A STUDENT from France, working at the Oxfam shop in Tavistock on a three-week internship, spent a day with the Wharf team helping to prepare for the recent lunchtime lecture.

Aurore Toutain, from Normandy, who is studying to be a packaging engineer, came to England to improve her English by working at the Oxfam shop.

Aurore said: ‘I had the opportunity to assist at Barbie Thompson’s presentation at the Wharf called HMS Victory to Dartmoor Prison: George Magrath. She told us a fascinating tale of Sir George Magrath, a famous surgeon on HMS Russel, who performed amputations and other surgical procedures to minimise human losses during the Battle of Camperdown, 1797.

‘This man was considered as the most able medical man by Lord Nelson, commander in chief of HMS Victory, Mediterranean, who appointed him as the surgeon on his flagship Victory.

‘In 1804, Nelson sent Magrath to His Majesty’s naval hospital at Gibraltar to deal with a serious outbreak of yellow fever. Upon his return to England he became surgeon of the PoW prison depot, known as Mill Prison at Millbay, Plymouth until 1814.

‘He then transferred as prison doctor to the Dartmoor depot and offered succour and comfort to American prisoners of war who were shot during a riot. This very busy man was one of the three inspectors of hospitals and fleets at the time of his death in 1857.

‘A big thank you to Barbie Thompson who concluded her talk to us with a quote from Magrath’s epitaph — “In all things he did his duty; as an officer with zeal, as a citizen with dignity, as a friend with devotion”.’

Dr Ann Pulsford, who organises the Wharf Lunchtime Lectures, said: ‘I met Aurore at Oxfam as I volunteer doing the window dressing on Saturday mornings. She was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and impressed everyone at the Oxfam shop and at the Wharf. She even introduced the lecture.’