Gamgee Tissue

Plaque in Birmingham in honor of Sampson Gamgee.[1]

Gamgee Tissue is a surgical dressing invented by Joseph Sampson Gamgee, a doctor in Birmingham, England, in 1880.[2][3][4]

Surgical dressing

Gamgee Tissue has a thick layer of absorbent cotton wool between two layers of absorbent gauze.[2] It represents the first use of cotton wool in a medical context, and was a major advancement in the prevention of infection of surgical wounds. It is still the basis for many modern surgical dressings. The name has been a trademark of Robinson Healthcare (formerlyl Robinson and Sons Ltd of Chesterfield),[5] based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, since 1911.

Tolkien

In Birmingham, "Gamgee" became the colloquial name for cotton wool, which led to the surname of Gaffer Gamgee and his son Sam in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In a 1954 letter to the author Naomi Mitchison, who was checking the text of the novel for Tolkien, he addresses a question she had about the name:[1]

Yes, Sam Gamgee is in a sense a relation of Dr. Gamgee, in that his name would not have taken that form, if I had not heard of 'Gamgee tissue'; there was I believe a Dr. Gamgee (no doubt of the kin) in Birmingham when I was a child. The name was any way always familiar to me. Gaffer Gamgee arose first: he was a legendary character to my children (based on a real-life gaffer, not of that name). But, as you will find explained, in this tale the name is a 'translation' of the real Hobbit name, derived from a village (devoted to rope-making) anglicized as Gamwich (pron. Gammidge), near Tighfield (see vol. II p. 217). Since Sam was close friends of the family of Cotton (another village-name), I was led astray into the Hobbit-like joke of spelling Gamwichy [as] Gamgee, though I do not think that in actual Hobbit-dialect the joke really arose.

— J.R.R. Tolkien[1]

References

1. Carpenter 2023, Tolkien's letter 257 to Christopher Bretherton, 16 July 1964
2. Gamgee, J. Sampson (24 January 1880). "Absorbent and medicated surgical dressings". The Lancet.
3. Gamgee, J. Sampson (21 February 1880). "Absorbent and medicated surgical dressings (letter)" (PDF). The Lancet.
4. Kapadia, H M (1 February 2002). "Sampson Gamgee: a great Birmingham surgeon". JRSM. 95 (2): 96–100. doi:10.1258/jrsm.95.2.96. PMC 1279323. PMID 11823557.
5. "Robinson and Sons Ltd of Chesterfield, textile and packaging manufacturers". Derbyshire Record Office. Retrieved 21 August 2024.

Sources

• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.