Carte-de-visite of Charles Mayo, FRCS (1788-1876)
Taken about 1870
Charles Mayo was one of Winchester's most eminent citizens. The son of the Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth's Free Grammar School in Wimborne, he began to study medicine at the age of fifteen and came to the city as a newly qualified surgeon in 1811. He worked as a hospital surgeon until 1869, his skills contributing greatly to its reputation as a teaching hospital.
As well as being fiercely devoted to his profession he played an active part in public life - he was three times mayor and served on various bodies in both medical and non-medical capacities.
His success as a surgeon enabled him to purchase the fine seventeenth century Avebury House in St Peter Street, which was his home for nearly sixty years until his death in 1876. He worshipped regularly at the Cathedral, and both he and his elder son, who was also a surgeon, are commemorated in a window in the north aisle of the nave.
The photograph was taken by Winchester photographer William Savage (1817-87).
