Grangegorman Lives: Fleetwood Churchill

Fleetwood Churchill was educated in Dublin, Paris, and Scotland, graduating from Edinburgh University in 1831. Upon graduating, Churchill returned to Dublin to study midwifery, eventually becoming Dublin’s leading figure in obstetrical science. Churchill went on to lecture in midwifery at the Richmond Hospital’s School of Medicine before co-founding the Western Lying-in Hospital on Arran Quay with Robert D. Speedy. The hospital would prove extremely valuable to Dublin’s poor, serving roughly 100 patients annually. Churchill was known as a pioneer of sanitary reform, having founded the first Dublin Sanitary Association in 1850. Churchill retired in 1875 and passed away three years later at the age of 70.

Read more about Fleetwood Churchill’s life in our Dictionary of Irish Biography.(link is external)

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of people whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at www.dib.ie(link is external)

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Subscribe to our newsletter(link is external) to stay up to date with our activities.

Image credit: Portrait of Fleetwood Churchill (1808-1878), English physician, Thomas Alfred Jones, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons