Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/239

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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completion of his legal course and upon ad- mission to the bar he began the practice of his new profession, also dealing in real es- tate, and thus continues at this time. While at college he was elected to membership in the Kappa Alpha fraternity, and is also a member of the Xorfolk & Portsmouth Bar associations. He is a vestryman of Christ Church. Mr. Gwathmey was at one time assistant city engineer of Norfolk, and had entered upon a career of brilliant promise in engineering when he made the change in his calling in favor of the law. His success and reputation in this profession are ample vindication of his judgment, and he is high- ly regarded by his professional contempo- raries. As a citizen he is allied with all that i« good in his city, his influence and effort counting for every project of progress.

George Tayloe Gwathmey married, in 1900. Margaret Cabell Smith, daughter of Robert Carter and Mary (Smith) Smith, her mother a daughter of William H. Smith, of Norfolk. Children: Cabell, born m 1902; George Tayloe, Jr., born in 1904; Lomax, born in 1907; Edward Smith, born in 1909.

Dr. Lomax Gwathmey, fifth son and sixth child of William Watts (i) and Mary (Tay- loe) Gwathmey, was born in Norfolk, Vir- ginia, November 5, 1869. He studied under the preceptorship of Professor Gatewood at the Norfolk Academy, and afterward stud- ied medicine and surgerj' at the University of Virginia and Columbia University of New York City. He was for a time house phy- sician at Bellevue Hospital, in New York, subsequently journeying abroad and pur- suing post-graduate work in the universities and hospitals of Heidelburg and Vienna. Returning from his foreign study, he es- tablished in general medical and surgical practice in his native city, in 1892 withdraw- ing from a large part of his medical prac- tice and beginning to make surgery his spe- cialtv, in that year becoming head of the St. Christopher Hospital. At the present time Dr. Gwathmey gives his time and attention solely to surgical work, and is the active head of one of the leading hospitals of the state. Dr. Gwathmey is a member of the Norfolk County Medical Association, the Seaboard Medical Association, and the Vir- ginia Medical Association, all of which he has served as president. He is also a mem- ber of the American Medical Association and If a member and ex-vice-president of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Asso-

ciation. While a student Dr. (jwathmey was elected to membership in the Beta Theta Pi and The Mystic Seven frater- nities, and belongs to the Alumni So- ciety of Bellevue Hospital. Norfolk has benefitted through the exercise of his pro- fessional talents in connection with the board of health of the city, and he was also at one time quarantine officer of the port of Norfolk. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and in political sympathy is a Democrat.

Dr. Gwathmey's professional career has been one filled with energetic labor and un- usual activity, magnificent scope and inter- esting in detail. His aim.s are of the high- est, and while he has attained many of the goals for which he strived in his early career, he has constantly erected others, more sub- lime in conception, more difficult in attain- ment. Great is the debt in which many stand to him, for from beneath his ministra- tions on the operating table have risen those to whom faculties, long useless, have been restored, and life made worth living. He has devoted his life to his profession alone, and the leading place that he occupies and the wonderful work that has come from his brain and hands show that his years of study, preparation and labor have reaped a reward of unsurpassed richness. Medicine and surgery have received great things from him, and base confident expectations for the future upon his distinguished performances of the past.

Harold Homer Webb, M. D. Dr. Webb, a practicing physician of Eagle Rock, Bote- tourt county, Virginia, is a son of Walter and Fanny (Brilts) Webb, of Newcastle, Craig county, Virginia. W'alter Webb, born in Craig county, February 2^, 1858, is now county clerk of Craig county. He married Fannv. daughter of Samuel and Mary (Campbell) Brilts, of Craig county. Chil- dren : Harold Homer, of further mention ; Herbert Leslie, born September g, 1896, graduate of Roanoke College, A. B., class of 1914; Kennett Randolph, born April 19, 1898; Mary, born in 1899.

Dr. Harold Homer Webb was born in Newcastle, the capital of Craig county, Vir- ginia, April 13. 1890. He finished the course of instruction in public schools of New- castle and was graduated from high school in 1907, then spent one year at Roanoke College. In 1908 he began his medical edu-