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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E004122 - Cruise, Sir Richard Robert (1877 - 1946)
Title:
Cruise, Sir Richard Robert (1877 - 1946)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E004122
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2013-06-20
Description:
Obituary for Cruise, Sir Richard Robert (1877 - 1946), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Cruise, Sir Richard Robert
Date of Birth:
1877
Place of Birth:
Purneah, India
Date of Death:
24 December 1946
Place of Death:
London
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
GCVO 1936

KCVO 1922

CVO 1917

MRCS 25 July 1900

FRCS 11 June 1903

LRCP 1900
Details:
Born about 1877 at Purneah, India, son of Francis Cruise who had died before Richard entered Harrow in April 1890. He received his medical training at St Mary's Hospital. After qualifying in 1900 he specialized as an ophthalmologist, and served as senior clinical ophthalmic assistant at St Mary's and chief clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields. He was for a time house surgeon at the Bristol Eye Hospital and also worked at the Royal Eye Hospital, Southwark, in Paris, and at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital to whose staff he was elected in 1909 and to which he ultimately became a consulting surgeon. In 1934 he founded a research scholarship at the hospital. He was consulting ophthalmic surgeon to Harrow Hospital. Cruise was ophthalmic surgeon to the King Edward VII Hospital for officers, and in August 1914 was commissioned as a captain in the RAMC. He served in France and at the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth. In 1917 he invented a chain visor for attachment to the rim of the soldier's steel helmet; it was three inches deep and could be drawn as a veil across the eyes. The visor was officially adopted in 1918 and was very successful in preventing blinding wounds. Cruise was a brilliant, if somewhat conservative, operator and an excellent teacher. He excelled at the extraction of cataract with iridectomy, and in obtaining perfect drainage in operation for glaucoma. He was for many years surgeon oculist to King George V and on his death in 1936 became surgeon oculist to Queen Mary, an office which he held till the end of his life. He was created CVO in 1917, advanced to knighthood in the Order in 1922 and received the grand cross in 1936. He served on the councils of the Ophthalmological Society and of the ophthalmological section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He wrote an excellent book on *Clinical refraction*, and contributed to the journals of his specialty. Cruise was an expert shot and played a very good game of golf. His favourite recreation was riding, both in the hunting field and in steeplechases. His horse War Gratuity, so called because he bought it with his War service gratuity, became famous. It won him many steeplechases before dying, while he was riding it in a race at Banbury in 1931. He was also a connoisseur of wine and an amateur of painting. Cruise married twice: (1) in 1913 Margery, only daughter of Captain H Woolcombe-Boyce; (2) in 1929 Eileen, daughter of the late Matthew Greenlees and of Mrs Selby Lowndes. He died in St Mary's Hospital on Christmas eve 1946 survived by his wife, his son and two daughters, one of whom married John de Laszlo. He was in active practice to within a short time of his death at 34, Wimpole Street, and lived at Shipton, Winslow, Bucks, where he was buried. A memorial service was held at the King's Chapel of the Savoy on 15 January 1947, at which Queen Mary was represented. Publications:- *Clinical refraction*. London, 1914. Protection of the eyes in warfare by use of author's visor. *Trans Ophthal Soc* 1917, 37, 176 and 1918, 38, 250. Operation for the restoration of contracted and disorganized sockets. *Ibid*. 1919, 39, 118. On the choice of operation in glaucoma. *Ibid*. 1940, 60, 33.
Sources:
*The Times*, 28 December 1946, p 7e, and 3 January 1947, p 7e, appreciation by F W L

*Brit med J* 1947, 1, 74, with portrait and 1947 2, 80, will

*Brit J Ophthal* 1947, 31, 125, with portrait

* Lancet*, 1947, 1, 45, with eulogy by A S P
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/E004000-E004999/E004100-E004199
Media Type:
Unknown