James Yonge and John Cannon

James Yonge was a successful Plymouth surgeon, John Cannon a minor excise official and teacher with a scrappy and unsuccessful career. Both men lived to a good age, and both narratives reflect lifelong anger at what they saw as their parents’ discrimination, and their bitter resentment at the favours enjoyed by their brothers and sisters. Both cases show vividly how childhood sibling rivalries and resentments could survive for a lifetime and blight adult lives and relationships. In Yonge’s case, sibling rivalries became entangled with political differences. In Cannon’s case, resentment and emotional turbulence were exacerbated by the fact that his younger sibling enjoyed greater success in life. As the elder brother, Cannon always believed he should enjoy a superior status, but circumstances made this impossible to achieve.