Roddick, Sir Thomas George (1846 - 1923)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E003130 - Roddick, Sir Thomas George (1846 - 1923)

Title
Roddick, Sir Thomas George (1846 - 1923)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E003130

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2012-11-14

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Roddick, Sir Thomas George (1846 - 1923), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Roddick, Sir Thomas George

Date of Birth
31 July 1846

Place of Birth
Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Canada

Date of Death
20 February 1923

Place of Death
Montreal, Canada

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
Knight Bachelor 1914
 
Hon FRCS July 25th 1900
 
MD McGill University Montreal Canada 1868
 
LLD Edin

Details
Born at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, on July 31st, 1846, the son of the Principal of the Government Grammar School; he entered McGill University in 1864, and was the first student of his year and Holmes Gold Medallist. For six years he acted as Resident Surgeon at the Montreal General Hospital. In 1874 he was appointed Attending Surgeon and Demonstrator of Anatomy, and in 1875 he was elected to the Chair of Clinical Surgery. In 1877 he went to Edinburgh to study under Lister, and at the end of some months returned with a full knowledge of the methods and all the apparatus to carry out the technique - spray, prepared gauzes, green protective and rubber sheeting. He was the first to introduce the antiseptic method into Montreal and Canada, which revolutionized surgical practice, banished erysipelas and hospital gangrene, and reduced the mortality of surgical cases to a minimum. In 1885, at the outbreak of Riel's rebellion in the North-West, Roddick went to the front as Deputy Surgeon General of the Canadian Militia, and organized the medical and hospital services. In 1890 he succeeded Fenwick in the Chair of Surgery at McGill University, and when the two Montreal citizens, Lord Mount Stephen and Sir Donald Smith - (later Lord Strathcona), founded the Royal Victoria Hospital, Roddick was entrusted with the organization of the surgical side and visited the chief European centres. He was actively connected with the General Hospital for twenty-five years, during which time he gained a wide reputation as teacher and surgeon. His love for his work, genial manner, and innate kindness of heart endeared him to all. He suffered, indeed, at times from the very defect of his virtue in that he was apt too easily to promise to do those things which he could not perform, but those whom he thus disappointed could not but yield conviction to his inherent kindness. He retired from the active staff, becoming Consulting Surgeon, upon his election to the Canadian Parliament as Conservative Member for Montreal West. He continued Chairman of the Medical Board for many years, and from 1901-1908 was Dean of the Medical Faculty of McGill University, subsequently becoming a Governor of the University. In Parliament as a medical politician he made propagandist tours throughout the Dominion in favour of the so-called 'Roddick Bill', by which, when it became an Act, the Government were enabled to appoint a Medical Council of Canada whose Diploma gave the right to practise throughout the Dominion, to admit to the British Register, and render the holder eligible for the medical services of the Army and Navy. He was elected first President of the Medical Council established under the Canadian Medical Act, 1912, of which a detailed account appeared in the *British Medical Journal* obituary notice on March 17th, 1923. The first occasion on which the British Medical Association paid a visit abroad was the Montreal Meeting in 1897. Roddick was President, and to him was largely due the acceptance of the invitation. His address was published in the *Journal*, 1897, ii, 569. Owing to failing health he had, for several years before his death, wintered in Florida, but at the last he did not make the journey and died at his house in Montreal on Feb 20th, 1923. He was twice married: (1) in 1880 to Miss M McKinnon, who died in 1890; and (2) in 1896 to Miss Redpath, who as Lady Roddick survived him without issue. His portrait is in the Honorary Fellows' Album. Shepherd's *Sir Thomas George Roddick* includes other portraits, also interesting reminiscences of the early work of Roddick, and of George Ross, at the Montreal General Hospital. Roddick contributed largely to the *Montreal Medical Journal* and to the *Montreal General Hospital Reports*.

Sources
*Brit Med Jour*, 1923, i, 489, with portrait

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/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199

URL for File
375313

Media Type
Unknown