Brook, William Henry Breffit (1864 - 1935)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E003911 - Brook, William Henry Breffit (1864 - 1935)

Title
Brook, William Henry Breffit (1864 - 1935)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E003911

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2013-04-24

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for Brook, William Henry Breffit (1864 - 1935), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
Brook, William Henry Breffit

Date of Birth
26 February 1864

Place of Birth
Lincoln

Date of Death
14 January 1935

Place of Death
Lincoln

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
MRCS 21 January 1887
 
FRCS 14 March 1889
 
MB London 1887
 
MD 1890
 
LRCP 1887
 
JP Lincoln

Details
Born at Lincoln 26 February 1864, the only child of Thomas Brook, brewer, and his wife *née* Breffit. He was educated at Lincoln Grammar School, at the Lincoln County Hospital, and at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Following the old custom he was apprenticed to his uncle, Charles Brook, FRCS, who had a long and honourable connexion with medicine in Lincoln. He saw much practice at the county hospital before he came to London and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital with the preliminary scientific exhibition in October 1883. At the University of London he graduated MB in 1887 with the gold medal in forensic medicine and honours in medicine and materia medica. He served a year as house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital and then returned to fill a similar position in the Lincoln County Hospital in 1883 with sole charge of the 100 beds. He was appointed surgeon to the charity in 1900 and retired with the rank of consulting surgeon in March 1934. When the territorial force was established in 1908 he accepted a commission as lieutenant-colonel *à la suite* and during the war of 1914-18 was officer in command of the 4th Northern General Hospital at Wragby Road, Lincoln. Brook served the city of Lincoln well and faithfully. He was sheriff in 1910, coroner from 1911, and a Justice of the Peace. When the Children's Act came into force he was chosen chairman of the juvenile panel, and in 1928 he acted as chairman of the probationary committee and of the 'committee of the remand home. He was also chairman of the committee for slum removal. He held high office in craft masonry and in the allied degrees. He brought into existence a freemasons' library in the province of Norfolk and himself acted as honorary librarian. A good churchman, he took a leading part in 1891 in founding the Lincoln diocesan association of lay readers, acted as its secretary and became its Master. Many Sunday afternoons were spent with his friend Dean Fry in reading Hebrew and discussing theological questions. He married Katherine Wortham on 3 June 1891. She survived him with two sons and a daughter. He died on 14 January 1935 at his house 8 Eastgate, Lincoln, and was buried at Lincoln after a largely attended funeral service in the cathedral. Brook was a cultured, hardworking, and upright practitioner, who carried on the medical tradition of his family in its highest splendour. He was, like all the Brooks, small and dark. Publications:- Total paraplegia, due to caries of the mid-dorsal vertebrae, for which costotrans-versectomy was performed with complete recovery. *Trans Clin Soc Lond*. 1903, 36, 173 and 1904, 37, 223. The value of x-rays as a factor of early diagnosis of pulmonary disease, with A. S. Green. *Ibid*. 1904, 37, 167. Primary tuberculosis of the cervix uteri successfully treated by vaginal hysterectomy. *Trans Obstet Soc Lond*. 1903, 45, 185.

Sources
*Lancet*, 1935, 1, 238 and 298
 
*Brit med J*. 1935, 1, 183
 
Information given by Mrs Katherine Brook
 
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/E003900-E003999

URL for File
376094

Media Type
Unknown