Bickersteth, Robert Alexander (1862 - 1924)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E000875 - Bickersteth, Robert Alexander (1862 - 1924)

Title
Bickersteth, Robert Alexander (1862 - 1924)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E000875

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2010-03-04

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Bickersteth, Robert Alexander (1862 - 1924), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Bickersteth, Robert Alexander

Date of Birth
4 October 1862

Place of Birth
Liverpool

Date of Death
28 February 1924

Place of Death
Bournemouth

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MRCS February 13th 1890
 
FRCS December 10th 1891
 
LRCP 1890
 
BA Cantab 1884
 
MA 1887
 
MB BCh 1891

Details
Born at Liverpool on October 4th, 1862, the son of Edward Robert Bickersteth (qv); was educated under Dr Hornby at Eton, which he entered in 1872. He was admitted a Pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on June 13th, 1881, and graduated BA with first-class honours in the Natural Science Tripos in 1884. He then entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he was House Surgeon. After being a Clinical Assistant at the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, and the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, he was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Liverpool Infirmary, representing the third generation of his family on the staff of that institution. In due course he became full Surgeon, and, on his resignation in 1921, Consulting Surgeon. His attention was specially directed to urology, and he was elected a Corresponding Member of L’Association française d’Urologie and a Member of L’Association Internationale d’Urologie. He was distinguished as a clinical teacher and lecturer on surgery, and was Examiner in Surgery at the Liverpool University. At the Liverpool Medical Institution he was Treasurer and Vice-President. At the Liverpool Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1912 he was President of the Section of Surgery. From 1914-1918 he served as Major RAMC(T) at the 1st Western General Hospital, and later at the 57th General Hospital in France. Whilst in practice he lived at 4 Rodney Street; on retirement he went to Outgate, Ambleside. He died at Bournemouth on February 28th, 1924, and was buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, where his great-grandfather had practised, leaving a widow, three sons, and two daughters. Dr George Luys in 1901 at the Laboisière Hospital of Paris had devised an instrument for separating in the bladder the urine from each kidney. Bickersteth visited Paris in October, 1903, and on February 4th, 1904, published his first communication on the intravesical separation of the urine1 at the Liverpool Medical Institution, which was followed by later accounts of further experience with the method. In his paper on kinked ureter2 he explained how the ureter immediately below a hydronephrotic kidney is found sharply kinked so that its lumen becomes obstructed. He gave three diagrams in illustration of this occurrence owing to an abnormal accessory renal artery, which may spring direct from the aorta below the level of the main renal artery. In a few cases he had divided this artery and relieved the hydronephrosis. Publications:- “Intravesical Separation of the Urines coming from the two Kidneys.” – *Lancet*, 1904, i, 437, 859. *Brit. Med. Jour.,* 1904, ii, 837. “Kinked Ureter.” – *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* (Surg. Sect.), 1913-14, vii, 259.

Sources
*Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1924, i, 503
 
*Lancet*, 1924, i, 625

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/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899

URL for File
373058

Media Type
Unknown