English, Sir Thomas Crisp (1878 - 1949)
by
 
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Asset Name
E004022 - English, Sir Thomas Crisp (1878 - 1949)

Title
English, Sir Thomas Crisp (1878 - 1949)

Author
Royal College of Surgeons of England

Identifier
RCS: E004022

Publisher
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England

Publication Date
2013-05-29

Subject
Medical Obituaries

Description
Obituary for English, Sir Thomas Crisp (1878 - 1949), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Language
English

Source
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows

Full Name
English, Sir Thomas Crisp

Date of Birth
22 July 1878

Date of Death
25 August 1949

Place of Death
Sudbury, Suffolk

Occupation
General surgeon

Titles/Qualifications
KCMG 1918
 
CMG 1917
 
MRCS 8 February 1900
 
FRCS 15 October 1903
 
MB London 1903
 
BS 1904
 
LRCP 1900

Details
Born 22 July 1878, the eldest of the two sons and three daughters of Thomas Johnston English, MRCS 1873, and Eliza Crisp, his wife. Dr T J English succeeded his father Dr Thomas English, MRCS 1848, in practice at 128 Fulham Road, South Kensington, and was anaesthetist to the Cancer Hospital; he died on 3 March 1920. The English family came from the North Riding of Yorkshire; a T N English was a surgical pupil of Sir Edward Home at St George's, in 1806. Crisp English was educated at Westminster School and at St George's Hospital where he was William Brown scholar; his father was a St George's man, but his grandfather had been at St Bartholomew's. He won the Murchison scholarship of the Royal College of Physicians in 1900, the year that he qualified, and the Jacksonian prize of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1902 for his essay on "Fracture of the skull, its consequences immediate and remote, including pathology and treatment". He took the Fellowship in 1903 and was a Hunterian professor in 1904, giving three lectures on "The after effects of head injuries". On the death of Herbert Allingham in 1904, English was elected an assistant surgeon at St George's. He was a sound surgeon of wide interests, and being of handsome appearance and social and intellectual distinction he soon established himself in a very successful practice. He was commissioned a captain in the RAMC territorial force on 4 March 1913, and served as medical officer in charge of troops at the Tower of London. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France, was promoted to be a consulting surgeon to the Army with the rank of colonel AMS on 25 July 1917, and served with the British forces at Salonika and in north Italy. He was four times mentioned in despatches, was created CMG in 1917, and advanced to a knight commandership in the same Order the next year. He was also a knight of the Orders of St Sava of Servia and of George I of Greece. On his return to England he was a member of the Army Medical Board until 1933. He was consulting surgeon to Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, Millbank, to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and to King Edward VII's Hospital for Officers. He was a Knight of Grace and a member of the Chapter-General of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. English became surgeon at St George's in 1912, and also lectured on surgery in the medical school. He was consulting surgeon to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, the Grosvenor Hospital for Women, Queen Charlotte's Hospital, and Beckenham Hospital. He was a loyal St George's man, and strongly opposed the project of removing the hospital from central London. He was active in both the professional and scientific work of the British Medical Association, serving in the Representative Meeting in 1933-36 and 1938, on the central Council 1933-37, and on many special committees. He was president of the section of surgery at the Association's Portsmouth meeting in 1923, and president of the Metropolitan Counties branch in 1939-40. He was Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1937. English was never a prolific writer, but he made several useful contributions to surgical literature, and summed up some of his experience in two small books published after his retirement. He married in 1905 Annie Gaunt McLeod, daughter of Angus McLeod of Edinburgh. Lady English died on 6 March 1946, and Sir Crisp English himself died on 25 August 1949, aged 71, at his country house Chilton Hall, Sudbury, Suffolk, survived by his daughter. He had formerly practised at 82 Brook Street, London, W. Publications:- *A system of treatment*, with Arthur Latham. London, 1912. 4 vols. Surgery at Salonika, with R E Kelly. *Brit med J*. 1918, 1, 305. The language of facts; Hunterian Society's oration. *Med Forum*, 1933, 1, 300. *Patients and appendicitis*. London: Churchill, 1946. *Diseases of the breast*. London: Churchill, 1948.

Sources
*The Times*, 27 August 1949, p 7e and 21 October 1949, will
 
*Brit med J*. 1949, 2, 548, with portrait and appreciation by Ivor Back, FRCS
 
*Lancet*, 1949, 2, 442, with portrait and eulogies by Sir Claude Frankau, FRCS and V H Riddell, FRCS
 
Information from his daughter, Miss Ruth English

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/E004000-E004099

URL for File
376205

Media Type
Unknown