Cover image for
Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E006407 - d'Abreu, Alphonsus Liguori (1906 - 1976)
Title:
d'Abreu, Alphonsus Liguori (1906 - 1976)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E006407
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2014-11-25
Description:
Obituary for d'Abreu, Alphonsus Liguori (1906 - 1976), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
d'Abreu, Alphonsus Liguori
Date of Birth:
5 April 1906
Date of Death:
19 April 1976
Titles/Qualifications:
OBE 1944

CBE 1968

MRCS 1930

FRCS 1932

MB ChB Birmingham 1930

ChM 1936

LRCP 1930

FRCP 1968
Details:
Alphonsus d'Abreu, 'Pon' to his many friends, was the younger son of a Birmingham general practitioner and was born on 5 April 1906. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and at Birmingham University. Following graduation in 1930 and resident and registrar appointments in Birmingham he became a lecturer and later assistant director of the surgical professorial unit at Cardiff. During the second world war he served in the RAMC as a surgical specialist in general and thoracic surgery, initially with the First Army in North Africa and then with the Eighth Army in Italy, eventually becoming OC surgical division with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. During this period he was awarded the OBE and was mentioned in dispatches. Following the war d'Abreu returned to Cardiff for a year as acting professor before appointment as consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham hospitals. For some time he remained involved in both general and thoracic surgery, but his expertise and interests led him ultimately into the purely cardiothoracic field. He became the first Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Birmingham in 1959 and also Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. With the retirement of Professor F A R Stammers in 1963 'Pon' also took over his chair though some felt that this over-stretched his responsibility. At the Royal College of Surgeons he served on Council for sixteen years, latterly for two years as Vice- President. He was also a member of the Court of Examiners and was twice elected Hunterian Professor. Outside the College he was President of the Section of Surgery at the Royal Society of Medicine in 1967; President of the Thoracic Society in 1968 and then President of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in the following year. He served on the medical subcommittee of the University Grants Committee and was also a member of the Central Health Services Council from 1964 to 1971. He was Visiting Professor of Surgery at Harvard in 1967 and was elected FRCP in the following year. 'Pon' was an excellent practical surgeon who worked calmly and peacefully in the theatre. He took a keen interest in his juniors and always gave them the greatest of help and encouragement. Endowed with high intelligence, outstanding good looks, enormous energy and great manual dexterity his success was assured; but with all this he was always kind, modest, unassuming and invariably courteous to everyone whatever their station. After the war he served as honorary Colonel to the Medical Services 42 Division of the Territorial Army; he was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire as well as a longstanding member and sometime Vice-President of Warwickshire County Cricket Club. In his youth he had been a keen cricketer and sound batsman: at that time too he had been very active in amateur dramatics and acted with Madeleine Carroll when she was an undergraduate at Birmingham. He married Elizabeth Throckmorton in 1935: they had three daughters and enjoyed a very happy home life in a lovely house with a much-loved garden. Despite his many commitments 'Pon' published a number of papers and his *Practice of thoracic surgery* was a notable work which went into four editions during his lifetime. His later years were marred by increasing disability from Parkinson's disease which was at first well-controlled, but he suffered a severe set-back following his wife's death on holiday in 1970. Despite these crushing blows, he maintained his endearing character and courage, fortified by his family and his Roman Catholic faith as well as by his many friends and outside interests. Towards the end his disease worsened rather rapidly and he died on 19 April 1976, survived by his three daughters and by his elder brother who is also a consultant surgeon.
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/E006000-E006999/E006400-E006499
Media Type:
Unknown