Who was Doctor Kelk?
Photo Scarborough recently acquired a carte de visite by the photographer Oliver Sarony. It is a portrait of older gentleman seated in the studio. The inscription on the reverse it is inscribed, “Dr Kelk, Scarboro.”
Doctor Kelk sat in the Photographic Studio of Oliver Sarony
So who was Dr Kelk?
Luckily Anne and Paul Bayliss had not only researched the photographers of Scarborough but had also done a bit of work on the physicians too. The research papers that they supplied us with was a good start to finding out about him.
Born in Brigg, Lincolnshire in 1798 John Kelk was to graduate from Leyden University in Holland in 1824 with a degree in Medicine. That year his dissertation on Syphilis was published, ‘Dissertatio de Syhilide.’ Exactly when he settled in Scarborough is uncertain, but he was definitely a resident of some standing by 1832, when following the passing of the Reform Bill he became a magistrate. During the 1830s he is living and practicing from two addresses on in Falsgrave Walk and the other in Without the Bar. By 1840 he settles a 1 Brunswick Place with his wife Arabella. Arabella was the daughter of Archdeacon Todd, Rev. Henry John Todd (1763-1845), Archdeacon of Cleveland who had been the Librarian at Lambeth Palace when Arabella was born in Woolwich in c.1805.
In 1841 Dr Kelk completed “The Scarborough Spa, its new chemical analysis and medical uses: to which is added on the, Utility of Bathing” published by Simpkin Marshall & Co, London and S. W. Theakston, Scarborough. The book was dedicated to his father in-law and ran to several editions.
He obviously loved Scarborough as he starts his book with –
“Every Person, who visits Scarborough for the first time, is charmed beyond measure with the beauty of its situation. As you approach from York, on descending the heights above Stepney, the noble ruins of the ancient Castle situated on a bold and lofty promontory, the pretty little town located in its beautiful bay, and the vast extent of the German Ocean, studded with its varied sails, suddenly burst upon you.
Indeed, on a beautiful sunny summer’s day, nothing can be more pleasing to the man of taste, nothing more cheering to the broken down spirits of the invalid, than this unique picture, which is, as it were, spread out before him at his feet.”
Kelk became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1860. If the inscription on his grave stone is to be believed he “gave advice to the poor of Scarborough and the whole of the neighbourhood gratis for more than 30 years”.
He died of “extensive heart disease” at home on the 3 May 1873 aged 75 and was buried at the cemetery of St Mary’s Church in Foxholes. His wife Arabella died on the 31 August 1895 ages 91 and was buried with him.
One wonders why his name and the place that he came from was written on the back of the carte de visite? Was the portrait intended for sale to the people of Scarborough and they need to be sure that it was him? Surely they would know? This may well be part of the craze for collecting carte de visites, but it is hard to understand who would be collecting a portrait of Dr Kelk.
The back of carte de visite by photographer Oliver Sarony of Dr Kelk.
References
Bayliss, Anne and Paul, research papers
Scarborough Gazette, 8 May 1873, Death of John Kelk M.D. (British Newspaper Archive)
Kelk, John, 1843, Second Edition, “The Scarborough Spa, its new chemical analysis and medical uses: to which is added on the, Utility of Bathing” Simpkin Marshall & Co, London and S. W. Theakston, Scarborough. https://archive.org/details/b21524890 (accessed 10 April 2025)
