RCSI Heritage Collections

With the arrival of the sunny weather, the growth in strawberry consumption and tennis racquets at the ready for Wimbledon next week, it is time to crack the Pimm's open. But how do all these elements relate to RCSI you ask? Through the man below, Dr. Joshua Pim. Dr. Joshua Pim with the Wimbledon Singles trophy Dr. Joshua Pim was not only a descendent of James Tee Pimm , the celebrated creator of the drink Pimm's , but also a holder of the Singles and Doubles Irish Championships and Wimbledon titles in 1893 and 1894. Pim burst onto the tennis scene with his first major win at the tender age of 21. Pim along with his partner Frank Stoker (a relative of the author Bram Stoker and the RCSI surgeon William Thornley Stoker ) won both the English and Irish doubles championship in 1890. But he had been playing since the age of eleven and was coached at the Lansdowne Lawn Tennis Club by the great Irish player Thomas Burke. At this time the Irish Championships was one of the mo...

As many of you may have seen while walking around the city last weekend, a number of buildings were lit up red in honour of Bram Stoker. The people at the Bram Stoker Festival, which ran from the 26th to 28th October 2013, wanted to highlight the many buildings that had some connection to Bram, his family and his writings. The College was lit a beautiful shade of red in reference to Bram's most famous literary work Dracula.  123 Stephens Green light up in honour of Bram Stoker Bram's brother, William Thornley Stoker was a graduate of the RCSI and become President in 1894-1896. A detailed account of his life can be found on the Royal College of Physicians recent blog post http://rcpilibrary.blogspot.ie/2013/10/real-and-imaginary-medics-in-life-of.html Having such a skilled and prominent surgeon as a brother it is easy to see how Bram could have drawn inspiration from Thornley for his writings. But Bram's other brother's could also have fed his creative mind. ...