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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E003904 - Briggs, Henry (1856 - 1944)
Title:
Briggs, Henry (1856 - 1944)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E003904
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2013-04-22
Description:
Obituary for Briggs, Henry (1856 - 1944), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Briggs, Henry
Date of Birth:
10 May 1856
Place of Birth:
Pilkington, Lancashire
Date of Death:
22 November 1944
Place of Death:
Hoylake
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 24 July 1877

FRCS 12 June 1884

Hon LLD Liverpool 1934

MB Edinburgh 1877
Details:
Born at Pilkington, Lancashire on 10 May 1856, the third child and second son of James Briggs, he was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, at Owens College, Manchester, and at Edinburgh University. There he learnt anatomy from Sir William Turner, and was senior medallist; and surgery from Lister, and won the gold medal and first prize. Qualifying in 1877 in Edinburgh and London, he served as resident surgical officer at the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool, and then became senior resident medical officer at the Royal Infirmary, where he was subsequently surgical tutor and anaesthetist. He was also demonstrator of anatomy and assistant lecturer in surgery at Liverpool University College. In 1884 he took the Fellowship, and was advised by Lister to follow his example and migrate to London. But already Briggs had decided to specialize as a gynaecological surgeon, and to devote himself to the teaching of midwifery at Liverpool. His work lay in the old Hospital for Women in Shaw Street, a block of converted merchants' mansions and in the old maternity hospital, a group of villas above a railway cutting linked by covered ways. To both he ultimately became consulting surgeon. Here he worked with John Gemmell, CM Edinburgh 1885, and John Wallace MD Edinburgh 1861, whom he succeeded in 1898 as professor of midwifery and gynaecology. When the new medical school was built, Briggs' teaching department was enabled to expand in the old school. This space he equipped at his own expense, and paid much attention to the development of the departmental museum. Briggs was determined to save his students from the almost obligatory pilgrimage to Dublin for their midwifery experience; he furnished and financed Brownlow House as a hostel for students, and created facilities for their clinical training in midwifery at Liverpool. He was an excellent teacher, interesting his class by simple, homely, and often broad humour. He also instituted lectures for midwives in his department. For many years he examined for Edinburgh University. Briggs resigned the professorship on reaching the age limit in 1921, and was created emeritus professor. In 1934, at the centenary of the Liverpool Medical School, the University gave him an honorary doctorate of laws. In 1936 his friends and past students subscribed to set up a tablet in his honour, which was unveiled by Lord Derby in Briggs' old department. He served as president of the section of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Liverpool meeting of the British Medical Association in 1912, and was later president of the section of obstetrics at the Royal Society of Medicine; he was a Fellow of the Edinburgh Obstetrical Society, an original member, president and an Honorary Fellow of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, and served on the Central Midwives Board. Briggs married in 1891 Annie Rosalie, eldest daughter of Egerton F Hall, MD of Prescot, Lancs. He lived after his retirement at 16 Stanley Road, Hoylake, where he died on 22 November 1944, aged 88, survived by his two daughters. His recreations had been golf, shooting, and gardening. Publications:- A successful Porro's operation. *Med Press*, 1891, 2, 492. Haematocele in relation to cornual and ectopic pregnancy and to inflammatory diseases of uterine appendages. *Liverp med chir J*. 1896, 16, 424. A clinical and pathological report on 49 solid ovarian tumours, of which 31 were fibromata, with R A Hendry. *J Obstet Gynaecol*. 1908, 14, 84. On the spontaneous rupture of cysto-adenomatous tumours. *Brit med J*. 1909, 1, 723. Clinical features of hydatid mole. *Proc R Soc Med*. 1912, 5, 245. Ventrofixation technique. *Ibid*. 1913, 6, 176.
Sources:
*The Times*, 24 November 1944, p 7e

*Lancet*, 1944, 2, 771, with portrait and eulogy by R Coope, MD, FRCP

*Brit med J*. 1944, 2, 774

Additional information given by his daughter, Mrs Mackey
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/E003000-E003999/E003900-E003999
Media Type:
Unknown