Dr Norman Gladstone Douglas (23rd June 1865 - 2nd
February 1898), a ‘Physician /Surgeon’, was the youngest son of Louisa
and Scottish born ‘Draper’ Hugh Douglas.
Born at Monks Coppenhall,
Cheshire on the 23rd of June 1865, married Mary Caroline Clegg [born
Oldham 1863] at Stockport during 1890 the couple had eventually moved to
Edinburgh where Norman Douglas had studied medicine. Residing in
Edinburgh at No5 St. Clair Terrace by 1891, Norman had shortly qualified
as a Doctor of Medicine, and by 1892 had arrived in Scarborough where on
the 5th of March a daughter Marjorie Kilmour Douglas had been born.
Sadly, Marjorie had died on the 27th of August during the following
year. Two years later, on the 29th of January 1895 the Douglas’s eldest
son, Norman Sholto Douglas had been born at No.6 Westfield Terrace,
Scarborough.
A second son, Bryce Douglas, a Lieutenant in the
Indian army, was born in Scarborough on Sunday the 2nd of January 1898
at No.6 Westfield Terrace [a long vanished row of houses that had once
stood where the town’s Odeon Cinema and latterly the Stephen Joseph
Theatre is now located], was killed in Palestine in 1917.
Soon
after Bryce’s arrival, during Wednesday the 2nd of February 1898 his
father had taken his own life by shooting himself in the mouth with a
Colt revolver, the bullet passing out of the back of the Doctor’s head
taking a part of his skull with it. Killed almost instantaneously, A
subsequent inquest had concluded that the thirty-two years of age Doctor
Douglas had ‘committed suicide whilst temporarily insane’ in the family
home at No. Westfield Terrace. The death of Dr. Douglas had caused a
sensation in the town and amongst the local press, ‘The Scarborough
Mercury of Friday the 4th of February 1898 having included a large
article; which had begun;
‘We regret to record the death of Dr.
Douglas, a well known member of the medical profession of Scarborough,
which occurred under particularly tragic circumstances yesterday at his
residence at No.6 Westfield Terrace, opposite the Railway Station, in
Westborough. Dr. Douglas had not been in the best of health lately,
suffering very much from nervousness, and within the last day or two had
consulted at least two of his professional brethren as to the state of
his health, who had advised that he was evidently run down from
overwork, and to leave business cares alone for a time and go on
holiday. He had reluctantly consented to do so, and had in fact made
arrangements for his departure. Unfortunately, at the last moment, Dr.
Douglas seems to have changed his plans and decided to remain at his
duties meantime…the deceased was so genuine hearted and so hail- fellow-
well met in his manner that his tragic death has been the one topic of
conversation in Scarborough and the neighbourhood. Everywhere he was a
great social favourite. He was also a keen huntsman and had owned some
exceptionally fine horses, and hunted regularly in the
district’…Following the death of her husband Mary Douglas and her two
sons had resided for a time in Scarborough’s South Cliff area at No.26
Prince of Wales Terrace, however, by the star of the Great War the
family had been residing at the ‘Manor House’, Whitkirk, Leeds.
Norman Douglas’s name can be found on a grave marker located in section
South Terrace/Grave 14 of Manor Road Cemetery that contains the name of
his daughter Marjory Kilmours Douglas, whose remains, according to the
inscription on the now weathered stone, had been interred in Scalby
Churchyard shortly after her death in 1893, and also the name of his
son, Bryce, killed in Palestine.
Having never remarried Mary
Caroline Douglas had eventually passed away at the age of sixty-nine
years on Friday the 27th of May 1932 and her funeral had subsequently
taken place in Scarborough on the last day of May.
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