SOUTHWOLD LIBEL CASE 1909

In 1907, just two doctors, Richard Wilson Mullock (Known as Wilson Mullock) and Basil Hubert Howard Tripp, amicably share the care of the Southwold Community, Dr Tripp having bought out his previous partner, Dr Alfred WC Herbert. However, in March this year, the balance of power is shaken by the arrival in town of an elderly Dr D T McLeod who has bought Dr Herbert's old house and put his own brass plate up!

Drs Mullock and Tripp are only partly reassured when interloper McLeod breezily tells them that they needn't worry; he's really in town for the good of his health and only wants a few patients of his own to keep his hand in. Moreover, he says, if any established patients of Drs M and T do approach him he will be sure to let the incumbents know.

In the months that follow, however, according to Dr Mulloch's allegedly libellous claims, not only does Dr McLeod start actively attending the patients of Drs M and T, but has the effrontery to try and get one of them into the Cottage Hospital under his care and beneath the very nose of its Medical Officer, Dr Mullock himself. Worse, McLeod's wife appears to be touting for business on his behalf among the patients of the two incumbents, telling them that he is much more experienced than they!

By the 7th May 1908, things have become so insufferable that Dr Mullock reports the matter to the Medical Defence Union who advises him to contact the senior practitioner of the area, Dr Wilson Tyson of Lowestoft. This he does, outlining the entire sequence of events in detail and asking for Dr Tyson's advice on how to proceed.

We are not sure if, or how, Dr Tyson does advise but what he does is to confront Dr McLeod with the complaints made against him and to offer him the arbitration services of the British Medical Association if he wishes to put his side of the issue. Unmollified, Dr McLeod responds by totally refuting the charges made against him and demanding a formal apology from Drs Tripp and Mullock. None is forthcoming so McLeod instigates a libel action against them.

'McLeod v Mullock & Tripp' becomes a celebrated jury case from which the plaintiff, McLeod, emerges triumphant with damages awarded against Drs Mullock and Tripp of £300.

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Dr Mullock's great granddaughter, Claire Wrathall, heard the story of the trial for the first time from her grandfather, Denis Mullock, just before his death in 1996. He had been born at Wymering House a few years before the trial in 1905 life but had never spoken about his father's ordeal until nearly 90 years later..

Claire writes: "It must have been quite a trial, what with the celebrated F E Smith (later Lord Chancellor, Earl of Birkenhead etc) as the prosecuting barrister. And the Mullocks faced ruin, or at least the prospect of selling up. On top of the £300 damages there would have been legal costs with the total liabilities being the equivalent of well in excess of £30,000 in today's money.

"In the version of the story that my grandfather told us, word of the outcome of the trial had reached Southwold before Dr Mullock and his wife, Kathleen, returned from Ipswich by train. As the train pulled into Southwold Station, they saw that a large group of people on the platform - well-wishers - had gathered to welcome them home and to tell them that the townspeople had decided they would club together to raise whatever was needed.

"Perhaps it was this spontaneous outpouring of community support that persuaded the local members of the British Medical Association to pin their own colours to the mast. On 6th February 1909 the BMA announced that a fund had been set up to help the two doctors "defray the heavy expenses which they have incurred" in defending the action. The British Medical Journal of that month published a list of contributors to the fund, incuding doctors from all over East Suffolk and several from London indicating that more than £50 had already been banked.

" Dr McLeod left Southwold within the year.

"I can't be sure that this is exactly what happened, given that my grandfather was not actually born at the time, but he was not one to embroider stories and I hope it is all true! Certainly, Dr Mullock would seem to have been greatly loved in Southwold and, when he died in 1928, all the shops closed for his funeral as a mark of respect."

"My grandfather, Denis, was not a doctor - he spend much of his career with Shell in India - but he returned to Southwold to retire in 1964 and became very involved in the management of Southwold Hospital which he knew to have been very close to his father's heart. .He became chairman of the Geriatric Hospitals Committee and campaigned trelessly against threats of closure."