Edmund Augustine Bevers
Mayor of Oxford 1903/4 and 1908/9
Edmund Augustine Bevers (1849–1921) was born in 1849 at Cowley House (now the Hall building of St Hilda’s College). His father (also called Edmund Bevers) had moved there in 1842, taking over the dental practice of W. Lukyn.
The family moved to 46 Broad Street in August 1849, and Bevers is listed there in the 1851 census as a child of two, along with his older sister Winifred (3). His mother had just died, probably in childbirth, as his father is described as a widower, and there is a new six-week-old baby, Harcourt Augustine. His father later married again and Bevers had three step-siblings.
Bevers was educated at Christ Church School, Oxford, and went on to Guy’s Hospital, where he won the gold medal in Anatomy. He served as a dresser in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1. He became a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1872 and a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1873.
In 1873 he commenced medical practice in Oxford, and in 1874 he married Helen, the daughter of Dr Wood, a surgeon of Trinity Square, London. He found that there was a better opening in dentistry than surgery, and went into partnership at 46 Broad Street with his father Edmund.; the latter died on 14 February 1880.
Edmund Augustine Bevers was the very first person to register a motor car in Oxford. At the time of the 1881 census he was 31, and described as "surgeon & dentist MRCS LSA". He was living at his home at Allandale, 117 (then 67) Woodstock Road, with his wife Helen (28), his son Edmund C. Bevers (5) and his two daughters Maud (4) and Violet (3). The family later moved to Woodhouse in Iffley, and finally to 70 Woodstock Road.
Bevers kept on his father's old house at 46 Broad Street as his surgery until his retirement in 1919.
In 1886 Bevers was elected Dental Surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary, a post he held until 1920, and in 1889 his younger brother Harcourt joined him in the Broad Street practice.
Bevers was elected to the City Council as Conservative representative for Central Ward in 1883, and served until 1889.
In 1889 the Council was reconstituted, with the disappearance of the Central Ward. Nine new councillors were elected from each of the four new wards. Bevers stood for the West Ward, but with 631 votes only managed to come eleventh. In 1890, however, Bevers stood again for North Ward, and was returned unopposed. In 1902 he was elected Sheriff of Oxford, and in 1903 and 1908 Mayor.
The arms of Bevers (left) were added to the wall of the Lord Mayor’s Parlour when he served as Chief Magistrate.
In 1910 Bevers presented a painting to the City which now hangs in the Assembly Room. It is from an original by Guido Reni and shows Salome with the head of John the Baptist.
In 1911 Bevers was defeated again in an election, but in 1912 he returned to the council, and was elected an Alderman in 1918. He served on five important council committees until his death: Property & Estates (Chairman 1908–11 and from 1916); Watch (Vice-Chairman from 1916); Public Health (Vice-Chairman from 1914); Parliamentary; and Farm. He was also a member of the War Memorial Committee, the Visiting Committee of the Littlemore Asylum, and Chairman of the Charity Trustees and Governors of the Boys' High School. He was also a Justice of the Peace.
Bevers retired from dentistry in 1919 when he was 70. He died in his sleep at home at 70 Woodstock Road on the night of 27 December 1921 at the age of 72: his death was quite unexpected, and the day before he had gone out shooting. His funeral was held at SS Philip & James Church on 31 December, and family mourners included his wife, his only son Edmund Cecil Bevers, his two daughters (Mrs James and Mrs Penfold) and his three unmarried sisters (Winifred, Isabel, and Dora). The Mayor (with the mace-bearer carrying the mace draped in black), the Sheriff of Oxford, the Provost of Worcester, the Chief Constable, and the Member of Parliament for Oxford also attended. Bevers was buried at Wolvercote Cemetery.
His son Edmund Cecil Bevers (1876–1962) also took up Medicine and was elected consulting surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1915.
See also:
- A.G. Gibson, The Radcliffe Infirmary (Oxford, 1926). pp. 192–3
- Oxford Chronicle, 30 December 1921, p. 16d (obituary)
- Oxford Journal Illustrated, 4 January 1922, pp. 8cd (report of his funeral) and 9 (photographs of Bevers in his mayoral robes, and of his coffin being carried to church by the City Police)
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Mary Magdalen), 1728/559
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Giles), 1499/99