Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nunneley, Thomas

by D'Arcy Power

NUNNELEY, THOMAS (1809–1870), surgeon, born at Market Harborough in March 1809, was son of John Nunneley, a gentleman of property in Leicestershire, who claimed descent from a Shropshire family. He was educated privately, and was apprenticed to a medical man in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. He afterwards entered as a student at Guy's Hospital, where he became intimately acquainted with Sir Astley Paston Cooper [q. v.], and served as surgical dresser to Mr. Key. He was admitted a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries on 12 July 1832, in the same year obtained the membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and in 1843 he was elected a fellow honoris causâ. As soon as he had obtained his license to practise, he went to Paris to increase his professional knowledge. He applied unsuccessfully for the office of house-surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary on his return to England; but finding that an opportunity for practice offered itself in the town, he settled there, and was soon afterwards appointed surgeon to the Eye and Ear Hospital, a post he occupied for twenty years with eminent success. In the Leeds school of medicine he lectured on anatomy and physiology, and later on surgery, until 1866. He was appointed surgeon to the Leeds General Infirmary in 1864. For some years he was an active member of the Leeds town council. He died on 1 June 1870.

Nunneley was a surgeon who operated with equal ability, judgment, and skill, and is further remarkable as being one of the earliest surgeons outside London to devote himself to the special study of ophthalmic surgery in its scientific aspects. He was clear, vigorous, and logical as a writer, and of decisive character. These qualities made him a valuable professional witness in favour of William Palmer (1825–1856) [q. v.], who was convicted of poisoning J. P. Cook by strychnia in 1856, and against William Dove, who poisoned his wife with the same drug in the course of that same year.

Nunneley's chief work was ‘The Organs of Vision, their Anatomy and Physiology,’ London, 1858, 8vo. The book at the time it was published was of great value, but its sale was spoilt by adverse criticism in professional journals, which appears to have been due to personal animosity. Nunneley also published:

1. ‘An Essay on Erysipelas,’ published in 1831, and reissued in 1841.
2. ‘Anatomical Tables,’ London, 1838, 12mo.
3. ‘On Anæsthesia and Anæsthetic Substances generally,’ Worcester, 1849, 8vo.

His portrait appears in ‘Photographs of eminent Medical Men,’ London, 1867, ii. 33.

[Obituary notice by Dr. George Burrows, the president, in the Proceedings of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, vi. 354; Medical Times and Gazette, 1870, i. 648; information from Dr. J. A. Nunneley.]

D’A. P.