Sir Frederick Bateman

Born in Norwich in 1824, he trained first at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, then continued his studies in Paris and at University College London. He later returned to Norwich, where he served for many years at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and built a reputation as a specialist in diseases of the brain.

He is best remembered for his writings on aphasia, especially On Aphasia, or Loss of Speech, a major 19th-century contribution to the study of language disorders and the brain. Contemporary sources also note that he was an accomplished French scholar, active in learned societies at home and abroad, and that his work received recognition from the Paris Academy of Medicine.

Bateman was knighted in 1892 and died in Norwich in 1904. Today he stands out as one of those physician-authors whose books capture both the medical debates of their age and the early development of modern neurology.