Charles James Oldham did not grow up in Manchester, but he did have a family connection to the School. His family were descendants of MGS founder, Hugh Oldham. He was born in 1842 in Brighton, the son of noted surgeon James Oldham. Like his father, he went into medicine, training at Guy’s Hospital and Sussex County Hospital. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1871. In his early years as a doctor he worked at the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children and the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital. He decided to specialise in ophthalmology and later worked at the Sussex Hospital for Diseases of the Eye and as an ophthalmic surgeon for the Brighton and Hove Dispensary. In 1872 he presented a new version of the Ophthalmoscope to the International Ophthalmological Congress and in 1886 he developed his own foldable version.

The Oldham ophthalmoscope
Outside of Medicine he had a keen interest in music and owned a collection of Stradivarius violins that he left to British Museum. On his death in 1907 he left £3000 to MGS, due to his family’s link to Hugh Oldham. He requested that the money “be applied for the advancement of learning as the authorities may think fit”. The money was used to create “Charles Oldham scholarships” of £15 per annum and were available internally to boys already at MGS. Oldham’s name was added to the Founders’ prayer in 1908 in recognition of the bequest. Oldham also left money to Corpus Christi Oxford, and to the University of Cambridge, totalling £50,000.
Rachel Kneale
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