The Stathams of Stone and Islington.

The story of the Statham family and their connections with Buckinghamshire and London centres around the figure of Sherard Freeman Statham (1826–1858), the founder of the Royal Northern Hospital. Born into an impoverished branch of an ancient landowning family, his circumstances were abruptly bettered when his clergyman father (a somewhat controversial character) made a lucrative marriage. Statham qualified in medicine with high honours and went on to become a brilliant young surgeon and teacher, and his future seemed assured. But his hasty and aggressive nature led to his dismissal from University College Hospital. Unsatisfied by private practice, he almost single-handedly founded a new hospital to serve the poor of North London, which went on to flourish as a well-respected surgical centre until its eventual closure in 1992. However, Statham never saw the success of his enterprise as he died from tuberculosis at the age of 32.