Louis Norman Reis was born on 12 October 1893 at ‘The Laurels’, Bright’s Crescent, Edinburgh, the youngest son of Alphonse Louis and Marian (Dugan) Reis. He married Joan Hansford on 8 August 1931 at The Parish Church, Great Burstead, Essex. Norman died on 31 December 1969 at Portlooe Cottage, Hannafore Lane, West Looe, Cornwall. Joan was born on 12 January 1908 at Lewisham, London and she died on 24 June 1978 at Mount Gould Hospital, Plymouth. Norman belongs to Reis Generation Three.

NOTES: There was no issue. He changed his last name from Reis to Lorraine but he incorporated Reis as part of his forename and changed the spelling to Rees. He also dropped Louis and added Stanley so that as an adult he was known as Norman Stanley Rees Lorraine.

The following notice appeared in the Royal Society of Edinburgh Yearbook 1971-1972.

Norman Stanley Rees Lorraine died suddenly at his home in West Looe, Cornwall on December 3, 1969, at the age of 76. He graduated M.B. Ch.B. Edinburgh in 1915, thereafter serving with the R.A.M.C. during World War I. Following demobilization, he took his M.D. Edinburgh and Scottish Conjoint diploma in public health in 1921. After holding the post of medical officer, Hull City Hospital, and deputy superintendent, City Hospital, Sheffield, he became medical officer of health to the Shoeburyness Urban District and tuberculosis officer for the Essex County Council. In 1929 he was appointed medical officer to the Canvey Island Urban District and in 1930 M.O.H. to the newly formed Benfleet and Rayleigh Urban Districts (The Shoeburyness Urban District was absorbed by the County Borough of Southend-on-Sea in 1933). He played a leading part in the creation of purpose-built county clinics at Canvey Island, South Benfleet, Hadleigh and Rayleigh and in 1935 established his office as M.O.H. for the three urban districts at the Hadleigh clinic. In 1948, in addition to his district council duties, Dr. Lorraine was appointed Temporary Area Medical Officer, dealing with maternity, child welfare and school services, when the Essex County Council’s scheme for decentralized administration under the National Health Service act of 1946 came into operation on July 5, 1948, continuing these duties until a permanent appointment was made in June 1949. He retired in 1958 and made his home in Looe, where for many years he had spent his holidays.

Dr Lorraine’s interests were both varied and wide. He was a founder member of the British Legion and of the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain. He was a dedicated shark angler, and although he must have caught by rod and line in the vicinity of the Edystone lighthouse a hundred or more sharks during the course of his life he never succeeded in catching one of outstanding weight: they were mostly in the 75 – 150 Ilb range. He was the Club’s honorary biologist and in the early 1950’s performed many post-mortem examinations on pregnant sharks, especially Porbeagles. He was a devoted Masonry, joining the University of Edinburgh Lodge No. 2974 in 1935 and becoming Master in 1952. At the time of his death he was engaged in writing a history of the lodge. He will be long remembered in the Canvey Island area for the part he played during the great flood of the night of Saturday / Sunday, January 31 / February 1, 1953. The sea-wall was breached in forty-nine places by an exceptionally high tide driven by a gale-force wind from the north-east. Fifty-eight people were drowned and thousands were rendered homeless. Dr. Lorraine played a very active part in the rescue and rehabilitation arrangements which certainly alleviated a great deal of distress and prevented much suffering. He wrote an account of this disaster for the Medical Officer in 1954, and this was incorporated in the official Essex Record and also appeared in the South African journal Foundation.

He was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1926. F.A.E. Crew

NOTE ONE: Author of papers in the Lancet and an article on Tuberculosis in Cattle in the appendix of Prof. Wallace’s Farm and Live Stock of Great Britain.

NOTE TWO: Louis Norman Reis changed his name to Norman Stanley Rees Lorraine probably during the first World War as his WW1 medal record shows he was Louis Norman Reis RAMC (Captain) when he enlisted and also known as Norman Stanley Rees Lorraine when his medal card was produced at the end of the war.

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