Greville MacDonald

Greville MacDonald (1856 in Bolton – 1944), was the son of influential fantasy writer George MacDonald and his wife Louisa (née Powell). He has provided some interesting insights into his father's life and circle of friends. Greville was a notable ear, nose and throat doctor. In later life Greville became involved in the Peasant Art movement in Haslemere.

Greville is famous for having read ‘Uncle Dodgson’s’ (Reverend Charles Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll) Alice in Wonderland when he was wondering whether to publish it. Greville’s mother read the book to the children to gauge its worth if published, and Greville remembers his ‘braggart avowal that I wished there were 60,000 volumes of it’. Carroll had been uncertain as to its potential for publication, until he tried the manuscript with the MacDonald children and had an enthusiastic reception.

Alex Munro used Greville as a model for his sculpture in Hyde Park of a boy with a fish. Greville attributes his understanding of Latin to Octavia Hill (who became a co-founder of the National Trust in 1895, along with Haslemere’s Sir Robert Hunter) who joined the family on holiday in 1867 at Bude, and became a lifelong friend of Greville.

Greville went to King's College School and then went to train at Kings College Hospital. Despite suffering from partial deafness which degenerated with age, Greville became an ear, nose and throat doctor of some distinction, becoming President of the British Medical Association's nose division. He resided at 85 Harley Street and he retired from medical practice in 1904. In 1919 he moved to Wildwood, Weydown Road, Haslemere. Greville’s autobiography describes him as a ‘consulting physician to Kings College Hospital’ and ‘Fellow and Emeritus Professor, King's College, London’. Greville married his wife Elizabeth Phoebe Winn in 1887, they had no children, but from a dedication in one of his books, it would appear that he adopted a girl, ‘Mollie Gamble’.

Greville helped keep his father's memory alive by arranging the publication of new editions of his works, and by publishing the painstakingly-researched biography George MacDonald and his Wife (1924).

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