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Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 18:23 BST (UK)

Title: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 18:23 BST (UK)
Is there a Register of Dentists ?

If anyone has access to such a book for the period 1922-1962, could you let me know what you can find on

Leonard Charter-Starte  (born 1895).

He practised in Bristol in about 1922, then moved to Norfolk.

Many thanks! :)
William
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: hepburn on Friday 21 September 07 18:30 BST (UK)
http://www.colkirk-norfolk.co.uk/colkirkremembered.htm

just out of interest,is this your page??
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 18:31 BST (UK)
Not my page ... but a great page, with some interesting photographs.

Leonard Charter-Starte was 'the village dentist'.
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: PaulineJ on Friday 21 September 07 18:32 BST (UK)
Don't know what you are after.

he looks to be in the 'phone books on ancestry. They could reveal  addres(es) for further research?

Pauline
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 18:34 BST (UK)
I've got his phone book entries.

I'm after where he trained and qualified and what - if any - dentistry appointments he held.
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: JPG on Friday 21 September 07 18:35 BST (UK)
Hello,

on Findmypast there is a Dental Surgeons Directory for 1925, but he is not listed under that name search unfortnately

JPG
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 18:43 BST (UK)
Thank you for checking !!

That's what makes research so puzzling.  Because this is an entry from the Bristol Phone Book for 1922 ...
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 18:48 BST (UK)
p.s.  Is there a difference between a 'dental surgeon' and a 'dentist' ?
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: JPG on Friday 21 September 07 18:54 BST (UK)
Possibly. I will check in the Reference Library next time I go to see.

JPG ;)
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Friday 21 September 07 19:00 BST (UK)
Thank you, John.

I would be most grateful !!  ;D
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: JPG on Thursday 27 September 07 14:53 BST (UK)
Hi William

I've been to the Reference Library and located the following:

L Charter-Starte is recorded as a dentist at 203 Wells Road from 1919 - 1923 and by 1929 at Oak Street, Fakenham in Norfolk. Now the intriguing part where was he located between 1924/28. He is not in the Bristol or Norfolk books as these addresses?

At Bristol in 1927 is one Milton Wallis and from 1931-1935 a Herbert Davis, so it seems the practice continued on

John
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Thursday 27 September 07 15:34 BST (UK)
Ah so !!

Thanks, John - I am very grateful indeed  ;D

Maybe the answer to the riddle is "overseas" ?  The phonebooks don't help with the missing years - they go directly from Bristol to Norfolk.

I appreciate that you didn't make a note of it, but can you remember where and when he qualified ?

Thanks again  ;D
William
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: JPG on Wednesday 03 October 07 17:59 BST (UK)
William

He is not listed in the 1914 Kelly's Directory for Bristol. Sorry

John
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Thursday 04 October 07 08:46 BST (UK)
Thanks, John.  ;)

It seems he spent the First World War years qualifying as a dentist.
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: JPG on Thursday 04 October 07 12:04 BST (UK)
Where was he before the war? Obviously I do not know his age etc so maybe he started in Bristol just after leaving the army. At the 203 Wells Road there was no dentist before the war.

Do you know if the building is still standing?

John
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: loo on Friday 05 October 07 09:14 BST (UK)
You should check The Dentists Register, and also the Medical Directory.
If you go to http://www.copac.ac.uk/ , and search for this book, it will show you various places where these can be consulted in Britain, assuming you are in Britain.  There are several locations listed.

Dental surgeons from 1866 to 1924 are listed in the Medical Directory.

If it is not possible for you to go to any of these, I would suggest you ask at the Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Rd., London NW1
http://library.wellcome.ac.uk .  They have a wealth of information on medical topics, and will respond to you.  They were able to give me specific information on the training and licensing of a London physician in 1916-1919 period, even though he had trained abroad.

Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Sunday 07 October 07 07:13 BST (UK)
John:

He was born in Cambridge and doesn't appear to have served in the army at all.

I must still find out how and where he qualified.

I have no knowledge of Bristol but - if memory serves me - the building is still there.  (I did a google search of the address some time ago.)

Loo:

Thanks, but I live in South Africa. I could try the Wellcome Library, though - by email.

William
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: loo on Wednesday 10 October 07 08:43 BST (UK)
Yes, the Wellcome Library should work for you by email.  I am in Canada, and they replied to me by regular post, complete with photocopies, and more information than I really needed to know!  The physician I was inquiring about had attended a death of an ancestor, and shared his relatively unusual surname, but, because of the information they sent, I now know that the name was just a coincidence, and that they were not related.

Let us know how you make out.  I also have a dentist I want to inquire about, so I will be interested to hear how you get on.
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Wednesday 10 October 07 15:18 BST (UK)
Thanks, Loo

I have sent them an enquiry.  If and when I hear from them I will let you know.

William
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: loo on Wednesday 10 October 07 21:37 BST (UK)
Thanks!  Good luck.
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Sunday 18 November 07 10:13 GMT (UK)
I have received a reply from the Wellcome Library, by post.  "On this occasion", they write, "no charge will be made for the photocopies".

Enclosed were three extremely useful and interesting photostats from The Dentists' Register of 1923.

From them I learned that Starte was one of 6721 people registered as dentists under The Dentists Act of 1921 "without any additional qualifications."

He was registered on 11 July 1922.

Thanks to all who have journeyed with me on this one.

William
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: hepburn on Sunday 18 November 07 11:36 GMT (UK)
Nice one William.
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: loo on Sunday 18 November 07 21:52 GMT (UK)
Very interesting.  I'm glad you got a helpful response.
I wonder what "without any additional qualifs" means??  I wonder if it means that he was recognized as a dentist in some sort of "grandfather" clause rather than by having gone to a (more modern?) dental school.  Do you know what it means?  (I'm thinking I might get a similar response on the man I'm interested in.)

I think I'm going to write to them about my dentist.  I got the same response about "on this occasion".  I thought it might imply that you get one freebie from them.  So perhaps my husband will write the second query!
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: archer2 on Monday 19 November 07 14:52 GMT (UK)
The Dentists Act was passed in 1921.  It permitted unqualified dentists to register, provided they were over the age of 23 years, and that dentistry had been their principal means of livelihood in five out of the last seven years.

Leonard Charter Starte was registered under the new Act on 11 July 1922.  He was issued with certificate of registration no. 15075. The description and date of his qualification were given simply as “Dentist, 1921”. His address was again shown as “203, Wells Road, Knowle, Bristol.”

A subsequent debate in the Irish Free State parliament gave some background:

In "1921 steps were taken by the British Government to try and regularise the position in regard to persons practising dentistry, and that a register was then compiled of persons then termed “non-qualified,” or persons who had not got the necessary degrees and who had not passed an examination in a university or recognised college for dentistry.  Every person who could prove that for a number of years he had been engaged in the practice of dentistry was admitted to the register. Such persons were entitled, because of their qualifications through the practice of dentistry, although they had not the necessary degrees, to go on the register in 1921." (http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0010/S.0010.192803140006.html)

William
Title: Re: Dentist - Can anyone do a lookup?
Post by: loo on Friday 30 November 07 16:16 GMT (UK)
Thanks for the thorough explanation. 
My fellow had died by 1920, so I guess this wouldn't apply to him.