Death of Doctor Robert Willis, Oughterard - 1868 - A Tribute

The LATE DOCTOR ROBERT WILLIS.-

Within the past few days the admirers of national research in Ire land have suffered a loss by death. A few short months since we noticed in there paves a series of rubbings, executed with extraordinary fidelity, from the carvings of the soffits of the arches of the ruin called the banqueting hall in connection with the older rubs of the Castle of Aughnanure, county Galway, by an amateur but adept hand, and presented by the artist, now no more, through Sir William Wilde, to the Royal Irish Academy, and we greatly regret we should so soon have occasion to deplore his premature and untimely death. Sir William Wilde, in his “Lough Corrib, its Shores, and Islands,” at page 290, gracefully acknowledges the above, and gives an engraving which faintly, yet truthfully, reproduces the originale; and in pages 295, 296, in describing the miniature Church of Teampull-beg-na-Neave-“the little Church of the saint”-to further complimentary to our deceased friend. Giving an engraving of its western gable, he thus writes: The accompanying graphic and accurate illustration, from a drawing by Dr. Robert Willis, shows every stone in the western face of this gable with its square-headed doorway.” Retrograding in Sir W. Wilde’s book we find the following at page 286, referring to the numerous bays of Lough Corrib: In this bay was lately discovered long single-piece oaken canoe of great antiquity, which Dr. Robert Willis, of Oughterard, has presented to the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.” Dr. R. Willis, third son of our highly-esteemed fellow-citizen, Dr. Thomas Willis, of Rathmines, early entered the medical profession, and obtained his diplomas at the different medical colleges with an amount of eclat far surpassing his competitors. In addition to his taste for medical science, he displayed an intuitive perception for art, and for literary pursuits, and we could give numerous published examples of his poetic  genius; these, however, were secondary with him.

In the year 1859 be was elected medical officer to the Oughterard dispensary and workhouse, and he then threw himself heart and soul into the duties of his profession, and we all know what this means (particularly in a wild mountain country), and how easily they can be, if not evaded, at least quietly passed over. But not satisfied with the strict performance of routine, he was ever at a moment’s notice in attendance at the bed aides of the suffering poor, breathing He hope and well-timed kindly assistance, aided by superior medical skill, and doing the work of the  ministering angel rather than the stern duties of the physician. In this holy cause, accelerated by diarase,  contracted in the discharge of his other medical offices, he has passed away prematurely in the full blossom of life to another world, leaving among his friends a blank, but leaving an irreparable blank to his disconsolate young wife and infant children. Robert Willis would have been, if the Almighty pleased to spare him, an ornament to his profession; mild, and unassuming almost to a fault, he was the idol of his district; and the most graceful tribute we can pay to his memory in in recording the tearful lamentations of the poor of Oughterard on receipt of the news of the his demise.

-Irish Builder.