Dr Robert Hitchings and Headington
Charles George Henry Hitchings
Robert Hitchings
Robert Hitchings was Headington’s main doctor from the 1880s until his retirement in 1930. He came from a family of doctors with humble beginnings:
- His great-great-grandfather, John Hitchings, was an Oxford tanner
- His great-grandfather, Edward Hitchings, was a tailor who was Mayor of Oxford during a royal visit and was knighted
- His grandfather, George Hitchings, was surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary.
- His father, George Charles Henry Hitchings, was a doctor who practised from 37 Holywell Street. Kelly’s 1890 directory lists him as the Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for Headington and Wheatley and the medical officer for the workhouse.
After qualifying as a surgeon at the University of Edinburgh, Robert Hitchings initially worked with his father from his Holywell Street practice, riding up to Headington on the horses he kept at the Randolph Hotel. In 1893 he moved up to Hill View, a brand-new house in Windmill Road, and in that year he founded Headington Football Club (which eventually became Oxford United). He was helped by the Vicar of St Andrew’s Church in his plan to keep Headington boys out of mischief, and the parish magazine for November 1893 reads:
The cricket season being over, Mr Hitchings, with his customary energy and zeal for the young men of the parish, has inaugurated a football club.
Dr Hitchings took part in the early games himself, scoring a goal on 13 January 1894 when the Headington team beat Victoria.
In 1908 Dr Hitchings built a house on the London Road (on the western corner of the present Kennett Road). Directories list it as "The Cottage, London Road", but in fact it was a large house with an extensive garden, as the map on the left shows: the tennis court stretched down as far as the present Peacock’s, and there were stables behind where the parking area for the shops is now. Also at the back were a waiting room, three surgery rooms, and a dispensary.
Alec Hansford looked after the garden and horses, acted as chauffeur, and also delivered medicines to patients on foot. Dr Hitchings initially used a bicycle (which was well known for its striped saddle cover) as well as a horse, but in 1907 got his first car, a Darracq. His practice also covered Cowley, where he had arrangements to hold a surgery at 45 (then 18) Temple Road: he was the only GP in Cowley until 1922.
Dr Hitchings' first car was a Darracq. It is shown right in about 1907 and left, with his grandson Michael Swann, in about 1926, looking down what is now Kennett Road (which then petered out into a narrow lane with no houses)
As well as encouraging local football, Robert Hitchings wrote and produced plays for the Headington Drama Club, and his hobby was woodwork. During the depression his wife used to deliver coal to local people.
Dr Charles McCay joined Dr Hitchings in 1922, Dr Terry in 1925, and Dr Arnott in 1930, the year that Dr Hitchings retired to a house in Abberbury Road in Iffley (although he went on being vaccinator for Headington until 1938). Dr Arnott bought his former house, and continued the practice with Drs McCay and Firth, with Drs Anderson, Campbell, and Wells joining later. When the NHS started in 1948, the practice opened a surgery in the Manor Buildings, upstairs over Gardiner’s optician on the corner of Osler Road, and this Manor Surgery is now in the grounds of the John Radcliffe Hospital.
Much of this information was supplied by Jill McCay (daughter of Dr Hitchings' partner in practice Dr Charles McKay) and Michael Swann, the son of Dr Robert Hitchings' only daughter May.