Cover image for
Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E005415 - Tagart, Robert Edward Bourn (1919 - 1991)
Title:
Tagart, Robert Edward Bourn (1919 - 1991)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E005415
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-06-09

2015-10-02
Description:
Obituary for Tagart, Robert Edward Bourn (1919 - 1991), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Tagart, Robert Edward Bourn
Date of Birth:
21 June 1919
Place of Birth:
Northern Rhodesia
Date of Death:
20 September 1991
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS and FRCS 1948

BM BCh Oxford 1942

MCh Oxford 1951
Details:
Robert (Robin) Tagart was born in Northern Rhodesia on 21 June 1919 and was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford, to which he won a Rhodes scholarship. He qualified in 1942 and during the war served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Subsequently he was appointed resident surgical officer at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and also at St Mark's Hospital, London. In 1955 he was appointed consultant general surgeon to Newmarket General, West Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Saffron Walden Hospitals. Although a fine general surgeon in the widest sense, his main interest lay in colo-proctology, and he was elected President of the proctology section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1980-81. He was awarded a Hunterian professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and wrote a number of papers on proctological subjects. He was also a keen tennis player and a member of Mensa. He enjoyed good books and conversation and had a wide circle of friends. After retirement he took up carpentry as a hobby and also wrote several novels, including a semi-fictional autobiography of his early life, although these were never published. He shared his later years with his partner Meg, having moved from Newmarket to Cambridge. He died there on 20 September 1991 of myeloid leukaemia. He was survived by his wife Betty, née Thornton, whom he married during the war, and their five daughters, Jan, Vicky (who became an immunologist), Pippa, Liz and Char.
Sources:
*BMJ* 1992 304 379, with portrait

Information from Professor P J Lachmann FRS
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/E005400-E005499
Media Type:
Unknown