#(also i keep spelling surgeon as sturgeon and it's killing me)

[sunbentsky-archived]

Re-read some chapters looking for more information on Patrick’s background and found some juicy bits, so here’s a rough timeline: 

born in 1832 in Galway, Ireland to a poor family

his parents passed away from typhus when he was 5 years old

they were both taken to a hospital in Castlebar, leaving Patrick on his own

it was the surgeon who treated his mother who recalled she’d told him about her son and went back to Galway to take Patrick with him

presumably, he lived in Castlebar for a couple of years

he recalls a great deal of turf-cutting as a boy

goes on to study medicine at Queen's College in Belfast

his mentor passes away leaving Patrick with nothing

at some point, he’s not able to afford his lectures or lodgings in Belfast and enrolls in the British Army

it’s not specified when or what his exact history is, so I’ll have to headcanon that eventually

he was part of the 61st Regiment of Foot while they were stationed in India

recalls being in Lucknow and Firozpur at some point

he was there during the Siege of Delhi, more specifically somewhere close to Kashmiri Gate

long story short, Patrick and three other men are sent into the city to retrieve a buried chest of jewelry by the staff surgeon. Patrick is shot and the musket ball shatters his shinbone, while the others are killed.

eventually, he is found and saved but he has to explain why he was away from his post. Of course, the staff surgeon would never admit he gave Patrick and the others the order, especially since he didn’t bring anything back

as he was an influential man and older and more experienced, the staff surgeon’s word weighted more than Patrick’s, who was discharged in the court-martial proceedings that followed 

he heals from his injury but is left with a limp, disgraced, and scrambling to make do after he returns to London

in 1859, he signs up as the ship's surgeon on the Volunteer, a whaling ship, and sails for the Arctic from Hull