Wikia

Richard Clarkson ;
Biographical information
Marital status	single
Title(s)	Doctor
Military career	Major
Physical information
Hair colour	gray
Family information
Affiliation
Occupation	Doctor General Practitioner Downton Village Cottage Hospital
Behind the scenes
Portrayed by	David Robb

Major Richard Clarkson is the local doctor for the family, having known the three sisters since they were girls, and during the second series works at Downton while it is a convalescent home.

Season OneEdit

Dr. Clarkson has a significant disagreement with Isobel Crawley about the treatment of a local farmer, John Drake, who is suffering from a severe case of Dropsy. Eventually, he follows her prognosis to try a relatively risky procedure at that time and Isobel is proven right. The farmer avoids almost certain death and later appears in Series 2.

Season TwoEdit

In the second series he has become a Major.

It was his insistence to remove a blind patient from the hospital (who committed suicide) which started the idea of Downton becoming a convalescent home.

Due to not wanting to encourage too much hope, he misdiagnosed Matthew Crawley's spinal condition and was fortunately proved wrong.

Season ThreeEdit

Mrs. Hughes became worried that she had cancer, so she went to Dr. Clarkson for treatment. Eventually he determined that it was just a benign growth, not cancer. Dr. Clarkson became worried that Sybil was showing signs of eclampsia, which endangered the life of Sybil and her child. However, Robert had hired Sir Philip due to the fact that Clarkson had misdiagonsed Matthew's spinal condition, so he was inclined to agree with Sir Philip's assessment that Sybil was fine. After an argument, they agreed that it would be safer if Sybil wasn't moved as it was already too close to the birth. Sybil gave birth to a healthy girl, but later that night Sybil became dangerously ill. Clarkson was summoned and told them that she definitely had eclampsia and sadly there was nothing they could do to save her life and she died not long after.

Cora later blamed Robert for Sybil's death because he did not listen to Clarkson, causing Violet to ask the doctor to help her mend their relationship. He insisted he could not tell an outright lie, but later told Robert and Cora that the likelihood of Sybil surviving had they done a C section was not very good, and that she woud likely have died anyway. Nevertheless he still blames Sir Philip for arrogantly ignoring the evidence.

Christmas Special 2012Edit

Doctor Clarkson spends some time with Isobel Crawley, taking her to the Thirsk fair. He asks her what she thinks on remarrying again, indicating he is interested in marrying her. However, it is clear she is not interested in marrying again and sees him only as a friend. Then Jimmy Kent comes to find them to tell them Thomas has been attacked.

Later, after Lady Mary has returned, he thanks Isobel from making a fool of himself, saying he had too much to drink.