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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E001477 - Dunn, Louis Albert (1858 - 1918)
Title:
Dunn, Louis Albert (1858 - 1918)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E001477
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2011-11-02
Description:
Obituary for Dunn, Louis Albert (1858 - 1918), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Dunn, Louis Albert
Date of Birth:
1858
Date of Death:
8 June 1918
Place of Death:
London, UK
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS April 20th 1882

FRCS June 12th 1884

LSA 1882

MB BS Lond (Hons) 1884

MS (with Gold Medal) 1888
Details:
The youngest son of J Roberts Dunn, JP, DL, Stone House, Warbleton, Sussex. At Guy's Hospital he gained the Ormerod Scholarship and qualified in 1882, passed with honours the MB BS in 1884, also the FRCS, and in 1888 the MS, gaining the Gold Medal, acting meanwhile in hospital resident appointments. It was the time of the Zulu War, of Rorke's Drift and Isandula; the British Agent, John Dunn, was in everyone's mouth as the trusted British Representative. His fellow-students recognized thus early Dunn's character and transferred to him the name of 'John', and as John Dunn he came to be styled throughout the hospital. He held in succession the posts of Demonstrator of Anatomy, Surgical Registrar, Warden of the College, Assistant Surgeon, Joint Lecturer on Surgery, and Surgeon to the hospital. It is as Warden of the College and all that relates to it that Dunn is especially remembered. A Rugger leader and yet the hardest worker, he saw the good points of everybody; in a quiet and friendly manner he influenced the wayward, criticized eccentricities, put a stop to tiffs and quarrels. Among numerous stories is this one: Dunn was looking out of the College window when he saw three students emerging from the College in quick succession in the direction of a public house where was a billiard saloon. He caught a fourth student as he was going out and invited him in to tea, pressing on him many cups with whimsical persistence as an insurance against alcohol thirst. On the first day of holding a class he learnt names without fail, and within a week or two knew all about the individual's achievements at school and in sport. The football team and all its matches and successes were subjects of constant talks. On the Court of Examiners he showed an intimate knowledge of every Guy's candidate; success of each was a matter of rejoicing, and if the candidate's marks scarcely reached the border line, Dunn had always on the tip of his tongue some pertinent suggestion. On the other hand, Guy's student or not, the idle and careless received no sympathy. As a surgeon Dunn was a very accurate clinical observer with a great memory for cases, frequently recalled when a difficulty in diagnosis was under discussion. He was a careful and assured operator, who kept continually in mind the duty of a teaching surgeon to exhibit to his students what was safe and trustworthy, and to impress upon them that brilliant feats of surgery by individuals were not to be taken as normal procedures. Dunn was for a long while Surgeon to the East London Hospital for Children, and, associated with this interest in the surgery of children, he was Consulting Surgeon to St Mary's Children's Hospital, Plaistow; to the Royal Asylum of St Anne's Society, Red Hill; to the Children's Nursing Home, Barnet; St Alban's Hospital; Emsworth Cottage Hospital; and Tower Hamlets Dispensary. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of Council (1913-1918) and of the Court of Examiners (1907-1917), having been previously an Examiner in Anatomy. He was also Examiner in Surgery to the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds, and to the Royal Naval Medical Service. He and his two elder brothers remained unmarried, and his special joy was to rejoin them at their home and birthplace, and to enjoy shooting in the surrounding woods. In later years he practised in Park Crescent, Portland Place, and a sister resided with him. To his great distress, as she was going on well after an operation for appendicitis, fatal pulmonary embolism supervened. This loss told severely on his health. Kidney trouble obliged him to submit to operation; the diseased kidney proved to be irremovable, and only continuous drainage could be instituted. Dunn continued active as a surgeon and examiner in spite of inconvenience which would have stopped anyone less brave. He had hoped for a prolongation of life, and had moved to a house on the Buckinghamshire Hills, but the disease made progress, and he died in Bright's Ward, Guy's Hospital, on June 8th, 1918. A portrait accompanies the notice in the *Guy's Hospital Gazette* Obituary.
Sources:
*Guy's Hosp. Gaz.*, 1918, xxxii, 199

*Brit. Med. Jour.* 1918, I, 710

*Lancet* 1918, I, 914
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
Media Type:
Unknown