Membury is a village three miles north west of Axminster in East Devon district. The population at the 2011 Census was 501. The village has a 13th-century church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, with a tall slim tower. In the aisle there is a monument to Sir Shilston Calmady, who was killed in a skirmish near the village in February 1646, and was buried in the chancel. The founding editor of the medical journal, The Lancet, Thomas Wakley, was born at Membury in 1795.