Geograph - photograph every grid square

This four-storey accommodation block for medical students was opened at Peterborough City Hospital on February 17th., 2015. It was named in memory of Alfred Caleb Taylor, who was born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, on December 29th., 1860.
Taylor began working at the Peterborough Infirmary on Priestgate in 1880 as a dispenser and served in a managerial role as Secretary of the Infirmary from 1889 until his retirement in 1926. A keen photographer, he also chaired the Peterborough Photographic Society.
Taylor was an early advocate of X-ray technology and designed and built his own equipment at the infirmary in 1896. The device, which ranked as the first X-ray machine in the United Kingdom outside London, was powered by accumulators which were recharged at a local flour mill as there was no public electricity supply at that time. In line with contemporary photographic technology, the images which his equipment produced were positives rather than the negatives which we know today.
The dangers of prolonged exposure to radiation were little known at the time and - like many pioneers of the technology - Taylor's work exacted an enormous personal toll on his health. He contracted radiation poisoning, which resulted in him losing three fingers on his left hand and one on his right. Taylor expressed no regrets, however, remarking at the end of his life that he would have done exactly the same again. In gratitude for his sacrifice on behalf of others, he was presented with a cheque for £700 (GBP 700) on his retirement in September 1926; adjusted for inflation, this sum was equivalent to £38,375.66 (GBP 38,375.66) at 2016 prices. Sadly, Taylor died in Peterborough less than a year later on July 26th., 1927.
There is a personal connection between Taylor and me (Paul Bryan) because he was my maternal great-great-uncle. Perhaps I inherited my interest in photography from my esteemed ancestor.
The building on Priestgate which functioned as the Peterborough Infirmary now houses the city's museum.

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