John Hitchman

John Hitchman (1805 – 3 March 1867) was a British medical doctor and philanthropist associated with the town of Royal Leamington Spa. Born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, Hitchman moved to Royal Leamington Spa by 1828 to work as a surgeon. From 1832 he was on the staff of the Warwickshire County Hospital, later renamed the Warneford Hospital and Bathing Institution. Hitchman donated funds to many charitable funds for the poor. In 1851 he purchased land to establish The Arboretum, a planted space for the free use of the public. This grew into a site containing 500,000 shrubs and trees.

In 1862 Hitchman established his own hospital in The Arboretum, focussed on hydropathy. He adopted homeopathy in 1865 and, though the board disapproved of this as "quackery" he was permitted to remain on the staff of the Warneford Hospital. Hitchman's death was attributed to overwork on his medical practice and charitable causes. Townsfolk contributed for the construction of a memorial fountain, erected in 1869.

Medical career and local government

Hitchman was born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, in 1805. He trained as a surgeon's assistant in Banbury before moving to Leamington Priors (renamed Royal Leamington Spa in 1838) in 1827/28. He established a surgeon's practice in Clemens Street and later moved to High Street and then The Parade. For at least 20 years he lived in a house on Lansdowne Place. In his surgery Hitchman often prescribed meat from the butcher and remitted his fees for poor patients.

Philanthropy By 1840 Hitchman was contributing to a fund for the assistance of the poor in Leamington. The fund carried out significant works in public gardens adjacent to the River Leam installing paths, raising the river's banks and creating the park's lake. It eventually expanded to more than between Tachbrook Road and Saint Helen's Road and included 500,000 shrubs and trees.

Hitchman was buried at Whitnash Road cemetery on 8 March. His funeral procession from The Arboretum was attended by many of the townspeople, resulting in one of the largest crowds seen in the town to that date. After his death Hitchman's wife returned to her family in Staffordshire where she died in 1890. She provided land for St John the Baptist's Church and part-funded its construction, which was completed in February 1878 as a replacement for the Tachbrook Street mission.

The Arboretum Hospital survived until 1883 when homeopathy went out of fashion, and it was purchased by the Midland Counties Home for Incurables for use as a hospice. It was taken over by the National Health Service in 1948 and closed in 1995 with most of the land sold for housing.