Charles Ernest Pope, medical practitioner, was the son of Francis Pope and Edith Jesty. He qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (MRCS) in 1877. He became a surgeon at the Worcester Infirmary in England, but came to the Cape Colony in April 1878 and was licensed to practice there on 3 June that year. That same year he asked for an appointment as district surgeon in Aliwal North, Port Alfred, or Victoria East. However, he ended up in the Eastern Cape and in 1884 resided in Alice, where he became district surgeon. After the death of his wife (Cecilia Louisa Murray) and firstborn in childbirth he moved to Matatiele, Griqualand East, where he was again district surgeon. By May 1897 he had become a member of the newly established (second) South African Medical Association. He practiced at Matatiele until 1915 or later, but in 1926, by then presumably retired, was living in West Street, Durban. He married Julia Mary Ecroyd in 1892 and had a son and a daughter. His son, known as "Tommy" became a well-known polo player. Charles served as medical officer in both the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and World War II (1939-1945).

In 1893 he received a complete set of meteorological instruments from the Meteorological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope. He provided the commission with rainfall data from 1893 and with regular meteorological observations at Matatiele from 1895. In 1897 his station, with a number of others, was upgraded to a second order meteorological station. He continued providing observations to the end of 1900, when his station was closed.

In 1913 Dr Pope presented a collection of moths to the Albany Museum, Grahamstown.

List of sources:

Albany Museum. Annual report for 1913.

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the Meteorological Commission, 1893, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1899, 1900.

Cape of Good Hope. Report on the public health..., 1898, 1899.

Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, 9 January 1885, pp. 41-45, List of licensed medical practitioners in the Cape Colony.

FamilySearch: Charles Ernest Pope. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95FW-9L8T?view=index&personArk=/ark:/61903/1:1:QP5B-JG8V&action=view&cc=1779109&lang=en&groupId= AND https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LC9N-GP6

Medical and pharmacy register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1893, 1907.

Medical, dental and pharmacy directory of South Africa, 1926-1927. Pietermaritzburg, 1926.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Pope, C. Ernest / Pope, C.E. / Dr Pope.

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, Vol. NMC 34: [List of medical practitioners, etc. registered in the Cape Province, as on 31 December 1915].

Reeve, Susan. Tommy Pope, the horse whisperer. Profiles in polo, 88, pp. 84-89. Accessed via internet.

South African medical directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

South African Medical Journal (Series 2, May 1897, Vol. 5, pp. 20-21 and January 1898, Vol. 5, pp. 240-242: South African Medical Association (lists of members).

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-09-15 11:51:10