Eustace Families Association

Stanley Eustace

1921-

Stanley Eustace is among the earliest of the present generation of researchers delving into the history of our family connections. Stanley Eustace, born in 1921, is the son of Frederick Jabez Eustace and Maud Covill. He married Doreen Olive Highman. Stanley and Doreen have twin daughters Angela and Heather born in 1955.

Stanley  began searching his family roots in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the 1960’s and 1970’s, together with his brother Eric. When Stanley produced the first family tree of that Eustace family branch the writer of the Victoria County History said ‘it is too involved to unravel’. Stanley Eustace later expanded his research to include overseas connections and published the results in ‘The Eustaces of the Chiltern Hundreds. His enthusiasm for what was, as with most of us, a spare-time hobby contributed to the birth of the Eustace Families Association.

He will however, be more widely known as a radiographer which was his main career. Needing an outlet for his ability and a means of livelihood he turned to radiography. When he had completed his training at the Royal Northern Hospital, London, he applied for a job at the Ig Bobi Hospital in Nigeria just outside of Lagos. There was time to fill before going to Nigeria and at the suggestion of the Crown Agents he attended a course on Mass X-ray, knowledge gained but never used in Africa. It was while on this course that witnessing a bank-roll robbery he went to the help of the victim which resulted in the capture of one of the robbers and landed Stanley in Middlesex Hospital for repairs. As Stanley is shorter than average he is not one who would be readily cast in the hero’s role. Yet for his part he was awarded the George Medal (One of the highest awards in Britain for civilian courage) and also the Binney Medal by the Metropolitan Police.

When Stanley finally arrived at Ig Bobi, he thought the invitation to dinner on the first night with Miss Casey, the radiographer he was replacing, as a kindly and very civil act. The suggestion later that she should show him around the department seemed to be rushing things until he learned that she was leaving the next morning and this was his only chance to learn the ropes. Having recovered from this shock he next learned that he was expected to present lectures on radiography. Improvising what had not been included in his own training, he appears to have succeeded in carrying it off, as he became one of the founders of the Nigerian School of Radiography. When his contract in Nigeria was over, he returned to London and became radiographer in charge at St. Mark’s Hospital, City Road.

In company with many other male radiographers he found the salary in hospital service too small to support a growing family. With reluctance and considerable disappointment, he went into the better paid industrial field, working as a radiologist for the aircraft makers, De Havilland. After only seven years, at De Haviland, he became chief radiologist and was one of the founding members of British Institute Society of Non-destructive Testing. For three years was editor of their journal. In the late 1960’s governmental pressure resulted in the amalgamation of De Haviland with Rolls-Royce and Stanley along with many others was declared redundant

Stanley Eustace had not completely abandoned his interest in hospital work and had done part-time work at the local Watford hospital. While there were employment agencies in existence who claimed to serve the profession, Stanley saw the need for an efficient specialist agency and in April 1968, the Agency of Radiographers was born in a single room in the Eustace family home. From there it has grown and progressed -to the present modern offices in Bushey Village.

In l978 approaches were made with a similar agency services for other para-medical professions and Corinth Medical Services appeared. The two concerns were later combined and Stanley’s son, Colin became a director. Stanley has retired and is living in Pitstone, in the area of Buckinghamshire from which his great grandfather more than a century ago, walked to London to find himself a job.

Editor’s Note: This biographical sketch  was originally published in the Autumn 1987 issue of the Eustace Families Post. It was a pleasure to meet Stanley at Eustace Families Association Musters in Watlington (1999) and Bledlow (1981).