Labhu Ram

Labblu Ram

Labbhu Ram

Mexborough

1899–1935

Labhu Ram first arrived in Britain in 1899 to study medicine at Edinburgh University. His father was a practising doctor in India. Ram later became a member of the Edinburgh Lodge of Freemasons. Ram was born in the Punjab in India, as was his wife, Sukhda, and he was a member of the Arya Samaj. Ram graduated from Edinburgh University in 1904.

In 1905 Dr Ram took over the Mexborough General Practice Surgery and soon after also practised as an honorary surgeon in the eye department of Mexborough Montagu Hospital. He later became a governor of the hospital. He also took ambulance classes for the St John Ambulance Brigade in Mexborough from 1907.

Ram lived in Swinton, 5 miles from Mexborough, with his wife and five children. They had four daughters and one son. The two eldest daughters were born in Edinburgh; the youngest three children were born in Swinton. In January 1911 Ram was elected, unopposed, as councillor for the Swinton division for West Riding County, following the death of the incumbent. He was a member of the local Labour Party and often engaged in meetings in support of the local MP, Tom Williams.

For some time, Ram shared his medical practice with another doctor from India, Harnam Singh Bhalla. In 1922 Ram and Bhalla dissolved their medical partnership and the two doctors worked at separate surgeries in Mexborough. Bhalla moved to Blackpool in 1938, after Ram’s death.

Labhu Ram died at home in 1935. A plaque in remembrance was put up in Mexborough Free Christian (Unitarian) Church.

The inscription on the plaque reads:

Sacred to the Memory of Labblu Ram, M.B. Ch.B, (Edin.)

Died Sept. 30 1935, aged 59 years

First Chairman of the Church Committee and a Trustee Founder of this Church

His ashes rest here