Dr Gramshaw was a successful family doctor in Yorkshire for thirty-five years, until his final desperate actions brought his professional and personal life crashing down around him. It was Easter 1908 when he called at the Glynn Hotel in York to attend to a young woman called Margaret Brown, who had been his patient before and who wanted his advice again. By the end of the month, Margaret was dead and a Coroner’s inquest was uncovering a lot of uncomfortable information about the young governess and the doctor who tried to help her.
This is a fascinating and shocking story of love and lust, success and deceit, crimes and lies, adultery, bigamy and insanity. The events in it are true, reconstructed by detailed research into public records. As the truth emerges about the lies, deceits and crimes that infiltrated Dr Gramshaw’s life, we are left to wonder: did anyone know about these before the final tragedy occurred? Should his family have seen what was happening? And why, when he was so popular, successful and respected that even after his exposure 1000 people attended his funeral, did Dr Gramshaw throw it all away so recklessly?