Henry Valentine Knaggs

Henry Valentine Knaggs (born February 14, 1859 - died July 11, 1954) was an English doctor and author.

Early life
He was the second son of Henry Guard Knaggs and Ellen Mares. He was born on February 14, 1859 (St Valentine's Day) in St Pancras, and there is no evidence that he was ever baptised.

Education
Like his father and grandfather before him, he embarked on a medical career. There is no evidence of an apprenticeship but he obtained his LSA in 1881 after studying at University College. He was awarded his MRCS and his LM in the same year and also an LRCP from the University of Edinburgh. In 1889 he is recorded as being a Fellow of the Zoological Society.

A physician
He worked in the service of the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company from 1883 to 1886 presumably on their liners. In 1889 he was resident surgeon at Boscombe Infirmary but his address, from 1883 until 1912 was 189 Camden Road, London NW where he was in general practice as a doctor.

Family
He married Mabel Emily Stow on 24 June 1897 at St Paul’s Church, St Pancras - Mabel’s father James was just described as "gentleman" on the marriage certificate. They had two daughters - Dulcie (born 1901, who married George Menzies Trevor Lambrick (an officer in the Indian Army) 1929 in Witney), and Nora (born 1902, who married John B. Maxwell 1929 in Hatfield).

20th century
The 1913 Medical Who's Who gives Knaggs' addresses as 41 Welbeck Street and Combe Edge, Langley Park, Mill Hill. In 1914 he was living at 41 Queen Anne Street, then, to 1921 (and probably later) he was practising from the up-market address of 25 Wimpole Street, but he was living at "Arbor", Kings Langley in rural Hertfordshire. His specialities were listed as electro-therapeutics, dietetics and haematology, and his recreations as athletics and literary work of various kinds. In 1954 he was living in 80 Leigh Gardens, Kensal Rise, London.

His publications
Knaggs was a prolific author. Among his more professional works are "On the Treatment of Diphtheria by Frequent Small Doses of Sulphur," "On the Treatment of Gout by Salicylate of Potash" and the like. But by far the more numerous are his books and pamphlets for the general public. They are mostly on various aspects of personal health and diet, and have been described as "mostly harmless." Examples are "Rheumatism and Allied Ailments," "The Cleansing Saline Fast," "The Misunderstood Microbe" (with a photograph of the author looking very Edwardian), "How to Prevent Cancer" and "Potatoes as Food and Medicine" - this last one is remarkably still in print. See Bibliography for a complete list.

His ideas
He was a teetotaling vegetarian and was an early advocate of nature cures. He is reported as saying that during the last fifty years as a physician he never prescribed a single drug. He preferred raw foods to cooked ones, and plain water to milk and beverages such as tea and coffee. He was an advocate of exercise and shunned alcohol.

His death
There must have been something to Knaggs' theories on health, as he died at the age of 95, on 11 July 1954. In his will, he stipulated that his body was to be cremated, the ashes to be scattered, and that there should be no flowers, tombstone or other memorial. He left his furniture and personal effects to his "friend" Mrs Lily Colburn (who shared his address), and the rest of his estate to be divided equally between his wife (who died in 1962) and this "friend."