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Place of Birth
Co. Galway
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Place of Death
Rathmines, Dublin
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Burial Place
Lucan Church graveyard
Dr Thomas Purefoy was my great great grandfather. He was what was called a Dispensary Doctor, the 19th century version of the General Practitioner. He worked through the Famine, providing care for the poor, the starving, the dispossessed. Dispensary doctors didn’t have a pension so many of them worked longer than they were able. Thomas Purefoy died of TB, probably acquired from his patients. The Purefoys lived in Lucan, where there is a window commemorating Thomas in St Andrew’s Church.