Background
Born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in June 1784, he was son of Robert Gooch, a sea captain who was a grandson of Sir Thomas Gooch.
Born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in June 1784, he was son of Robert Gooch, a sea captain who was a grandson of Sir Thomas Gooch.
He was educated at a private day school, and when fifteen was apprenticed to Giles Borrett, surgeon-apothecary at Yarmouth. In his vacations he studied German at Norwich with William Taylor, and became engaged to Emily Bolingbroke. He graduated Doctor of Medicine
January 1784 – 16 February 1830) was an English physician. When Horatio Nelson came to visit the wounded of the battle of Copenhagen, Gooch went round the Yarmouth Hospital with him. June 1807, his inaugural dissertation being on rickets.
After a tour in the Scottish Highlands, and some further holiday in Norfolk, he came to London, worked under Astley Cooper, and in 1808 began general practice at Croydon, Surrey.
He left Croydon, took a house in Aldermanbury, and after a tour during which he came to know Robert Southey at Keswick, he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 6 March 1812. Shortly he was elected lecturer on midwifery at Saint Bartholomew"s Hospital.
His health was poor, and often obliged him to suspend his work.