Dr John Leake, man-midwife, was buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey on 16th August 1792 aged 65. He has no monument or inscribed gravestone. The Abbey burial book says he was:
...buried by the Reverend Mr Bennett in a lead coffin...opposite Chamber's monument, five feet from the church walls and three feet two inches under the stone.
He was born on 8th June 1729 in Cumberland, son of the Reverend William Leake. Apprenticed to a surgeon in London he later travelled abroad and then was licensed to practice in London in 1766. He taught midwifery and was regarded as the founder of the Westminster Lying-In Hospital (for women and single mothers). Also a writer, his many books include Introduction to the theory and practice of midwifery. His brother William was a surgeon at St Philip's in Minorca. He died at his house in Parliament Street.
Further reading
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Dr John Leake's Hospital...a history...1765-1971 by P. Rhodes, 1977
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