Fielding Ould

Sir Fielding Ould (1710–29 November 1789) was an Irish doctor and medical writer.^[1][2]

Portrait. Credit: Wellcome Library

Ould was the son of British Army Captain Abraham Ould (1689–1715) and a Miss Shawe of Galway, in which city he was born. He studied in Paris and settled in Golden Lane, Dublin as a medical practitioner in 1736. He published an enormously influential treatise on midwifery in 1742, although it was criticized for a number of factual errors.

An obstetrician, he acquired a huge practice and was master of the Rotunda Hospital (the Dublin lying-in hospital). After a lengthy battle, he was eventually granted his licence as a physician. In 1759, he was knighted for services to the medical profession.

Ould was one of 49 physicians and chirurgeons who declared their public support for the construction of a Publick Bath in Dublin in May 1771 and named Achmet Borumborad as a well qualified individual for carrying such a scheme into existence.^[3]

He died of apoplexy at his home on South Frederick Street and was buried at St. Ann's Churchyard, Dawson Street.^[4]

He had at least two children, including William, who was chaplain of the Rotunda Hospital. Later descendants included the painter Sir Fielding Fielding-Ould, and the noted architect William Vitruvius Morrison.

Bibliography

• A Treatise of Midwifry, in three parts, Dublin, 1742