Archive Biographies

John Dixon-Payne was President of the Incorporated Society of Chiropodists from 1922-1925. He was particularly active in the Pedic Clinic and had been editor of the journal.

His wife was also a chiropodist and was the third generation of female chiropodists. She was a member of the Council in the later 1920s and early 1930s and was active in the school committees.

John Horace Hanby was born in Leeds in 1892. He attended the School of Chiropody at the London Foot Hospital and qualifed in 1920. The 1921 census listed him working at Harrods as a chiropodist. In 1935 he was appointed chiropodist to Guy's Hospital. He was also twice superintendent of the London Foot Hospital.

His Presidency of the Incorporated Society began in 1935 and he was the first President of the Society of Chiropodists which was formed in 1945.

In 1949 he co-authored the seminal text Principles of Chiropody with H E Walker.

He was awarded an OBE in 1963 and died in 1971.

Miss Catherine Norrie and Mrs Margaret Swanson were sisters who were founding members of the first Society of Chiropodists in this country. In 1924 the two sisters founded the Edinburgh Foot Clinic as a charitable institution for the free treatment of necessitous patients. The overwhelming demand for treatment uncovered by the new Clinic led shortly to its expansion into a School of Chiropody with the collaboration of prominent members of the University medical school and the Royal Colleges. Both sisters played dominant roles in the formulation and teaching of the curriculum, the first in the country to be planned over two academic years. 

For many years thereafter, Mrs Swanson took a leading part in the administration and teaching. On her retirement from active teaching in 1945, she devoted part of her inexhaustible energy to the preparation of a Textbook of Chiropody which was published in 1948 and was followed by a second edition in 1954.

For Miss Norrie, she probably did more than anyone over many years to rally medical opinion to recognise the profession and she won considerable respect from the Royal Colleges both north and south of the border and from the British Medical Association (BMA). The subsequent recognition of chiropody/podiatry by the BMA and the agreement of the English Royal Colleges to approve the medical examiners for examinations owed a great deal to her personal efforts.

Fanny Potter is a name that should figure prominently in the history of podiatry. Not only was she the mother of one of the founders of the Society, Ernest Runting, but she was also a renowned and respected podiatrist in her own right. In fact, she was at the very height of her profession during the mid-nineteenth century, a podiatrist to nobility and royalty; and this included Queen Victoria.

The College’s archives have a collection of personal papers from the Runting family which include Fanny Potter’s 1849 Diary, photographs, as well as facsimiles of pages from her account books.

It is clear that Miss Potter/Mrs Runting's achievements in the field of podiatry were remarkable, particularly as other contemporary accounts show that podiatrists were not always held in great esteem. In fact, even Dickens lampooned the profession with his creation of Miss Mowcher in “David Copperfield.” Fanny’s success is perhaps even more remarkable as it took place during a time when women had few rights and hardly any were able to work in a professional capacity.  

Her legacy was indeed considerable as Miss Potter/Mrs Runting also founded a dynasty, having trained both her sons in the profession; and this ultimately led to the founding of the College.

William Henry Taylor (standing in a dinner jacket) was born in South Norwood, Surrey. In 1925 he became both editor of The Chiropodist and then elected President of the Incorporated Society. In 1928 he was inaugurated into the Post Curam Otium Lodge.

His Presidency ended in 1930 and in 1935 he resigned from Council. He married Miss G Batchelor in 1940 and passed away in 1956.

At the Annual Dinner in 1928, Norman C Lake gave a toast to Taylor saying:

During the three years that Mr Taylor had been in office the most important changes had been the extension of the training period of students from six months to a year; certainly a change for the better. Further Mr Taylor had shown great interest in promoting the work of the various branches, especially those of Edinburgh and Liverpool.

He had also expended a great amount of energy in endeavouring to raise the general status of members of the profession; while during his term of office the Hospital had been transferred from the control of the Society to that of a lay committee, thus placing itself on a par with most of the other great London hospitals.

Then, there had been changes in the Articles of Association of the Society which had an important bearing upon the future, as well as re-organisation of the whole procedure of examinations which was also very badly needed.

When one realised that Mr Taylor had had to neglect his practice in order to spend a great deal of time at the Foot Hospital in Charlotte Street; that he not only attended to his official presidential duties, but that he actually worked as an ordinary clinician in the clinic, then no praise could be too much.

In addition, Mr Lake reminded those present that never before in the history of the Society had its relationships with his own profession been upon such friendly terms.

During Mr Taylor's year of office, the first provincial convention had been held at Manchester, followed by a second one at Leeds.

One heard a great deal about strong silent men. That conjured up in his mind the picture of a dumb man manipulating a dumb-bell. Mr Taylor was not of that type. He was rather a man of quiet efficiency, and he had proved during his term of office that it was possible to be extraordinarily efficient without shouting it from the house-tops. He assured Mr Taylor that that quiet type of efficiency which he had so ably displayed during the past three years was greatly appreciated.  

The Society owed a great debt of gratitude to the President for all that he did on its behalf; certainly in proposing the toast, Mr Lake felt that members of the Society had a President worthy of their regard, their respect and their admiration, and he therefore asked them to drink enthusiastically to the toast of "The President".

(From The Chiropodist, 1928?)

Walter Seelig

Mr. Seelig together with his wife, ran a chiropody practice in Birmingham during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Mr. Seelig had been a well-known barrister in Germany until the Nazi regime forced him out of the profession. Thereafter, he studied chiropody in Berlin and eventually escaped to this country. However, he was interned as an “enemy alien” on the Isle of Man from July 1940 to March 1941.

Apart from his practice of chiropody, he was a great student of the history of the profession and had amassed a fine collection of old books, prints, micro-films, etc on which he was constantly working. He was granted the Runting Exhibition Award in 1952.

The current Royal College of Podiatry archive (CHoPM) holds a substantial part of his collection of historical books and documents. Find out more.