Began to practise in the Mile End Road, E, and later in Old Bow Lane. After becoming FRCS he went out to Australia and practised first at Hobart Town, and then at Sandhurst, Victoria. After 1860 he returned to England and practised successively at Grove Street, South Hackney, NE, and 84 Holland Road, W, until 1875; then at Chorley, Lancashire, and finally at Mentmore Villa, Linslade, Buckinghamshire. He died, after being sentenced to five years penal servitude for arson, in 1885. His photograph is in the Fellows' Album. Publications:- *Cholera: its Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment*, 1865. **See below for an expanded version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 1 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk** William Story was a doctor in Linsdale, in what was then Buckinghamshire, who was convicted of arson and subsequently struck off the Medical Register and lost his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was born in Stepney in around 1813. He studied medicine at the London Hospital and, in 1832, witnessed a cholera epidemic in the Whitechapel and Mile End area. His brother, John Story, was then a medical officer for the Mile End Union. Story’s early career is uncertain, but in his *Medical Directory* entry for 1870 he states he served in the Army in Spain under Lieutenant-General Sir de Lacy Evans, probably in the First Carlist War (1833 to 1839). He also stated he worked in the Government Emigration Service. He gained his MRCS in 1837 and from 1838 to 1840 was in Jessore in the then East Indies, where he again dealt with a cholera epidemic. He returned to England, where he settled in the East End of London. At some point in the 1850s he went out to Australia, where he practised at Williamstown, Melbourne, Victoria, and then in Tasmania, at Circular Head and later at New Town, near Hobart. He subsequently went back to Victoria, where he practised at Sandhurst (later known as Bendigo); he was working here when he gained his FRCS in 1858. On 13 March 1861 he advertised in the *Bendigo Advertiser*: ‘Dr Story, fellow of the RCS, member of the Calcutta, Tasmania, & Victoria Medical Boards, &c, having resided in the East and West Indies, is well acquainted with the diseases of hot climates. Between eight and nine years’ experience in Victoria convinces him that the diseases of women and children are peculiar, and require a modified treatment to that adopted in England. Rowan Street, Sandhurst.’ On 17 December 1862 he and his wife left Melbourne on board the *Norfolk* and returned to England. He gained his licentiate of the King’s and Queen’s College of Physicians of Ireland in 1863. Two years later, he published a book detailing his experiences of treating patients with cholera, *Cholera: its pathology, diagnosis and treatment *(London, E & F N Spon, 1865). He was a member of the New Sydenham Society and a fellow of the Anthropological Society of London. By 1867 he was living in Hackney in East London. In 1875 he listed two addresses in his *Medical Directory* entry – Holland Road in West Kensington and Battlecrease Hall in Halliford, Middlesex. Five years later, he gave his address as Mentmore Villa, Linsdale, Buckinghamshire. On 12 August 1881 he was arrested and charged with ‘Feloniously and maliciously setting fire to a certain dwelling house, the property of James Hadley, also feloniously and maliciously setting fire to certain goods and chattels in the said house with intent to defraud the West of England Fire Insurance Company, on 10th August, 1881, at Linsdale.’ The trial took place on 27 October 1881 in Bedford and the jury found him guilty, despite evidence being presented to the court that the prisoner was ‘not of sound mind’. He was sentenced to five years in prison. He had no previous convictions. On 22 July 1882 the *Lancet* reported: ‘A very painful case came before the council – that of William Story, of Linsdale, convicted of feloniously setting fire to a certain house in his possession with intent to injure and defraud. His name was ordered to be erased from the Register. It had previously been removed from the list of Fellows and Members of the College of Surgeons.’ Story was released from prison following a petition to the Queen and the Home Secretary two years into his sentence. On 26 January 1885 he died suddenly at home. He was 72. The local newspaper the *Northampton Mercury* reported: ‘He had suffered from spasms of the heart and this was thought the cause of death.’ He was survived by his wife Harriet. Sarah Gillam