The Surrey Mirror of 31 August 1928 published the story of a former surgeon of Reigate who had honed his anatomy skills on the corpses of local criminals. No dates are given but it has echoes of the Resurrection Men, the illicit body snatchers who sold fresh corpses to anatomy teachers. Operating in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they deeply terrified the public, sparking local legends that blended grim reality with folklore.
‘Mr Vaix. surgeon at Reigate, rented a part of the house in Reigate Castle for dissecting rooms. A dog got into the house night and carried one of the legs of a man he had dissected. It being the time when the Assize was held Reigate, a man had been hanged and buried under the gallows on Reigate Common. The doctor hired two men to go by night to dig him up and cut off one of his legs to replace that which the dog had carried away. The names of the two men were Jeremy Holmes and Jasper Leoney. Jasper was to stand at the top of the steps at a mill door, which was just by the gallows, with dark lantern to watch, while Jeremy was cutting off the leg. A cat in the mill came through a hole in the mill door, caught hold of Jasper’s leg, frightening him. He ran down the mill steps to Jerry and said, ‘Leave off, Jerry, for the devil or something came and laid hold of my leg.’ Jerry said he did not care for the devil or anything, a leg he came for and leg would have, will, say, I will.’
Surprisingly, there may be some truth to the story.
The Surgeon: Dr George Vaux, (1721-1803) was a local surgeon from a prominent Quaker family in Reigate. He occupied premises in the Market Place, practising as an apothecary in a building that later became known as Oram's chemist.
The Location: It would have been quite exceptional for a provincial surgeon to maintain facilities for dissection in a town like Reigate. However, Dr Vaux does indeed appear to have had a dissecting room. It was thought to be in a house then standing in the ruined castle grounds, (though some claim it was in a dry underground chamber beneath the castle). The bodies of criminals were lawfully used for dissection by surgeons.
Variations of this exact legend were told about anatomy students in Edinburgh, London, and Dublin. In short, setting aside the authentic local detail, these elements of this story give it away. It is undoubtedly a piece of fiction, a comedic cautionary tale marrying a popular urban legend with authentic local details.
While the story of the Reigate castle anatomist was much exaggerated, the body snatchers really did come to Reigate. Read about them in The Reigate Body Snatchers.
The Surrey Mirror of 31 August 1928
Reigate, Its story through the Ages, Wilfred Hooper, (1945)
Image: A nightwatchman disturbs a body-snatcher who has dropped the stolen corpse he had been carrying in a hamper, while the anatomist runs away. Etching with engraving by W. Austin, 1773. Source: Wellcome Collection.