Dr Joseph Squier Hinnell OBE (1862-1942) was for many years a leading medical practitioner in West Suffolk. A native of Bury, he was educated at King Edward VI School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, before training in London as a doctor and eye specialist at St Thomas’s Hospital and the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital. He practised for many years in Bury, first in partnership with his father, Dr George John Hinnell, and later with one of his sons-in-law, Dr Marcus Bird. He retired at the age of 74, six years before his death.
Hinnell was a magistrate, a president of the Suffolk branch of the British Medical Association, and a committed member of St John’s. He was Vicar’s churchwarden for many years, and the Church’s annual garden fete was held at his home in Garland Street. His death was the headline story in the Bury Free Press that week, and his funeral a large civic event. The congregation at Garland Street Baptist Church, which was adjacent to where he lived, stood in silence to remember him.
Hinnell married a Cambridge woman, Emma Mary Scott (1865-1954) in 1893, and they had three sons and three daughters. Two of their sons had been intended for the profession, but one lost his life in the 1914-18 War when serving with the 1/5th Suffolks, and the other died from an illness in 1928. Both passed away shortly before becoming qualified.
Hinnell was a pioneer of motoring locally, and in 1902 used a car built for him by his brother, J G Hinnell of Stanford-le-Hope. It had a top speed of 15 mph and solid tyres. As the local press observed, ‘it was of the open type, but Dr Hinnell did not mind the weather in those days, for he had been used to a gig.’
He was awarded the OBE for outstanding service during the 1914-18 War at what was known as the Ampton Hospital, an auxiliary Red Cross hospital set up at Ampton Hall for the duration of the conflict.