Author: Palmer, Shirley
Biography:
PALMER, Shirley (1786-1852: ODNB)
The son of Edward Palmer, solicitor, and his second wife Benedicta Mears, he was born at Coleshill, Warwickshire, on 27 Aug. 1786 and baptised there on 10 Feb. 1787. He was educated at Coleshill grammar school and at Harrow, then began his studies in medicine under a surgeon in Lichfield. It was at this stage in his career that he published his only known volume of verse, The Swiss Exile (1804), in Lichfield. CR was scornful of its literary merits but understood that the writer was a young man and predicted that in time Palmer might become “as chaste a versifier as he now seems to be a loyal subject.” Palmer gave up poetry but continued to write. He continued his studies under John Abernethy (1764-1831) in London, was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1807, and graduated MD from Glasgow in 1814. On 29 Sept. 1813 he married Marie Josephine Minette Brehault (1788-1868) at Cannock, Staffordshire. She was French by birth, and the adopted daughter of Rev. Michael Ward of Tamworth, Staffs. The couple settled in Tamworth, where Palmer established his medical practice, and had five children. He later established a second practice in Birmingham. His publications were primarily in medicine and popular science; he was also an active journalist as editor of the New Medical and Physical Journal (1815-19) and the London Medical Repository (1819-21), and a contributor to other periodicals. He died at Tamworth on 11 Nov. 1852 after “a very painful and protracted illness” and was buried on 16 Nov. in the churchyard of St. Editha’s, Tamworth. (ODNB 13 Aug. 2023; ancestry.com 13 Aug. 2023; findmypast.com 13 Aug. 2023; CR ser. 3 v. 9 [1807], 330-31; Birmingham Journal 13 Nov. 1852) HJ