21/10/2026
In October 1932, Malton was in the midst of a typhoid epidemic that sealed off the town for three months.
Dr George Colley Parkin became a local hero during the outbreak, and people still remember his courageous efforts today. After moving to Malton in 1928, he became a partner with Dr. Walker, taking on roles including Assistant Medical Officer of Health and surgeon at Malton District Hospital. He played a crucial role in the care and treatment of Malton’s typhoid patients, assisting Dr. Walker with the first identified case in the workhouse.
Three weeks into the epidemic, Dr. Parkin collapsed at work and was admitted to hospital having contracted the disease he had been working so hard to combat. He became the 20th victim when he died at the beginning of December 1932.
Primary source material displays the impact of the young doctor, who was ‘a friend of everyone in the town’ with ‘almost all the seating accommodation occupied’ at his funeral in St. Michael’s Church and ‘for an hour after the coffin was lowered, the people of Malton filed with bowed heads past the open grave.’
If you want to learn more about Malton and Norton’s medicinal history, visit us before we close at the end of October to view the ‘Monks, Merchants, and Medicine’ exhibition, which features a model of a Victorian Dispensary, other key figures in the local medical field, and equipment courtesy of the Woodhams-Stone Collection.
