18/06/2026
The current exhibition is all about the history of the heart of the town – the Market Place. We thought we would whet your appetite and share some snippets with you in our A-Z of the exhibition– lots more to discover in the exhibition so why not come and visit!
J is for Joseph Clover.
Joseph Thomas Clover was born in Aylsham in 1825. He was the nephew of Joseph Clover the artist responsible for three of the civic portraits in St Andrews Hall Norwich. His family lived in the property which stood where Aylsham Pharmacy is now. The family ran a draper’s shop.
Clover made enormous contributions to anaesthesia. He developed equipment - including the Portable Regulating Ether Inhaler (1873) which continued to be in general use in London hospitals until 1930 - which improved safety for patients. He became the first full time consulting anaesthetist in England. In 1848, he became the resident medical officer to University College Hospital, trained as a surgeon, and was responsible for the administration of anaesthesia.
His contribution is acknowledged by his inclusion in the crest of the Royal College of Anesthetists in Britain.
Because of his expertise in anaesthesia, Clover was often sought out when important figures required surgery. He gave chloroform to Napoleon III, the deposed French Emperor, on 2 January 1873, at Chislehurst, Kent, and again on 6 January, for a procedure to break up a bladder stone. The Emperor died on 9 January. Clover was a signatory to his autopsy report, together with five other physicians.
As the Resident Medical Officer, Joseph Clover had many duties, one of which was resuscitation of people brought into the emergency department. In his private papers is a description of the (unsuccessful) resuscitation of a patient who had been bitten on the face by a cobra - not a common occurrence in London in 1852!
Photographs courtesy of Aylsham Town Archive
