Carson, Herbert William (1870 - 1930)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E003885 - Carson, Herbert William (1870 - 1930)

Title
Carson, Herbert William (1870 - 1930)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E003885

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2013-04-18

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Carson, Herbert William (1870 - 1930), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Carson, Herbert William

Date of Birth
9 October 1870

Date of Death
31 August 1930

Place of Death
London

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MRCS 29 July 1895
 
FRCS 14 December 1899
 
LRCP 1895

Details
Born 9 October 1870, the third child and third son of James Hamilton Carson, a civil engineer, and Caroline Sharpe, his wife. He was educated privately and at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. In 1895 he was elected house surgeon at the Tottenham Hospital and remained attached to the institution for the rest of his life, becoming assistant surgeon in 1897 and surgeon in 1904. Carson intended at first to specialize in the surgery of the ear, nose, and throat, and was appointed to take charge of this department in 1899. He resigned it in 1912, and from that time onwards practised general surgery with a special interest in acute abdominal cases. During the whole of his professional life he was keenly interested in postgraduate teaching, and in 1900 he organized, in conjunction with Dr A J Whiting, the North-east London Clinical Society and twice served the office of president. From this society was formed 1902 the North-east London Postgraduate College, which soon became a flourishing centre of postgraduate education, not only for the north of London but for students from a very wide area. The foundation of the Fellowship of Medicine in 1919 gave a still further impetus to postgraduate teaching in London, and Carson at once took a leading part in its organization. He served on the executive committee from 1923 and acted as chairman from 1928, devoting himself more especially to the develop¬ment of the overseas side of the scheme, for which purpose he visited Canada and the United States on more than one occasion. Carson was president of the Hunterian Society for the year 1924-25; president of the Medical Society of London 1927-28 and its treasurer in 1928; and honorary librarian of the Royal Society of Medicine, a post to which he had been appointed only a few months before his death. During the war of 1914-18 he served as surgeon to King George V Hospital, in London, with the rank of captain, RAMC (T.). He married Mary Willis on 19 December 1912, but there were no children. He died at his house 111 Harley Street, W, on Sunday 31 August 1930, of pneumonia after an exploratory abdominal operation. Carson had great administrative ability and by his power of teaching and organization was instrumental in converting the Tottenham Hospital, a small charity on the outskirts of London, into the well-recognized Prince of Wales Hospital, where there were good lectures, good clinics, and excellent surgery. His literary ability was considerable and he was a good and fluent speaker. He was a first-class chess player, a keen wicket-keeper, and a great lover of the sea. Tall and athletic in build, he had a soft and pleasing voice and a very friendly manner. At the Hunterian Society he delivered the Hunterian oration on peritonitis, a subject he treated in greater detail in his Mutter lecture at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1929. He was a member of the Alliance Lodge of Freemasons, No 1827. Publications:- *Aids to surgical diagnosis*. London, 1906. *Asepsis and how to secure it*. London, 1914. Clinical aspects of tuberculous mesenteric glands. *Trans med Soc Lond*, 1918, 41, 220. Editor of *Modern operative surgery*, 2 volumes, London, 1924. Pye's *Surgical handicraft*, 10th ed. Bristol, 1931.

Sources
*The Times*, 2 September 1930
 
*Lancet* 1930, 2, 556, with portrait
 
*Brit med J*, 1930, 2, 451, with portrait
 
*St Bart's Hosp J*, 1930, 38, 19
 
*Postgrad med J*, 1930, 6, 10, with portrait
 
Information provided by his brother, H A H Carson
 
personal knowledge

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/E003800-E003899

URL for File
376068

Media Type
Unknown