The earliest occurrence that I have found is from an article written from London, England, by Ernie Hill, of the Chicago Daily News ( Chicago, Illinois), and published in several U.S. newspapers in March 1954—for example in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas) of Friday the 26 th: Viewers of real-life medical programmes and medical dramas will be all too familiar with the grisly details and the tragedy in the 'cas' which is, perhaps by necessity, tempered by humour and moments of light-heartedness.

G. Seal Lingo 198: Other uses of up include the sartorial dressed up like a pox doctor’s clerk dressed in a lurid, flashy style.Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 106: Gees, Nino, yer done up like a pox doctor’s clerk. Yer don’ need no coat an’ a collar an’ tie.

J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 8: ‘Wheredya come by your china? [...] He comes up like a pox doctor’s clerk’.

The Pox Doctor's Clerk is the moving and entertaining memoirs of one man's experiences as a volunteer in the casualty department of a Leicester hospital. Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day, Attested in the late 17 th century, the colloquial term pox doctor designates a doctor specialising in the treatment of venereal disease . W. Cameron Day Is Coming 504: You might carry a umbrella, jus’ fer a extra touch o' respect-bility — but don’t go makin’ yerself up like a pox-doctor's clerk. No, no,” they shouted. “You can’t wear it like that. You look like a pox doctor’s clerk (pronounced clark).”