Sir James Manby Gully
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Object numberPR4615
TitleSir James Manby Gully
CreatorSpy (Artist), Vanity Fair (Publisher)
DescriptionLithograph of James Manby Gully ('Men of the Day. No. 133.') by "Spy" (Sir Leslie Ward), published in Vanity Fair 1876.
Gully was a Victorian medical doctor, well known for practising hydrotherapy, or the "water cure". Along with his partner James Wilson he founded a very successful "hydropathy" clinic in Malvern, Worcestershire, which had many notable figures as clients, including Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Gully's clinic used Malvern water in Great Malvern. This along with the other clinics that followed was an important part of Malvern's rapid development from a village into a large town.
Gully is also remembered as a suspect in the Charles Bravo Murder, an unresolved case of antimony poisoning that resulted the death of lawyer Bravo. Gully was a suspect due to his connection with Bravo's wife, Florence, with whom he had had an extramarital affair. Florence broke off the affair when she married Charles in 1875, 4 months before his murder.
James Gully's father Daniel Gully was a coffee planter. When slavery was abolished in 1834, compensation was awarded to previous owners of enslaved people. Gully received £286 17s 4d in compensation from the Middleton estate in St George, Jamaica, a third of the total compensation awarded for that estate.
Persons keywordGully, Sir James Manby
Object namePrint
Object categorySatire and cartoon
MaterialPaper