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NamesDavid Watt Torrance, son of Dr Thomas Torrance of Airdrie, was educated at Glasgow University, graduating MB in 1883. Despite being offered a post at Glasgow Infirmary he travelled to Palestine and assisted in the inauguration of the Sea of Galilee Medical Mission. Following further training in Egypt, Damascus and Nazareth he returned in 1885 to Tiberias and opened the first hospital for those of any race or religion in two rooms near the Franciscan monastery. A move to Beit abu Shamnel abu Hannah preceded the opening of a new hospital with 24 beds and 6 cots in 1894.
DW Torrance was ordained in the Free Church of Scotland in 1895. During World War I (1914-1918), Dr Torrance served as resident officer in charge of Oakbank War Hospital in the west of Scotland. Dr Torrance married three times and had a large family. He died in Tiberias on 26 August, 1923.
His son, Herbert Watt Torrance, was educated at Glasgow University, graduating MB in 1916. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, served in France and Serbia and was awarded the Military Cross. After demobilisation he returned to Glasgow University as demonstrator and lecturer and to study for the FRCS. In 1921 he was awarded the degree of MD and went to Tiberias where in 1923 he became superintendent of the hospital.
HW Torrance was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. For services rendered during the British Mandate in Palestine he was awarded the OBE. He married twice and had two daughters. Dr H.W. Torrance retired to Dundee in 1953 and died in 1977.
Following the declaration of the State of Israel, in 1949 the mission hospital became a maternity hospital responsible for midwifery and gynaecology in Northern Galilee under the Israeli Department of Health. In 1959 the hospital closed but a hospice for travellers was established in the buildings and a resident minister and bookshop continue the work of mission in Tiberias.
Photography was an abiding interest for Herbert Watt Torrance. The collection provides a record of the main period of the British Mandate, the increasing rate of Jewish immigration and the impact of the State of Israel on the landscape. It also contains many photographs of medical conditions which subsequently have been eradicated. Dr Torrance's interest in flowers, animals and archaeology is well represented and many photographs show examples of the "biblical situations" popular with photographers.
- Person
- 1928-2011
In 1983 he set up his own electrical wholesale business, TC Components based in Carnoustie. Though the business was successful they decided to wind it up in 1988 and Tom elected to lend his business experience to David Bottoms in his Ironmongery shop in Peter Street. Tom finally retired around 1996 to spend more time with his wife Ella who had by this time fallen into ill health; she died three years later.
His intense interest in the Dundee and Newtyle Railway started around 2005 following a family discussion. His research gathered momentum and on one occasion he was told by one particular expert around 2009 that, having pieced together so many previously unconnected strands of the story, he was probably by now the foremost authority on the subject. Tom felt strongly that the Dundee and Newtyle Railway was not afforded its proper place in history and that it was ahead of its time in many ways, preceding less innovative but more heralded developments in other parts of the country. He was also keen to highlight the qualities of Charles Landale whom he thought had not been appropriately recognised for his achievements.
The intended outcome of Tom's research was to have been twofold: a book chronicling the history of the railway from conception to demise, detailing Landale's role in particular; and a DVD featuring dramatization of some of the key events during the life of the railway. Due to begin filming some key sequences in the summer of 2011 he tragically passed away suddenly and unexpectedly shortly before this. The research notes are handwritten transcriptions of documents held in a variety of repositories, mainly the University of Dundee Archive Services, Dundee City Archives, Dundee Central Library and the National Archives of Scotland.
- Family
- 1720-1911
Their son, William Thornton, was in business with the Sandeman family and he married Sibella Ann Sandeman in 1833. In 1855, they emigrated to Australia, settling in Ipswich, Queensland. William Thornton died there in 1878, and Sibella moved to Inverell, New South Wales where she died in 1888. Her youngest child, Mary Sandeman Thornton also died there in 1911.