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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E005374 - Forrester-Wood, William Rodney (1902 - 1960)
Title:
Forrester-Wood, William Rodney (1902 - 1960)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E005374
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-06-03
Description:
Obituary for Forrester-Wood, William Rodney (1902 - 1960), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Forrester-Wood, William Rodney
Date of Birth:
25 June 1902
Date of Death:
6 April 1960
Place of Death:
Brighton
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 14 February 1929

FRCS 8 December 1932

MB BCh Cambridge 1930

LRCP 1929
Details:
Born on 25 June 1902, son of John Forrester Wood FRCS of Southport, he wished to make the army his career but the loss of sight in one eye at the age of 12 prevented this. Educated at Cheltenham College he was apprenticed at 16 to a firm of engineers, but owing to the world depression his father advised him to change his career. Consequently he studied medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, taking his clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital and qualifying in 1929. After holding resident posts at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, the East Ham Memorial Hospital, and the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, Forrester-Wood was appointed senior assistant resident medical officer at the Brighton Infirmary and remained there all his life. In 1936 he was elected to the senior staff of the Royal Sussex County Hospital and he was also consulting surgeon to the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, the Hayward's Heath Hospital, the Heritage Craft Schools, the St Francis Hospital and Hurstwood Park Hospital. When the National Health Service took over Cuckfield Hospital, built for the Canadian Forces in the Second World War, he was appointed surgeon there in 1948. Forrester-Wood's special interest was paediatric surgery, but he took up thoracic surgery and regularly performed major operations in that field, with the exception of valvulotomy which he refused to do. He was secretary of the Brighton and Sussex Medico-chirurgical Society, and served for a long time on the executive committee of the local BMA Division; at the Annual Meeting in 1956 he was vice-president of the Section of Surgery. After the National Health Service came into operation in 1948 Forrester-Wood was appointed a member of the hospital management committee of the Brighton and Lewes group and was chairman of its medical and medical staff committees for some years. Forrester-Wood was an ideal chairman, but these extensive duties proved too much and in 1958 he suffered a myocardial infarction. Recovering from this he returned to his committees, though not as chairman. A fall whilst riding resulted in a detached retina of his remaining eye and total blindness was threatened. He recovered, however, and continued working and enjoying as far as possible his pleasures of fishing, shooting and gardening. A distinguished Freemason, he held provincial rank in the Craft and Royal Arch. Forrester-Wood died in his sleep at his home, Withdean House, Brighton on 6 April 1960, aged 57, survived by his wife and their son. Publications: Epiphrenic diverticulum of oesophagus. *Brit J Surg* 1948. Giant hypertrophic gastritis. *Brit J Surg* 1950.
Sources:
*Brit med J* 1960, 1, 1281 by WAB, and p 1370 with appreciation by JHC

*Lancet* 1960, 1, 930
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/E005000-E005999/E005300-E005399
Media Type:
Unknown