Cover image for
Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E004897 - Beck, Diana Jean Kinloch (1902 - 1956)
Title:
Beck, Diana Jean Kinloch (1902 - 1956)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E004897
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-01-22
Description:
Obituary for Beck, Diana Jean Kinloch (1902 - 1956), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Beck, Diana Jean Kinloch
Date of Birth:
29 June 1902
Place of Birth:
Chester
Date of Death:
3 March 1956
Occupation:
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 14 May 1925

FRCS 10 December 1931

LRCP London 1925

FRCS Ed 1930

MB BS London, 1925
Details:
Born at Chester on 29 June 1902, the only daughter of James and Margaret Beck, she was educated at the Queen's School there and at the London School of Medicine for Women, where she won prizes and scholarships. After a few successful years as a general surgeon, she decided to specialise in neurosurgery and trained in Sir Hugh Cairns's exacting school at Oxford, holding the William Gibson research scholarship awarded by the Royal Society of Medicine in 1939. During the war of 1939-45 she practised and taught at Oxford, Enfield, and Bristol, and was appointed neurosurgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in 1943. She received a remarkable tribute to her abilities in being appointed in 1947 neurosurgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, the first appointment of a woman to the senior staff of a major teaching hospital in London. She quickly made her mark here as surgeon, teacher, and popular member of the community. She published valuable papers in *Brain*, *The British Journal of Surgery*, and elsewhere, her latest work being on the surgical treatment of intracerebral haemorrhage. She served for two years as president of the London Association of the Medical Women's Federation. She was the only woman neurosurgeon of consultant rank in western Europe or North America, and carried her exhausting work and responsibilities with consummate ability in spite of frail physique. She was a woman of naturally fastidious taste and open-hearted generosity. She died suddenly on 3 March 1956, when apparently well on the way to recovery after undergoing thymectomy. A memorial service was held in Middlesex Hospital Chapel on 22 March. She was survived by her two brothers. Publications: Oligodendrogliomatosis of the cerebrospinal pathway, with D S Russell. *Brain* 1942, 65, 352-372. Implantation of acrylic resin discs in rabbits' skulls, with D S Russell and others. *Brit J Surg* 1945, 33, 83-6. Experiments on thrombosis of the superior longitudinal sinus, with D S Russell. *J Neurosurg* 1946, 3, 337-347. Intracranial haemorrhage in closed head injuries. *Arch Middx Hosp* 1954, 4, 231-255. Sequelae of head injuries. *Trans Ass Indust Med Off* 1955, 5, 77-83.
Sources:
*The Times* 6 March 1956, p 13 A-B with appreciation by Sir Geoffrey Jefferson FRCS, President of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons

*Brit med J* 1956, 1, 634 by EMS with portrait, and eulogy by Sir Geoffrey Jefferson

*Middx Hosp J* 1956, 56, 34 with portrait

*The Times* 7 March 1956, p13 D by Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, principal medical officer of the Ministry of Health

*The Times* 8 March 1956, p 14 A by Josephine Barnes FRCS

*The Times* 12 March 1956, p 14 F by R Vaughan Hudson FRCS, Dr Michael Kremer and Professor B W Windeyer

*The Times* 23 March 1956, p 12 C, memorial service
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/E004000-E004999/E004800-E004899
Media Type:
Unknown