Friends of Hastings Cemetery


Dr Arthur Henry Headley Huckle, p.3

JAN. 26, 1929 OBITUARY.BMJ, p.181

Dr. ARTHUR HENRY HEADLEY HUCKLE, who died suddenly on January 13th, after a long period of ill health, was well known and deeply respected in East Sussex, where he had been in practice in Hastings for many years.  Born in Australia in 1870, he came to Egland at an early age, and was educated at Dulwich College, pursuing his medical studies subsequently at Guy's Hospital.  In 189O he obtained the diplomas Rs M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Lond., and L.S.A., having, a year before, qualified as a Licentiate in Dental Surgery in the Royal College of Surgeons.


Later he was called to the Bar as a member of the Middle Temple, and in 1910 he obtained the D.P.H. of the English Royal Colleges.  In Hastings Dr. Huckle built up an extensive practice, and held a number of public and other appointments, the nature of which will serve to indicate the wide range of his interests.


He was consulting physician. to the Hastings Union Infirmary, medical superintendent of the Hastings Borough Sanatorium, honorary pathologist and honorary dermatologist to the East Sussex Hospital, and Medical officer to the Hastings and East Sussex Venereal Disease Clinic.  He was also a member of the British Medical Association and of the East Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society.


Among outside affairs Freemasonry was perhaps his chief interest.  He was a justice of the peace.  We are indebted to Dr. William Glover for the following tribute: The sudden death of Arthur Headley Huckle has come as a personal grief to many of his colleagues, in whose affections and esteem he held a high place. He

had been in poor health for some months, but the end came unexpectedly.  Huckle was a man of very wide knowledge.  He had qualified in dentistry and had been called to the Bar, while years of general -practice, illuminated by constant study, had given him a vast experience, which he placed at the disposal of his friends in a spirit of humility and self-effacement that was entirely characteristic.

Of late years he had somewhat contracted the sphere of his activities, and devoted himself mainly to pathology, fevers, and venereal disease.  In the laboratory he was a pioneer, for ever trying out some new line of treatment or fresh method of diagnosis, with all the enthusiasm of youth.  His work in the sanatorium was on the same plane.  His treatment of fevers always gave confidence to brother practitioners and to patients alike, and they knew that any fresh discovery in medicine would be immediately available.

If Huckle- could not save a case no one else could have done so.  It was perhaps in the venereal diseases clinic, where the qualities of a gentleman are most required, that he seemed particularly to shine, and where his sympathetic understanding, kindly tact, and vast knowledge of 'medicine had their widest scope.  It would hardly appear possible to fill the gap he has left. http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2449924/pdf/brmedj07632-0045c.pd

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