Blacks@Dartmouth 1775 to 1960

Dr. George Rice died at his home at Sutton, Surrey, England, February 14, 1935. He was born June 21, 1848, in Troy, N. Y., but came to college from Newport, R. I. After graduation he began the study of medicine at Dartmouth, but decided to continue his studies in Europe and was studying in Paris at the outbreak of the Franco-German war. The war led to a change of plans, and he migrated to the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated as M.B.C.M. in 1874.

He became house surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where his immediate chief was Sir Joseph Lister, the discoverer of antisepsis, to whom he became a trusted and prized assistant in his antiseptic work. From Edinburgh he went to the Manchester Royal Infirmary as house physician, and afterwards held resident appointments at the Chorlton Union Hospitals and the Woolwich and Plumstead Infirmary. He also held office under the Metropolitan Asylums Board at the Downs Ringworm Hospital, and was for a time resident medical officer at the Fulham Workhouse.

He went to Sutton in 1884, conducted a successful practice, and filled many local appointments; he was public vaccinator for Sutton, Cheam, and Marshalton until last September, dying almost in harness [before retirement].

In 1881 Dr. Rice was married to Florence Mary, daughter of John Cook of Plumstead, who died a little over a year ago. One daughter [Mary Lucinda] survives them.

[Dr. Rice's sister, Harriet Alleyne Rice, was the first black woman to graduate from a 'Seven Sisters' school, Wellesley College, in 1887.]