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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E009444 - Missen, Anthony John Bartley (1936 - 2013)
Title:
Missen, Anthony John Bartley (1936 - 2013)
Author:
William Shand
Identifier:
RCS: E009444
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2018-05-18
Description:
Obituary for Missen, Anthony John Bartley (1936 - 2013), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Missen, Anthony John Bartley
Date of Birth:
25 August 1936
Place of Birth:
Wigan, Lancashire
Date of Death:
16 March 2014
Place of Death:
Chichester, West Sussex
Titles/Qualifications:
MB BChir Cambridge 1961

FRCS 1967

MD 1981

JP 1995

FRSA 2002
Details:
John Missen was a consultant surgeon at Hackney Hospital and an assistant coroner in north London. He was born in Wigan on 25 August 1926. Almost immediately the family moved to Suffolk when his father, Leslie Robert Missen, was appointed chief education officer for East Suffolk. John’s mother, Muriel Sarah Deakin Alstead, was a writer and an actress, who had the enviable gift of making friends, an ability she passed on to her two sons. John was educated at a local prep school in Ipswich before going to Lancing College in Sussex. Early interests at school included ornithology and coin-collecting, rapidly followed by archaeology through his interest in the excavations at Verulamium, St Albans. He was chairman of the Young Farmers’ Club and of the motor club, secretary of the badminton club and of the Shakespeare society, founder of the Linnaeus club and more, an inkling of why he developed such a wide range of interests in later years. From Lancing he went to Christ’s College, Cambridge. Here he sang in the choir, was president of the Milton Debating Society and founder of the Goat Club, an exclusive dining club in the college. One year he was part of the college Poppy Day appeal, putting on a revue with songs and sketches, and in his final year he donated his beloved 1926 Riley Nine Tourer to the Poppy Day rag week charity. A more serious pursuit was of course the study of natural sciences, with a view to doing medicine. In 1958, he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital for his clinical training. Here he met Janet, his future wife, who had just come down from Oxford. John qualified in 1961, she in 1962 and they were married later that year. Essential house jobs followed and further examinations, including the FRCS, came next. A senior registrar post and a lectureship in surgery followed, together with the prestigious Cattlin research fellowship, all at Barts, and in due course he was awarded his doctorate in medicine. In 1972, having always been interested in medico-legal matters and rather to the surprise of his friends, John joined the Coroners’ Society of England and Wales, and applied for and was appointed to the post of assistant deputy coroner for inner London (north), a post he held until 1984. His appointment as a justice of the peace followed in 1995. Concurrently with all this, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to Hackney Hospital. Part of this appointment was a surgical tutorship at Barts with responsibility for setting up the surgical teaching programme at Whipps Cross Hospital. However, in spite of one of the senior consultant surgeons at Barts describing John as having the best pair of surgical hands that he had ever seen, it was his medico-legal career that was now to take off. In 1980 John was admitted to the membership of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, although he was never in fact called to the Bar. In 1984, having been appointed as an assistant secretary to the Medical Defence Union (MDU), he left Hackney and Barts. His experience as a coroner and his medical background ensured that he was admirably qualified for this post, a rather archaic Civil Service title for an important job as a medico-legal adviser. During his years at the MDU, he became a highly respected and much appreciated member of staff and in due course was appointed to a post which rejoiced in the title of ‘senior medical claims handler’. His colleagues at the MDU were unanimous in their praise. ‘A steadier man of integrity and principle it would be hard to imagine’ said one, ‘a real brick’. ‘If you wanted a carefully thought out opinion about a serious problem, then John was your man,’ said another. All said that his work was meticulous, his search for clues in a morass of hospital records assiduous, and his subsequent reports beautifully crafted, and all agreed that, when John had something to say, you listened. There was of course a lighter side to all this for he and a colleague became avid collectors of quite unforgettable typos in hospital notes. And two hallmarks emerged – his immaculate three-piece suit and the wisp of smoke curling from beneath the door of his office, for he was by now a pipe smoker and a connoisseur of rather fine cigars: open the door and there he would be, engrossed in a stack of files and enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Above all however, he is remembered at the MDU for his wise counsel, calm demeanour and effective management. There are many in the medical profession who have very good reason to be grateful to John. Following his retirement from the MDU, he continued his legal career serving as a magistrate on the City of London Bench until 2001. Concurrent with his professional career, John developed and maintained strong connections with the City of London livery scene. His interest started at a comparatively early age when he became a yeoman of the Society of Apothecaries in 1967, being granted the Freedom of the City two years later. In 1971, he became a liveryman of the Society and in 1991 was elected to the court. Over the years at Apothecaries’ Hall he served on the livery committee and the charity committee, and for seven years was the Society representative on the court of City University. In 1978, he was admitted to the livery of the Barbers’ Company, joining the court there in 1991, the same year that he joined the court of the Society of Apothecaries – an extraordinary coincidence and a rare achievement. At Barber-Surgeons’ Hall he was a founder member of the historical group, now the Barbers’ historical society, serving as chairman of both that and the charity committee, and having then served in the post of all three wardens, he was elected master in 1997. He listed ‘avoiding public speaking’ on his CV under ‘interests other than hobbies’, but he was in fact a very good after-dinner speaker and his year of office was a great success. During the year however, he suffered a slight stroke, from which he made an excellent recovery and proceeded with the duties of master with undiminished gusto. Unfortunately, this setback in his health persuaded him a year or two later not to proceed to the private court and thence to the mastership of the Society of Apothecaries. Both the Society and the Company will remember with gratitude the very generous gift to each by John, of a banner (with a spare in each case) which fly over the entrance to the halls in Black Friars Lane and in Monkwell Square on high days and holidays. Away from the City and work, he had many other interests. He was a wine buff. He had a comprehensive knowledge of silver and amassed a splendid collection of magnificent pieces associated with the City Livery. He was an expert on clocks. A spin-off of all this was his appointment as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. But his greatest love, apart from family, was probably his collection of vintage cars, an interest he shared with Janet. Between them they acquired and maintained a remarkable garage. Many were the international rallies that they both attended all over Europe in one of their Bugattis on a near annual basis. John died on 21 December 2013 at the age of 77. He was survived by his widow Janet, liveryman of both the Society of Apothecaries and the Company of Barbers, by his daughter Clare, who is also an apothecary and barber, and by his son Andrew, barber and glass seller.
Sources:
Personal knowledge

Janet Missen, staff at the Medical Defence Union, the Society of Apothecaries and the Company of Barbers
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/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
Media Type:
Unknown