page_title: W. H. R. Rivers
section_title: Family background
hierarchical_section_title: W. H. R. Rivers / Biography / Family background
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of the stained glass window of Offham Rectory, Kent
context_page_description: William Halse Rivers Rivers was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work treating First World War officers who were suffering from shell shock. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, with whom he remained close friends until his own sudden death. Rivers was a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and is also notable for his participation in the Torres Straits expedition of 1898 and his consequent seminal work on the subject of kinship.
context_section_description: Rivers was born in 1864 at Constitution Hill, Chatham, Kent, son of Elizabeth Hunt (16 October 1834 – 13 November 1897) and Henry Frederick Rivers (7 January 1830 – 9 December 1911).
  Records from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries show the Rivers family to be solidly middle-class with many Cambridge, Church of England and Royal Navy associations, the most famous of which were Midshipman William Rivers and his father Gunner Rivers who both served aboard HMS Victory.
  The senior Rivers, also called William, was the master gunner aboard the Victory and it is thanks to his commonplace book (now kept in the Royal Naval Museum library in Portsmouth) that many of the thoughts of the sailors aboard Nelson's flagship are preserved. Midshipman Rivers, who claimed to be "the man who shot the man who fatally wounded Lord Nelson" proved himself to be a model of heroism in the Battle of Trafalgar. In the course of his duties, the seventeen-year-old midshipman's foot was almost completely blown off by a grenade, left attached to him "by a Piece of Skin abought 4 inch above the ankle".  Rivers asked first for his shoes, then told the gunner's mate to look after the guns and informed Captain Hardy that he was going down to the cockpit. The leg was then sawn off, without anaesthetic, four inches below the knee. According to legend, he did not cry out once during the amputation nor during the consequent sealing of the wound with hot tar. When Gunner Rivers, anxious about his son's welfare, went to the cockpit to ask after him the young man called out from the other side of the deck, "Here I am, Father, nothing is the matter with me; only lost my leg and that in a good cause." After the Battle, the senior Rivers wrote a poem about his remarkable son entitled "Lines on a Young Gentleman that lost his leg onboard the Victory in the Glorious action at Trafalgar":
  May every comfort Bless thy future life,
  And smooth thy cares with fond and tender wife.
  Which of you all Would not have freely died,
  
  To Save Brave Nelson There Dear Country's Pride.
  Born to another naval Rivers, Lieutenant William Rivers, R.N., then stationed at Deptford, Henry Rivers followed many family traditions in being educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and entering the church. Having earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1857, he was ordained as a Church of England priest in 1858, a career that would span almost 50 years until, in 1904, he was forced to tender his resignation due to "infirmities of sight and memory".
  In 1863, having obtained a curacy at Chatham in addition to a chaplaincy of the   Medway Union, Henry Rivers was in a position to marry Elizabeth Hunt who was living with her brother James in Hastings, not far from Chatham. He went on to be appointed to curacies in Kent at St Mary's, Chatham (1863-9), Tudeley (1877-80) and Offham (1880-9) and subsequently Vicar of St Faith's, Maidstone from 1889-1904.
  The Hunts, like the Riverses, were an established naval and Church of England family. One of those destined for the pulpit was Thomas (1802–1851), but some quirk of originality set him off into an unusual career.  While an undergraduate at Cambridge, Thomas Hunt had a friend who stammered badly and his efforts to aid the afflicted student led him to leave the University without taking a degree in order to make a thorough study of speech and its defects. He built up a good practice as a speech therapist and was patronised by Sir John Forbes MD FRS, who sent him pupils for twenty four years.  Hunt's most famous case came about in 1842 when George Pearson, the chief witness in the case respecting the attempt on the life of Queen Victoria made by John Francis, was brought into court he was incapable of giving his evidence. However, after just a fortnight's instruction from Hunt he spoke easily, a fact certified by the sitting magistrate. Hunt died in 1851, survived by his wife Mary and their two children. His practice was then passed on to his son, James.
  James Hunt (1833–1869) was an exuberant character, giving to each of his ventures his boundless energy and se
caption: Image of the stained glass window of the church in Offham, Kent where Henry Rivers was curate from 1880 to 1889
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