John Oliver Pearce Edgcumbe (1920 – 18 October 2001) was a British medical practitioner who became Devon's first consultant haematologist. He was a collateral descendant of the painter Joshua Reynolds and co-edited, with John Ingamells, a new edition of the letters of Sir Joshua, the first for over 70 years.
Early life and family John Edgcumbe was born in Teignmouth in 1920, a collateral descendant of Joshua Reynolds.From a book-loving family. The Christian Science Monitor, 22 October 1984. Retrieved 20 March 2016. He married Teryll ) Thomas and they had a son and a daughter.John Oliver Pearce Edgcumbe. thebmj. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
Career Edgcumbe qualified in medicine from Cambridge/The London Hospital in 1946. He received his MD in 1952. He originally leaned towards neurology and won the Queen Square Prize for Neurology in 1954, but decided to specialise instead in haematology and became Devon's first consultant haematologist. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, president of the British Society for Haematology 19721973 and president of the Devon and Exeter Medical Society in 19811982.
Joshua Reynolds The idea for a new edition of the letters of Joshua Reynolds had been raised in the 1980s when Brian Allen and John Edgcumbe found that they were independently collecting new material and decided to collaborate.John Ingamells & John Edgcumbe (Eds.) The letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000. p. xi. After he retired, Edgcumbe held a visiting fellowship at the Yale Center for British Art in order to complete the work. The book was eventually published by Yale University Press in 2000, jointly edited by Edgcumbe and John Ingamells. In their review of the work, The Times noted that the quantity of known letters from Reynolds had swollen by almost two-thirds since the last collected edition by Frederick W. Hilles in 1929, but lamented Reynolds uninspired prose style."Letters from the art.", Ian McIntyre, The Times, 21 February 2001, p. 14[S]. Records relating to the editing of the book are held at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University.John Edgcumbe. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
Edgcumbe was a member of the Reynolds Society and the Johnson Club.
Death Edgcumbe died on 18 October 2001 at his home after suffering from prostate cancer. He was survived by his wife (died 2009) and two children.The Times, 25 October 2001, p. 24.
Publications The letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000. (Editor with John Ingamells)
References