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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E005504 - Wolff, Eugene (1896 - 1954)
Title:
Wolff, Eugene (1896 - 1954)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E005504
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-06-23
Description:
Obituary for Wolff, Eugene (1896 - 1954), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Wolff, Eugene
Date of Birth:
11 March 1896
Place of Birth:
Oudtshoorn Cape, South Africa
Date of Death:
25 February 1954
Place of Death:
London
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 14 February 1918

FRCS 9 June 1927

LRCP 1918

MB BS London 1918
Details:
Born on 11 March 1896 at Oudtshoorn, Cape, South Africa, he was educated at University College School and Hospital, London, winning the Lister medal for clinical surgery in 1918 and serving as house surgeon and ophthalmic registrar. He was commissioned in the South African Medical Corps towards the end of the first world war, but returned to University College as demonstrator of anatomy in 1919 under the famous Grafton Elliot Smith; he also lectured on anatomy to the students of the Slade School of Art at University College 1920-30. After a period as chief clinical assistant at Moorfields, he succeeded Basil Lang in 1928 as ophthalmic surgeon to the Royal Northern Hospital, became pathologist at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital in 1930 and surgeon there in 1936. He was also on the staff of the Metropolitan, the Albert Dock, and the London Jewish hospitals. He was a consulting ophthalmic surgeon to the London County Council, and after the second world war he taught at the Institute of Ophthalmology and was a member of the North-Western Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Wolff excelled not merely as a skilled surgeon and sympathetic physician, generous of time and concern in his patients' problems, he was also a good anatomist, pathologist, teacher, artist and writer. His successful books, which were illustrated by his own drawings and photographs, included: *Anatomy for Artists* (1926; 3rd edition 1947), *A shorter Anatomy* (1928), *Anatomy of the Eye and Orbit* (1933; 4th edition 1953, later revised by R J Last), *Pathology of the Eye* (1934; 3rd edition 1951), and *Diseases of the Eye* (1937; 4th edition 1952), He was also on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Ophthalmology*, to which he contributed several papers. He was a vice-president of the Ophthalmological Society in 1945 and of the Ophthalmology sections of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Medical Association, and an honorary member of the Belgian and Greek Ophthalmology Societies. He was awarded the William Mackenzie Memorial Medal at Glasgow in 1947. Wolff married in 1923 Lydia Abravenel, member of a prominent French Sephardic family. He died suddenly on 25 February 1954 at 46 Wimpole Street, aged 57, survived by his wife and daughter, and was buried at the Jewish Cemetery, Hoop Lane, NW. He was a genial, modest, thoughtful, industrious, enthusiastic man, especially kind and hospitable to his graduate students. Music provided his chief recreation.
Sources:
*The Times* 26 February 1954 p 10 e, and 3 March p 10 d eulogy by EC

*Brit J Ophthal* 1954, 38, 253 by J H Doggart with good portrait

*Lancet* 1954, 1, 525 with appreciation by PMcG Moffatt

*Brit med J* 1954, 1, 587 with appreciations by Mr Moffatt and by HEL
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/E005500-E005599
Media Type:
Unknown