GRACE LINZEE REVERE OSLER, 1854-1928

Grace Linzee Revere was born in Boston in 1854, great-granddaughter of Paul Revere, the famous patriot of the American Revolution. She belonged to a prominent, well-to-do Boston family, and was raised and educated accordingly. When she was 22 years old, she married Dr. Samuel W. Gross of Philadelphia. Gross's father, Samuel D. Gross, was also a doctor and a celebrated surgeon. Grace lived in Philadelphia with her husband for the next thirteen years, until Gross's death in 1889.

Gross taught medicine at Jefferson Medical College, and William Osler taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Osler and Gross soon met and became friends; the Grosses frequently entertained Osler at their home. Grace sent for Osler during Gross's final illness. A few months later Osler moved to Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins University.

Grace continued living in Philadelphia for the next three years, once meeting up with Osler in New Brunswick, where she was vacationing on Grand Manan Island and he was visiting a leper colony in Tracadie. In 1892 Grace and William were quietly married in Philadelphia; many of their friends and family were not aware of the marriage until after the fact. After a wedding tour in Europe, the two set up house in Baltimore. Their son Edward Revere Osler, called Revere, was born in Baltimore in 1895.

In 1905 the Oslers moved to Oxford, England, as William had accepted the position of Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University; they became known for the constant stream of visitors to their home at 13 Norham Gardens. During World War One, Lady Osler (as she was known after William Osler became a baronet) was active in war efforts such as the shelter and support of Belgian refugees in England. Her son Revere Osler died of wounds sustained in a German attack in 1917.

In 1919, William Osler succumbed to a bronchial infection and died at their Oxford home. For the remaining years of her life Lady Osler stayed at her home in Oxford. She died of a series of strokes in 1928 at the age of seventy-four; by request, no autopsy was done on her body. Her funeral was held at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, the same place as her husband's nine years before.