’ binocular vision test, a self-illuminating ophthalmoscope, refractometers and scotometers.
In 1905 Nathaniel Bishop Harman married Katharine Chamberlain, herself a remarkable woman and a qualified doctor. She was the niece of politician Joseph Chamberlain and cousin of Neville. They had five children, one of whom died young. Their son, John, and daughter, Elizabeth, are the links in this story.
It was probably never in doubt that John Bishop Harman would go into medicine, given that he was born at his father’s practice at 108 Harley Street, in 1907, where John was to live and practice all his life. After Oundle and Cambridge, he completed his medical studies at St Thomas’, where he rose to consultant physician rank. One of his interests, clinical pharmacology, was to lead to him being called as a defence witness in the trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams.
Eccentric character
Adams was an eccentric character, born into a family of Plymouth Brethren in Randalstown, now Northern Ireland, in 1899. He qualified as a doctor without any great distinction and was considered somewhat of a loner. After an unsuccessful stint as a houseman at Bristol Royal Infirmary he took a general practitioner post in Eastbourne where, despite suspicions about his methods, he became very successful in his practice. He also became very wealthy, largely as a result of persuading many of his elderly patients to include him in their wills; who then tended to die soon afterwards. Adams would claim that the high doses of morphine and other drugs that he administered to these patients were for the amelioration of painful symptoms only; and that the bequests he received were in lieu of fees. Others were not so charitable, and rumours about him ‘bumping off’ patients abounded.
A police investigation focused on two of Adams’ patients, both elderly widows: Edith Alice Morrell and Gertrude Hullett. Adams treated Morrell, who had been partially paralysed by a stroke, with a cocktail of heroin and morphine in order to ease her ‘cerebral irritation’. There were several alterations to her will before her death in 1949 – from natural causes according to Adams – that made various gifts to him. The final version removed any bequest, but he still received money, cutlery and a Rolls Royce. Seven years later, Adams prescribed large doses of barbiturates to treat Hullett’s depression after her husband’s death. She became comatose and eventually died after taking sleeping pills in an apparent suicide attempt. An inquest declared suicide, but the pathologist suspected barbiturate poisoning. Hullett also left her Rolls Royce to Adams, which he sold six days later.
Adams was charged with Morrell’s murder, but there was a huge amount of political intrigue around the case. The police were surprised that the Attorney General, Reginald Manningham-Buller, chose this case rather than Hullett’s, as Morrell had been cremated, leaving no chance of analysing remains for poisons. He also allowed a crucial police report to be leaked to the defence and, when vital nurses’ notebooks went missing from the Director of Public Prosecutions Office, he declined to familiarise himself with them when produced by the defence. Manningham-Buller’s fearsome reputation led to him being labelled ‘Bullying Manner’ but the judge afterwards criticised his weak performance. (His daughter, Eliza, served as director general of MI5 from 2002-7.) The prosecution’s two expert witnesses disagreed while, for the defence, Bishop Harman was convinced that Adams’ treatment, while unorthodox, was not reckless. The jury took 44 minutes to return a not-guilty verdict.
The Home Office pathologist, Francis Camps, originally had examined 310 death certificates issued by Adams, of which 163 were deemed suspicious, often cases where Adams had administered ‘special injections’. Camps was convinced Adams was a serial killer. Adams was later convicted of forging prescriptions and offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act. He was fined £2,400 plus costs and removed from the Medical Register. He was, however, reinstated in 1961 and continued thereafter as a sole practitioner. He died in 1983, leaving an estate worth over £400,000.
John Bishop Harman’s interest in the law was continued through his marriage to a lawyer and through his four daughters, all of whom became solicitors. One of them, Harriet, is the deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Returning to John’s sister, Elizabeth: she met her husband, Francis Pakenham, the future 7th Earl of Longford, at an Oxford summer ball. He spent many years as a Labour politician, and gained notoriety with his campaign in the early 1970s to ban pornography. But he attracted most attention for his efforts to win parole for the Moors murderer, Myra Hindley. His Christian faith, longstanding interest in prisoner reform and liberal outlook had led him to believe that, if society was willing to exercise forgiveness, all offenders eventually could be rehabilitated into that society. Taking on Hindley as his cause célèbre was an error of judgement that inevitably tarnished his reputation.
Elizabeth, at one stage, looked set for a fine political career of her own. Eight children proved too much of a barrier, however, so she decided instead to support her husband’s political ambitions. Not that she was idle; lured into journalism to write about child-rearing, she then embarked on a stellar career as a historical biographer. Four of her children have followed her literary path, perhaps most notably Lady Antonia Fraser. When Elizabeth died in 2002, aged 96, there were 26 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Such is the legacy of Nathaniel Bishop Harman, ophthalmologist. There is a neat circular optical connection, though, in that his son, John, was closely involved with the Medical Defence Union (MDU), the world’s first medical defence organisation, established in 1885. John Harman was first appointed to the MDU council in 1955-6, and rose to become president in 1976, serving until 1982. And the present chief executive of the MDU, Dr Christine Tomkins, is – to close the loop – an ophthalmologist and currently upper warden of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Seth Belson for the idea, and Christine Tomkins for information on John Harman.
David Baker is an independent optometrist