Joyce Salter and her cat

Image: © Marathon Taken: 10 Dec 2018

Doctor Alfred Salter was a Londoner; born in Greenwich in June 1873. He came from a humble background; his parents were both deeply religious and his father worked for the Metropolitan Gas Board. At the age of 16, the young Alfred Salter won a scholarship to study medicine at Guy’s Hospital. He excelled in his chosen field, winning various awards and qualifying as a doctor in 1896. As a student, Dr Salter had visited many working-class homes in the south London district of Bermondsey, and the shocking poverty he encountered encouraged him to develop a committed social conscience. He worked with his wife Ada as a doctor in Bermondsey for his whole life and the tremendous affection held for he and his wife in the area led to the statues seen today. There is one to Dr Salter himself; see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5261245 Nearby is a statue to his wife and these are of his daughter Joyce who died of scarlet fever aged eight and Joyce's pet cat. The statues are collectively known as Dr Salter's Daydream because he is imagining if his daughter had survived.

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