Cover image for
Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E007594 - Rickford, Richard Braithwaite Keevil (1914 - 1990)
Title:
Rickford, Richard Braithwaite Keevil (1914 - 1990)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E007594
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2015-07-20
Description:
Obituary for Rickford, Richard Braithwaite Keevil (1914 - 1990), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Rickford, Richard Braithwaite Keevil
Date of Birth:
1 June 1914
Place of Birth:
London
Date of Death:
18 March 1990
Place of Death:
Dartmouth, Devon
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 1937

FRCS 1943

MB BS London 1938

MD 1941

MRCOG 1941

FRCOG 1954

LRCP 1937
Details:
Richard Braithwaite Keevil Rickford, the first of similar twins of Leslie Thomas Rickford, a banker, and Gladys Georgina Rickford (née Keevil), was born on 1 June 1914, at Hampstead. He was educated at The Gables, Bexhill-on-Sea, and then at the junior and senior schools of Weymouth College, Dorset, before proceeding to St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. He was in the hospital rugby team (later being president of the rugby club) and was also keen on skiing and dinghy sailing. After graduation he was casualty officer, house surgeon and obstetric house surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where he recorded his indebtedness to Charles Noon, the general surgeon and to the gynaecologist, Michael Bulmer. He then became an assistant medical officer in obstetrics in the London County Council, which was part of the Emergency Medical Service during the second world war, before returning to St Thomas's and the Chelsea Hospitals as obstetric and gynaecology registrar. He was there trained by L Carnac Rivett, James Wyatt, Frank Cook and Sir Charles Read. In 1946, at the age of 32, he was appointed to the consultant staff at St Thomas's Hospital, and later to the Chelsea Hospital for Women and Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital as well as being gynaecologist to the Limpsfield and Oxted Cottage Hospital. Rickford served as Dean of the Postgraduate Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology from 1967 to 1979 and actively promoted its worldwide reputation. He served on the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was President of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Royal Society of Medicine. He also represented the United Kingdom on the cancer committee of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics from 1973 to 1979. He maintained an unswerving loyalty to his hospitals and firmly believed in the doctor being leader of the team. He did not suffer fools gladly and had little time for administrative incompetence. His teaching methods were direct and he lived to the highest moral standards, expecting nothing less of his junior staff and students. He was a keen Freemason, by nature somewhat shy, and rather a private man, but with a subtle wit. He sometimes appeared aloof at the bedside, though always instilling in his patients a feeling of complete confidence. He was a man of innate good manners and a skilled operator, working with precision and elegance, especially in the field of major cancer surgery. On retirement he moved to Kingswear in Devon where he enjoyed sailing and became a governor of the local primary school. He married Dorothy Latman in 1939. They enjoyed and took great pride in their family of four sons, two of whom are in medicine, the eldest C R K Rickford FRCS being a surgeon in Truro, whilst a third is a lawyer. Sadly the last three years of his life were overshadowed by progressive motor neurone disease. When he died, aged 75, on 18 March 1990, in the Dartmouth and Kingswear Hospital, he was survived by his wife and three sons, Christopher, Jonathan and Jeremy. A thanksgiving service was held on 24 March 1990 at the church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Kingswear.
Sources:
*Brit med J* 1990, 300, 1595
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/E007000-E007999/E007500-E007599
Media Type:
Unknown