Guidelines for authors

• As a first step, it is always worth searching online for the deceased, to find online resources.
• We hold some biographical forms and CVs (curriculum vitae) of fellows in our digital archive at the College; these were usually filled out at the time of the subject’s election to the fellowship. These can be sent as scanned copies (in PDF format) to the author.
• For details of books written by the deceased, see the British Library’s online catalogue. For US-published books, see the Library of Congress catalog. And for Australian books, see the Australian National Library’s website. WorldCat – the world’s largest online library catalogue – is also useful.
• Pubmed lists journal references.
• The British Medical Journal publishes obituaries online, as well as in print. Obituaries published inThe Guardian are available for free online: to access The Telegraph and The Times obituaries, you will need to pay a subscription. Local and regional papers also sometimes publish obituaries; these vary in quality.
• You may want to check Who’s Who if your subject had a high profile. This is an annual publication: current and past volumes may be available at your local public library. (Some local authorities also provide access to Who’s Who online for their library members.)
• It may be useful to contact the archives department of the hospital or medical school where the subject held their major appointment(s).
• For information on the subject’s family background, you may wish to look at a genealogy website (such as Ancestry or Find My Past). These are subscription sites, though you may be able to access them for free through your local public library.

The aim is to create a clear, readable obituary, a lasting memorial to the subject, giving an account of their professional lives as well as a taste of their personality.

We know former colleagues and friends of the deceased, family, medical and general historians, as well as genealogists, read the obituaries: with this in mind, the obituaries do need to be understandable to our largely non-specialist audience.

There is no template for an obituary, but a structure helps. Ideally, try to avoid a dry listing of posts, books, qualifications etc.: the aim is to create a narrative of the subject’s life, not to compile a CV.

It can be interesting to record details of the subject’s parents, their backgrounds and their jobs (not least for family historians and genealogists). Outline, if you can, the early years of the subject’s life, including their schooling, particularly their secondary education.

Please include some information on their university education/medical school, if possible. What signs of early promise were shown? Were they interested in sport? What or who influenced their move into a surgical career? Try to give an account of their early years of surgical training. Why did they follow a particular specialty?

We are particularly keen to record the subject’s achievements in research, however minor. We are aware that research has become a fundamental part of most surgeons’ backgrounds and has led to the staggering change in surgery over the last few decades.

We would also like to record what contribution the surgeon made to social and surgical changes during their lifetime, from the introduction of new techniques in the hospital setting, to participation in committees and reorganisations that occurred during their career.

We would also like know about the subject’s contribution outside the hospital, to science, education, the charity sector and/or to the local community.We are particularly keen to record the subject’s involvement with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, including appointments, committee membership(s), role as examiner etc.

A short final paragraph summarising the subject as a person would complete an ideal obituary, not least how they were viewed by trainees. We would also like to include the names of partners and children (again for the family historians and genealogists). Please see the information about the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) below.

Please include the name of the author (or authors) at the bottom of the obituary.

Reference sources should be quoted at the end of the text, including books, newspaper obituaries, the names of friends/colleagues/family of the deceased you may have talked to, together with obituaries from professional journals.

It may be a good idea to browse this website to see how other authors have written the obituaries. Some recent examples include Pamela Ball, Phyllis George, Hemant Mehta and Sir Ian Todd.

We are keen to include images of the surgeons included in the Lives. If you would like to submit image(s) for inclusion with an obituary, please email us for advice. We do require all copyright holders to fill out a brief form, giving us permission to use the image(s).

Ideally, we prefer photos which:

• show the head and shoulders or head to waist of the subject
• give a clear view of their eyes, with no obstructions
• have no obvious physical obstruction or colour discoloration
• are either face on or in profile.

Please do not include children in any of the images. Pets are allowed but should not be the main focus of the picture.

Please send scanned photos to lives@rcseng.ac.uk. All images sent via email will be stored securely in JPEG format. Please note, the quality of electronic images will be reviewed before they go online. Each image will go through a short editing process. Alterations may be necessary – this may include, for example, cropping, removal of blemishes, darkening or lightening and/or the removal of “red eye”.