Search Results for

First Title value, for Searching Kenefick, John Stanislaus (1937 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2013-11-15
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373644373644
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Stanislaus Kenefick was a consultant surgeon at Barnet General Hospital. He was born in Cork, Ireland, on 10 February 1937, the son of Thomas Kenefick, a merchant, and Margaret Kenefick. He was educated at Presentation Brothers College in Cork, and then studied medicine at University College, Cork. He gained the Ainsworth scholarship and qualified in 1960 with honours in anatomy, pathology and surgery. He held posts at St Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, and then at North Middlesex Hospital, London. He was a senior registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, and then, in 1975, he was appointed to his consultant post at Barnet. He was also a consultant surgeon to the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in Swiss Cottage. He retired in January 1995. He wrote on a range of topics, including carcinoma of the duodenum, the measurement of interpretation of blood viscosity, and hepatoma. In 1969 he married Erica Anne Lucas. They had four children - Nicholas, Timothy, Susannah and Elizabeth. He died on 14 September 2011, aged 74.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001461
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Le Quesne, Leslie Philip (1919 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by R C G Russell
Publication Date 2011-10-07 2015-02-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373645373645
Occupation General surgeon
Details Leslie Le Quesne was professor of surgery at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born in Ashburton, Devon, on 24 August 1919. His father, Charles Thomas Le Quesne, was a prominent barrister, originally from Jersey; his mother, Florence Elizabeth Eileen Pearce Gould, was the granddaughter of Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, a senior surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital. Two of his maternal uncles were also surgeons. Leslie was educated at Rugby and Exeter College, Oxford. He was passionate about the Navy and, once war was declared in 1939, was determined to join, however, he was rejected on account of his poor eyesight. This defect caused problems with his future career: he was required to wear special glasses, a point noted with humour by the Middlesex Medical School students at their annual Christmas concerts. The defect was later corrected by a successful corneal graft. Le Quesne held junior appointments in Harrow, at the Middlesex, Southend and at St Mark's Hospital, London, and obtained his FRCS in 1947. Back at the Middlesex Hospital, he was first an assistant surgeon on the surgical unit to David Patey and later chief assistant. He remained under Patey's guidance until the senior surgeon retired in 1964 and Le Quesne was appointed to the chair of surgery. Patey had the unique ability of providing entertaining surgical teaching, such that there was a full lecture every Friday afternoon at 4pm, with a mixture of shrewd humour and serious lessons taught over the hour. Le Quesne, with a slightly different style, retained this form of teaching until the end of his career. Le Quesne, both during his training and as an assistant on the surgical unit, found that surgeons too often declared operations to have been a success from a technical point of view, only to find that the patient died. Determined to address this contradiction, he decided to investigate what other factors might be affecting survival after surgery. Nutritional status, for example, had not been addressed and fluid balance had not been investigated. Under Le Quesne's leadership, a new generation of surgeons focused on the physiological parameters which influence the outcome of surgical procedures. With the help of J D N Nabarro, a physician recently appointed from University College London, the physiology of surgery was investigated, resulting in a steady reduction of operative mortality, especially in those patients presenting with fluid deficiency and in diabetics. Much of this work was presented at the Surgical Research Society, a society founded by Patey and strongly supported by Le Quesne. Trainees were encouraged to undertake surgical research, presenting the work in 10 minute presentations: the quality of the research and its presentation played no small part in the success or failure of a surgical career. This approach effectively transformed the surgical approach to the science of surgery. Le Quesne's contributions as professor were considerable, not only in his own field of surgery, but also in the wider national sphere. In particular, the standard of surgical care improved with an emphasis on fluid and electrolyte balance, early mobilisation and the use of graded compression stockings following surgery to eliminate deep vein thrombosis. He persuaded his colleagues to reduce their bed requirements by encouraging shorter stays in hospital, so making space for a whole ward to be given over to intensive care, with a full-time specialist and adequate junior staff for 24 hour, seven day-a-week cover. As he became established, he joined the board of the *British Journal of Surgery* and was later appointed chairman, during which tenure he encouraged the development of a more professional approach. Soon the number of citations to articles published in the journal became important, and the editor was required to be much more careful about the quality of the papers accepted. Similar wisdom and emphasis on improving surgical standards was apparent when he became chairman of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was elected to the honorary fellowships of the American College of Surgeons and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was appointed dean of the faculty of medicine at London University and deputy vice chancellor, the first time a professor of surgery had held this post. Following his retirement from the Middlesex in 1984, he was appointed as medical awards administrator of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Beyond surgery, Le Quesne was fascinated by the life of Admiral Lord Nelson, amassing a collection of Nelson portraits painted on glass (later the subject of a book) and lecturing widely on the surgical aspects of the wounds that led to Nelson's death at Trafalgar. Le Quesne had a successful marriage to Pamela 'Paddy' Fullerton, a consultant neurologist at the Middlesex. Predeceased by his wife, Le Quesne died on 5 August 2011, aged 91, and was survived by their two sons, Thomas and William, and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001462
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lloyd-Jones, Rees Lloyd (1925 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-07 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373646373646
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Rees Lloyd-Jones was a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born in Pwllheli, Caernarfonshire, north Wales, the only child of Griffith and Marie Lloyd Jones; his father was a farmer and garage owner. They were Welsh speaking and strict Methodists, which Rees found rather challenging. At 17 he entered the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. He won prizes throughout his pre-clinical and clinical years, including the Hetley clinical prize and the first Broderip scholarship, an annual prize at the Middlesex. For his National Service he joined the Royal Air Force. On his release, he began his specialist training in obstetrics and gynaecology. The Middlesex Hospital required consultants in the specialty to be fellows of one of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons in the tradition of Victor Bonney, who had been vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, as well as a consultant at the Middlesex. The Middlesex training programme in general surgery provided excellent experience and for Rees the period spent as a registrar to Oswald Lloyd-Davies in colorectal surgery was especially valuable. Rees became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1951. His training in his chosen specialty followed at Queen Charlotte's, the Chelsea Hospital for Women and Oxford, where he rapidly progressed from senior house officer to senior registrar. Oxford provided a wide obstetric experience, including being a member of the 'flying squad', reaching out as far as Gloucestershire, often in poor weather and in their own cars. Returning to the Middlesex as a senior registrar, he developed a reputation as a clinical teacher, and it was as a teacher and a tutor that he will be especially remembered. He was appointed to the staff of the Middlesex in 1961. The gynaecology department was very large, as the Hospital for Women in Soho had come into the domain of the Middlesex with the advent of the National Health Service in 1948. This hospital was one of the three hospitals (Chelsea, Soho and the Samaritans) favoured by candidates for the membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists for their resident surgical officer posts. Soho particularly had a very strong reputation in teaching operative surgery. Although there was no Soho method, the bold Victor Bonney influence was noticeable, but refined, especially by Ralph Winterton. Rees Lloyd-Jones was not the innovator, but rather the developer, of new techniques and his appointment to the staff of Soho added another rather excellent tutor. At Oxford he had met Elisabeth ('Betty') Babington Smith, an anaesthetist, and they were married in Eton College Chapel on 1 May 1954. Their only child, Emma, was born in 1957. Away from medicine, he had an affection for Renaissance and baroque music, but with occasional light relief from Louis Armstrong. Regular holidays in Venice at Christmas were a feature of Lloyd-Jones family life. His home at Cadmore End Common and its adjacent woods and walks brought great pleasure. Sadly in 2003 he suffered from major pulmonary emboli from which he made only a limited recovery. He and Betty moved into an elegant care home at Chilton House near Aylesbury. In 2008 Betty suffered from a fatal stroke. Rees' quality of life was altered - although mentally alert, he was physically compromised. He received excellent care and support from the staff of Chilton House, together with the devoted care of his daughter Emma. Rees Lloyd-Jones died on 27 September 2011. Michael Pugh
Resource Identifier RCS: E001463
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Notaras, Mitchell James (1933 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Rod Armstrong
Publication Date 2011-10-07 2015-10-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373647373647
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Mitchell Notaras was a consultant in colorectal surgery at Barnet General Hospital, London. He was born on 26 March 1933 in the town of Grafton, New South Wales, Australia. His father, Anthony Notaras, and mother, Anthea Notaras née Megaloconomos, were Greek immigrants from the island of Kythera. There were five children, including Mitchell and Angelo, his twin brother. At the age of 16 Notaras was accepted to read medicine at Sydney University Medical School. His studies were supported by a Commonwealth Government scholarship, an act of generosity he never forgot. Nor did he forget the stimulus, help and teaching he received during his holidays from local doctors Mulhearn, Harris and Holland at Grafton Base Hospital. Once qualified, he spent two years working at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as a junior and senior resident medical officer, before travelling to the UK to further his surgical training. Working his passage to the UK as a ship's doctor on a cargo boat, he remembered receiving a stipend of a shilling a month. Starting work at the Hammersmith Hospital, he obtained his FRCS at the Royal Colleges of England and Edinburgh, before moving to St Mark's as a research assistant. Here he was supervised by Alan Parks, Nigel Porter and Alan Young, mainly studying the problems of anal incontinence. This post led to his appointment as resident surgical officer at St Mark's, where he worked for one year under Sir Clifford Naunton Morgan, O V Lloyd-Morgan, Henry Thompson, Hugh Lockhart-Mummery and Ian Todd. He subsequently retained his links with St Mark's as a member of the St Mark's Hospital Association. At this stage Notaras was firmly committed to a career in colo-rectal surgery and, after a post as resident assistant surgeon at UCH, took up a consultant appointment in colo-rectal surgery at Barnet General Hospital. He became in much demand as a visiting professor in centres abroad and, whilst at heart an innovator, he was also quick to recognise worthwhile new techniques that could be applied back in the UK. He was the first to describe a new (subcutaneous) approach to lateral internal anal sphincterotomy, and made significant contributions to the treatment of rectal prolapse, as well as popularising the use of mesh repairs of hernia under local anaesthesia. He enjoyed writing and teaching, as evidenced by his chapters in Rodney Maingot's *Abdominal operations*, Robb and Smith's *Operative surgery* and Nyhus's *Hernia surgery*. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. As a surgeon he was swift, certain and skilful. He was much admired by those who worked with him as much for his dexterity as for his calm and unflappable nature. He was an extremely generous man who helped many others. In particular he never forgot his Australian roots (nor lost the accent) and the fact that his career had been enabled by the Commonwealth scholarship mentioned above. He repaid this generosity in 2003 by establishing a three-year scholarship in perpetuity at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney. (The scholarship allows young Australian post fellowship surgeons to spend a year in research at the University of Sydney, a year in an approved unit of excellence abroad and a year as a senior registrar at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.) In his later years he established, with others, a company called Abgene, which 'specialised in the manufacture of molecular biological reagents, as well as collaborating with universities and industrial partners in research into gene and DNA technology'. In retirement he frequently returned to Australia to visit his family. Whilst there he and his brother restored the heritage listed Saraton (Notaras spelt backwards) Theatre in Grafton. He also returned to Kythera, the Greek island that was his ancestral home. There he rebuilt his grandparents' old house, spending many holidays on the island with his own family and always contributing generously to the local community. It was on Kythera at the house where his father was born that he died suddenly and peacefully on 30 July 2011 aged 78. He was survived by his wife Bente and two sons, as well as three daughters from a previous marriage.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001464
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Paneth, Matthias (1921 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2011-10-07 2015-09-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373648373648
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Mathias Paneth was a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Brompton Hospital, London. He was born in Amsterdam in 1921, the son of a doctor who subsequently worked as a surgeon in Sumatra, where he developed a special interest in tuberculosis surgery. Matt was educated at Gordonstoun and Christ Church, Oxford. After National Service and junior medical posts at the Fulham, Royal Marsden and the Brompton hospitals, he was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship in 1957 to work for a year in Minneapolis with Walton Lillehei, a pioneer of open-heart surgery in children, who used a new type of artificial heart-lung machine designed by his own team. As was the custom in the USA, this led to a number of joint surgical articles. Matt returned to the Brompton Hospital as a senior registrar and two years later was appointed to the consultant staff as a full-time surgeon on the retirement of Russell Brock (later Lord Brock). At the Brompton he was always available to operate and give advice to the junior staff. This availability and willingness to give advice continued until his retirement. At the Brompton Hospital he pioneered heart surgery on infants and later heart valve replacement and repair in adults, with the adequacy of the procedure based on a new non-invasive technique of echocardiography, which allowed assessment of the efficacy of the repair at operation, if not adequate the repair could be immediately modified. Later he was associated with the new techniques of coronary artery bypass surgery. Matt was a tall imposing figure with considerable presence. He had a great sense of humour and an enormous fund of anecdotes, which he would tell with a deadpan face. He was prone to make outrageous statements concerning his colleagues and current events, which were disconcerting to his listeners unless they realised that they were not meant to be taken seriously. He was often stern with his trainees and is reported to have frequently asked in the operating theatre 'Who is the most important person in this room?' They would understandably reply 'Why, you sir', to which he would say 'No, of course not, it is the patient'. He was a founder member of 'Pete's Club', the brain-child of Peter Jones when he was senior registrar to Sir Clement Price Thomas and who subsequently became a consultant in Manchester and later at Westminster Hospital, London. The writer was secretary of the club from its foundation in 1960 until the final meeting in 1988. We were all contemporary cardiothoracic surgeons and we met twice yearly to discuss failures and errors of judgement - the only rule of the club was that 'no case that is presented shall throw credit on the presenter'. We learnt a lot from these meetings, much more than at national meetings where only good results would be reported. Matt would teach his juniors to cut tissue, never to wipe (a crude technique often used by inexperienced surgeons) - 'What you have cut, you can sew,' he would say 'but what you have torn apart cannot be put back together again'. He resurrected the operation of emergency pulmonary embolectomy under cardiopulmonary bypass and he organised a mobile surgical team to carry out this procedure in peripheral hospitals. The technique was soon superseded by intravenous high dosage streptokinase therapy to dissolve the clot in the pulmonary artery. Matt was not a prolific writer of surgical articles, but his surgical technique for lung surgery was well described in a book he co-authored entitled *Fundamental techniques in pulmonary and oesophageal surgery* (London, Springer-Verlag, c.1987). Before going to the United States he had married Shirley Stansbie, with whom he had two daughters, one of whom became a lawyer and was appointed a crown court judge in 2011. Matt died on 31 August 2011, only ten days after an investigation for tiredness, which had revealed an inoperable bronchial carcinoma, for which he wisely refused any treatment. He had not smoked since the 1950s.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001465
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Todd, Ronald Stanley (1930 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by M K H Crumplin
Publication Date 2011-10-07 2011-11-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373649373649
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ron Todd was amongst only the second generation of surgeons appointed to the Wrexham hospitals. He was initially based at the War Memorial Hospital and also in the expanded Emergency Medical Services (EMS) hospital in the town, which was later further developed into the district general hospital for north east Wales. He evolved a leading role in surgical practice there and established a vascular service for the area. He was born on 16 February 1930 in Crosby, Liverpool, where his father ran a photographic business. He first attended the Rolyat Preparatory School and then he went on to Merchant Taylors' School, in Crosby, and left school at 15. In 1946, after the Second World War, at the age of 16, he decided on a career in the Merchant Navy and commenced training as a sea cadet, on the ill-fated HMS *Conway*, which finally broke its back on the Menai Strait. Ron eschewed this career, having realised that life at sea was not going to suit him. He returned to school, willingly accepted back by his headmaster. He then achieved the necessary grades to be accepted by Liverpool Medical School. He always believed that his interview had succeeded since he knew who had written *Raffles*. For his National Service, in 1948, he joined the Army and entered the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, but was released early to start medical school in 1949. He purchased a 350cc Royal Enfield motorbike, which provided him with useful transport. On one occasion, no doubt having journeyed thence on the bike, he and a friend became stuck at the top of the big wheel at New Brighton amusement park and were late for afternoon lectures. Ron was a tall man and, at the annual medical school ball, he always won a prize during the dances for wearing the shoes of the largest size. With few home entertainments at these times, he studied late into the night in the library. He qualified in 1954 from the University of Liverpool. During his initial employment, one of surgical consultants at the Liverpool Royal told Ron and a friend that there was a subterranean way into the nurses' home. Dressed in white overalls one night, they lifted a manhole cover and crawled along some pipes, only to find themselves in the main boiler room. This room was next door to the post mortem room and the boiler man almost succumbed from terror on seeing two apparitions emerge in front of him. After his house jobs at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and Mill Road Maternity Hospital, which involved regular casualty duties, he initially took an interest in obstetrics and gynaecology. But this proved not to be to his taste, so he launched into the practice of general surgery. He started his training at the David Lewis Northern Hospital (opened in 1902 with 237 beds - it closed, its function being supplanted by the Liverpool Royal, in 1978). During his younger days, he took up flying fixed wing aircraft and gained his private pilot licence. He also enjoyed sailing. Between 1960 and 1961, after five years as a surgical trainee, he obtained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh. He was subsequently appointed to work at the Birkenhead General Hospital as a registrar with two consultants, Furber Murphy and J B Oldham, whom he much respected. After cutting his surgical teeth, he decided it was time to boost his career with some research activity and, with a close colleague, John Laine, he travelled to New York in the RMS *Sylvania*. They both took up research fellowships under the wings of John M Howard at the Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia. This led to several publications on renal transplantation. On his return to Liverpool, in 1963, he became a lecturer in the department of surgery under the indomitable C A Wells. During further training and research activities, he met his companion for life, Gillian Drinkwater, a sister on ward five of the Royal Infirmary. He met her when requested to review a case of severe pancreatitis on her medical ward. They were married in 1966. Wrexham, a border town in north east Wales, had had only a single generation of surgeons prior to Ron's appointment - two surgeons, Robert Ninian from Glasgow and John Spalding from Guy's Hospital, both of whom had been appointed after the Second World War. Arriving as a consultant surgeon to the Wrexham Powys and Mawdach Hospital in 1965, Ron had responsibilities in the Wrexham War Memorial Hospital and also the expanded wartime EMS hospital in Croesnewydd Road, into which, eventually, the services of a district general hospital were subsumed. He also thoroughly enjoyed working at the outlying Dolgellau and Welshpool hospitals. A true general surgeon, like his three colleagues, he had to cope with a wide variety of problems, but he could now offer vascular expertise to the region. This was much needed in a mining community with a high proportion of smokers. The hospital had previously been heavily dependent on specialist facilities in Liverpool and Manchester. When John Laine was appointed three years after Ron arrived, they attracted medical students from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and began to advance the hospital in the direction it needed to go. Todd served as College tutor and postgraduate chairman and was later elected to the Court of Examiners of the English College, where he was widely respected. He encouraged several of his colleagues to follow his example in becoming elected to the Court. Ron sometimes joked that he learnt more from the candidates than from books! He had a prodigiously good memory and a sense of humour, often directing quips against himself. He was also a man who gave sound didactic advice, popular or not! Ron was a thoughtful and highly supportive colleague, speedily and wisely decisive, with an inbuilt mastery of surgical craftsmanship. Calmness and self-control in the operating theatre were two of his hallmarks. One of his finest achievements was to give wise and essential counsel to his trainees and junior colleagues. Gill and Ron had three very successful children, two ultimately became barristers and the third, treading truly in his father's talented footsteps, became a well-liked and gifted consultant in gynaecological oncology. Ron retired in 1990, having given 25 years of heavy commitment to the community of a tough mining and border town. Unfortunately the last few years of his life became blighted with Parkinson's disease and a severe neuropathy. Gill gave her all to care for him during these hard times, as did her family and friends. He died on 17 September 2011. Ron was a quiet and private man who deeply cared for his family. He was the epitome of a wise, kind, talented, and reliable general surgeon, one of those masters who could teach so much and lead by sound example.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001466
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Duffin, Edward Wilson (1800 - 1874)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Duka, Theodore (1825 - 1908)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373651373651
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Dukafalu, an ancient manor in the county of Saros, North-West Hungary, on June 22nd, 1825, and came of an old and notable family of nobles. He received his early education at the Lutheran College at Eperjes. His father was Francis de Duka, a country squire, his mother Johanna, daughter of Francis de Szechy. After studying law at the University of Budapest, he passed an examination with honours and was admitted a law student in the High Court of Justice. In 1848, the year of revolutions, he received a Government appointment at Budapest under Louis Kossuth, then Minister of Finance. In common with nearly all his young contemporaries of good family he joined the National Army, and became personal ADC to General Arthur Görgey, Commanding the 7th Army Corps in the Hungarian National Army. He went through all the battles of the campaign up to the capitulation of Vilagos in 1849. At the Battle of Komarom on April 26th, 1849, he was decorated on the field with the Order of Merit and was subsequently promoted Captain. At Vilagos on Aug 13th, 1849, Görgey, Duka, and other Hungarians of note were taken prisoners by the Russians when the Hungarian forces surrendered. Duka, like many others, succeeded in effecting his escape from the German and Austrian authorities, and after a prolonged and most exciting series of adventures reached Paris, whence in 1850 he made his way to London, and in time became a naturalized British subject. Duka was an excellent linguist and spoke several languages. In learning English without a master, he began by committing to memory part of Chapter I of *The Vicar of Wakefield*, and on arriving in London joined the humble but useful Birkbeck Institution of the period, where he taught German and studied English with assiduity. He had been strongly urged to join the medical profession, and he now went as a student to St George's Hospital, where he was very kindly received and assisted, especially by George Pollock (qv). In 1854, through Pollock's influence with his father the Field-Marshal, Duka obtained a commission as Assistant Surgeon in the Bengal Army. He was present in India during the Mutiny, being stationed at Monghir, on the Ganges, and did much good work at different stations, including Patna, Simla, and Darjeeling. He acquired a great knowledge of Eastern languages, and afterwards found this of much use when a member of the Committee of the Bible Society. On March 27th, 1877, he retired on a pension from the Indian Medical Service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and came to reside in England, but paid frequent visits to Hungary. He was accompanied in these tours by his devoted wife, the youngest daughter of the Rev Charles Taylor, DD, Chancellor of the Diocese of Hereford, whom he had married at Calcutta on January 14th, 1855. He was twice received in audience by the Emperor Francis Joseph, and thanked him for the Iron Cross, then no trifle, received in 1883. Francis Joseph was in some sort a colleague of Duka's, having shared in the trouble of 1848 when he succeeded to the crown at the age of 18 in succession to the Emperor Ferdinand, who had abdicated. In March, 1902, Duka was awarded the double pension of a Honvéd Captain in consequence of a certificate forwarded by General Görgey to the Prime Minister of Hungary, setting forth his distinguished army services. He was for some years a Member of Council of the Royal Asiatic Society, and was President of the Tropical Section of the Eighth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography in 1894. For many years he was deeply interested in the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was one of its Vice-Presidents from 1884 to his death. He was also Chairman of the Austro-Hungarian Aid Society in England. Duka resided in London after his retirement in 1874 with the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel IMS, latterly at 55 Nevern Square, and died at West Southbourne, Bournemouth, on May 5th, 1908. He was survived by his widow and two sons, of whom one was a barrister, and the other a medical man who served as a Surgeon in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in South Africa and was awarded the DSO. He promoted in this country the movement which led to the erection of a memorial at Budapest to Semmelweis, and he also wrote a short sketch of his life (*Childbed Fever….A Life's History*, 1888). Lieut-Colonel Crawford (*Notes*) gives the dates of his promotions, etc., as: Assistant Surgeon in Bengal Army, January 3rd, 1854; Surgeon, August 1st, 1865; Surgeon Major, July 1st, 1873; retired, March 27th, 1877. Publications: Duke wrote a life of his countryman, Alexander Csoma de Körös, the first to study the Tibetan language, published in 1885. *Essay on Brahni Grammar*, 1885. *Childbed Fever: its Causes and Prevention: a Life's History*, 8vo, Hertford, 1888. *Semmelweis on Childbed Fever: its Causes and Prevention*, 8vo, Hertford, 1892. *Kossuth and Görgey: Recollections of a Stormy Period*, 1899.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001468
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Duke, Abraham (1810 - 1877)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Dumville, Arthur William (1813 - 1871)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Dunn, John (1792 - 1857)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Dunsterville, George Edward ( - 1890)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Durham, Frederic (1841 - 1928)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Maltby, John Wingate (1928 - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2014-10-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373667373667
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon
Details John Wingate Maltby was a general practitioner and surgeon in Tiverton, Devon. He was born in London in 1928, the son of Henry Wingate Maltby, a doctor. He was educated at Trinity College School, Ontario, Canada, and Marlborough College, and went on to Cambridge University and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He qualified with the conjoint examination in 1954. He held house posts at Bart's and was a house surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, London. He also carried out his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals. From 1961 to 1990, when he retired, he was a general practitioner in Tiverton and a clinical assistant in surgery at Tiverton and District Hospital. In his retirement he wrote two books - *A brief history of science for the citizen* (Tiverton, Halsgrove, 2003) and *A brief history of psychiatry* (Tiverton, Halsgrove, 2005). John Wingate Maltby died on 2 January 2009, aged 80.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001484
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Martinson, Francis Douglas (1916 - 2010)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2014-09-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373668373668
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Francis Douglas Martinson was professor of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He was born on 15 October 1916 in Kumasi, Ghana. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying in 1942. He was a house physician and resident anaesthetist at Leith Hospital, Edinburgh, from January to July 1943, and then a house surgeon at Sunderland Royal Infirmary. From March to October 1945 he was a resident surgical officer at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. He then became an ENT registrar and clinical assistant in Manchester. From 1950 to 1953 he was an ENT registrar at the Salford Royal and Eccles and Patricroft hospitals. In January 1954 he became a senior ENT registrar at the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital, Bradford. In 1956 he was appointed to University College, Ibadan, as a senior lecturer. In October 1963 he became an associate professor and, in October 1967, professor of otorhinolaryngology. He was head of department on two occasions - from 1968 to 1979 and then again briefly in January 1984. He pioneered the study of rhinophycomycosis, a subcutaneous fungal infection. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1951 and of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1953. In 1985 he was awarded the Adesuyi prize for his contributions to health care in West Africa. Martinson formally retired in 1976, but carried on working for another 10 years, training a new generation of otorhinolaryngologists in West Africa. He died on 21 January 2010, aged 93.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001485
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Knight, Michael James (1939 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Donal Shanahan
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373671373671
Occupation Biliary surgeon Hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon
Details Michael James Knight was a biliary surgeon at St James' Hospital, Balham, and St George's Hospital. He was born on 29 August 1939 in Canning Town, London, the son of Charles Knight, a builder, and Ellen Elizabeth Knight née Murphy, a cook. He and his brother Richard were the first of the family to go to university, Mike studying medicine at St George's Hospital Medical School, his brother obtaining a PhD in chemistry. On telling their father that they were both doctors, he questioned when they were going to stop 'playing at university' and get a proper job. During the war years, Knight was evacuated to Somerset, forming a life-long bond with the county and subsequently purchasing a family holiday home there. He qualified in 1963 and, after his houseman year, worked at the Royal Hampshire Hospital, Winchester, before returning to St George's Hospital as a surgical registrar. It was during this period that he worked for Lord Rodney Smith, who became his mentor and guide during the rest of his professional life. Some of Mike's more colourful behaviour can be attributed to the influence of Smith, including his legendary behaviour in the operating theatre and his affection for hospital managers. His research took him to America, where he was a fellow to Washington University, St Louis, and, after his return, was appointed as a senior surgical registrar at St George's Hospital. His research culminated in his Hunterian Professorship in 1975. In 1978 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to St James' Hospital, Balham, and as an honorary senior lecturer in St George's Hospital Medical School. He established himself as a biliary surgeon and his skill, loyalty and discretion soon led to him heading up a world-renowned tertiary referral centre for bile duct strictures. In 1988 St James' Hospital was amalgamated with St George's. At this stage Mike set up and ran the ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) centre there. His skill with the endoscope further enhanced his reputation as a master biliary surgeon. Outside the hospital, he was a member of the Court of Examiners for the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a member of the board of trustees to the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was made president in 1987. He was a very private man and those who knew this side of him were fully aware that he was a devoted family man. He married Phyllis ('Phyl'), a nurse, in 1981. The warmth and generosity of spirit shown by both Mike and Phyl to all those invited into their home were evident. Many evenings ended with Mike playing the piano, music being another of his passions. The last few years of his professional life were dogged with ill health, but before retiring in 2005 he managed to maintain the ERCP service in St George's Hospital, for which he had become famous and continue his ongoing campaign with hospital managers. He was survived by his wife Phyl and his children William and Ellie, who, to his immense pride, have followed him into medicine.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001488
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching MacDonald, William Dawson (1931 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2013-12-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373672373672
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Dawson MacDonald was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, on 27 April 1931, the elder of two sons of William Grant MacDonald, a doctor of medicine, and Edith Christie MacDonald née Dawson. He was educated at Victoria Public School, and then the Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute and the University of Western Ontario. He held posts at the Royal Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario, and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He then went to the UK, first to Warwick Hospital and then to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. In Warwickshire he was influenced by G R Taylor, C R Savage and J D Marsh. He gained his FRCS in 1966. Outside medicine, he enjoyed hunting and skiing. In 1959 he married Jennifer Radford, who also qualified MB BS, and they had three daughters. He died on 10 March 2011, at the age of 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001489
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maurice, David Greatrex (1919 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-05-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373679373679
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details David Greatrex Maurice was a consultant plastic surgeon at the regional plastic surgery unit in the Newcastle and Hartlepool Hospitals Group and then at Sharoe Green Hospital, Preston. He studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, and qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1943. He gained his MB BS in 1945 and his FRCS in 1952. He was a senior registrar at the regional plastic surgery unit, Newcastle, before he was appointed to his consultant post. He wrote articles on clip lip and palate, and repair of pharyngocutaneous fistula. David Greatrex Maurice died on 20 October 2006. He was 86. He was survived by his wife Cynthia, children and grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001496
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Melville, Robert Pope (1913 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Robert Melville
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2020-01-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373680373680
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Robert Pope Melville was a consultant general and breast surgeon in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was born at Wollongong, New South Wales on 23 May 1913. One of five children, his father, Hector Pope Melville, a school principal and advocate for education, encouraged his sons and daughters to learn. His mother was Beatrice Lillian Melville née Arey. From an early age, Bob always wanted to be a doctor. From country New South Wales townships, the family moved to Sydney, where Bob gained a bursary to Fort Street Boys’ High School, from which he gained entry to Sydney University’s school of medicine. He graduated with second class honours in 1938, and also represented the university at tennis. His first postings were as a resident medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney and as a junior fellow at the postgraduate school of medicine. With the start of the Second World War he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), in the medical corps attached to the 2/6th battalion. They sailed on the *Queen Mary* to Palestine, where he was a doctor assigned to the jail in Tel Aviv. He spoke little of the war, except the evacuation from Greece, when he was in charge of the walking wounded, bringing up the rear. He returned to Australia and was then assigned to an AIF field hospital in Lae, Papua New Guinea, where he and his 1938 classmate, Doug Sturrock, an orthopaedic surgeon, worked their magic. Straight after the war, Bob sailed to England, to study for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was awarded the Hallet prize and the Nuffield travelling fellowship in 1946. He gained his FRCS in 1947. From 1947 to 1949, he was a surgical registrar at Southend Hospital, where he worked under the senior surgeon Rodney Maingot. In 1949, he returned to Australia to be with his father before his death. He became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1950, where he was on the council of examiners from 1968 to 1973. He was an assistant to Sir Benjamin Edye at the Scottish Hospital in Paddington, Sydney. He later became the senior surgeon there, with the matron Marg Barry and sister Webb presiding. He was also an honorary surgeon at St George Hospital, Kogerah from 1950 to 1973 . Here he was on call for many nights, operating on car crash victims ‘for whatever time it took’. He also operated at many other hospitals, including the Sutherland, the Masonic, Wolper, St Luke’s and Quirindi hospitals. From 1957 to 1961 he was a lecturer at Sydney University. In the mid 1950's he was a founding member of the Prince of Wales Hospital’s special unit for cancer. After his mother died from breast cancer, this became his branch of investigation within that unit. His enquiry into breast cancer took him to America where, in the early 1960's, he met George ‘Barney’ Crile, the pioneering breast surgeon. They were of the same opinion that breast cancer should be treated by removing lumps rather carrying out full mastectomies. As well as general surgery, diagnosing and removing breast lumps, became his specialist field. He was chairman of the management committee during the establishment of the Sydney-Square Breast Clinic (from 1977 to 1978), and surgeon at the clinic from 1978 until the mid 1980's. He was a member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, where he was chairman of the breast oncology group (from 1973 to 1976), vice president (from 1977 to 1979) and president (from 1979 to 1981). He was also vice president of the Medico-Legal Society of New South Wales in 1980. In the 1960's he travelled behind the Iron Curtain, to Moscow, to visit hospitals there. In return, two Russian doctors visited Sydney. From 1968 to 1973 Bob served on the World Health Organization’s international reference center for the evaluation of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Bob was made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1962. In his old age, at over 80, he continued to attend at the Prince of Wales Hospital for a morning a week, assisting the younger brigade and looking on as they negotiated new key hole methods and techniques. He was a great surgeon and was much liked and admired by theatre staff and fellow doctors alike. In 1952, he married Judy Gainford (who had been Miss Australia 1947). She supported his efforts while looking after their three children – Robert, Fiona and Douglas. Home was a place where visiting and local doctors enjoyed parties given in their honour. Bob died on 7 July 2003 at the age of 90. This Aussie boy from humble beginnings did his family and country proud. His life of achievement, saving and extending people’s lives, was a mighty, noble effort.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001497
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McVey, Ian Lumsden (1927 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Cass McInnes
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373681373681
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Brisbane, Ian Lumsden McVey's early schooling days were spent in Queensland. The family subsequently moved to Melbourne and he finished his schooling at Wesley College. He began medicine at Melbourne University, being a student at the Alfred Hospital and graduated MB BS in 1949 was subsequently Resident and Registrar at the Alfred in 1950 and 1951 and Associate Surgeon in 1952-1954. At the same time he was demonstrator of anatomy at the University, and won the Sir Gordon Taylor Prize for Excellence in The Primary Fellowship Examination in 1953. He travelled to England to further his studies, he worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London (with Sir James Patterson Ross who was then President of the Royal College of Surgeons of London), obtained FRCS in 1955 and finished his United Kingdom training as Registrar at the West Middlesex Hospital. He returned to Melbourne and was appointed Honorary Surgeon to Outpatients at the Alfred Hospital in 1957 obtaining FRACS in 1958. He was subsequently appointed Honorary Surgeon to Inpatients and Head of the Unit at the Alfred in 1965, a position he held until 1983. During this period he proved himself a skilful, often conservative and thoughtful surgeon. His main area of clinical interest was in diseases of the breast and to whom credit must go for the initiation of a multidisciplinary breast clinic. The profession however, was not yet ready for that, so it struggled for a few years and never obtained the status that he had envisaged. His lectures to his students and nurses, were always clear, and given his command of the language and caring approach were always popular - particular his lectures to the nursing staff. He was Examiner in Surgery at Melbourne University and latterly at Monash University. In 1983 the Motor Accident Board (now the TAC) and the Staff nominated Ian to be Director of the Road Trauma Service - a position he held until 1996. His ability to organise and obtain the desired result was apparent. With the assistance of initially Bill Dott and later Alex Rollo and support of his life long secretary Pauline Smith, the revolutionary Helipad structure of the Trauma Centre and its organisation and reception of casualties became a reality and the Alfred Hospital became the prime centre for management of road trauma in Victoria. Appointed to the Consultative Council on emergency and critical care, he was pivotal in the development of trauma services in Victoria and the Road Trauma Centre at the Alfred Hospital remains a monument to him. During this time he was appointed Associate Professor to the Department of Forensic Medicine at Melbourne University and co-ordinator of the Professional Practice Program. During a career studded with Committee work, he was a member of the Alfred Board of Management and Vice President from 1987 to 1994. He was a member of the Council of AMA (Victorian Branch) from 1963 to 1978 and President in 1973. He was a member of the Medical Practitioners Board, member of the Council of the Medical Defence Association of Victoria and its President in 1973-1990. A member of the Medical Benefits Schedule Advisory Committee meant that he was involved with the development of the Medicare Schedule and in addition he was a member of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria. He was Chairman of Victoria Medical Insurance Agency and Director of Professional Indemnity Insurance Company of Australia and subsequently was instrumental in establishing the Medical Indemnity Protection Society when the United Kingdom based Medical Protection Society withdrew from Australia. He was appointed Senior Consultant Surgeon to the Royal Australian Navy in 1962. He was a master of organisation and committees. He had the ability to think on his feet, and could influence a meeting. He had a strong and clear vision for the profession - a facility which on occasions upset his colleagues. He married Norma Hayden a Senior Staff Sister at the Alfred, and together they developed a property on the Mornington Peninsula raising Murray Grey cattle - he became president of the Murray Grey Society and was influential in consolidating its position and development. He was a man of great vision with strong beliefs in the rights and also the responsibilities of the profession ¬ particularly the surgical profession. A was a most generous host and strong believer in the beauty and benefits of rural Australia. He and Norma sold the farm at the turn of the century and built a residence in Mornington where Norma resides. He is survived by Norma, his brother Dan, daughter Ann and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001498
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Milling, Peter Francis (1916 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2013-10-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373682373682
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Peter Milling was senior surgeon at the Royal Ear Hospital, Huntley Street, then part of University College, London, and a hidden treasure of ENT wisdom. He was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on 1 April 1916, the elder son of Frederick William Milling, a Yorkshireman, who, after gaining a degree in greats at Oxford, went straight into business, and Audrey Franca Myra (neé Messerby), whose father had been a bank manager. Peter Milling was educated at Wimbledon College and Stonyhurst, and then read medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School. Shortly after qualifying he was offered a clinical assistantship by D F A ('Fred') Neilson, consultant ENT surgeon at St Thomas'. He then joined the RAMC, with the rank of lieutenant, and was seconded to a field ambulance unit in England. After nine months of service he was invalided out on the grounds of deafness and sinusitis. The deafness was to be a burden to him for the rest of his life (he wore bilateral hearing aids). He resumed his training in ENT, first as a surgical registrar to the ENT department at the Royal Cancer (later Marsden) Hospital and then, with the help of R I ('Bobby') Cann, as a chief clinical assistant and registrar at Guy's Hospital. He later returned to St Thomas' as chief assistant (senior registrar) to W A ('Bill') Mill and Geoffrey Bateman. In addition to his consultant post at the Royal Ear Hospital, Peter Milling was also appointed to sessions at the Brompton Hospital, Epsom District Hospital, Oxsed and Limpsfield hospitals, and to the Civil Service Chest Hospital at Benenden. Peter Milling was somewhat old fashioned in his manner. He was a shrewd diagnostician and contributed chapters to the first edition of *Diseases of the ear, nose and throat* (London, Butterworth & Co, 1952) edited by Bill Scott-Brown. As a young man he played rugby, cricket, squash and bridge, which he used to play before breakfast at Cambridge. Peter Milling's main passion, though, was for trout fishing. This started in 1961 and continued well into his retirement at the age of 60, when he moved to the Isle of Man. He described himself as being a 'crazy trout fisherman who would prefer to fish than to work, but who seldom managed to exercise the preference'. In 1941 Peter Milling married Peggy Todd, who was a childhood friend and a Guy's nurse. She was the sister of T F Todd, a gynaecologist. They shared their Catholic faith and a long marriage. Despite falling down the stairs at his home and breaking his neck, Peter Milling nevertheless lived on to the grand age of 88. He died on 31 October 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001499
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Weaver, Edward John Martin (1921 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Webster, John Herbert Harker (1929 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372330372330
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Herbert Harker Webster was a consultant surgeon in Southampton. He was born in Heswall, Cheshire, on 2 October 1929, the son of Herbert Webster, a biscuit manufacturer, and Doris Louise née Harker, the daughter of a chandler. In 1935 the family moved to Prenton in order to be near to Birkenhead Preparatory School. However, in 1939 he was evacuated to mid-Cheshire because of the war. The schooling there proved unsatisfactory and in 1940 John was sent to Ellesmere College, a school with a fine tradition of choral music, piano and organ teaching. From there he gained a place at Cambridge. He admitted to being absolutely hopeless at ball games, although in his own words he did “become a competent small bore .303 shot” and became a competent rower, rowing fairly consistently in all the major meetings at Cambridge, Putney, Bedford, Chester and Henley. He obtained an upper second degree in anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology. He went up to London and studied for his clinical examinations at the Westminster Medical School, where he won prizes in medicine, surgery, pathology and obstetrics. After qualifying he became house surgeon to Sir Stanford Cade. He then did his National Service in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1957, ending up as a medical officer on an Army troop ship, being involved in the preparation of Christmas Island for the first British hydrogen bomb test. On returning to civilian life in 1959 he met Joy, his wife, at St Albans and they were married the following year at Epsom. He was a junior hospital doctor in Sheffield as registrar, lecturer and then senior registrar. He was given the most enormous responsibilities and, as was the case in those days, given wide knowledge of practically all surgical procedures. In 1967 he was appointed to the Southampton hospitals as a consultant general surgeon with a special interest in vascular surgery, more specifically to his favourite, the Royal South Hants. John noted that he had operated not only from his base at the South Hants, but in places as far flung as Southampton General Hospital, Southampton Western Hospital, Romsey and Lymington Hospitals, the Isle of Wight, Haslar, Basingstoke, Torquay and even the Royal Free. John was a member of the Peripheral Vascular Club, a club made up mostly of so-called ‘second-generation’ vascular surgeons. These surgeons had learnt their trade from single-handed vascular surgeons in the teaching hospitals such as London, Leeds and Edinburgh. They in turn became consultants in their own right in what were then considered to be provincial hospitals. This club formed a great part of John's life; he and Joy enjoyed travelling widely with the fellow members. His teaching abilities, particularly at technical surgery, were renowned. Many of his students were endowed with a sense of confidence, the major characteristic needed in a vascular surgeon. In its heyday his unit attracted excellent senior registrars and lecturers, many of whom have become famous in their own right across the country. He had a particular interest in cervical rib surgery and, together with Peter Clifford, David Whitcher and Richard Bolton from the teaching media department, produced an excellent film on first rib resection, which, in 1988, received an award from the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland for the most outstanding contribution of the year to surgical education. He was a council member of the Vascular Society. He retired in 1994. John was a rather retiring person and sometimes taciturn, but he was a great raconteur once he got going and told many stories. He was a character, a good friend and an excellent surgeon. There was an intellectual side of John's character. If you looked at the bookshelves in his office you were more likely to find works on art and poetry, rather than the latest textbook of anatomy. He made sure he filled in *The Times* crossword every day, and actually became a semi-finalist in a crossword competition. His main regret was not to pursue music, but in retirement he improved his skill on the keyboard and built his own clavichord. He was also a great fly fisherman, fishing with his old chief and mentor from the Westminster Hospital, Robert Cox. Mixed in with all this was a love of golf and, above all, a love of his family, his son, two daughters and eleven grandchildren. He died on 31 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000143
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brennan, Thomas Gabriel (1937 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Lessington-Smith, Caroline Mathilda (1918 - )

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2009-05-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372430372430
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Caroline Lessington-Smith was an ENT surgeon at King’s College Hospital, London. Born Caroline van Dorp on 25 May 1918, she was the daughter of a Dutch pastor based in London. She qualified at the London School of Medicine for Women in 1941 and, choosing ENT as a career, she became senior registrar to the ENT departments at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield, and the Royal Infirmary, Leicester, and senior registrar to the department of surgery of the General Hospital, Leicester. She was subsequently appointed as surgeon in charge of the ENT department of St Giles Hospital, Camberwell, and the Dulwich Hospital. She was interested in paediatric ENT and later worked at the Belgrave Hospital for Children. All three of these hospitals became part of the King's College Hospital group in the early 1960s. A highly intelligent and amiable colleague, she brought her extensive experience to the foreign body endoscopy unit at Camberwell and published a paper in the *Journal of Laryngology & Otology* (1954) entitled ‘Unusual foreign body in the maxillary antrum’, which turned out to be a flat metal ring measuring 7.7cms in diameter which had penetrated the antrum. A year earlier she wrote ‘Tonsillectomy for carcinoma of the tonsil in a dog – with survival’ in the *Veterinary Record*. Whilst at Camberwell in 1963 she met and married Hugh Sim, who had been injured at the Battle of Arnhem and was at the time a hospital administrator. They had two sons. Hugh died whilst Caroline was still working and, shortly after her retirement in the mid 1970s, she remarried and lived in her delightful cottage in Mayfield, East Sussex. She is believed to have died in late 2001 or early 2002, as noted in the *Medical Directory* 2002.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000243
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Byrne, Henry (1932 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Levy, Ivor Saul (1941 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372434372434
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Ivor Levy was a consultant ophthalmologist at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. He was born in Manchester on 29 June 1941 and educated in Manchester, at Pembroke College, Oxford, and at the London Hospital. After junior appointments, he held a research fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, USA, which led to his special interest in neuro-ophthalmology. He was appointed to the Royal London Hospital in 1973. He had a particular interest in collecting books, especially those of Sir Frederick Treves. In 2000 he developed a tremor, which was found to be caused by a communicating hydrocephalus, for which he underwent shunt surgery. He died at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on 21 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000247
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shawcross, Lord Hartley William (1902 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2006-10-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372435372435
Occupation Politician
Details Hartley Shawcross, a barrister, Labour politician and an honorary fellow of the College, will be perhaps best remembered as the leading British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. He was born on 4 February 1902, the son of John and Hilda Shawcross. He was educated at Dulwich College, the London School of Economics and the University of Geneva. He was called to the bar in 1925. He successfully stood for Parliament as a Labour candidate in 1945 and immediately became Attorney General. From 1945 to 1949 he was Britain’s principal UN delegate, as well as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremberg. He later served as President of the Board of Trade before leaving politics and resigning from Parliament in 1958. He went on to help found the University of Sussex and served as chancellor there from 1965 to 1985. He a board member of several major companies. He married three times. His first wife, Alberta Rosita Shyvers, died in 1944. He then married Joan Winifred Mather, by whom he had two sons and a daughter (who became a doctor). In 1997, at the age of 95, he married Susanne Monique Huiskamp. Tall, handsome and with a commanding presence, Shawcross was a most distinguished member of his party, and a good friend to the College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000248
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cudmore, Roger Edward (1935 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Cummins, Brian Holford (1933 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372232372232
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Brian Cummins was a consultant neurosurgeon at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol. He was born in Somerset on 10 March 1933, the son of Peter Cummins (known as ‘Cecil’ or ‘Pop’) and his wife, Rita. His early years were spent in Bath, but he moved to Edmonton, Alberta, in 1946, when his family emigrated to Canada. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Alberta to study classics and modern languages, at the same time as helping his father build the family home. He spent his vacations working as a foreman in pipeline construction in Manitoba. He graduated with honours in 1953. A chance encounter with a book on the surgery of epilepsy by Wilder Penfield, director of the Montreal Neurological Institute, raised in him an ambition to become a neurosurgeon and he spent two years on the medical course at Alberta, before returning to England to complete his studies at Bristol in 1961, when he won a gold medal. After qualifying, he held a junior post in neurosurgery in Oxford under Joe Pennybacker and John Potter, where he developed his interest in head injury management, brain tumour and spinal injury. He returned to Bristol in 1968 as senior registrar. He became a consultant neurosurgeon at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, in 1973. He retired in 1999. Cummins’ interests in neurosurgery were wide, encompassing tumours, spinal surgery and head injuries. He was instrumental in bringing the main technological advances in neurosurgery to Bristol and pioneered teleradiology. He was involved in improving the standards of head injury care in the region by education and guidance on management, and helped the College and the Society of British Neurological Surgeons in producing their booklet on the topic. He was an advocate of multidisciplinary clinics and this, plus his interest in the rehabilitation of head injuries, led to his setting up a head injury unit at Frenchay in 1992, of which he was director for three years. He also took part in the charity Headway which sought to help these patients. He also established a combined clinic for managing brain tumours. In spinal surgery he developed a steel prosthetic joint for implanation into the cervical spine. He was an enthusiastic and patient teacher of junior staff and would spend much time supervising them in operations. Consultant surgeons from at least half the neurosurgical units in the UK trained with him at some stage. He was an adviser on head injury to the Department of Health, the Royal Colleges, and to the World Health Organization in Bosnia. He advised on neurosurgical services in India and South East Asia, and raised funds for a children’s unit. His character was enthusiastic and extroverted. Love of outdoor activities resulted in him breaking both hips rock climbing in 1970. He was so grateful for the help he received from the mountain rescue team that he joined the organisation to advise and teach. He enjoyed skiing, canoeing, hill-walking and travel to remote places, and he was an extremely knowledgeable gardener, studying for a degree in botany during his early retirement. He married Annie in 1961 and they had two sons, Sean and Jason. He died on 16 August 2003 after a short illness of carcinoma of the pancreas.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000045
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Darné, Francois Xavier ( - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Davey, William Wilkin (1912 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372234372234
Occupation General surgeon
Details Will Davey wrote the first textbook on surgery in tropical countries. He was born on 28 February 1912 in Dunmurry, near Belfast, in Northern Ireland. His father, Robert, was a minister of religion. His mother was Charlotte née Higginson. One of a family of five, he studied medicine at Queens University, graduating in 1935. During his studies his mother gave him a copy of *For sinners only*, which led to his involvement in Moral Rearmament, an international movement for moral and spiritual renewal. During the second world war he joined up, but was given time to complete his exams, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He was then assigned to the RAF as a medical officer to a number of operational squadrons. In early 1944 he was part of a medical team assisting the Normandy landings. After the war he trained in gastroenterology at St James's Hospital, Balham, and subsequently became a consultant at the Whittington Hospital, where he ran a gastroenterological unit covering the whole northern area of London. In 1958 he was a Hunterian professor at the College. He ran courses to prepare students for the FRCS. His skills as a teacher led to an invitation from London University to go to Nigeria to become professor of surgery at University College, Ibadan, an offshoot of the British University. The first 14 doctors ever to graduate in Nigeria were among his students. Returning to London, Will wrote *Companion to surgery in Africa, etc*, (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1968), the first textbook on surgery for tropical countries. In 1969 he decided to settle in Australia, and set up as a surgeon in general practice in Portland, where he was also the port and quarantine officer, and medical officer to the town's large meatworks. In his later years he made several visits to India and four to Papua New Guinea, where he was pleased to find his book on tropical surgery being used. He was a past President of the Australian Provincial Surgeons Association. He retired in 1984. He played tennis into his 80s, took on computers at 90 and, latterly, the intricacies of digital cameras. He married Gill née Taylor in Reading, in 1950, after meeting her in the hospital laboratory where she worked. They had five children, ten grandchildren and a great grandson. He died on 30 May 2004 in Altona in Melbourne, Australia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000047
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davis, Abram Albert (1904 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Denham, Robin Arthur (1922 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Dinning, Trevor Alfred Ridley (1919 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2010-01-27
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372237372237
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Trevor Dinning, known since childhood as ‘Jim’, was the architect of neurosurgical services in South Australia and the creator of a very successful research foundation. He was born in Dulwich, Adelaide, on 16 February 1919, the second child of Alfred Ernest Dinning, a school inspector and later headmaster of Adelaide Boys High School, and Maud Isabel née Ridley, who died two years after his birth. He was educated at his father’s school and then went on to study medicine at the University of Adelaide, qualifying in 1942 in the top three of the year after completing a shortened wartime course. In 1943 he joined the Army, serving as a captain in the Northern Australia Observer Unit and then in the 2nd 17th Australian Infantry Battalion. He developed pulmonary tuberculosis, which incapacitated him for some two years. He was discharged from the Army in 1946. It was at this time that he decided to make a career in neurosurgery. After his recovery, he took an appointment as lecturer in anatomy at the University of Adelaide, under the brilliant neuro-anatomist Andrew Abbie. During this time he wrote a paper on healed fractures in aborigines, based on the collection of skeletons in the South Australian Museum. Work as an anatomist doubtless contributed to his success as a surgeon: as an operator he was at his best in procedures demanding exceptional anatomical skill. At that time, it was virtually impossible to train as a specialist neurosurgeon in Australia, so, on a grant from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Jim went to the UK. He entered neurosurgical training at Guy’s Hospital under Murray Falconer. During this appointment he was first author of a paper on ruptured intracranial aneurysm as a cause of sudden death, the work being based on forensic cases. Falconer had been a pupil of Sir Hugh Cairns, who was a pupil of the pioneering American neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing. Jim was to exemplify the best qualities of the Cushing/Cairns school – great interest in the neurosciences, unhurried and meticulous operative technique and total commitment to the welfare of patients. Jim returned to Australia in 1953 and took up an appointment in the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where he was to work for the next 30 years under a variety of titles – first as a member of the honorary staff, then from 1970 as full-time director of neurosurgery. After his resignation in 1979 he remained as a visiting consultant until 1983. He was also chief of neurosurgery in what is now the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. In both hospitals he rapidly established modern neurosurgical units, with rigorous attention to quality control and case audits. He was not the first neurosurgeon to serve these two hospitals – he was preceded Sir Leonard Lindon, one of the founders of Australian neurosurgery. Sir Leonard welcomed and supported Jim, but it is true to say that the development of an integrated state-wide neurosurgical service was very largely Jim’s achievement. He gave special attention to the needs of South Australians living in country areas, and in the 1960s persuaded the then minister of health to equip country hospitals with instruments to care for head injuries. Although he was happiest in his work in public hospitals, he ran a well-organised private service, chiefly at the Memorial Hospital, where after his retirement he treated cases of intractable pain. As a consultant neurosurgeon, Jim was liked and trusted by his colleagues, and admired as a superb diagnostician. As a doctor, he was warm and compassionate. Jim planned his unit with research in mind. When he had promising trainees, he placed them in overseas units with good research facilities, where they learned the skills that have since helped to make Adelaide a leader in head injury research. Most imaginatively, he created in 1964 what is now the Neurosurgical Research Foundation (NRF) to raise funds to sustain research work. The foundation received support because community leaders knew Jim and trusted him, and it received donations from those who knew him as a good doctor. In 1988, when Jim was president of the NRF, fundraising for an academic chair in surgical neuroscience was initiated, and in 1992 the University of Adelaide established a chair of neurosurgery research. This very productive chair is one of Jim’s greatest achievements. Jim was a master of bedside teaching, and he also taught by example. No one who worked with Jim could fail to know that he practised medicine according to the highest ethical standards and expected that his pupils would do the same. His teaching was fruitful. Today, Adelaide’s neurosurgeons are all in a sense his pupils. Some were directly recruited and trained by him. Others came to him trained elsewhere but are proud to have learned from him. Even those who came after his retirement were taught by his trainees and worked in the environment that he made. On a national level, Jim was a major force in the creation of neurosurgical training systems in Australia, which began around 1970, when he was president of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia. Outside Australia, some of Jim’s pupils now hold distinguished neurosurgical positions in Scotland, England and New Zealand. One of his earliest interns, J K A Clezy, was the first professor of surgery in Papua New Guinea, and brought neurosurgery to that country. Jim married Beatrice Margaret née Hay in 1943 and they had one son, Andrew, and three daughters – Anthea, Josephine and Nadia. He had many interests outside his profession, including photography, farming, stock-breeding, bee-keeping and sailing. He died on 22 September 2003 from chronic renal failure after a long illness. He has many memorials. He is commemorated by the Dinning Science Library at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, which is appropriate – he was a very scholarly man. He is remembered in the research foundation that he created. And, lastly, his example and his teaching have entered into the fabric of Australian neurosurgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000050
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Drew, Alfred John (1916 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Eddey, Howard Hadfield (1910 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372240372240
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Howard Eddey was a former professor of surgery at Melbourne University. He was born on 3 September 1910, in Melbourne. His father was Charles Howard Eddey, a manager, and his mother was Rachel Beatrice née Hadfield, the daughter of a teacher. He was educated at Melbourne High School, where he was captain of boats and featured in many winning crews. He was also in the school lacrosse team. He went on to the University of Melbourne, where he won a university blue. He was subsequently a resident at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for two years. He then went to the UK, where he studied for his FRCS, winning the Hallet prize in the process. During the second world war he served in the Australian Imperial Force with the 2/13 Australian General Hospital, becoming a Major in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He was captured by the Japanese and spent time in prisoner of war camps in Changi and then in North Borneo. While he was captured he was involved in 'kangkong' harvesting and the treating of a local wild vegetable, to produce a drink that was rich in vitamins. Howard made sure the soldiers drank this frequently, as it reduced the incidence of beriberi and pellagra. During his time in captivity Howard also wrote notes on anatomy on scrap paper. This later became a key anatomy text, used by generations of medical students. He returned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital after the war as an honorary surgeon. He was dean of the clinical school there from 1965 to 1967. As a clinician he gained an impressive reputation as a head and neck surgeon. In particular his parotid gland surgery and cancer work with radical neck dissection gained considerable prominence. In 1966 the University of Melbourne decided to establish a third clinical school at the Austin Hospital and Eddey was invited to become the foundation professor of surgery. He had no background in research, but recruited a team of young surgeons with research skills and the research reputation of the department of surgery was rapidly established. In 1971 Eddey became dean and held this position until 1975. He was a member of the board of management from 1971 to 1977, and was vice-president from 1975 to 1977. In honour of his contribution to the development of Austin as a clinical school, the new operating theatres and library have been named after him. Eddey was regarded as an outstanding teacher and, through his role with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), helped surgical education in South East Asia. He made many visits to Asian hospitals and was involved with examinations and giving lectures. The RACS created the Howard Eddey medal in recognition of his work in Asia. He was a member of the board of examiners at the RACS from 1958 to 1973, and was chairman from 1968 to 1973. He was a member of council from 1967 to 1975 and served as honorary librarian from 1968 to 1975. He served on many other bodies, including the Cancer Institute and the Anti Cancer Council. His service to the community was recognised by his appointment as honorary surgeon to Prince Charles and he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. He was married to Alice née Paul from Kew, Victoria, for 30 years. They had three children - Robert Michael, Peter and Pamela Ann. Eddey died on 16 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000053
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Evans, Arthur Briant (1909 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372241372241
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Briant Evans was a former consultant obstetric and gynaecological surgeon at Westminster Hospital, Chelsea Hospital for Women and Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital. He was born in London in 1909, the eldest son of Arthur Evans, a surgeon at the Westminster Hospital. He was educated at Westminster School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before completing his clinical studies at the Westminster Hospital. On the day he qualified in April 1933 his father, who had a large number of theatrical clients, took him to the theatre. They went to see Sir Seymour Hicks in his dressing room in the interval. On hearing that Briant had just qualified, he asked “How do I look?” Briant said, “Very well sir.” “Good, here’s your first private fee,” he replied, handing him a £1 note from his coat pocket. Following junior appointments at Westminster Hospital, Chelsea Hospital for Women and Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital, he acquired his FRCS and the MRCOG. During the war he served in the Emergency Medical Service in London and was in the RAMC from 1941 to 1946, serving in the UK, Egypt (with the 8th General Hospital, Alexandria), Italy and Austria (where he was officer in charge of the No 9 field surgical unit) and was obstetric and gynaecological consultant to the Central Mediterranean Force. He ended the war as a lieutenant colonel. He was subsequently appointed obstetric and gynaecological surgeon to Westminster Hospital, obstetric surgeon to Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital and surgeon to the Chelsea Hospital for Women. He examined for the Universities of Cambridge and London, and for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Briant was much loved and respected by his patients and colleagues. He made operating appear easy. Quiet in manner and ever courteous, he loved teaching and was never happier than when accompanied by students on ward rounds and in the theatre. After retiring he bought a farm in Devon and his son Hugh was brought in to run it. He loved country life. He was a keen gardener, enjoyed sailing and had been a good tennis player in earlier days. His last home was in Buckinghamshire. In 1939 he married Audrey Holloway, the sister of David Holloway, who was engaged to Briant’s sister, Nancy. His wife died before him. They leave three sons (Roddy, Martin and Hugh), eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren. He died from a stroke on 3 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000054
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Falloon, Maurice White (1921 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Ford, Colin Gagen (1934 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2007-02-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372245372245
Occupation General Practitioner
Details Colin Gagen Ford was a former general practitioner in Chislehurst, Kent. He was born in Merton Park on 11 December 1934, the son of Bertram Leonard Ford and Kathleen May née Gagen. He attended Rutlish School, but left at 16 after gaining his O levels. He joined Cable and Wireless, becoming a proficient morse operator, and whilst working there attended evening classes to gain the necessary A levels for entry to medical school. His studying was interrupted by his National Service: he served with the Royal Marines, winning the coveted green commando beret and serving in Cyprus. He went on to St Mary’s to study medicine, graduating in 1962. He played rugby for the second XV and rowed for the college. After qualifying, he was a house surgeon to Sir Arthur Porritt and H H G Eastcott at St Mary’s and was then a house physician at Paddington General Hospital. He then went into general practice, but later returned to hospital medicine and developed an interest in orthopaedics. However, he failed to gain a place on a training programme, being told he was “too old and too experienced”, although he did achieve his FRCS in 1973. After several locums, he returned to general practice. He married Ann McAra, a consultant anaesthetist, in 1969 and they had two sons and two daughters – William, Kate, Robert and Helen. He was interested in old cars, sailing and golf. He had a long battle with alcohol and finally retired in 1991 on medical grounds. He died from pancreatitis as a result of alcoholic liver disease on 29 March 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000058
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gayton, William Robertson (1912 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Glashan, Robin Wattie (1933 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Harrison, Sir Donald Frederick Norris (1925 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372256372256
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Donald Harrison was a leading ear, nose and throat surgeon who campaigned against chewing tobacco. He was born in Portsmouth on 9 March 1925, the son of Frederick William Rees Harrison OBE JP, the principal of the College of Technology for Monmouthshire, and Florence Norris. He was educated at Newport High School and then went on to study medicine at Guy’s. After junior posts at Guy’s and the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, he did his National Service in the Royal Air Force, during which time he developed an interest in ear, nose and throat surgery. As a registrar at Shrewsbury Eye and Ear Hospital he saw a five-year-old child who had just had a tonsillectomy bleed to death because there was no blood bank at the hospital. This led Harrison to campaign against unnecessary tonsillectomy. In 1962, he was appointed to the Royal National Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital as a consultant surgeon and a year later, in 1963, became a professor at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. Early in his career he became interested in malignant disease of the upper respiratory tract, especially of the larynx and upper jaw, and gained an international reputation in this area, publishing more than 200 articles and several books. He warned the public about the hazards of chewing tobacco and campaigned for the Government to ban the sale of Skoals Bandits. A brilliant speaker who used no notes, he was widely sought after as a lecturer. In 1972, he gave the Wilde oration, given in memory of Oscar’s father, Sir William Wilde, and in 1974 the Semon lecture, named after Sir Felix Semon, a Victorian laryngologist whose biography he had written. He also gave talks on Richard III and the princes in the Tower and was convinced that while one of the princes’ jaws was not authentic, the other was, since it showed traces of hereditary disease. He retired in 1990, was knighted for his services to ear, nose and throat surgery, and was made an emeritus consultant to Moorfields Eye Hospital. In 1993, he was made a fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. A keen supporter of the Royal Society of Medicine, he became its President in 1994. In 1995 he published *The anatomy and physiology of the mammalian larynx* (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), based on his personal collection of more than a thousand mammalian larynges, many of which came from the London Zoo, including that of Guy the gorilla. He married Audrey Clubb, who predeceased him. They had two daughters. He had many leisure interests, notably radio-controlled model boats and heraldry, and, after the death of his wife, gourmet cooking. He died on 12 April 2003 of bowel cancer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000069
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harvey, Ronald Marsden (1918 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372257372257
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Born in London on 28 September 1918, Ronald Harvey trained at King’s College Hospital. He was appointed as a consultant in ENT, first at the Eye and Ear Hospital in 1954, and later at Altnagelvin Hospital, Londonderry, where he remained until he retired in 1983. From an early stage he was involved in the planning of the ENT department at Altnagelvin Hospital, one of the first new hospitals to be built in the new NHS. This was such a success that his advice was always sought in later developments within the hospital, even in retirement. His period as Chairman of the medical staff coincided with the worst period of civil disturbance in Northern Ireland. His leadership was remarkable: he would remain in the hospital for days on end to make sure that the frequent emergency situations were dealt with smoothly. The pressures related not only to treatment of patients with severe and multiple trauma, but to making sure that appropriate surgical teams were available at all times, in spite of difficulties with transport. He was Chairman of the Northern Ireland central medical advisory committee, and he promoted education of undergraduates and postgraduates at Altnagelvin. For this work he was appointed OBE in 1982. Outside the hospital he had many interests: he had a long involvement with the Red Cross, both at local and national level, and was awarded the Red Cross badge of honour. He served on the committee of Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, and got great pleasure from his work with Riding for the Disabled. He served two terms as high sheriff for the City of Londonderry and was a deputy lieutenant for many years. He died on 7 April 2004, and is survived by his wife Eustelle, three daughters, Elveen, Fiona and Maryrose, and four grandchildren, Charlie, Katherine, Andrew and Amy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000070
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hashemian, Hassan Agha (1915 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372258372258
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hassan Agha Hashemian was a professor of surgery and head of the department of surgery at the Cancer Institute, Tehran. He was born in Kashan, Iran, on 14 April 1915, the son of Hossein Hashemian, a velvet merchant, and Nagar, a housewife. He was educated at Tehran Boys School, and then received a scholarship from the Shah to study in Europe. He attended the Lycée Francais in Paris and went on to University College London Medical School. He was a house surgeon at St Antony's Hospital, Cheam, and then a resident surgical officer at West Herts. He then moved on to Central Middlesex Hospital, where he was a senior casualty officer, then a surgical registrar in the department of urology and subsequently in the department of neurosurgery. He became a senior surgical registrar in 1948 and was appointed to the senior staff as an assistant surgeon in 1953. In 1956 he was invited to open up a large cancer institute in Tehran, Iran. The institute received many visitors, including Sir Stanford Cade, Sir Brian Windeyer and Sir Francis Avery-Jones. He was a past President of the Iranian National Surgical Society and of the International College of Surgeons. He was a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Oncological Society. He retired in 2001. He married Marjorie Bell, also a doctor, in 1947 and they had two children - Michael Parviz and Moneer Susan. He died on 3 September 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000071
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hayes, Brian Robert (1929 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Hayes, George ( - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Hendry, William Garden (1914 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Hooton, Norman Stanwell (1921 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372262372262
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Norman Stanwell Hooton was a consultant thoracic surgeon in the south east Thames region. He was born in Warwick on 8 November 1921, the only child of Leonard Stanwell Hooton, a land commissioner, and Marion Shaw Brown née Sanderson. He was educated at Oundle School and then went on to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and King's College Hospital, where he won the Jelf medal in 1944 and the Legg prize in surgery in 1949. He was house physician to Terence East at the Horton Emergency Medical Service Hospital, Epsom, in 1945, and subsequently a registrar in the thoracic surgical unit. In 1950 he was a resident surgical officer at the Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital and from 1951 to 1955 a senior surgical registrar at Brook Hospital in south London. He was subsequently appointed as a consultant thoracic surgeon to the South East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, working at Brook Hospital, Grove Park Hospital, at Hastings, and at Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells. He married Katherine Frances Mary née Pendered, the daughter of J H Pendered, a Fellow of the College, in 1951. They had two sons and five grandchildren. Norman Hooton died on 6 September 2004 after a long illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000075
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Britten, Michael James Arthur ( - 2010)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Brooman, Peter John Cole (1948 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2014-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373697373697
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Peter Brooman was a consultant urological surgeon at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport. He was born in London, the son of Edward Brooman, a wholesale newsagent, and Irene Brooman née Ward. He was educated at Purley Grammar School and then studied medicine at Sheffield University. He held an orthopaedic house surgeon post at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield, and was a house physician at St George's Hospital, Lincoln. During his training he was influenced by B Crawford, J T Rowling and R H Baker. He subsequently gained his consultant position as a urological surgeon in Stockport. Outside medicine, he played table tennis and squash and rode horses. In 1975 he married Sheila Smith. They had no children. Peter Brooman died on 4 January 2011, aged 62. He was survived by his wife.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001514
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bryant, Martyn John (1957 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2013-02-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373698373698
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Martyn Bryant was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Chesterfield Royal Hospital. He studied medicine in London and qualified MB BS from King's College Medical School in 1981. He began his training programme in Hull and then moved to Belfast where his senior registrar post gave him ample experience in the management of trauma. His MD thesis was on the survival of joint replacements. He returned to Hull as a consultant in 1993 and moved to Chesterfield in 1998. In the department of orthopaedics at the Royal Hospital, Chesterfield, he established a specialist service for shoulder and elbow problems. He had a reputation as a careful, caring and thoughtful surgeon and his experiences in Northern Ireland, led to him being able to remain calm and efficient in the face of major trauma. His interests included running and cycling. He died at home, aged 45 years, on 26 August 2003 after a diagnosis of carcinoma of the stomach, which he faced with dignity and the dry humour that was characteristic of him. He was survived by his mother, wife Marie, and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001515
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bowen-Jones, Edward John (1944 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2013-09-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373699373699
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Edward Bowen-Jones was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who worked at the St Augustine's Medical Centre in Durban, South Africa. He qualified MB, BS from London University in 1967 and passed the fellowship in 1972. He died of cancer on 30 October 2008, aged 64 years survived by his wife Jean, children Kate, Gaby and Ben and grandchildren Alex and Michael.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001516
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, James Stinson (1923 - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2013-09-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373700373700
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details James Stinson Brown was a Canadian surgeon who specialized in treatment of the deaf. He was born on 24 February 1923 in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of Abner John Brown and his wife Lillian "Lilly" Roben Kidd. He graduated in medicine from the University of Manitoba in 1949 and came to England to study ear, nose and throat medicine at the University of London. While there he also played professional hockey. Having passed the fellowship in 1952 he returned to Canada in 1956 to establish a practice in Calgary, Alberta. He was consultant in otolaryngology to the Calgary General and Banff Mineral Springs Hospitals. After retiring from the hospitals he continued work part-time in a medical practice in Banff and, in 2004, he was given an honorary doctorate by Brandon University who named a campus building after him and his wife. He married Margaret "Lucille" Millions and they had five children; John, Mary Ann, David, Michele and Joyce. He died at his home in Calgary on 1 May 2009 aged 86 years and his papers were donated to the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medical Archives.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001517
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brummelkamp, Willem Hendrik (1928 - 2010)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2013-08-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373701373701
Occupation General surgeon
Details Willem Hendrick ('Pim') Brummelkamp was a leading Dutch surgeon who, in 1971, became professor at the University of Amsterdam. Initially he worked at Binnengasthuis, the hospital of the old Municipal University of Amsterdam, then at St Luke's Roman Catholic Hospital, and finally at the modern Academic Medical Centre. He was very much a general surgeon, who in later years concentrated on gastric and colo-rectal surgery. His father, Reindet Brummelkamp, was a surgeon to the Mission Hospital in Java and Pim Brummelkamp was born at Keboemen on 21 March 1928. In 1933 the family, including a brother, Reidert, and two sisters (Anna and Jean), returned to the Netherlands, where the father practised as a surgeon in Winterswijk. Willem Hendrick went to Haarlem High School, after which he studied medicine at Groningen University, graduating *cum laude* with a dissertation on meningiomas. His surgical training was directed by Ite Boerema at the Wilhemina Hospital. He developed an early interest in hyperbaric treatment with oxygen, and was a pioneer in the treatment of gas gangrene and acute dermal gangrene using this method. This breakthrough was reported by Brummelkamp and Boerema in 1960. Later Pim supervised the MD thesis of D J Bakker, which discussed the historical, physiological, general aspects and aetiology of these potentially fatal conditions, and the results of treatment in Amsterdam of these conditions over 20 years. At a time when Pim was working with Boerema in 1961, he published an interesting case report 'Unusual complication of pulmonary arteriovenous aneurysm: intra-pleural rupture' (*Chest* 1961;39[2];218-21). A lady of 34 had presented as an emergency with a violent haemoptysis and needed two operations to cure this complication of Rendu-Osler disease. Following his increased specialisation in gastro-intestinal surgery, Pim published quite widely. One of his joint papers, written with A F Engel, ('Secondary surgery after failed postanal or anterior sphincter repair' *Int J Colorectal Dis* 1994;9[4]:187-90) reported good results of secondary surgery after failed post-anal repair or anterior sphincter repair. An interest in stoma work led him to found the Dutch Ostomy Association (or the Harry Bacon Club). This support group catered for patients needing ileostomy, colostomy, urinary diversion and also continent conduits. Pim Brummelkamp was a tall and somewhat whimsical man: to some he appeared somewhat aloof. An excellent teacher of students, he inspired many - except those who fainted or had to leave the first lecture in their surgical course: it was a slideshow of patients after major trauma! A great Anglophile, he welcomed many visitors from the United Kingdom. The Travelling Surgical Club (TSC) and now Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland (TSS) visited Holland for meetings on many occasions. Founder members went on their first overseas visit to Holland in 1925, one year after it was founded in Leeds, and the Netherlands were visited on many occasions thereafter. In 1970 members watched a wide variety of operations, heard scientific papers from their hosts and saw several demonstrations, being welcomed on this occasion by W H Brummelkamp at St Luke's Roman Catholic Hospital. On a tour of the hospital and ward rounds, the Dutch hosts introduced members of the TSC to the Chief Rabbi, who had been operated on by a Protestant surgeon and in a Roman Catholic hospital! In May 1983, members of the TSC were again warmly welcomed by Pim Brummelkamp, now professor at the newly-built Academic Medical Centre (Academisch Medisch Centrum) in Amsterdam. When complete, it was destined to become the largest building in Holland. It was strategically placed close to the motorway network and to Schiphol International Airport. The hospital was well-planned, had very spacious parking facilities and a separate energy unit, which generated electricity for the whole complex. Very impressive and modern, this state-owned hospital had all the latest medical equipment, envied by all the UK surgeons attending. When receiving his honorary FRCS, the citation was given by Harold Ellis, who noted that Brummelkamp had been president of the Association of Surgeons of the Netherlands, one time editor of the *Netherlands Journal of Surgery*, and was also honorary fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the New York Academy of Sciences. Outside medicine, Pim Brummelkamp was an art lover, particularly of modern art, and especially the work of the COBRA artists. COBRA (formed by the first letters of the capitals of Denmark, Belgium and Holland - Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam - where the artists were based) included Christian Dotrement, Asger Jorn and Karel Appel. All the COBRA artists experimented with spontaneity, and were inspired by primitive art and also by children's drawings. Pim was responsible for the selection of works of art and the construction of an exhibition centre when the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam was planned and built. Appropriately, this was named the Brummelkamp gallery, and is the largest non-museum art collection in the Netherlands. In 1989 he co-wrote *Fifteen movements in Dutch painting after 1945 from the collection of the Academic Medical Centre* (Veenman/Academic Medical Centre). Brummelkamp met his wife Hetty van Joost when they were both working in St Luke's Hospital in 1968. Hetty's father was a chest physician who initially practised in the Dutch East Indies before returning to Holland, where he had a notable career in the field of tuberculosis. Pim and Hetty married in 1975, but had no children. She trained in Leyden and became an anaesthetist who worked in Amstelven. Over the years she, Pim and her older brother Michael worked together in the same hospitals. Willem Hendrick Brummelkamp died on 7 September 2010, at the age of 81. His wife, Hetty, died in March 2013 of acute leukaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001518
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Booth, David ( - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2015-07-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373702373702
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details David Booth was an obstetrician and gynaecologist in East Surrey, Cuckfield and Crawley. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1960. He gained his FRCS in 1967. Prior to his consultant appointment, he was a senior registrar at the Woolwich group of hospitals and a registrar at King's College Hospital and Redhill General Hospital. David Booth died on 14 April 2011.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001519
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Agjee, Ismail Ahmed ( - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-04 2013-08-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373703373703
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ismail Ahmed Agjee was a general surgeon who is thought to have died in Hyderabad, India on 30 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001520
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Citron, Neil David (1951 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-07 2014-03-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373704373704
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Neil Citron was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Helier Hospital, Sutton, Surrey. He was born on 22 February 1951 in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Samuel, an anaesthetist, and his wife Dorothy Grace née Lurie. After attending William Ellis Grammar School in Highgate, London he qualified MB Bchir in 1975 from Trinity College, Cambridge and University College Hospital, London. He won the College's Hallet prize and completed his Mchir on chondrocyte generation from stem cells at Cambridge in 1985. Orthopaedic training continued at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, where he was senior registrar and he also studied surgery of the hand in Strasbourg. Appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to St Helier Hospital, he remained there for 20 years. It was said of him that he was both creative and meticulous and was constantly attempting to improve his practice. He published widely and enjoyed teaching and mentoring students and registrars. His interests included playing the violin and tennis and he was also chair of an Israeli hospital that treated all patients regardless of ethnic origin. He died from melanoma on 26 March 2011 aged 60 years, survived by his wife, Myriam and three daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001521
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, George Norman (1905 - 1999)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-07 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373705373705
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Norman Clark was a general surgeon who practised in Alexandria, Egypt. He was born on 2 February 1905 in Milltimber, Aberdeen, the only son of George, a solicitor and his wife Isabella Aitken née Dunne. Norman, as he was generally known, attended Cults Public School and Aberdeen Grammar School before proceeding to qualify MB, ChB from Aberdeen University and the London Hospital in 1927. He passed the fellowship of the College in 1933. After working as an assistant surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, he moved to Alexandria in Egypt as surgeon to the British Consulate, Medical Director of the Anglo-Swiss Hospital and also Head of the Quarantine Board. He also deputised as the EGC school doctor and ran a general practice from a surgery at his home. He married Phoebe McKnight in 1940 and they had three children - George, Peter and Rosemary. His interests included farming, astronomy and philately. When the family left Egypt they moved to Chilliwack, Canada, where Norman is believed to have died in early 1999. His widow and family then moved to Edmonton, Canada. Publications: Tuberculous disease of the abdominal lymphatic glands. *Lancet* 1937 Some surgical aspects of tuberculous disease of the abdominal lymphatic glands. *Surg gynaecol obs* 1937 jointly with G H Colt.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001522
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crick, Ronald Pitts (1917 - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-07 2015-02-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373706373706
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Ronald Pitts Crick was a senior ophthalmic surgeon at King's College Hospital, London, and a pioneer in the use of the operating microscope in eye surgery in the UK. He was born in Toronto, Canada, on 5 February 1917. His father, Owen John Pitts Crick, was an engineer and inventor; his mother was Margaret Crick née Daw. He was educated at Minehead Modern School in Somerset and then Latymer Upper School in London. He went on to study medicine at King's College Medical School on an open science scholarship and qualified MRCS LRCP in 1939. He joined the Merchant Navy in 1939, and from 1940 to 1946 was a surgeon lieutenant with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, mainly serving on the aircraft carrier HMS *Illustrious*. Following his demobilisation, Crick began his ophthalmic training back at King's College Hospital, becoming a consultant surgeon in 1950 at King's, the Belgrave Hospital for Children and the Royal Eye Hospital. In the 1950s he worked with Clifford Hoyle at King's and the Brompton Hospital on sarcoidosis, which can affect the eye, and wrote joint research papers on this topic. Also in the 1950s, he worked with Keeler instruments to develop the operating microscope for use in eye surgery. The prototype was shown in 1958 in Oxford and, two years later, a model was developed for trainee surgeons at the Royal Eye Hospital, London. His research also focused on glaucoma. He founded the Glaucoma Association in 1974, which later became the International Glaucoma Association, which aims to increase professional and public understanding of the disease and to fund research. With Roger Trimble he co-wrote *A textbook of clinical ophthalmology* (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1986). He was awarded a medal of achievement by the American Society of Contemporary Ophthalmology, and in 2008 was given an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. In 1941 he married Jocelyn Mary Grenfell Robin, a physiotherapist. They had four sons and one daughter. Their eldest son, Martin, is also a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Ronald Pitts Crick died on 10 June 2009, at the age of 92. He was survived by his wife and children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001523
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Burton, Richard Michael (1926 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09 2012-03-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373707373707
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Michael Burton was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Hillingdon and Ealing hospitals. He was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on 28 July 1926, the second son of Rennie Cooksey, a general practitioner, and Elsie Jane née Laycock, the daughter of an adviser in music. He began his education at King Edward VII School in Sheffield, but was subsequently evacuated to the United States during the Second World War. He attended Newton High School in Newtonville, Massachusetts, and later Phillips Academy in Andover. He was very well cared for by his foster parents in the United States, with whom he formed a strong relationship. He returned to England at the age of 17, with the aim of volunteering for the Royal Air Force. Instead, being too young, he was called up as a 'Bevin boy' and worked in the coalmines. He did eventually join the Royal Air Force, and was selected for pilot training and also as a potential officer. As a part of his training, he was sent to Durham University for six months, where he studied engineering before being commissioned. He completed his training as a pilot, but did not see active service as the war in Europe finished and he was not posted to the Far East. After demobilisation, he enrolled as a medical student in Sheffield and qualified in 1954. He was then awarded a travelling scholarship to complete his pre-registration year in America, and at the same time gained his American MD. He served as a rotating intern at the Albany Medical Center, in Albany, New York. As a postgraduate, he went to Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied anatomy and physiology. He became a casualty registrar in Sheffield and his specialist training was at the Jessop Hospital, Sheffield, later in Chelmsford and the North Middlesex Hospital. During this time he became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, becoming a fellow in 1977. He was a fellow of both the Edinburgh and English Royal Colleges of Surgeons, and he also became a master of midwifery of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. In 1968, he was appointed as a consultant at Hillingdon and Ealing hospitals. He contributed papers on a case of chorion epithelioma with pulmonary complications (*Tubercle*. 1963 Dec;44:487-90), catastrophes in labour and 'pulseless' disease (*J Obstet Gynaecol Br Commonw*. 1966 Feb;73[1]:113-8). He had keen service interests. After leaving the Royal Air Force, he served in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and achieved the rank of squadron leader. Later, he became a territorial, eventually becoming a colonel, commanding the 257 (SI) at General Hospital. He was awarded the territorial decoration. He was also a distinguished member of the St John's ambulance and was awarded the decoration of the Commander of St John. Another lifelong interest was scouting. He was a keen swimmer and reached international standard whilst a postgraduate at Cambridge, where he was awarded a blue for swimming and water polo. He also continued to fly until poor health stopped him. He had the misfortune of developing a dissecting aortic aneurysm and was operated on very successfully by Sir Magdi Yacoub. He was able to return to work, but was left with limited dexterity in the left arm. He had to stop operating and retired from active practice. However, he continued to examine for the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board and also to do medical examinations for pilots for the Civil Aviation Authority. He had two daughters and a son by his first marriage. His son was also medically qualified, served in the Royal Air Force and eventually became a consultant in accident and emergency medicine. Michael was later married to Toni, who survived him. He died on 31 March 2003. Michael Pugh
Resource Identifier RCS: E001524
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cunningham, John Andrew Derek Joseph (1924 - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-09 2013-11-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373708373708
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Andrew Cunningham, usually known as Derek, was a wing commander in the RAF. Born in Belfast on 21 January 1924, his father was Joseph Cunningham, a draper and his mother, Elsie née O'Connell, was a housewife. He attended Farranferris School in Cork and Belvedere College in Dublin. At the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland he won the Biological Society medal for debate in 1945 and the Richmond gold medal for surgery in 1946 and passed the FRCSI in 1950. His early clinical training was at Richmond Hospital, Dublin. On moving to Cornwall, he was house surgeon at the West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance before becoming registrar in general surgery to Burslem Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent. He served in the RAF as a surgical specialist from 1951 to 1966 and then joined the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board (1967-70) before being appointed consultant surgeon in Grimsby where he worked until he retired in 1987. While in Cornwall he met Elizabeth Marion Madron who was a ward sister at the West Cornwall Hospital and he married her on 1 February 1951. They had two sons, Angus and Bruce. He enjoyed playing golf and listed philately and scale model aircraft among his many interests. He died on 9 April 2009 aged 85, survived by his wife, children and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001525
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crossling, Frank Turner (1927 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2011-11-09 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373709373709
Occupation General surgeon
Details Frank Crossling was a consultant general surgeon at Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow. He was born on 16 August 1927 in Aberdeen, the son of Wilfred Ormston Crossling, a printer and commercial traveller, and his wife, Jean née Turner. Educated at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen and at Aberdeen University, he graduated MB ChB in 1949. In 1965 he was appointed consultant at Stobhill Hospital and was said to be strikingly innovative in his early years, among other procedures he was credited with being one of the first to use stapling techniques. During 1967-8 he took a sabbatical year working in a hospital in Nairobi and regaled students and colleagues for a long time afterwards with tales of his time in Kenya. He retired in 1991. Frank married Margaret Elizabeth Abdy, a radiographer, on 7 October 1950, and they had a son who became a vet. He was a man of many interests outside medicine, particularly climbing, skiing, photography, classical music and travel. Sadly Margaret died suddenly and unexpectedly soon after his retirement and he moved to the north of Aberdeenshire, to Kildrummy to be near his son. He died on 28 April 2011, aged 83 years survived by his son and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001526
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Johnson-Gilbert, Ronald Stuart (1925 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372269372269
Occupation Administrator College secretary
Details Ronald Stuart Johnson-Gilbert, or 'J-G' as he was known with affection throughout the College, was our secretary from 1962 to 1988. He was born on 14 July 1925, the son of Sir Ian A Johnson-Gilbert CBE and Rosalind Bell-Hughes, and was proud to be a descendant of Samuel Johnson. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Rugby, from which he won an exhibition in classics and an open scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford. During the second world war he served in the Intelligence Corps from 1943 to 1946 and learnt Japanese. On demobilisation he became a trainee with the John Lewis partnership for a year and then joined the College on the administrative staff in 1951, becoming the sixth secretary in 1962, having previously been secretary of the Faculties of Dental Surgery and Anaesthetists. He worked under 13 presidents, from Lord Porritt to Sir Ian Todd, bringing to everything he did an exceptional administrative skill, an ability to write succinct and lucid prose, an unrivalled knowledge of the most arcane by-laws of the College and above all an unruffable charm. He served as secretary to the board of trustees of the Hunterian Collection, the Joint Conference of Surgical Colleges and the International Federation of Surgical Colleges. He was the recipient of the John Tomes medal of the British Dental Association, the McNeill Love medal of our College and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons medal. He served the Hunterian Collection as a trustee for 10 years. A skilled golfer, his other interests included music, painting, literature and writing humorous verse. He married Anne Weir Drummond in 1951 and they had three daughters, Clare, Emma and Lydia. He died on 23 April 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000082
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dark, John Fairman (1921 - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2011-11-09 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373711373711
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details John Fairman Dark was a thoracic surgeon in Manchester. He was born in London on 18 April 1921, the son of Leonard Dark, a sales manager, and Dorothy Rose Dark née Fairman, a London Hospital nurse. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, where he won Harrison and Kitchener scholarships, and then Manchester University Medical School. In 1944 he served for four and a half months in an Emergency Medical Service hospital at Conishead Priory. He gained his MB ChB in 1945. Following junior hospital posts at Manchester Royal Infirmary, in 1949 he began to train in his chosen specialty of thoracic surgery at Baguley Sanatorium, also in Manchester. In 1952 he was appointed as a consultant thoracic surgeon at Baguely and at other hospitals in the region. Twenty years later, in 1972, he was appointed to the regional cardiothoracic unit at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. By the 1970s, pulmonary tuberculosis surgery had largely disappeared with the introduction of chemotherapy, and the major part of thoracic surgery was the treatment of bronchial carcinoma and, to a lesser extent, the treatment of oesophageal carcinoma. Dark always had a special interest in the treatment of oesophageal carcinoma, and he was very proud of the statistics that he and his team published in *Thorax* in 1981 for oesophageal resection for this disease ('Surgical treatment of carcinoma of the oesophagus' *Thorax* 1981 Dec;36[12]:891-5). Of the 449 operations they reported, there was a hospital mortality rate of only 7.6 per cent and a five year survival rate of 18 per cent above the average rate for that time. In 1968 Dark began open-heart surgery with the hypothermia technique at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Then, like other thoracic surgeons of that era, he became more involved in closed heart surgery - mitral valvotomy and the treatment of congenital heart disease (patent ductus arteriosus and aortic coarctation). For six years he was an examiner for the Edinburgh cardiothoracic fellowship examination and, from 1980 to 1985, an adviser in cardiothoracic surgery to the Department of Health. He was president of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and president of the Manchester Medical Society in 1989. He had an extremely friendly personality and was greatly respected by his peers. He married Prudence Mary Holden in June 1949. They had four children - John Henry (a fellow of the College and professor of cardiothoracic and transplant surgery at Newcastle), Jeremy (who died infancy), Robert Fairman and Julia Mary. Dark developed a contained abdominal aortic aneurysm, which became a full rupture about 35 hours later and was not repaired because of a recent stroke. He died on 9 April 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001528
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Butt, Mahmud ( - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Cleave, Hugh Latimer (1910 - 2010)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by RM Kirk
Publication Date 2011-11-09 2014-06-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373713373713
Occupation Naval surgeon
Details Hugh Latimer Cleave was a surgeon captain in the Royal Navy. He was born on 11 February 1910 in Exeter, the younger of two sons of Richard Charles Cleave, an engineer captain in the Royal Navy, and Ethel Elizabeth Cleave née Latimer. His older brother, Thomas (Peter), also served in the Royal Navy Medical Service, as a surgeon captain. From 1920 to 1926, Hugh was educated at Clifton College. He qualified in medicine at Bristol University and subsequently trained for the FRCS at Middlesex, Guy's and London hospitals. The teacher who most impressed him was Wilfred Adams, to whom he was a house surgeon at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. A memorable appointment was at Putney Hospital in 1933, when he was the sole resident medical officer. It is believed that he joined the Royal Navy early in his career. Certainly, he served throughout the Second World War. In 1939 he was mentioned in despatches, continuing in the Navy until his retirement in 1967, with the final rank of captain. He was awarded the CBE for his services. Hugh married a Miss P E W Hill in 1933. They had a son and daughter. His later life was spent in Buckland Monachorum, Devon, and he enjoyed most sports, in particular fishing and shooting. He died on 18 November 2010, aged 100.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001530
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Eastes, George (1841 - 1909)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373717373717
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on May 16th, 1841, in Old Folkestone close to the harbour. He was the eldest child of Sylvester Eastes, MRCS, JP, the Mayor of Folkestone, at that time a small place with fields covering the West Cliff up to the Parish Church. Eastes went to school at St Margare's Bay, then to Tonbridge Grammar School, where the boys got up at 5 am in the summer for preparation, lasting to 8 am. In 1854 he was transferred to Maidstone, where at the end of the Crimean War he won a prize for a school poem on 'Peace'. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to his father, after which in 1860 he entered Guy's Hospital, where he proceeded to the London Degree and to the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons. He was House Surgeon, and then for two years Surgical Registrar and Tutor. After six months' study in Paris he settled in general practice at 5 Albion Place, W, in succession to Dr Egbert W Charlton. In 1863 he was one of the founders of the Guyite Club, composed of forty-three original members with a motto 'Dum licet nobis', and was its Secretary to the end of his life, when the little society had dwindled to fifteen. With the aid of the Guy's surgeons he was able to develop a special practice in the administration of anaesthetics; he was for fourteen years Anaesthetist to the Great Northern Hospital, and was one of the founders of the Society of Anaesthetists. He acted as Secretary to the first British Medical Association Committee of Inquiry, and devoted much time to a tabulation of the results of the inquiry into anaesthetic administrations. From about 1874 he acted with Alban Doran and Fancourt Barnes on the editorial staff of the *British Medical Journal*, under the Editor, Ernest Hart, and he continued throughout his life to contribute to it. At the Metropolitan Counties Branch he was Secretary (1886-1888), Treasurer (1892-1899 and 1901-1903), President (1900), and Secretary of the Investigation Committee (1885-1887). Up to 1908 he was the Branch Representative on the Council, and a member of the Finance and Journal Committee. At the Leeds Meeting in 1889 he was Secretary of the Section of Public Medicine, and at the Newcastle Meeting in 1893, Vice-President of the same section. He was President of the Harveian Society in 1895. Further, he was instrumental in erecting on the Leas at Folkestone the memorial statue to Harvey at his birthplace. He published a short account of Harvey in 1871. In later life he practised at 35 Gloucester Terrace. He was fond of riding, shooting, the sea, and travel. After a short illness, from which he seemed to be recovering, he died with an attack of thoracic pain on January 23rd, 1909, and was buried in Folkestone Cemetery. He had married in 1869 Miss Fanny Elizabeth Friend, of Hambledon, who survived him with two daughters and one son, Dr George Leslie Eastes, pathologist. His younger brother was Thomas Eastes (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001534
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Eastes, Thomas (1850 - 1928)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373718373718
Occupation General surgeon
Details The second son of Sylvester Eastes, who practised at Folkestone in Kent for about forty-five years. He was born on December 27th, 1850, was educated at Epsom College and then went to Guy's Hospital, where he filled the offices of House Surgeon, House Physician, and Resident Obstetric Assistant. He graduated at London University with first-class honours in medicine and obstetrics at the MB in 1874, and gained the Gold Medal at the MD examination in 1875. He then settled at Folkestone, where he obtained the leading practice, was Surgeon to the Victoria Hospital, becoming the first Consulting Surgeon; President of the South-Eastern branch of the British Medical Association; President (1892-1905) of the Folkestone Natural History and Microscopical Society, and a member of the Society of Medical Phonographers. In conjunction with his elder brother, Dr George Eastes (qv), of London, he was active in perpetuating the connection with Folkestone of the memory of Dr William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood. The memorial took the form of a statue by Mr A B Joy which was unveiled and presented to the town by Professor Richard Owen (qv) on August 6th, 1871. He married Alice Elizabeth, second daughter of the Rev A H Rumboll, Vicar of Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, but there were no children of the marriage. He died at Manor Road, Folkestone, on August 8th, 1928, and was buried in the Folkestone Cemetery. Eastes had more than a local reputation and might have been appointed Obstetric Physician to Guy's Hospital had he not preferred to carry on his father's practice at Folkestone. For many years he found time for wide reading, and being of regular habits he devoted one hour daily to general literature and a second hour to recent advances in medicine, surgery, and midwifery. His devotion to his church was extraordinary, and he seldom allowed his medical work to interfere with his attendance at both the Sunday services at Christ Church, where he read the Lessons regularly for forty years. He was correct and precise to a fault and was intolerant of slang. So long as he was in practice he retained his carriage - though a motor-car would have saved him much time - not because he preferred it, but because he was unwilling to discharge the faithful coachman who had been in his service for many years. His recreations were travel, natural history, and cricket.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001535
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ebbage, Thomas ( - 1874)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Ebsworth, Alfred (1821 - 1882)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins (1783 - 1862)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-28 2012-07-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372203372203
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Was the fourth child of the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie, M.A., of Worcester College, Oxford, Rector of Winterslow, Wilts, by Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Collins, Banker and printer, of Milford, near Salisbury. The Brodies were originally a Morayshire clan, and the family was fortunate in relations. Dr. Denman, then the accoucheur, had married Brodie's aunt; Sir Richard Goff ['Goff' is crossed out, and the following added: Croft (Lady Croft & Mrs Baillie were Dr Denman's daughters)] had married a cousin; and Dr. Baillie, nephew of William and John Hunter, had married another cousin. Dr. Denman's son afterwards became Lord Chief Justice, and was well known as one of the advocates at the trial of Queen Caroline, whilst Peter Brodie, Benjamin's eldest brother, held a high position as a conveyancer. In 1797 Brodie and his brothers raised a company of volunteers at a time when a French invasion was much dreaded. He was privately educated by his father, and at the age of eighteen went up to London, devoting himself from the first to the study of anatomy. Brodie joined the medical profession without any special liking or bent for it, and in after-days he said he thought those best succeeded in professions who joined them, not from any irresistible prepossession, but rather from some accidental circumstance inducing them to persevere in their selected course either as a matter of duty or because they had nothing better to do. He rose to be the first surgeon in England, holding for many years a position similar to that once occupied by Sir Astley Cooper. Brodie had always a philosophical turn of mind. He learnt much at first from Abernethy, who arrested his pupils' attention so that it never flagged, and what he told them in his emphatic way never could be forgotten. Brodie used to say "that he had always kept in mind the saying of William Scott [afterwards Lord Stowell] to his brother John [subsequently Lord Eldon], 'John, always keep the Lord Chancellorship in view, and you will be sure to get it in the end.'" And a similar aim and distinction were Brodie's. In 1801 and 1802 he attended the lectures of James Wilson at the Hunterian School in Great Windmill Street, where he worked hard at dissection. It was about this time that he formed what proved a lifelong friendship with William Lawrence (q.v.). In 1803 Brodie became a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St. George's Hospital, and was successively appointed House Surgeon and Demonstrator to the Anatomical School, after which he was Home's assistant in his private operations and researches in comparative anatomy, and he did much work for him at the College Museum. "The latter employment," says Mr. Timothy Holmes (q.v.) in his *Life of Brodie*, "was of critical importance for Brodie in several ways - chiefly because it obliged him to work on scientific subjects, and thus prevented a too exclusive devotion to the pursuit of practical surgery. We cannot be wrong in attributing to this cause mainly his connection with the Royal Society, and the many-sidedness of his intellectual activities." At the College he came into contact with Clift, and, through Home, became an intimate in the learned coterie of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, and the chief link between distinguished men of science of two centuries. Brodie still diligently pursued his anatomical studies at the Windmill Street School, where he first demonstrated for, and then lectured conjointly with, James Wilson until 1812. In 1808, before he was twenty-five, he was elected Assistant Surgeon at St. George's, thus relieving Home of some part of his duties. Brodie remained in this position fourteen years, and his "regular attendance at the hospital was an immense improvement, in the interests both of the patients and the students, on the practice obtaining in the metropolitan hospitals of that day". All through life Brodie was consumed with the rage for work which his father had originally instilled into him. So devoted was he to every phase of his duties that he found no time to travel, only once visiting France for a month and often going without a summer holiday. His very recreations were arduously intellectual. Thus he took a leading part in the life of various learned societies - the Academical Society, banished to London from Oxford in the French revolutionary epoch, the Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge, the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, of which he was President in 1839 and 1840. He contributed several valuable papers to the last-named society, and at its meetings he stimulated discussion, and had always something of interest to say. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810, he soon communicated a paper "On the Influence of the Brain on the Action of the Heart and the Generation of Animal Heat", and another "On the Effects produced by certain Vegetable Poisons (Alcohol, Tobacco, Woorara)". The first paper, the subject of which he doubtless derived from John Hunter, formed the Croonian Lecture: the two papers taken together won him the Copley Medal in 1811, an honour never before bestowed on so young a man. In 1809 Brodie entered upon private practice, and in 1822 became full Surgeon at St. George's Hospital, from which time forward his career was one of ever-increasing success. He became a Member in 1805, a Fellow in 1843, and from 1819 to 1823 he was Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery at the College. He lectured upon the Organs of Digestion, Respiration, and Circulation, and on the Nervous System, the most interesting of his discourses being upon "Death from Drowning", a subject which Hunter had investigated without hitting upon the scientific explanation of that form of asphyxia eventually brought out by Brodie. While Professor at the College, Brodie was summoned to attend George IV, and with Sir Astley Cooper, who was the operator, and a formidable array of medical men of that time, assisted at an operation for the removal of a small sebaceous cyst from the king's scalp. He became Surgeon to George IV, and attended him during his last illness, when he went every night to Windsor, slept there, and returned to London in the morning. "His habit", says Mr. Timothy Holmes, "was to go into the king's room at about six o'clock, and sit talking with him for an hour or two before leaving for town." The king became warmly attached to him. He was Surgeon to William IV, and in 1834, when he was made a Baronet, he was appointed Serjeant-Surgeon. In this capacity he became examiner by prescriptive right in the College, a privilege abolished by the Charter of 1843, which Brodie was largely instrumental in obtaining. He was a Member of Council from 1829-1862, Hunterian Orator in 1837, Vice-President in 1842 and 1843, and President in 1844. He retired from St. George's Hospital in 1840, but for some time continued his activity at the College, which owes to him the institution of the Order of Fellows. The object of this institution, he maintained, was to ensure the introduction into the profession of a certain number of young men who might be qualified to maintain its scientific character, and would be fully equal to its higher duties as hospital surgeons, teachers, and improvers of physiological, pathological, and surgical science afterwards. The Fellowship may be said to have been largely instrumental in raising the college to what it now is - "the exemplar of surgical education to the whole kingdom". Brodie was the first President of the General Medical Council, having been elected in 1858. Within a week after receiving this honour he became President of the Royal Society, an office which he filled with great dignity and wisdom till 1861. He died, nearly blind following double cataract for the relief of which he had been operated upon by Sir William Bowman (q.v.), at Broome Park, Betchworth, Surrey, on Oct. 21st, 1862. Of the immediate cause of his death, Holmes says: "It seems that nearly thirty years [see BLOXHAM, THOMAS] previously he had suffered from a dislocation of the right shoulder. I am not aware that he ever made any complaint of the part after the dislocation had been reduced, but it was in this same joint that in July he began to complain of pain accompanied by much prostration; and this was succeeded in September by the appearance of a tumour, doubtless of a malignant nature, in the neighbourhood of the shoulder." It thus happened that he who had spent his life treating diseased joints died of a joint disease. He married in 1816 Anne, the third daughter of Serjeant Sellon by his wife Charlotte Dickinson, his brother-in-law being Monsieur Regnault, the French physicist. Three children survived to maturity: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie F.R.S. (1817-1880), who became Professor of Chemistry at Oxford; a daughter who married the Rev. E. Hoare; and another son, the Rev. W. Brodie. [His granddaughter Mary Isabel married Sir Herbert Warren K.C.V.O. President of Magdalen College Oxford - 1885-1928] Brodie was distinguished as a surgeon with the bent of a physician. He was not a great operating surgeon, nor did he regard operations as the highest aim of surgery. His power of diagnosis was great, and he was a distinguished teacher with an elegant and clear deliverance. He attained high success by the legitimate influence of a lofty order of intellect, by his great stores of surgical knowledge, and the sound decided opinions he based upon them. He was single-minded and upright in character and free from all affectations. He knew his duty and did it well. He lived for a great end, the lessening of human suffering, and for that he felt no labour was too great, no patience too long. As a scientific man his object was truth pursued for its own sake, and without regard to future reward. He recognized the great traditions of wisdom, benevolence, and self-denial as the everlasting bases on which true medicine and surgery rest, and he was in truth a master of medicine. Of Brodie's manner as a lecturer, Sir Henry Acland says: "None who heard him can forget the graphic yet artless manner in which, sitting at his ease, he used to describe minutely what he had himself seen and done under circumstances of difficulty, and what under like circumstances he would again do or would avoid. His instruction was illustrated by the valuable pathological dissections which during many years he had amassed, and which he gave during his lifetime to his hospital." Mr. Timothy Holmes says: "It was Brodie who popularized the method of lithotrity in England, and by so doing chiefly contributed to the ready reception of an operation which has robbed what was one of the deadliest diseases that afflict humanity of nearly all its terror. This will remain to all time one of Brodie's greatest claims to public gratitude." Brodie used to tell that he once prescribed for a fat butler, suffering from too much good living and lack of exercise. Sir Benjamin told him "he must be very moderate in what he ate and drank, careful not to eat much at a time or late at night. Above all, no spirituous liquors could be allowed, malt liquor especially being poison to his complaint." Whilst these directions were being given the butler's face grew longer and longer, and at the end he exclaimed, "And pray, Sir Benjamin, who is going to compensate me for the loss of all these things?" Brodie's personal appearance is admirably portrayed in the picture by Watts. He was not, perhaps, strictly handsome, but no one can deny that the features are striking. A fine forehead, keen grey eyes, a mobile and sensitive mouth, and facial muscles which followed all the movements of one of the most active minds, lent to the countenance a charm and an expressiveness to which no stranger could be insensible. His frame was slight and small; but there was nothing of weakness about it. Those who knew him only as a public man would little suspect the playful humour which sparkled by his fireside - the fund of anecdotes, the harmless wit, the simple pleasures of his country walk. The following is a list of portraits of Brodie: (1) A bust by H. Weekes, R.A., in the Royal College of Surgeons. (2) A portrait in middle life, which appeared in the Medical Circular (1852, I, 817). The copy in the College is accompanied by a strikingly picturesque and vivid appreciation of Brodie as a teacher making his round of the wards. (3) A half-length by G. F. Watts, R.A., painted in 1860, which is reproduced in Timothy Holmes's *Life of Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie*, 1897. (4) A medal presented to Sir Benjamin Brodie in 1840 when he retired from office as Surgeon to St. George's Hospital. There is a bronze replica in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital, and an illustration of it in the *British Journal of Surgery* (1918-19, vi, facing p.158). PUBLICATIONS: - As an author Brodie achieved fame by his treatise on *Diseases of the Joints*, 1818, which went through five editions and was translated into foreign languages. He wrote also on local nervous affections, diseases of the urinary organs, the surgery of the breast, lighting-stroke, besides an important work, published anonymously in 1854, under the title of *Psychological Enquiries* [Times 21 Jan 1938. BRODIE - On Jan. 20, 1938. at Brockham Warren, Betchworth, Surrey, of pneumonia, SIR BENJAMIN VINCENT SELLON BRODIE, Bt., M.A. (Oxon), D.L., J.P., aged 75. Funeral at Betchworth Church, 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24. SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE. Sir Benjamin Vincent Sellon Brodie, Bt.,. died at his home, Brockham Warren, Dorking, yesterday at the age of 75. He succeeded as third baronet on the death of his father in 1880. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, he was a county councillor and then a county alderman for Surrey, High Sheriff in 1912, and a member of the Surrey Education Committee. He owned about 1,000 acres in Surrey. Sir Benjamin married in 1887 Caroline, daughter of the late Captain J. R. Woodriff, R.N., his Majesty's Serjeant-at-Arms, and they had one son and two daughters. Lady Brodie died in 1895. The heir is Captain Benjamin Colin (amended to Collins) Brodie, who was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. He served throughout the War with the Surrey Yeomanry and the 4th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, winning the M.C. and bar. Later he became a captain in the Army Educational Corps. He is married and has two sons and one daughter.] [SIR BENJAMIN BRODIE Captain Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, MC, the fourth baronet, died on Monday. He served with the Surrey Yeomanry at Gallipoli, with the Gordon Highlanders and the 1st Highland Brigade, British Army of the Rhine, in the First World War. He was joint headmaster of Holyrood School, Bognor Regis, from 1927 to 1940. He was twice chairman of the governors of Tonbridge School; and from 1945 to 1960 of Judd School, Tonbridge. He was twice Master of the Skinners' Company. Brodie succeeded his father in 1938 and the heir to the baronetcy is Brodie's son, Benjamin David Ross Brodie.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000016
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Harris, Walter Graham (1928 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372363372363
Occupation General surgeon
Details Graham Harris was a consultant surgeon at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with a particular interest and expertise in surgery of the breast. He was born in Swindon village, Gloucestershire, on 5 June 1928, the son of Walter Albert Harris and Sarah Anne née Pitman. He was educated at Wycliffe College before joining the RAF in 1946, where he served with the radar section. In 1948 he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, where he completed the early part of his surgical training, becoming junior registrar. He was an assistant lecturer in anatomy at University College, where he published on degeneration in the cerebral cortex following experimental craniotomy. He went on to be senior registrar at Leeds, from which he obtained his consultant post in Huddersfield. There he led one of the then four breast screening units in the UK. An active member of the Moynihan Travelling Surgical Club, he was President of the Yorkshire Regional Cancer Research Group in the 1970s and 1980s. Outside medicine, he was President of the Honley Male Voice Choir. He took early retirement after a myocardial infarction, but continued with his music and his hobby as a caterer. He married Patricia Mary Tippet and they had five children. He died on 29 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000176
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Lowden, Thomas Geoffrey (1910 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372364372364
Occupation Casualty surgeon Accident and emergency surgeon
Details Thomas Lowden was a casualty surgeon in Sunderland. He was born in Leeds on 25 March 1910, where his father, Harold Lowden, was an engineer and his mother, Ethel Annie Lamb, a schoolteacher. From Leeds Grammar School he won a Holroyd scholarship to Keble College, Oxford, and went back to Leeds for his clinical training, qualifying in 1934. After junior posts in Leeds General Infirmary and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne (from which he passed the FRCS), he joined the RAMC as a surgical specialist in 1941. He served in India, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, North Africa and Egypt, before taking part in the Sicily landings and the invasion of Italy, rising to the rank of acting lieutenant colonel. He remained for a time in Germany, before returning to specialise in accident and emergency surgery, becoming consultant in that specialty in Sunderland in 1946 and establishing its casualty department. He published The casualty department (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1956), and developed a subspecialty of hand surgery and was an early member of the Hand Club (later the British Society for Surgeon of the Hand). After he retired in 1970 he continued to do locums at Hexham General Hospital. He married Margaret Purdie, a doctor, in 1945. They had a daughter, Catherine, who became a teacher, and a son, Richard, a lawyer. Among his hobbies were mountain walking, especially in Norway, 16 mm photography and the history of the Crusades. He died on 9 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000177
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Reid, Douglas Andrew Campbell (1921 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372365372365
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Campbell Reid was a leading hand surgeon. He was born on 25 February 1921 in Cardiff, the son of David William Reid, a general practitioner, and Edith Mary née Smith, a nurse. His grandfather, David Spence Clark Reid, had also been a GP. He was educated at Christ’s College, Finchley, where he played in the first XI in football and cricket, and won prizes for shooting. After premedical studies at Queen Mary College he entered the London Hospital Medical College, which at that time was evacuated to Cambridge. After qualifying he was a house surgeon at Chase Farm Hospital and then at Hackney Hospital, where he worked through the V1 air raids. He was then a casualty officer, assistant anaesthetist and house physician at the London Hospital. From 1945 to 1946 he was a casualty officer at Chase Farm Hospital, and then went on to be an anatomy demonstrator at the London Hospital, passing his primary in April 1946. He then passed the final from a registrar post at Haslemere. He decided to specialise in plastic surgery, first as senior registrar to Sir Harold Gillies at Park Prewett, Basingstoke, and later as senior registrar to R G Pulvertaft at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield. During this time he was awarded a research prize for an essay on reconstruction of the thumb and was later the first to undertake pollicisation in the UK using the Littler neurovascular pedicle. In 1962 he was appointed consultant plastic surgeon to the United Sheffield Hospitals, the Sheffield Children’s Hospital and Chesterfield Royal Hospital. He won the Frank Robinson silver medal from the United Hospitals of South Manchester in 1980, and was the Sir Harold Gillies lecturer and gold medallist of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1981. He served on the council of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons from 1952 and was on the editorial board of the British Journal of Hand Surgery. He published widely on all aspects of hand surgery, including *Surgery of the thumb* (London, Butterworths, 1986) and *Mutilating injuries of the hand* (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1979). Outside surgery he was a keen ornithologist and photographer. In 1946 he married Margaret Joyce née Pedler, who was an archivist and head of her division at the Foreign Office. They had a son and two daughters. In 1969 he underwent an emergency replacement of the aortic valve and in 1982 he retired to Eastbourne. He died on 16 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000178
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Rhind, James Ronald (1943 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372366372366
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ron Rhind was a general surgeon with an interest in urology based in Hartlepool. He was born in Calcutta on 7 July 1943, where his father, James Albert Rhind, was a general surgeon. His mother was Dorothy Cornelia née Jones. From Sedbergh School Ron went to Leeds to study medicine and did house jobs there after qualifying in 1965. He remained on the surgical rotation, working in Yorkshire hospitals and developing a special interest in urology thanks to the influence of Philip Clarke, R E Williams and Philip Smith, to whom he became senior registrar before going to the Institute of Urology as an RSO. He became a consultant surgeon at Hartlepool General Hospital, where he continued to practice general surgery but concentrated increasingly on urological work. Small, dapper and bustling, Ron was full of energy and self-confidence which was sadly dented in 2001 when, already ill with cancer, he was accused of making errors in the treatment of patients with carcinoma of the bladder and faced with a GMC enquiry. He married Valerie Ross, a nurse, in 1968. They had a son and daughter. He died on 12 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000179
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Vaux, Bowyer (1782 - 1872)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372659372659
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Jeremiah Vaux, whom he succeeded as Surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham, an office held by Dr Jeremiah Vaux from the foundation of the institution. Bowyer Vaux held office from 1808-1843. He died at Teignmouth, South Devon, where he had resided for seventeen years, on Saturday, May 4th, 1872.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000475
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Tjandra, Joe Janwar (1957 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2013-11-25
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372660372660
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Joe Tjandra was a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital, and associate professor of surgery at the University of Melbourne. He was born in Palembang, Indonesia, to Hasan and Tini Tjandra, who were of Chinese origin. His father ran a small trading business. After primary school in Indonesia, Joe Tjandra was sent to Singapore, where he learnt English. He went on to Melbourne, Australia, to Mentone Grammar School, and then studied medicine at the University of Melbourne. He was house surgeon to Alan Cuthbertson and Gordon Clunie in the colorectal unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He then went to the UK, where he trained under Les Hughes at Cardiff. He gained his FRCS in 1986. In 1987 he returned to Australia and carried out clinical research with Ian McKenzie at the Research Centre for Cancer and Transplantation at the University of Melbourne. They worked on monoclonal antibodies, hoping to target toxins specifically to cancer cells. Among the volunteers for his project was his old headmaster at Mentone. Tjandra was awarded his MD for this research and, in the following year, gained his FRACS while a surgical registrar in the colorectal unit. Tjandra then spent a year with John Wong in Hong Kong, after which he went to the Cleveland Clinic, USA, to work for two years with Victor Fazio. He then spent a further year with Les Hughes in Cardiff. In 1993 he returned to Australia and was appointed colorectal surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and to the Royal Women's Hospital. In 2002 he was made an associate professor at the University of Melbourne and, three years later, coordinator of the Epworth Gastrointestinal Oncology Centre. He also established a large private practice. He published over 150 scientific papers, wrote 70 chapters and edited six books. His *Textbook of surgery* (Malden, Mass/Oxford, Blackwell Scientific) is now in its third edition. He was frequently a visiting lecturer/professor, particularly in the Asian Pacific region, but also in the US and Europe. He was editor of *ANZ Journal of Surgery* for several years and was on the board of a number of international journals. He died on 18 June 2007, aged just 50, following a ten-month battle with bowel cancer. He leaves a wife, Yvonne Pun, a rheumatologist, two sons (Douglas and Bradley) and a daughter (Caitlin).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000476
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Cousins, Adrian Gordon (1928 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2014-04-08
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372661372661
Occupation General surgeon
Details Adrian Cousins was a consultant surgeon in Sydney, Australia. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 20 July 1928. His father, Gordon James Cousins, was a doctor, and his mother, Yvonne Effie Matild Zani née de Ferranti, a housewife. He was educated in Sydney; at Belmore Primary School, the Erskinville Opportunity Class for Gifted Children (from 1938 to 1939) and then Sydney Boys High School. He then studied medicine at Sydney University. He undertook surgical training in England as there was no surgical training in Australia after the Second World War. He was a surgical resident at Haymeads Hospital, Bishop's Stortford. He studied anaesthetics at St George's on Hyde Park Corner, orthopaedics under Tommy Sergeant at Nuneaton, thoracic and plastic surgery at Hyde Park Corner in 1954. In 1955 he studied accident and emergency surgery under Lionel Jones at Nuneaton and general surgery under Trevor Berrill in Coventry. In 1956 he studied general surgery under Sir Rodney Smith at St George's. The friendships he made during his postgraduate training were enduring. In December 1957 he returned to Australia. In 1959 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Canterbury Hospital, Sydney, a post he held until 1962. He was then a consultant surgeon at the Sutherland Hospital, Sydney, until 1976. From 1976 to 1988 he was director of surgical services at the Sutherland Hospital. He retired in 1988. He was a member of the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Association of Surgeons, and the sections on colon rectal surgery and general surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was a member of the Society for Growing Australian Plants and the Australian Stock Horse Society. He enjoyed skiing, tennis, rugby union, squash, swimming, farming (sheep, cattle and horse breeding) and cultivating Australian native plants. He was a member of the Volunteer Bushfire Brigade in Bungonia, New South Wales. He married Helen Collier Southward in 1953 in London. They had two sons (Peter Gordon Ziani, now deceased, and Timothy James Ziani) and two daughters (Penelope Joy and Hilary Jane). He had six grandchildren. He died on 12 May 2006 in Canberra, in a nursing home, of respiratory failure.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000477
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chapman, Sir John (1773 - 1849)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Moore, Keith Arthur (1911 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372291372291
Occupation General surgeon
Details Keith Moore was a consultant surgeon at North Middlesex Hospital. He was born on 30 June 1911, at Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia, the son of Frank Joshua Moore, an engineer, and Adela May née Bailey. He was educated at Brisbane Grammar School, and then Wesley College, Sydney University. He went to England to work for his FRCS. In 1941 he enrolled in the RAMC and then served in the Middle East prior to the fall of Tobruk. He subsequently escaped from an Italian prisoner of war camp and walked south through enemy territory to rejoin the Allied Forces, who were by then advancing northwards. After demobilisation he returned to Australia with an English bride, Evelyn Sarah Cowdeney (‘Sally’). They went on to have three daughters (Sarah, Charlotte and Jacqueline) and a son (Richard). He was soon appointed as a surgeon to the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. He was unhappy with the ethos of private practice in Australia and in 1950 returned to England to work in the newly established National Health Service, the principles of which he admired. His subsequent appointment at the North Middlesex Hospital became his life’s work. He retired in 1976. He was a cutting surgeon rather than a writing surgeon, despite having kept detailed personal diaries since he was a young man. His forte throughout his surgical career was discussing the rationale for his decisions concerning the treatment of his patients with his junior staff. Much of his retirement was spent in fulfilling his life-long ambition to restore an old mill, which he had bought very cheaply and which finally became an idyllic residence and garden in Wiltshire. In his later years he was afflicted with rapidly increasing glaucoma-related blindness, which he accepted with remarkable stoicism. During this time he was ably supported by his devoted and understanding wife, Sally. He died on 4 January 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000104
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morrah, Dermot Dubrelle (1943 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2018-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372292372292
Occupation General surgeon
Details Dermot Dubrelle Morrah was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, on 26 October 1943, the second child and only son of Francis Dubrelle Morrah, a farmer, and Sheila Catherine née Douglas, the daughter of a banker. He attended primary and middle school in Invercargill and then, after winning a junior Somes scholarship, was educated at Christ's College in Christchurch. He studied science at Canterbury University and then went on to Otago University. He was a final year student at Christchurch Hospital and then held house surgeon and then registrar posts with the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In 1971 he travelled to the UK, as the ship's captain on the SS Imperial Star. From 1972 to 1973 he was a surgical registrar at Peterborough, where he carried out general, genito-urinary and vascular work. From March 1973 he attended the St Thomas's Hospital fellowship course, and subsequently passed the FRCS. He returned to New Zealand, as a senior registrar to the North Canterbury Hospital Board. In 1974 he gained his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He was employed as an acting lecturer and research fellow in the department of surgery, Otago Medical School until October 1977, when he moved north to join the staff of the Whangarei Hospital, North Island, as a full-time general surgeon. In 1978 he took up the post of supervisor for the surgical training of registrars and subsequently established a successful private practice with particular interests in endoscopy, breast surgery and cutaneaous malignancy. He was a talented organist and pianist, interested in travel and New Zealand philately. He died on 25 May 2003 and is survived by his wife Diana, whom he married in 1976, and sons David and Michael.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000105
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Murray, Richard William Cordiner (1907 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372293372293
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Dick Murray was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Inverness. He was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 20 March 1907. His father, who was a general practitioner, was away serving in the RAMC during the first world war for much of Dick’s early childhood. He was educated at Sherborne and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he went to Birmingham for his clinical studies. After junior posts, he specialised in surgery, particularly orthopaedics, then a fledgling specialty. He was a resident surgical officer at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry under Naughton Dunn, Harry Platt and Sir Reginald Watson Jones. In 1940, he was appointed by the Scottish Office to take charge of the Emergency Medical Services Hospital at Killearn near Glasgow. In 1943, he was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Raigmore Hospital, near Inverness. He travelled far and wide in the Highlands and islands, establishing clinics and offering corrective surgery to the many local people who had disabling conditions of the limbs and spine. His practice built up and he added consultant colleagues along the way. He had a kind and empathetic nature, but developed increasingly severe migraine, which led to his early retirement in 1969. He was a talented oil painter and exhibited widely in the north of Scotland. He married Olwen secretly, at a time when resident surgical staff were not allowed to get married. They had one daughter, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. She predeceased him in 1988. He died on 20 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000106
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Calvert, James Murray (1924 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372462372462
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details James Calvert, neurosurgeon, was born at Mount Bute, near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, where his parents owned a sheep farm. He was educated first at the local state school and then at Ballarat Grammar School. On leaving school, he worked briefly for the Commercial Bank of Australia, before enlisting at the age of 18 in April 1943 in the Australian Army. After initial training in South Australia he was sent to the 2/8th Australian Field Regiment, which had recently returned to Australia after taking part in the Battle of El Alamein. The regiment was now training for the invasion of Sarawak and Brunei in Borneo and sailed from Townsville in May 1945, initially to Morotai and then for Brunei, where it landed on 10 June. Though there was little resistance initially, an ambush of a patrol in which Calvert was taking part resulted in the death of three of his immediate companions. The Japanese surrender occurred in August 1945 and Calvert was discharged in September 1946. He then spent a year at a coaching college, obtaining the necessary exams to enter the medical school at the University of Melbourne. To accommodate the influx of ex-serviceman the University had set up a branch at a former RAAF base in Mildura, in the north west of Victoria, and there Calvert entered the first year of the course. For later years he was resident at Queen’s College, Melbourne University, where he rowed in the first eight, played football and took part in athletics. His clinical studies were done at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where after qualifying he did his house jobs. He then became a surgical registrar there, and later at the Western General Hospital, Footscray. In 1959 he obtained the FRACS, went to England, passed the FRCS at the first attempt, without doing a course, which he could not afford, and entered neurosurgical training at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham under Brodie Hughes. He returned to Melbourne in 1962, working initially at the neurosurgical department of the Alfred Hospital as an honorary (unpaid) assistant neurosurgeon until 1969. During this time he did GP locums at the weekend to make ends meet. In 1967 he took up the post of neurosurgeon to the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Melbourne, and there he worked for the next 20 years as senior neurosurgeon. He also held an appointment to the Repatriation Hospital, close to the Austin, which dealt with ex-servicemen, and at the Peter McCallum Clinic, the Victorian Cancer Centre. He retired from the Austin in 1987 and from the Repatriation Hospital two years later, though continuing to do medico-legal work. Calvert was a person of quiet and retiring demeanour who worked long hours and was much liked by his patients. He was an active member of the Neurosurgical Society of Australia, being treasurer for some years and president from 1980 to 1981. He was also closely associated with the Returned Services League, the Australian ex-servicemen's association and was vice-president of his regiment. In 1956 he married Marnie Fone. They had four daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000275
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coakley, Patrick Kevin (1928 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372463372463
Occupation General surgeon
Details Patrick Kevin Coakley was born on 19 December 1928 at Bantry, County Cork, Eire. He attended Blackrock College, Dublin, and studied medicine at the University of Cork, qualifying in 1952. After the surgical rotation he passed the FRCS in Ireland. In 1955 he was appointed to a short service commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was quickly promoted to Captain. After his basic military training he was posted to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital (QAMH) as a junior specialist in surgery, the first of many postings. Later in the year he moved to the British Military Hospital Lagos, where he developed an excellent relationship with the local Nigerian surgeons. On his return to UK in 1957 he served for a short period at the British Military Hospital Chester, before moving to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, to work with Ian Aird on a sabbatical year as an honorary registrar. While he was there he passed the FRCS England. After this he was made a senior specialist in surgery and then moved to the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. Whilst there he was graded as consultant in surgery by the Armed Services Consultant Approval Board of our College and then posted to the British Military Hospital Hong Kong. Here he established good contacts with G B Ong and was soon involved in teaching. His next appointment in 1965 to the British Military Hospital Hanover, Germany, again resulted in a good liaison, with the Medizin Hochschule at Hanover. His teaching ability was now recognised by his appointment as assistant professor of military surgery at the Royal Army Medical College and QAMH Millbank. The Army oncology unit worked closely with the service at the Westminster Hospital and required a surgeon with special skills, and these he had. Another period of postgraduate training was spent in vascular surgery at St Mary’s Hospital. In 1972 he moved to the Cambridge Military Hospital, where large numbers of casualties of the Parachute Regiment from Northern Ireland were being treated. His excellent service here was recognised by the award of the Mitchiner medal from our College and the Royal Army Medical College, and promotion to Colonel. In 1978 he was posted again to Hanover and he renewed his connections with the University. During this time he volunteered to serve with the field surgical team in Belfast, for which he was awarded the General Service medal with NI clasp. Shortly after his return to Hanover he was appointed an officer of the Order of St John in recognition of his work with battle casualties and the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) task in war. In 1982 he was promoted to Brigadier and appointed command consultant in surgery at HQ BAOR, where he became responsible for surgeons and surgery in NATO. Promotion to Major General followed in 1986, when he was appointed director of army surgery, consultant to the Army and honorary surgeon to HM the Queen. He retired in 1988 to Fleet, Hampshire, where he continued playing golf at the Army Golf Club and freshwater fishing in Ireland. His house repair skills were much in demand. On the 18 January 2004 he died from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was a happy family man and left a wife Janet and children Janet, Fiona and Brendan. He son John predeceased him. He had five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000276
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coghlan, Brian (1962 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Corry, Martin (1939 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2015-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372465372465
Occupation General surgeon
Details Martin Corry was born on 23 May 1937 in Oxford, the son of D C Corry, a distinguished surgeon in that city and a Fellow of the College. It seems to have been assumed from early on that he would follow his father's profession and, after schooling at the Dragon in Oxford and at Rugby, he went up to Queen's College, Oxford, to read medicine. Going on to the University College Hospital in London for his clinical training, he qualified MRCS in 1964, graduating BM in the following year. After a number of junior hospital posts in and around London, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, St Mary's Hospital and Stoke Mandeville, he became a surgical registrar at Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirrall and later a research associate at St Thomas's Hospital. He gained his FRCS, but evidently found little enthusiasm for a fully committed surgical career. He assisted in his father's private practice for a time and took a series of locum posts but held no long-term appointment. Sailing was his hobby, and he kept his boat on the Fal. After his parents' death he continued to live alone in the family home and his health began to suffer with poorly controlled diabetes. Vascular complications and an infection led to leg amputation and he was admitted to a care home. He died after a long illness on 27 September 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000278
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Henson, Philip (1914 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Nevill, Gerald Edward (1915 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372467372467
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gerald Nevill was a consultant surgeon in Kenya. He was born on 22 December 1915 in Nurney, County Carlow, Ireland, the son of Alexander Colles Nevill, Archdeacon of the Church of Ireland, and Rosettah Fitzgerald, a teacher of modern languages and one of the first women to graduate from the University of Dublin. He was educated at Kilkenny College, where he gained a scholarship to Campbell College, Belfast. He subsequently won the McNeil medal for mathematics and played rugby for his school. He won an entrance sizarship to Dublin University, won first class honours in all his examinations, came first in the final examinations, was awarded the Hudson medal and scholarship, and played rugby for the university. After qualifying, he was house surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, Salford Royal Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brighton. From 1940 to 1944 he served with the East African Forces. He went to London to do the Guy’s FRCS course and, having passed the FRCS, returned to Kenya as the successor to Roland Burkitt in Nairobi. He was appointed honorary consultant surgeon to the Native Civil Hospital, later the King George VI Hospital, and subsequently the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. He held honorary lecturer appointments at the Makerere University Hospital, Kampala, and the University of Nairobi Medical School, and was on the organising committee of the new medical school. He published many articles on general surgical topics in the *East African Medical Journal* and was a foundation member and later president of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa. Gerald Nevill married twice. His first wife was Hilda Francis Lurring, a school teacher, by whom he had three sons, one of whom became a doctor. His second marriage was to Mary Evelyn Furnivall née Brown. He continued on the rugby field for many years as a referee and was chairman of the Kenya Referees Society from 1965 to 1980. He was a keen fisherman and freemason. He died on 23 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000280
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moshakis, Vidianos (1946 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Wright, John Kenneth (1918 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372469372469
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Kenneth Wright was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Fylde. He was born on 8 May 1918 in Haslingden, Lancashire, the son of Thomas Smethurst Wright, a pharmacist, and Ellen Bleazard, a schoolteacher. He was educated at Haslingden Grammar School, proceeding to Manchester University, where he graduated BSc in 1939 and in 1942 qualified with the conjoint diploma and MB with the clinical surgery prize. After house appointments at Manchester Royal Infirmary he joined the RAF in 1943, serving in India and Burma, and for a time was medical officer to the famous ‘Dam Buster’ squadron. He returned to Manchester in 1946, undertaking orthopaedic training with Sir Harry Platt and Sir John Charnley, becoming a lecturer in orthopaedics before being appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Fylde in 1956. He retired in 1978. He was involved with Sir John Charnley in the early development of the eponymous hip replacement and was himself an innovator of both orthopaedic and non-orthopaedic devices, including a patented ‘fish lure’. He died on 19 March 2003 and is survived by his wife Vicky, whom he married in 1946, and their two children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000282
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, James Noël Chalmers Barclay (1919 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09 2007-03-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372470372470
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details James Noël Chalmers Barclay Wilson, known as ‘Ginger’, was an orthopaedic surgeon. He was born on Christmas Day 1919 in Coventry, the son of Alexander Wilson, a schoolmaster, and Isobel Barbara née Fairweather, many of whose relatives were general practitioners. His parents later moved to Kenilworth, where a great friend of the family was W E Bennett, a founder member and the first treasurer of the British Orthopaedic Association. Bennett may have influenced Wilson’s later choice of specialty. Wilson was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, where he began to study classics, but switched to science, much to the disgust of his headmaster, and won the Newsome memorial gold medal for physics and a prize for shooting. He studied medicine at Birmingham University, where he passed the primary as an undergraduate, won the Peter Thompson prize for anatomy, as well as the senior surgical and Arthur Foxwell prizes, and qualified with honours. In 1939 he was called up as an emergency dresser and lived in the General Hospital, Birmingham, until January 1940. He was one of the first students to enter Coventry after the notorious raid of 14 November 1940. This was followed a few days later by a massive air raid on Birmingham, when the hospital took in over 240 patients in one night. He qualified in 1943. After six months as a house surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital (during which time he won the Heaton award for being the best resident) he joined the RAMC. There he served as regimental medical officer, qualified as a parachutist, and was attached to the 9th Armoured Division, the 11th Armoured Division and the First Airborne Division, with whom he landed at Arromanches shortly after D-Day. In April 1945 he was recalled to the 1st Airborne to prepare for the attack on Denmark and Norway. He flew in on 9 May in a Stirling bomber, landing at Gardermoen. He remained in Norway until late August, returning in time to marry Pat McCullough, a nurse he had met in Birmingham, on 3 September, celebrating with champagne liberated from a German cache in Norway. After the war he returned as supernumerary registrar to Birmingham and, after passing the FRCS, spent a year at the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital as an orthopaedic registrar, followed by three years at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, where he was much influenced by Sir Reginald Watson-Jones, Sir Henry Osmond Clarke and A M Henry. He earned his ChM degree for a thesis on supracondylar fractures of the elbow, written at Oswestry. In 1952 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, but after three years moved to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital London to set up the accident service at Stanmore, where he was on call three nights a week and alternate weekends. He was also consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square. His orthopaedic interests were at first general, and he helped to develop the Stanmore total hip replacement, along with John Scales and was the first to put one of them in. Later the same team developed the method for replacement of the upper femur and hip for bone tumour. He devised his own osteotomy for the treatment of hallux valgus in adolescents, and set up the RNOH bone tumour registry, which he directed until his retirement. He established the London Bone Tumour Registry. He described a new sign in the early diagnosis of osteochondritis dissecans of the knee, which became known in the USA as ‘Wilson’s sign’, and described two new conditions - ‘Winkle-Pickers’ disease’ and ‘the Battered Buttock’. After retirement he devoted his energies to developing orthopaedic services throughout the third world, travelling to Addis Ababa (where he was made professor of orthopaedics in 1989), Nigeria, Ghana, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. He revised and edited the fifth and sixth editions of Watson-Jones’s textbook on *Fractures and joint injuries* and published more than 60 papers in orthopaedic journals. He was founder member and president of the World Orthopaedic Concern, president of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of the editorial board of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery*. In the College he was the Watson-Jones lecturer in 1988, and Jackson Burrows medallist in 1991. He was appointed OBE in 1995 for services to orthopaedics worldwide. Among his hobbies he included his vintage Bentley, occasional golf, and making things out of rubbish. He died suddenly on 2 March 2006, leaving his wife (who died two weeks later), two daughters (Sheila Barbara and Patricia Elizabeth Jane), two sons (Michael Alexander Lyall and Richard Noël) and three grandchildren (Sam, Rosie and Alice).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000283
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beck, Alfred (1912 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372551372551
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Alfred Beck was a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon in Cardiff. He was born in Uhersky Brod, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), on 28 January 1912. His father, Ignaz, was a wholesale merchant and councillor, from a prominent family in the Jewish community which included rabbis and businessmen. His mother was Rose Fürst. Alfred qualified at King Charles’ University, Prague, in 1935 and, after six months as a house surgeon at Ruzomberok, he completed two and a half years in the Czechoslovakian Army, before becoming a surgical registrar in Benesov, near Prague. A year later the Germans occupied Czechoslovakia and Alfred secretly crossed the border into Poland, where he joined a volunteer unit. He first went to France and then to England, where he was accepted at St George’s. He then worked as a doctor at Colindale Hospital, and narrowly escaped death in a bombing raid. After the war he found that his parents, two brothers and several other relatives had been killed by the Germans in Aüschwitz. He specialised in orthopaedic surgery, was for many years a registrar at St Mary Abbott’s Hospital, and then at Cardiff, where for over 20 years he was consultant in charge of the accident unit at St David’s Hospital. After retirement from the NHS he joined an independent medical group in the City of London, where he continued to work until he was 80. He published on stress fractures, devised an instrument for extracting the femoral neck, and a way of measuring disuse atrophy. A man of exceptional patience and modesty, he was a keen gardener, specialising in cacti. He died on 24 October 2006, and is survived by his wife Martha, whom he married in 1953, and his son Richard. His daughter Linda predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000365
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barton, Rex Penry Edward (1944 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372732372732
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Rex Barton was a former otolaryngologist, head and neck surgeon at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. He was born in Carmarthen, Wales, on 3 May 1944, the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Cecil Barton of the Royal Sussex Regiment and Gwendolen Margaret Gladwys née Thomas, who qualified at the Royal Free Hospital and became a pathologist in Salisbury. Her father, David J Thomas, was formerly medical officer of health for Acton. Educated at the Cathedral School, Salisbury, Harrow School (where he received the Exeter prize for biology) and University College, London, Rex Barton qualified from University College Hospital Medical School, where he was both house surgeon and house physician. After senior house officer posts in Bristol, he elected to pursue a career in ENT and was subsequently appointed registrar and later senior registrar (with plastic surgery) to St Mary’s and the Royal Marsden hospitals, London. Here he was much influenced by Ian Robin and Anthony Richards. During this period he spent four months at the Victoria Hospital, Dichpalli, India, sponsored by the Medical Research Council and LEPRA, where he researched into the ENT manifestations of leprosy. This led to a number of landmark papers and a continued interest in the subject. Appointed consultant head and neck oncologist and ENT surgeon to the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Loughborough General hospitals, Rex Barton was instrumental in establishing a multidisciplinary head and neck oncology service. Sadly because of ill health he was obliged to retire early in 1994. Rex Barton had a firm Christian faith and always resolved to live accordingly. In 1969 he married Nicola Margaret St John Allen, a state registered nurse. They had three children, Thomas, Jennifer and Samuel. Rex Barton died on 18 June 2006. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000548
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hankinson, John (1919 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372733372733
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details John Hankinson, known as ‘Hank’, was a consultant neurosurgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, and professor of neurosurgery at the University of Newcastle. He was born in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, on 10 March 1919, the son of Daniel Hankinson, a company director, and Anne née Kavanagh. He described himself as half-Irish, from Kilkenny, and half-English, from Cheshire. He was educated at Thornleigh College, Bolton, and entered the medical school of St Mary’s Hospital, London, in 1941. He edited the St Mary’s Hospital *Gazette* and, in 1945, was a member of the London University medical group which visited Belsen, an experience of which he later spoke little, though it affected him markedly. The group helped to care for the survivors, many of whom suffered from typhus, tuberculosis or other serious diseases. After qualifying in 1946, he held house appointments at St Mary’s, with Arthur Dickson Wright and John Goligher, the Seaman’s Hospital, Greenwich, the Middlesex Hospital, and Harold Wood Hospital. Dickson Wright, though a general surgeon, included neurosurgery in his wide practice and it was while working with him that Hankinson’s interest in this specialty developed. In 1951 he became a house surgeon to Wylie McKissock and Valentine Logue at the neurosurgical unit of St Georges’s Hospital at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, Wimbledon. He progressed to registrar and senior registrar, interrupting this with a year in the USA, at the Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, with Luis Amador and as research assistant at the neuropsychiatric institute, University of Illinois, with Ralph Gerrard, returning as senior surgical registrar to Atkinson Morley’s Hospital in 1955. In 1954 he developed diabetes, requiring insulin for its management. McKissock encouraged him to continue in neurosurgery in spite of this, which he did, without difficulty. He spent 1956 and 1957 at the National Hospital, Queen Square. In September and October 1956 he was clinical assistant in Lund to Lars Leksell, an early exponent and developer of stereotaxic surgical technique. While at Queen Square he frequently met Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, who was carrying out research for his centenary lecture on Sir Victor Horsley, given at BMA House. In 1957 Hankinson was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, and to the Regional Neurosurgical Centre. He came into contact with G F Rowbotham, who had set up neurosurgery in that city. He also held an academic post as senior lecturer in neurological surgery at the University of Newcastle. In 1972 he was appointed to a chair of neurosurgery, which he held until his retirement in 1984. Hankinson’s main interests were stereotaxic functional neurosurgery and the surgical treatment of syringomyelia, upon both of which he wrote a number of papers and chapters. He was secretary of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons from 1972 to 1977, president from 1980 to 1982 and, from 1977 to 1983, neurosurgical adviser to the Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health and Social Security. Hankinson married Ruth Barnes, a theatre sister at St Mary’s, in 1948. There were two daughters of the marriage (Barbara and Elizabeth). His first wife died in 1982 and he married Nicole Andrews, a radiographer and later a managing director of a plastics engineering works. He was a keen yachtsman and also played the organ at the local church. Hankinson was a popular figure in neurosurgery. He had a droll sense of humour and was an amusing and entertaining conversationalist. He died suddenly on 9 March 2007. T T King
Resource Identifier RCS: E000549
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, John Andrew Carron (1925 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-08-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372734372734
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details John Carron Brown, known to his colleagues as ‘JCB’, was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Norwich. He was born in Sutton, Surrey, on 29 June 1925, the older son of Cecil Carron Brown, a general practitioner, and Jessamy Harper, a solicitor. Educated first at Homefield Preparatory School in Sutton, in 1939 he went to Oundle School for four years, before entering the Middlesex Hospital Medical School for his medical training, where he captained the cricket team. He felt fortunate to have as basic science teachers John Kirk in anatomy, Sampson Wright in physiology and Robert Scarff in pathology. He was greatly influenced in his clinical training by Richard Handley and Charles Lakin. Qualifying in 1949, he became house surgeon to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor and then to the obstetric and gynaecology unit, before becoming house physician at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in 1952. General surgical training continued at St John and Elizabeth’s Hospital and at Redhill and Reigate Hospital, and at the Middlesex Hospital under David Patey and L P LeQuesne, colo-rectal experience being obtained with O Lloyd Davies. His training in gynaecology and obstetrics was at the Chelsea Hospital for Women under Sir Charles Read, John Blakeley and R M Feroze, at the Middlesex Hospital under W R Winterton and as a senior registrar at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Following his appointment as consultant in Norwich in 1963 he led a busy life in clinical practice. He led the development of maternity services and specialised in gynaecological malignancy. He was a great supporter of Cromer and District Cottage Hospital, where he held weekly clinics and operating sessions until he retired in 1990. Described as “a superb clinician and teacher of medical students, midwives and doctors”, his enthusiastic approach led many into careers in obstetrics and gynaecology. He also worked with physiotherapists in the prevention and treatment of stress incontinence. He examined for the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham in obstetrics and gynaecology, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Central Midwives Board. In East Anglia he was a member of the regional advisory committee for eight years, being chairman for two years, and a member of the subcommittee making a confidential enquiry into maternal deaths. For RCOG he was elected member’s representative on council for six years, and served on the finance and executive and the hospital recognition committees. He was made an honorary fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in 1995. He served on the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM) and the Physiotherapy Board, and was vice chairman of CPSM. In Norwich he became chairman of the consultant staff committee and was very involved with the planning of the new hospital. Throughout his schooldays and in medical school he played cricket, tennis and soccer. Carron Brown started playing golf at the early age of six and resumed this once he became established in his chosen career. He enjoyed shooting and in retirement took up fly fishing. He was interested in history, especially of Napoleon and the Indian Empire. Gardening was an abiding passion, particularly the cultivation of roses. He married Marie Mansfield Pinkham, a Middlesex nurse, in 1952. They had three daughters (Susan Margaret, Elizabeth and Jane) and one son (Charles). Following his wife’s death in 1970, he married Susan Mary Mellor, sister of the special care nursery in Norwich, and they had two daughters (Helen Mary and Sarah Louise). He died on 27 May 2008 in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after a ruptured aortic aneurysm. A thanksgiving service was held at Norwich Cathedral, where he worshipped. Sue survives him, as do the children and 16 grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000550
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shaw, Henry Jagoe (1922 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-08-28
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372735372735
Occupation Head and neck surgeon Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Henry Shaw was a pre-eminent otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon. He was born in Stafford on 16 March 1922, the son of Benjamin Henry Shaw, a physician, psychiatrist, artist and fisherman, and Adelaide née Hardy, who became a JP and Staffordshire County councillor. His father came from a distinguished Anglo-Irish family with one relative an army surgeon at Waterloo, another in the 32nd Foot in the same campaign; George Bernard Shaw was an ancestor. Educated at Summer Fields School, Oxford, and Eton College, Henry Shaw read medicine at Oxford University and the Radcliffe Infirmary, where he held junior appointments. Perhaps influenced by R G Macbeth and G Livingstone, otolaryngologists at Oxford, he became registrar and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear (RNTNE) Hospital and Guy’s Hospital, London. He was appointed to a Hunterian professorship at the College (1951). After a fellowship and residency at the Sloan Memorial Hospital, New York (1953 to 1954), Henry Shaw was appointed assistant director of the professorial unit and senior lecturer at the RNTNE Hospital and the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. During this time he spent a further year in New York as senior resident at the Bellvue Hospital. In 1962 he was appointed consultant ENT surgeon to the RNTNE Hospital. This appointment was combined with a consultancy at the Royal Marsden Hospital, an honorary consultancy to St Mary’s Hospital and the post of ENT surgeon to the Civil Government and St Bernard’s Hospital, Gibraltar. In addition he was civilian consultant ENT surgeon to the Royal Navy. He retired in 1988. Henry Shaw’s professional life was devoted to the care of those suffering from cancer of the head and neck. His appointments at the Royal Marsden and RNTNE Hospital enabled him to lead the field in this aspect of otolaryngology. He wrote many publications, lectured nationally and internationally, and became a founder member and treasurer of the Association of Head and Neck Oncologists of Great Britain, president of the section of laryngology, Royal Society of Medicine, member of council, executive committee and professional care committee of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Foundation and a member of the Armed Services Consultant Appointment board. During the Second World War Henry Shaw served as a surgeon lieutenant in the RNVR. He continued in the Royal Naval Reserve, advancing to surgeon lieutenant commander. He was awarded the Volunteer Reserve Decoration in 1970. Henry Shaw was a gentlemanly person who achieved a great deal in a quiet way. He was never happier than when sailing boats of any kind. His long family association with St Mawes in Cornwall (where he eventually retired) enabled him to indulge fully in this hobby. He married Susan Patricia Head (née Ramsey) in 1967. They had no children of their own, but he gained a stepson and stepdaughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1984 and he married Daphne Joan Hayes (née Charney) in 1988, from whom he gained a further two stepdaughters. He died on 1 August 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000552
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anikwe, Raymond Maduchem (1935 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2008-09-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372736372736
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Raymond Anikwe was a leading urological surgeon in Nigeria. He was born on 5 June 1935, the son of Chief Lawrence Akunwanne and Helen Oyeigwe Anikwenze in Nnobi, Anambra State, Nigeria. He was educated at St Mary Primary School, Umulu, and St Joseph Primary School, Onitsha. In 1951 he entered the Government College, Umuahia, where he excelled at sports, as well as his studies, winning a Nigerian Central Government scholarship to the Nigerian College of Technology, Ibadan. After two years there he won a scholarship from the Government of Italy to study medicine at the University of Rome. He learnt Italian, and obtained the degree of MD in July 1964. After qualifying he served as a pre-registration house officer and senior house officer in general surgery in Turin, and then went to the UK as a senior house officer at Dudley Guest Hospital. He was later a registrar in surgery (urology) at the Central Middlesex Hospital. From there he went to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a research fellow, studying urodynamics with a special interest in urethral resistance. In 1973 he returned to Nigeria as a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and consultant surgeon at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. He rose through the academic ranks to become professor of surgery (urology) in 1978. He served on numerous committees: he was chairman of the medical advisory committee, director of clinical services and training at Enugu (from 1978 to 1980), chief executive and medical director (from 1982 to 1985), provost of the college of medicine and medical sciences and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria Enugu campus in 1986. In 1987 he went to Saudi Arabia as professor of urology and consultant urologist at the King Faisal University and King Fahd Hospital. In 1999 he returned to Nigeria to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, until he established his own private hospital, the Galaxy Urology Specialist Hospital, Enugu, which was equipped with the latest endoscopic facilities. He published extensively and was a member of numerous learned societies. In 2007 he received the prestigious D’Linga gold award by Corporate and Media Africa Communications Ltd for his contribution to nation building through the medical profession. In 1974 he married Gladys Ngozi (née Ojukwu) and they had six children, of whom two became doctors. He died on 17 May 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000553
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davis, Neville Coleman (1924 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2008-09-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372737372737
Occupation General surgeon
Details Neville Coleman Davis was a leading surgeon in Queensland. He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on 30 January 1924, the son of Clyde Davis, a medical practitioner, and Vera née Phillips. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney, qualifying in 1945. He completed house posts at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and the Royal Hobart Hospital in Tasmania, before going to England in 1949 as a senior house officer at the City General Hospital in Sheffield. After passing the FRCS, he went on to Sheffield Royal Infirmary for two years and then served in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps as a lieutenant colonel in Korea, where he commanded the British Commonwealth General Hospital in Japan from 1951 to 1952. He returned to Australia as surgical supervisor and part-time lecturer in clinical surgery at Brisbane General Hospital. In 1957 he was appointed visiting surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital. He was co-ordinator of postgraduate surgical education from 1980 to 1986 and was visiting surgeon at the Wesley Breast Clinic from 1982. A truly general surgeon, his main interest was in colorectal surgery, but he was one of the founders and later chairman of the Queensland Melanoma Project. He served in Vietnam as surgical specialist to No 1 Australian Field Hospital in 1969 and was honorary colonel of the RAAMC 1st Military District from 1987 to 1991. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, he was a member of council from 1975 to 1979, honorary librarian and a member of the board of general surgery until 1982, and chairman of the section of colorectal surgery. Many public offices came to him including membership of the council of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and of the medical and scientific committee of Queensland Cancer Fund. He was a member of the council of the Australian Medical Association and was made a fellow in 1979. He served on the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Menzies Foundation of Queensland, and was president of the Queensland Gastroenterological Society. Among his many awards was a Churchill fellowship in 1968, the Henry Simpson Newland medal in 1958, the Justin Fleming medal in 1977 and the John Loewenthal clinical medal in 1978. He was a member of the James IV Association of Surgeons, was the Bancroft orator of the American Medical Association in 1979, gained the Hugh Devine medal of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1988, and was an honorary member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and of the Colorectal Society of Australasia. Neville married Lois Tindale, a medical practitioner, in 1954. They had two daughters (Prudence and Catherine) and a son (Roger). He died on 6 March 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000554
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brun, Claude (1917 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11 2009-01-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372738372738
Occupation General surgeon
Details Claude Brun was a consultant surgeon in Blackburn. He was born on 23 August 1917 in Mauritius. His father, René Brun, was a bank clerk in Port Louis who was descended from a captain in the Napoleonic navy. His mother, Jeanne Brun, was also of French descent. Claude was the eldest of six children. His early schooldays were with the Loreto nuns in a boarding school in St Pierre (which he hated). He was then educated at the Royal College in Curepipe. At the age of 17 he won a British Government scholarship which took him to England in 1934, where he was sponsored by Sir Percy Ezekiel. Having had a classical education, he had to study the necessary basic sciences before going to the London Hospital in October 1936 to study medicine. At the outbreak of the Second World War as a student he was sent to Poplar, Mile End and Highwood hospitals during the Blitz. After qualifying, he did house appointments at the Northern Fever Hospital and King George V Hospital, Ilford, before joining the RAMC in 1942. He was posted to Drymen on Loch Lomond, where he met a nurse named Barbara Limpitlaw, who later became his wife. He spent most of the war on a hospital ship in the Mediterranean. On demobilisation he returned to the London Hospital as a supernumerary registrar in the accident and emergency department and completed registrar posts at King George’s Hospital, Ilford, and then specialised in orthopaedics. For ten years he worked under John Charnley at the Salford Royal Hospital, during which time he passed the MS. He returned to Mauritius in 1957 as a surgeon in the Colonial Medical Health Service, where he developed an interest in anthropology and wrote Les Ancêtres de l’homme (Port Louis, 1964). He returned to England as a consultant surgeon in Blackburn in 1965, where he worked until his retirement in 1982. There he set up a mobile breast screening service, before the advent of mammography. He had many hobbies. In retirement he continued to paint and held several exhibitions, and read widely in the classics. At the age of 88 he taught himself Spanish. He was a keen bookbinder, botanist, woodworker and numismatist. He died peacefully in his sleep on 25 May 2007 leaving his widow, two daughters (Anne and Pauline), a son, Robert, who also became a doctor, and nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000555
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birbara, George (1928 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372739372739
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Birbara was a general surgeon in Leeton, New South Wales. He was born in Sydney on 16 August 1928. His parents, Anis, a tailor, and Amanda (née Diab) had emigrated from Lebanon. George went to Sydney Boys’ High School and Sydney University. After house appointments, he went to England in 1954 to specialize in surgery, working at the Royal Masonic, Whipps Cross, St James’s Balham, St Cross Rugby, St Luke’s Bradford and Southampton Chest hospitals. Having passed the FRCS, he returned to Leeton, New South Wales in 1959. He married Hazel, a school teacher, in 1956. They had two sons (Nicholas and Andrew) and two daughters (Rosemary and Helen), none of whom followed him into medicine. He died on 17 January 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000556
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moffoot, Alexander Gordon (1923 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372740372740
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alexander Gordon Moffoot was a general surgeon in British Columbia, Canada. He was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1923, the son of George Roberston Moffoot, a dental surgeon, and Doris Hilda née Jobey. His brother followed in his father’s footsteps to become a dentist, but after attending Yarm Grammar School in Yorkshire, Alexander went to Edinburgh to study medicine, where he qualified in 1945. After junior posts he served in the RAMC with the 6th Airborne Division in Palestine. On demobilization he decided to specialize in surgery, took the FRCS course at Guy’s Hospital and passed the FRCS in 1952. In 1955 he moved to Alberta, Canada, and worked for the next five years in the Innisfail Municipal Hospital, moving to British Columbia in 1960, where he worked at the Saanich Peninsular Hospital, combining general surgery with general clinical practice in a group of six. He married Ruth Hugill, a speech therapist, in 1953. They had one son Jonathan and a daughter June Ruth, who became a nurse. He died on 5 January 2008 in Sidney, British Columbia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000557
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Richards, Stephen Higgs (1928 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Shumway, Norman (1923 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372473372473
Occupation Transplant surgeon
Details Norman Shumway was the father of cardiac transplantation and performed the world’s first heart-lung transplant. Unlike some of his contemporaries who sought the limelight, Shumway spent a decade carrying out research into cardiac transplantation before he was ready to do the operation on a live recipient. It was ironic that he was scooped by his pupil, Christiaan Barnard, in 1967. Born on 9 February 1923 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where his father kept a creamery, Shumway enrolled at Michigan University to study law. He was then drafted into the Army, where he was found to have an aptitude for medicine, and was sent off to Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, where he qualified in 1949. At first he set up in private surgical practice in a cottage hospital in Santa Barbara, but was invited to join Owen Wangensteen’s research programme at Minnesota. There he gained a PhD for his work on the effect of cooling on the electrical activity of the heart. His work was interrupted by two years in the US Air Force, after which he moved to Stanford University in California, where he started his work on transplantation. He became chief of cardiothoracic surgery there in 1965. While others enjoyed the brief publicity of carrying out cardiac transplantation, which was soon followed by notoriety as rejection almost inevitably took place, Shumway quietly spent his time methodically trying to improve the selection of donors, organ preservation, the technique of heart biopsy and the development of anti-rejection drugs. He was one of the first to use cyclosporine. By 1991 his department had performed nearly 700 transplants with 80 per cent survival for more than five years. A modest man, dressed scruffily, and driving a battered old car, he trained cardiac surgeons from all over the world, He published extensively and received innumerable honours, including our FRCS. Divorced from Mary Lou Stuurmans in 1951, he leaves a son and three daughters, one of whom, Sara, is a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Minnesota. He died from lung cancer on 10 February 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000286
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shukri, Aziz Mahmood (1923 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Magri, Joseph (1926 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372475372475
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Joe Magri was a consultant urologist at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford. He was born in Valletta, Malta, on 2 March 1926, the son of Francesca and Tancred Magri. He was educated at the Jesuit College and Malta University, where he qualified in 1949. He then moved to England to specialise in surgery. He was a house surgeon in orthopaedics and accident surgery at the City Hospital, Sheffield, and then a surgical registrar in Barnsley, where, with the help of only an anaesthetist and a house physician, he dealt with all the emergencies that arose in that busy mining town. He went on to become an anatomy demonstrator in Sheffield, passed the primary and final FRCS, and became a surgical registrar in Leicester. He was RSO (senior registrar) at St Peter’s Hospital in 1959 and was appointed consultant urologist, Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, in 1963. There he published a review of partial cystectomy for bladder cancer and a few years later a ‘no-catheter’ technique for prostatectomy. A genial, friendly man, Joe Magri’s many interests included bridge, sailing, skiing and the opera. He attended Covent Garden regularly. He also built his own Gilbern car from a kit. He met his Swedish wife Margareta Johansson while on holiday in Malta, where she was working as a private secretary in an architect’s office. Together they refurbished a house in Mill Hill. They had no children. He died of metastatic carcinoma on 6 April 2005. He is survived by his widow.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000288
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sengupta, Dipankar (1936 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Perrins, David John Dyson (1924 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09 2012-03-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372477372477
Occupation Medical Research Council research fellow Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details David John Dyson Perrins was an expert in the use of hyperbaric oxygen and a former MRC research fellow at Churchill Hospital, Oxford. Born in 1924, he studied medicine at Jesus College, Cambridge, and rowed for the university in the 1946 Boat Race. He completed his clinical studies at St Thomas's, where he was a house surgeon. After National Service in the Royal Navy, he trained in plastic surgery, gaining experience in the use of hyperbaric oxygen treatment. He completed his MD thesis in 1972 on hyperbaric oxygen and wound healing, and spent ten years at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, studying the use of oxygen as a radiosensitiser. He also undertook experimental work with W S Bullough at London University on chalones, the mitotic inhibitors in skin. He then moved to Stockholm for two years, to work with Per Oluf Barr on the use of hyperbaric oxygen to prevent amputation in patients with diabetic vascular disease. On his return to the UK he was an honorary adviser to the Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Centres, researching into the use of hyperbaric oxygen to slow the progress of the disease. He was a former vice president of the International Society of Hyperbaric Medicine. David Perrins died on 2 November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000290
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Lewis, Cecil Wilfred Dickens (1916 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching O'Keeffe, Declan (1922 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Marsden, Austin Joseph (1919 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Laird, Martin (1917 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Scannell, Timothy Walter (1940 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Quartey, John Kwateboi Marmon (1923 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2007-12-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372483372483
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details ‘Kwashie’ Quartey had an international reputation for his work on the surgery of urethral stricture, and was one of the father figures of surgery in his home country, Ghana. He was the sixth of the seven children of Peter David Quartey snr, headmaster of the Government Junior School in James Town, and Elizabeth Abigail Quartey (née Marmon). He was educated at the Achimota Secondary School, where he was senior prefect, and won colours for cricket and hockey. In 1942 he was awarded a Gold Coast Government medical scholarship to Edinburgh, travelling there in convoy at the height of the U-boat war. At Edinburgh he captained the hockey team, became involved with the Student Christian Movement and graduated in 1948. After junior posts, which included a spell at Wilkington Hospital, Manchester, and passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships in 1953, he returned to the Gold Coast. On the ship home to the Gold Coast he met his future wife, Edith Sangmorkie Saki, who was a nurse. Quartey then worked in Ministry of Health hospitals in Kumasi, Tamale and Accra, returning to do a course in tropical medicine in London in 1954 while Edith returned to England to study theatre work. They married in 1955. He was appointed a surgical specialist in 1958 and in 1961 he was awarded a Canadian Government fellowship in urology at Dalhousie University, Halifax, where he is remembered with respect and affection, and where strenuous attempts were made to arrange a full residency for him. On his return Kwashie set up the urology unit at the Korle Bu Hospital in Accra. The following year, 1963, he set up the anatomy department of the new Ghana Medical School, in the absence of any basic medical scientists. He was extremely active in the work of the surgical department, fostering its department of plastic surgery. In April 1978 there was an order for his arrest on charges of treason and he went into exile in Lome, Togo, for six months, during which time it was arranged that he should become a WHO consultant in surgery to the Government of the Gambia. He returned home after the palace coup in which General Acheampong was ousted. In 1981 he described his method of urethroplasty based on his own careful anatomical studies that used a pedicled flap of penile skin, which had the advantage of being non hair-bearing. The method was widely publicised and earned him an ChM from Edinburgh University. He travelled widely and was a visiting professor in Iran, Johannesburg and Mainz. He was a founding member of the Ghana Medical Association and of the West Africa College of Surgeons, of which he became president, and was the recipient of numerous honorary distinctions, including the unique posthumous award of the St Paul’s medal by BAUS. He was still busy with the Operation Ghana Medical Mission at the age of 82, and it was when returning from one of these outreach visits that he was involved in a fatal head-on road collision on 27 August 2005. Only two of the 10 occupants of the two vehicles survived. A state funeral was held in the State House in Accra in the presence of the President. Kwashie had an ebullient, irrepressible personality, which won him friends throughout the world of surgery and urology. He left a son (Ian Malcolm Kpakpa), daughter (Susan Miranda Kwale) and six grandchildren (Alexis Naa Kwarma, Smyly Nii Otu, Arthur Nii Armah, Nana Akua, Obaa Akosua and John Nii Kwatei).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000296
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sneath, Rodney Saville (1925 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372484372484
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Rodney Sneath was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham and a pioneer in limb salvage surgery for patients with bone tumours. He was born in Sheffield, the son of Ernest Saville Sneath, a master printer, who owned the ‘Saville Press’. His mother was Dorothy Unwin. He was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School and Sheffield University, where he qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1948, acquiring the MB ChB in 1957. He had a wide range of interests at university, including rugby, rock climbing, gliding and motor sport. In 1952 he took part in the Monte Carlo rally with his father and was the first of the private competitors to finish. During his National Service in the RAMC he was stationed in Austria, and became an accomplished skier, an interest he pursued well into his seventies. After demobilisation and the acquisition of the FRCS in 1958 he began orthopaedic training at St George’s Hospital and later at the Royal National Orthopaedic and its associated hospitals. He was appointed a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham, in 1965, where he developed an interest in the treatment of malignant musculo-skeletal tumours. In collaboration with John Scales at the RNOH he established what became an internationally recognised unit for the treatment of bone tumours, and together they made many innovations, including a ‘growing prosthesis’ for use in children. He was a founder member of the European Musculo-Skeletal Oncology Society and a Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. Among many invited lectures he gave a Hunterian lecture on ‘the treatment of malignant bone tumours in children’ in 1993. He died on 1 April 2005, leaving a wife, Ann, and five children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000297
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Staunton, Michael Douglas Mary (1925 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30 2017-06-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372485372485
Occupation General surgeon
Details Michael Douglas Mary Staunton, known as 'Dudley', was a general surgeon in London with an interest in oncology. He was born on 8 September 1925 in Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland, where his father Michael Douglas Staunton was a dispensary doctor. His mother was Ursula Mellett. Of the six children, all became doctors. From Blackrock College, Dublin - 'the best rugger school in Ireland' - he went on to Trinity College Dublin to study medicine, and did house jobs at Dr Steevens Hospital, before going to Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he worked for Ashton Miller. In 1952 he did his National Service in the RAMC, mostly in 37th BMH Accra, Ghana, as a junior surgical specialist. In 1955 he returned to marry Rena Stokes, a radiographer from Tipperary, and to become surgical registrar at the Morriston Hospital, Swansea. Having passed the FRCS, he became a senior registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, training in cancer surgery under Ronald Raven. In 1964 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the Metropolitan, St Leonard's and the Royal London Homoeopathic hospitals, and in due course to the Hackney Hospital and St Bartholomew's (1980) and finally Homerton Hospital (1986). He was an enthusiastic tutor and examiner for the College, ending as chairman of the Court in 1982. He published extensively, mainly on cancer of the breast and thyroid. A keen member of the Territorial Army, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Among his many other interests were rugby, genealogy, his old college (he was chairman of the Trinity College Dublin Dining Club from 1985 to 1994) and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. A colourful, amusing and delightful colleague, he died on 31 August 2005 from carcinoma of the prostate. He had two sons, a daughter and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000298
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching West, Sir Augustus (1788 - 1868)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372668372668
Occupation General surgeon
Details Entered the Army as Surgeon’s Mate, unattached, on May 26th, 1804; was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 4th Foot on Nov 7th, 1805, was promoted to Staff Surgeon in Portugal under Lieut-General S W Carr Beresford on Aug 17th, 1809, and to the rank of Deputy Inspector of Hospitals in Portugal on Oct 19th, 1815, and was appointed Physician in Ordinary to the King of Portugal. His British rank dated from March 25th, 1813, temporary Staff Surgeon; Oct 25th, 1814, permanent; on April 29th, 1818, Brevet Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, later Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, then Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals on Nov 18th, 1824; on this date he retired on half pay, and was knighted at Carlton House on Nov 24th (KHS, Oct 28th, 1824). His active service included Hanover, 1805; Copenhagen, 1807; Walcheren, 1809; Portugal and Spain from 1808-1815. On retirement he lived for a time in Portugal, then in Paris, and died at Montfermeil on Aug 16th, 1868.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000484
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Morgan ( - 1865)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372669372669
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was gazetted Supernumerary Assistant Surgeon on July 14th, 1804, in the Ordnance Medical Department, Assistant Surgeon on Aug 1st, 1806, and Surgeon on Nov 11th, 1811. He saw active service at the Battle of Maida in Calabria on July 4th, 1806, where the British under Major-General Sir John Stuart severely defeated the French under General Regnier. He also served in the Peninsular War. On July 14th, 1836, he was promoted Assistant Inspector-General of Hospitals; on Jan 16th, 1841, Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, and on April 1st, 1850, Inspector-General. He was stationed for many years at Woolwich, where he died on Oct 22nd, 1865, having retired on full pay on April 1st, 1850.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000485
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Carter, James Francis (1933 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Patrick G Alley
Publication Date 2009-08-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372829372829
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Francis ‘Jim’ Carter was a general surgeon in Auckland, New Zealand. He was born on 17 March 1933 in Rawene Northland, New Zealand, one of six children of hardworking share milkers and agricultural labourers who frequently had to move to seek work in those days of depression. He was educated at Kawa Kawa High School and Kaitaia College, before studying medicine in Otago. He did his junior posts in Wellington and then spent two years in Blackball, on the west coast, serving the mining community. In 1959 he married Dorothy Rees, a staff nurse at Wellington Hospital, and in 1962 they went to England, where he passed the FRCS and worked as a registrar in London, ending as senior registrar at St Mark’s Hospital. He returned to New Zealand in 1968 as a surgical tutor and specialist in general surgery at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland. He introduced the resection and immediate anastomosis for acute left colonic conditions, which was at that time regarded as revolutionary. Two years later he founded the northern regional training scheme for surgical registrars, whereby registrars would rotate outside the main teaching centres, then a novelty in New Zealand. From 1972 he entered and developed a successful private practice, but at the same time was given an honorary academic appointment at the Auckland Medical School by Eric Nanson, who recognised his ability in clinical research. There he set up a unit for the investigation of disorders of oesophageal motility. The North Shore Hospital was opened in 1984, with Jim Carter, P G Alley, John Gillman and Kerry Clark running the general surgical service, which soon became sought-after by trainees studying for the FRACS. He was active in the Australasian College, serving on the court of examiners and its New Zealand committee, which was to become the New Zealand board of surgery and was a founder member of the New Zealand Association of General Surgeons. He was a truly general surgeon, excelling in endocrine, head and neck, colorectal and upper GI surgery. He established breast clinics at the North Shore and Mercy hospitals. A keen athlete, he was a member of the Owairaka Running Club, with several marathons to his credit, always doing his training in the early mornings. He died on 19 September 2008, leaving his widow, Dorothy, a daughter Rosemary and son Richard.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000646
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Adams, Josiah Oake (1842 - 1925)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Adams, Matthew Algernon (1836 - 1913)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372831372831
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in 1836 and received his professional training at Guy's Hospital. He practised at Leeds, where he was for a time Senior Resident Surgeon at the Public Dispensary; he was also Assistant Surgeon to the 9th Herefordshire Rifle Volunteers. Before 1871 he had removed to Ashford Road, Maidstone, where he was Surgeon to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital. Later he was appointed Public Analyst for the County of Kent and for Maidstone, and was a Member of Council and then President of the Society of Public Analysts, as well as a Member of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. He was also for a time Medical Officer of Health and Gas Analyst for the Borough of Maidstone. In 1870 he had been appointed a Certificated Teacher in the Science and Art Department. He resided and practised for many years at Trinity House, Maidstone, and then moved to The Kulm, Bearsted, Kent, where he died during April, 1913. At the time of his death he was still Public Analyst for Kent and Maidstone, and was Vice-President of the Society of Public Analysts and a Fellow of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, as well as Consulting Surgeon to the Kent County Ophthalmic Hospital. He was the inventor and author of “The Hormagraph, an Instrument for Investigating the Field of Vision”. Publications: *Pocket Memoranda relating to Infectious Zymotic Diseases*, 24mo, London, 1885. “Contribution to the Etiology of Diphtheria.” *Public Health*, 1890. “The Relationship between the Occurrence of Diphtheria and the Movement of the Sub-soil Water.” * 7th and 8th internat. Congr. of Hygiene and Demography*, 1891 and 1894. “On the Estimation of Dissolved Oxygen in Water.” *Trans. Chem. Soc.*, 1892. *Annual Reports of the Medical Officer of Health for the Borough of Maidstone, to the Local Board, for the years* 1879-81, 8vo, Maidstone, 1880-82. *Report to the Local Board on the Outbreaks of Small-pox in Maidstone*, 8vo, 2 diagrams, Maidstone, 1881.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000648
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Adams, William ( - 1892)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Adams, William ( [1] - 1900)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2016-01-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372833372833
Occupation General surgeon
Details [2] Studied anatomy and physiology at the Webb Street School, which was then under the management of Richard Grainger (1798-1861), the younger brother of the talented but ill-used founder. In 1838 he entered as a medical student at St Thomas's Hospital, where he came under the influence of Joseph Henry Green (qv) (1791-1863), the philosophical surgeon whose memory he always held in the highest esteem. [3] In August, 1842, he was appointed Curator of the Museum and Demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy in the Medical School of St Thomas's Hospital, then situated in the Borough. These posts were held until 1854, when he joined the Grosvenor Place or Lane's Medical School in Kinnerton Street [4] near St George's Hospital. Here he lectured on Surgery and Hospital Practice, having Thomas Spencer Wells (qv) as a colleague. About this time Adams began to devote his attention more particularly to orthopaedic surgery, of which he became one of the leading exponents and most successful practitioners in this country. He was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital, and Surgeon to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic before it had specialized in brain surgery. At the Great Northern (now the Royal Northern) Hospital he devised the operation which became known by his name - osteotomy of the neck of the femur within the capsule of the hip-joint. For this purpose he invented a saw with a short cutting surface and a long blunt shank - "my little thaw," as he always called it - by which the bone could be divided through a minute incision in the skin. He also brought into prominence the treatment of Dupuytren's contraction by subcutaneous division of the fibrous bands. In 1864 he was awarded the Jacksonian Prize for "Club-foot, its Causes, Pathology and Treatment". The essay is a classic, for it is an epitome of the knowledge of the time. In 1872 he severed his connection with the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in consequence of a quarrel between the staff and the management, in which it was thought by his contemporaries that the staff was in the right. In 1876 he was President of the Medical Society of London, and in that capacity visited the United States and Canada as a delegate to the International Medical Congress held in September at Philadelphia. He was accompanied by Dr Lauder Brunton and Richard Davy (qv). With Lister (qv) he watched Professor Sayre excise the hip-joint in a boy. He lived and practised until 1896 at 5 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, where is now the College of Nursing. He retired to 7 Loudon Road, St John's Wood, and died there on Feb 3rd, 1900, the morning of his ninetieth birthday. [5] He never married. [6] Adams was a careful but slow operator who maintained his interest in general surgery and pathology to the end of his life. He had been one of the promoters and first members of the Pathological Society of London as early as 1846. He was a good but prolix talker, with a soft voice and well-marked lisp. Sir James Paget used to complain of him that he never finished his sentences, and when one of us (D'A P) was curator of the Museum at St Bartholomew's Hospital, he would often come in later days and waste two or three hours of valuable time, having himself nothing to do. His talk, however, was interesting, for he would tell of his reminiscences of 'resurrection days' and the snatching of bodies for the purposes of anatomy. He took with him from Grainger's School Tom Parker as his dead-house assistant at St Thomas's Hospital. Tom Parker was a notorious resurrectionist, and there is good reason to suppose that he was the executioner who cut off the heads of the four men sentenced for high treason after the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820. Publications:- "Observations on Transverse Fracture of the Patella." *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, ii, 254. "The Enlargement of the Articular Extremities of Bone in Chronic Rheumatic Arthritis." - *Ibid*., iii, 156. (He refuted in this paper the teaching of Rokitansky.) Lectures on Orthopaedic Surgery, 1855-8. "Presidential Address on Subcutaneous Surgery." - *Proc. Med. Soc. Lond.*, 1857. *On the Reparative Process in Human Tendons after Subcutaneous Division for the Cure of Deformities, with a Series of Experiments on Rabbits and a Résumé of the Literature of the Subject,* 8vo, plates, London, 1860. (A piece of good pathological work illustrating the method of repair of divided tendons.) *Lectures on the Pathology and Treatment of Lateral and other Forms of Curvature of the Spine*, 8vo, 5 plates, London 1865; 2nd ed., 1882. *Club-Foot, its Causes, Pathology and Treatment* (Jacksonian Prize Essay), 8vo, illustrated, London, 1866; 2nd ed, 8vo, 6 plates, London, 1873. (The original manuscript is in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons.) "Congenital Dislocation of Hip-Joint." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1885, ii, 859; 1887, i, 866; 1889, i, 243; and *Trans. Amer. Orthop. Cong.*, 1895. "Congenital Wry-Neck" - *Trans. Amer. Orthop. Assoc.*, 1896. "Rotation of the Spine in the so-called Lateral Curvature." - *Ibid.*, 1899, etc. The following are in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons:- *A New Operation for Bony Anchylosis of the Hip Joint by Subcutaneous Division of the Neck of the Thigh Bone*, 8vo, 4 plates, London 1871. "On the Successful Treatment of Hammer-Toe by the Subcutaneous Division of the Lateral Ligaments", 8vo, plate, London, 1868, from *Proc. Med. Soc. Lond*., ii; 2nd ed., 1892. "On the Successful Treatment of Cases of Congenital Displacement of the Hip-Joint", 8vo, 2 illustrations, London, 1890, from *Brit. Med. Jour*. "Subcutaneous Surgery: its Principles, and its Recent Extension in Practice" (Sixth Toner Lecture), 1876, in *Smithsonian Miscell. Collections*, xv, 8vo, Washington, 1877. *Observations on Contractions of the Fingers (Dupuytren's Contraction), and its Successful Treatment by Subcutaneous Divisions of the Palmar Fascia and Immediate Extension; also on the Obliteration of Depressed Cicatrices after Glandular Abscesses or Exfoliation of Bone by a Subcutanous Operation*, 8vo, 4 Plates, Washington, 1879. The 2nd edition appeared with the title, *On Contractions of the Fingers (Dupuytren's and Congenital Contractions) and on 'Hammer-toe'*, etc., 8vo, 8 plates, Washington, 1892. "The International Medical Congress in Philadelphia" (Presidential Address before the Medical Society of London). - *Proc. Med. Soc. Lond.*, 1875-7, iii, 97; printed as an 8vo volume, London 1876. *Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Letters and Documents in reference to the recent Arbitration by a Committee appointed by the Council of the Metropolitan Branch of the British Medical Association to investigate Certain Charges made by Mr W Adams against Mr Brodhurst, in connection with the Events which have lately occurred at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital*, 8vo, London, 1872. *Principles of Treatment applicable to Contractions and Deformities*, 1893. Special section contributed to the 2nd edition of William Spencer Watson's *Diseases of the Nose and the Accessory Cavities*, 8vo, London, 1890. Adams delivered the Lettsomian Lectures before the Medical Society of London in 1869, his subject being the "Rheumatic and Strumous Diseases of the Joints and the Treatment for the Restoration of Motion in Partial Ankylosis." In the same year he cut through the neck of the thigh bone, but Mr Brodhurst had already performed this operation several times. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] 1820 (1st February); [2] Son of James Adams L.S.A. of 39 Finsbury Square, a Governor of S. Thomas's Hospital.; [3] His eldest brother, James, was also a pupil of J.H. Green, became an ophthalmic surgeon & died aged 31.; [4] 'Kinnerton Street' is deleted and 'Grosvenor Place' added; [5] 'the morning of' is deleted and '2 days after' is added, and 'ninetieth' is deleted and '80th' added; [6] 'He never married.' is deleted, and the following added 'He married 21 August 1847, Mary Anne MILLS, who died in 1897, and had 2 sons & 1 daughter - all now (1931) dead without descendants (information from P.E. Adams MRCS, nephew). the last surviving son died in 1920. He is also reported to have had "two harems(?)"'; Portrait (No.1) in Small Photographic Album (Moira & Haigh).]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000650
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Agnis, John Crown (1828 - 1866)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372834372834
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Langford, Malden, Essex, on Nov 11th, 1828, and dying unmarried was the last representative of an ancient Cambridgeshire family. He was a very promising lad, and at the age of 16 entered University College, London, and soon carried off the Senior Greek Prize, “being a mere boy in comparison with his competitors” (*Lancet*). He received his medical education at University College Hospital, became House Surgeon, and was gazetted to the 3rd Light Dragoons on Aug 11th, 1854. He afterwards became Assistant Surgeon to the Horse Guards Blue in 1860 (Sept 18th), holding this post to the end of his life. As an operator he was “bold and skilful”, “notably endowed”, as his *Lancet* biographer remarks, “with that special surgical acumen which is logic in action”. His talents were such that his friends urged him to bring himself into greater evidence. Accordingly he began to study deformities and “energetically followed out a series of special researches into their general surgical pathology.” In 1864 the Examiners for the Jacksonian Essay Prize awarded an Honorarium to Agnis for his essay on “Club-foot, its Causes, Pathology and Treatment”. The many illustrations to the Essay were drawn by the author, but the paper has not been published. Agnis was a skilful artist, “an enthusiastic entomologist, and versed in almost every branch of natural science”. He died in London on June 28th, 1866, after a brief illness. He had previously suffered from the effects of a severe hunting accident.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000651
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Aikin, Charles Arthur (1821 - 1908)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Ainger, Major (1820 - 1861)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Albert, Eduard (1841 - 1900)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Alcock, Sir Rutherford (1809 - 1897)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Aldersey, William Hugh ( - 1885)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372839372839
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital and, in addition to the other qualifications, he passed the First MB Examination at the University of London in 1856. Served as Medical Officer on the Indiana during the Crimean War, and afterwards practised at Buntingford, Herts, for the South-Eastern District of which he was Medical Officer. Later he moved to Hayling and Havant in Hampshire, acting as Medical Officer of Health for the Urban and Rural Districts. He retired to Surbiton, living at 7 St James' Road, where he died on Sept 7th, 1885. He was a Fellow of the Obstetrical Society.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000656
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Aldersmith, Herbert (1848 - 1918)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2016-01-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372840372840
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the senior scholarship, and during his career as a student won the Gold Medal at the Society of Apothecaries and the Scholarship and Gold Medal at the MB Examination of the University of London. He filled the offices of House Surgeon and House Physician at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and, settling in Giltspur Street, was appointed in 1872 Medical Officer of Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School), then in Newgate Street. This post he held until 1913, moving with the school to Horsham. He continued to live at Horsham after his connection with the school ended, died suddenly at Carlton Lodge, Horsham, on March 24th, 1918, and was buried at Itchingfield. [1] Aldersmith lived entirely for the Bluecoat School, and greatly to its advantage. His kindness of heart and his friendly interest endeared him to all the boys brought into contact with him. The declaration made by the Orator at the Speech Day on the occasion of his retirement, that "there is no healthier school in England than Christ's Hospital", was a tribute to his skill and care. He was an influential and respected honorary member of the Medical Officers of Schools Association, who became an authority on ringworm before the recent advances in diagnosis and treatment. He began life as H A Smith, became H Alder-Smith when he began to practice, and finally H Aldersmith, by which name he was generally known in later life. Publications:- Ringworm and Alopecia Areata: their Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment, 8vo, illustrated, 4th ed., London, 1897. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] His daughter Dorothy Constance, wife of Charles Ernest Robinson of Hillcote, Storrington died 20 Sept, 1940 (*The Times* 23 Sept 1940)]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000657
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alderson, John Septimus ( - 1858)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Alderson, Richard Robinson ( - 1888)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372842372842
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the London Hospital; practised at York, where he was Surgeon to the York Union, Assistant Surgeon to the 2nd West York Militia (Light Infantry), and Honorary Surgeon to the 11th Derbyshire Volunteer Rifles. During the Crimean War he was a First-class Staff Surgeon to the Osmanli Horse Artillery - Turkish Contingent - and on his return to England he practised in Aberdeen Walk, Scarborough, where he seems to have remained until 1863. He moved about this time to Filey, and appears to have died there at some time before 1888. He passed the examination for the Fellowship, but is not registered in the College books as Fellow, nor did he receive the diploma, probably because he never paid the additional fees.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000659
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Burgess, Charles Terence Anthony (1913 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2015-09-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372217372217
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Burgess, known as Terence, was born in Hoylake, the Wirral, Cheshire, on 10 January 1913, into a medical family. His father, Charles Herbert Burgess, was a general practitioner, as was his grandfather, Robert Burgess. His mother was Meta Jeanette née Leitch. Terence was educated at Haileybury, and then in 1931 went on to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He completed his clinical training in Liverpool. After junior posts, he served in the RAMC and was awarded an MBE for his part in the rescue of wounded servicemen from a hospital transport ship when it was mined and sunk off the Normandy beaches shortly after D-day. He returned to Liverpool to specialise in surgery, training at the David Lewis Northern Hospital. In 1950, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at Ormskirk District General Hospital and, the following year, to Southport Infirmary. He retired from both positions in 1978. He kept up his links with the RAMC, retiring from the 8th Liverpool Unit in 1963 with the rank of Colonel. He served on the Southport bench as a magistrate from 1971 to 1983, and after retirement became involved with the movement to found the Queenscourt Hospice in Southport, of which he was first chairman of the committee. The hospice education centre is named after him. He wished to be remembered for the good quality, compassionate care he gave to patients and as an enthusiastic educator of medical and nursing staff. Outside medicine, he was involved with his church, St Cuthbert's in Southport, serving as a churchwarden. He played golf, and was interested in cartography and local history. He was a lifelong supporter of Everton Football Club. He married Stella née Smith in 1951 and they had two daughters, Catherine and Priscilla, an ophthalmologist. There are two grandchildren. He died on 29 January 2004, following a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000030
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Burkitt, Robert Townsend (1912 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Robin Burkitt
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2014-07-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372218372218
Occupation General surgeon
Details Robert Townsend Burkitt, known as 'Robin', was a highly respected consultant general surgeon at Ashford Hospital. He was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, on 28 September 1912. His father, James Parsons Burkitt, was an engineer and County Surveyor, and also a distinguished ornithologist, an interest which Robin inherited from his father. His mother was Gwendolyn Burkitt née Hill. Robin and his elder brother Denis, were educated at Dean Close School in Cheltenham and he followed his brother to Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1930. At TCD he studied modern languages, anticipating a career as a diplomat, then decided to change to medicine. Denis also decided on a career in medicine and he carried out pioneering research into the cause of a particular form of cancer ('Burkitt's lymphoma'), work for which he achieved world-wide recognition. After qualifying as a doctor, Robin took up a post as a senior house officer at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, where he met his future wife, Violet, a nurse. They were married shortly after the Second World War broke out. He joined the Army at the end of 1939 and was sent to France, where he was stationed on the Normandy coast until the German advance forced them to retreat in haste. Robin managed to reach Boulogne and take passage back to England. He was then posted as a battalion medical officer to the 9th Battalion, the Seaforth Highlanders. After a period of training in Scotland, he was sent to West Africa, where he worked in hospitals and outlying stations in the Gambia and Nigeria. He returned to England in October 1944 to qualify as a surgical specialist. Early in the following year he was sent to India to join a beach medical unit that was preparing for a planned invasion of Malaya. Returning to England at the end of the war, he joined Ashford Hospital as a surgical registrar and during his time there gained his FRCS. Due to the post-war backlog, there were few opportunities to obtain a consultant post in the UK, and he was persuaded by an old colleague to join his medical practice in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1951, he and his wife sold the family home and most of their possessions and took passage to Africa with their three young children. However, their time in Kenya was not a great success: the medical practice did not grow as anticipated and various other aspects of life, particularly the Mau Mau rebellion, meant it proved an insecure environment for his wife and young children. In 1954 they returned to the UK and Robin took up a post as a senior registrar at Upton Hospital, Slough, which he always considered the most rewarding part of his professional career. During this time he was proud to have played a major role in transforming the reputation of the hospital. When he joined no GP would think of referring a patient to the hospital: when he left they would not consider any other. In 1963 Robin took up a consultant post at Ashford Hospital, which became vacant on the retirement of Norman Matheson. He worked at various hospitals in the area and also treated patients in London. He was highly regarded, not only because of professional skills as a surgeon, but also for his great gifts of communication, which he used to reassure and comfort patients and their families. He worked tirelessly for the Slough branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, acting as treasurer for nearly 20 years and then as welfare officer. He did much to help and improve the quality of those suffering from the disease. Robin's own wife died in 1997, having suffered poor health since the early 1970s. Right to the end he continued to visit local people, offering sympathies, advice and comfort, drawing from his great knowledge and experience. Robin was a devout Christian with a very strong faith. He worshipped at the United Reform Church in Beaconsfield for many years and his death was a great loss to the members of the congregation. He died on 19 April 2005, aged 92, and was survived by his three children, Robin, Andrew and Beth, their families, as well as the many people who had enjoyed his friendship.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000031
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alford, Henry (1806 - 1898)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372849372849
Occupation General surgeon
Details Third son of the Rev Samuel Alford, of Queen's College, Oxford, who graduated BA in 1797 and MA in 1800. He was born at Curry Rivel, near Taunton. The Alford family had held property in West Somerset from the middle of the sixteenth century, and son had succeeded father in the church for several generations. Henry Alford (1810-1871), Dean of Canterbury, and Bishop Alford were cousins of Henry Alford, FRCS. Alford became a house pupil at the Bristol Infirmary in 1822, and five years later came to London to complete his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital. After qualifying, he practised at Ilminster until he was appointed Surgeon to the Somerset and Taunton Hospital in 1830, when he settled in Taunton. He resigned his office in 1859 and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. He was Bailiff of Taunton, a churchwarden of St Mary's Church, a keen politician, and a hearty supporter of Sir Robert Peel in his policy of repealing the Corn Laws. He died at South Road, Taunton, in his 92nd year on June 29th, 1898. He married twice, and by his first wife left four children. His son, Henry J Alford, MD MRCS, was also educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and was Medical Officer of Health for Taunton.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000666
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alford, Richard (1816 - 1893)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372850372850
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Rev Samuel Alford, of Curry Rivel, and younger brother of Henry Alford (qv). Educated at University College. Practised at Tewkesbury, where he was Surgeon to the Dispensary, and removed to Weston-super-Mare in 1855, continuing to practise there until 1886. He was one of the founders of the old Dispensary which developed into the Weston-super-Mare Hospital. He acted as Surgeon to the Dispensary and as Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital. He died at 6 Ozil Terrace, Weston-super-Mare, on March 30th, 1893. Publications: "A Case of Spasma Glottidis." - *Prov. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1847, 625. "A Case of Jugular Vein Opened by Ulceration: Death." - Quoted in Liston's *Practical Surgery*, 6th ed. "A Case of Mortification from Head of Fibula to Crest of Ilium; Recovery." -* Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1853. "Induction of Premature Labour by Ergot of Rye and Puncturing the Membranes." - *Lond. Med. Rev.*, 1861-2, ii, 511.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000667
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allfrey, Charles Henry (1839 - 1912)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372856372856
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated as an Associate Scholar at King's College, London, and professionally at King's College Hospital, where he served as House Physician. After qualifying in London in 1861 he spent some time in Edinburgh, where he acted as Dresser and Clinical Clerk in the Edinburgh Infirmary, and then proceeded to Paris. He practised in partnership with Dr J Heckstall Smith at St Mary Cray, and took an active part in founding the Chislehurst and Cray Valley Hospital. He was Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator of the 3rd District of the Bromley (Kent) Union, Surgeon to the Governesses' Benevolent Institution, Chislehurst, and District Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police. He left Chislehurst in 1890 for St Leonards-on-Sea, where he practised as a physician. He was elected Assistant Physician to the East Sussex Hospital in 1892, and was Consulting Physician at the time of his death. He served on the Town Council for many years, and was active as Chairman of the Sanitary Committee at the time of the establishment of the Isolation Hospital. He was also a JP and Chairman of the South-Eastern Branch of the British Medical Association. In politics he was a Conservative. He died on April 16th, 1912, suddenly, whilst walking on the parade at St Leonards. Publication: *Sanitary Reports on Chislehurst and Cray Valley*, 1875.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000673
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beck, Marcus (1843 - 1893)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372984372984
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Isleworth of the same Quaker family that produced Lord Lister and Rickman J Godlee, as is shown in the following genealogy. Edward Beck married twice, his second wife being Susannah Lucas, of Hitchin, who numbered among her ancestors Thomas Young (1773-1829), physician, physicist, and Egyptologist. She died at the age of 84, a few years before her son, Marcus. Marcus Beck was educated at Queenwood College, Hants, under George Edmonstone whose science masters were Frankland, Tyndall, and Debus; and afterwards at Hitchin, in the school kept by Arthur Abbott. He entered the University of Glasgow in 1860, where Joseph Lister, his first cousin once removed, was Professor of Surgery, and with him he lived during his residence in the University. He returned to London in 1863, entered University College Hospital, and was appointed in due course House Surgeon to Sir John Eric Erichsen (qv). He also served as Physician’s Assistant to Sir William Jenner and to Dr C J Hare, and acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy under Professor Viner Ellis (qv). He was appointed Surgical Registrar to the hospital in 1870 and at once established his reputation by the elaborate analysis of surgical cases which he published in the *University College Hospital Reports*. During this period, and with the assistance of S G Shattock (qv) and Charles Stonham (qv), he catalogued the surgical pathological specimens in the Museum of University College. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon to University College Hospital in 1873; in 1875 he succeeded Christopher Heath (qv) as Teacher of Operative Surgery; in 1883 he became Professor of Clinical Surgery; and in 1885 was elected Surgeon to the Hospital and Professor of Surgery in succession to John Marshall (qv). He was elected a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1890, and a Member of the Court of Examiners in 1892. He was then practising at 30 Wimpole Street. He died unmarried at Isleworth on Sunday, May 21st, 1893, after suffering for twenty years from diabetes, and was interred in the Friends’ burial ground at Brentford End. Beck became most widely known as the Editor of the 8th and 9th editions of Erichsen’s *Science and Art of Surgery*, which appeared respectively in 1884 and 1888. He had been closely associated with Erichsen and had acted as his private assistant since 1869. He most skilfully included recent advances in the science of surgery and surgical pathology, including the pathology of wounds and septic diseases. The researches of Pasteur and Koch with the work of Lister were thus made known to all students of surgery, for the two volumes were re-issued in America and were translated into German and into Russian. Beck was an inspiring teacher, who was equally good at the bedside and in the lecture theatre. He soon gathered round him assistants who were to become distinguished in surgery: William Meredith, Stanley Boyd, Victor Horsley, and Raymond Johnson were his pupils. His lectures were models of lucidity and were in the highest degree stimulating. An abscess, an ulcer, or a fracture were to him living things and he made the processes of disintegration and repair actually visible to the mind’s eye of his students. He taught that a ground-work of scientific pathology was the only safe basis of surgical practice. The Pathological Society of London was in its full vigour at the time as the focus for the study of morbid anatomy, for bacteriology had not yet come into its own. The Society set up a ‘Morbid Growths Committee’, Beck was elected a member and thus had the opportunity of advancing the systematic histological examination of obscure specimens exhibited before the Society. He was joint author of the *Report on Pyoemia* in 1879. Beck contributed articles on “Diseases of the Kidney and Secondary Affections of the Lower Urinary Tract, misnamed Surgical Kidney,” to Volume V of Reynold’s *System of Medicine*. He also wrote on “Erysipelas” for the 1st edition of Quain’s *Dictionary of Medicine*, and on “Diseases of the Breast” for Heath’s *Dictionary of Surgery*. Beck was a man of most attractive personality, good looking and somewhat cynical. He lived retired at Isleworth, rarely going into society on account of prolonged ill health, though he continued to attend the hospital and to fill the calls of an ever-increasing practice nearly to the end of his life. There is a good portrait of him at the Royal Society of Medicine and a photograph in the Council Album at the Royal College of Surgeons. Mr Roger Beck gave an endowment in 1914 to the Royal Society of Medicine as a tribute to the memory of his brother. It was utilized to establish an experimental laboratory where David Thomson and John Gordon Thomson carried out an able research by cultivating living tissues *in vitro*. After the war it was decided to discontinue the laboratory and use the room for books issued before the beginning of the nineteenth century. This room is known as “The Marcus Beck” Library, and the portrait hangs over the fireplace. Publications: “Descriptive Catalogue of Specimens Illustrating Surgical Pathology in the Museum of University College Hospital, London.” – Part I, edited in collaboration with S G Shattock, 1881; Part II, in collaboration with C Stonham, 1887. “Galvano-puncture of Aortic Aneurysm.” – *Lancet*, 1873, ii, 550. “Three Cases of Trephining for Haemorrhage from the Middle Meningeal Artery.” – *Med. Times and Gaz*., 1877, ii, 199. “Case of Nephrolithotomy.” – *Trans. Clin. Soc.*, 1882, xv, 103. *The Science and Art of Surgery*, by John Eric Erichsen, 8th ed revised and edited by Marcus Beck. 2 vols., 1884, and 9th ed, 1888.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000801
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Beck, Thomas Snow (1814 - 1877)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Amphlett, Samuel Holmden (1813 - 1857)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372861372861
Occupation General surgeon
Details The second son of the Rev Richard Holmden Amphlett, MA Oxon, Lord of the Manor and Rector of Hadzor, Worcestershire, and afterwards of Wychbold Hall, near Droitwich. He was younger brother to Mr Justice Sir Richard Paul Amphlett (1809-1883). Apprenticed to Mr Jukes at the Birmingham General Hospital, he succeeded his master as Surgeon to the institution in September, 1843. He married the eldest daughter of Dr G E Male (d. 1845), Physician to the Birmingham General Hospital from June, 1805, to September, 1841. Amphlett died on Jan 28th, 1857, at Heath Green, near Birmingham, with the eulogy that “his frank and candid expression of opinion, his integrity and uprightness endeared him to a large circle of friends whose confidence he enjoyed.” The Amphletts were an influential family of very long standing in the County of Worcester.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000678
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Amyot, Thomas Edward (1817 - 1895)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372862372862
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eldest son of Thomas Amyot, FRS, Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries and sometime Private Secretary to the Right Honourable William Wyndham. His mother was Jane, daughter of Edward Colman, of Norwich, surgeon. Thomas Amyot was born on Jan 28th, 1817, and was admitted to Westminster School on Jan 12th, 1829. Educated professionally at the Hunterian School of Medicine and at St Thomas’s Hospital. Married on Oct 28th, 1847, Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev Francis Howes, Minor Canon of Norwich Cathedral, and had issue one son and a daughter. He practised at Diss in Norfolk, and died there on Dec 15th, 1895. Amyot appears to have inherited the versatility of his father, for his leisure hours were spent in microscopy, astronomy, geology, and botany. He is also said to have had musical and literary tastes. He was President of the Norfolk and Norwich Medico-Chirurgical Society and of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association. Publications: “Diabetes: Saccharine Treatment – Death – Autopsy.” – *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1861, i, 327. “A Case of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus with Bursting of the Head.” – *Ibid.*, 1869, i, 330. “Foot and Mouth Disease in the Human Subject.” – *Ibid*, 1871, ii, 555.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000679
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ancrum (or Ancrum), William Rutherford (1816 - 1898)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372863372863
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at the Manor House, Weston, near Bath, on Feb 5th, 1816. Educated at private schools, and apprenticed at the age of 15 to T Taylor Griffith (qv) at Wrexham, where he is said to have had Sir William Bowman (qv) as a fellow-apprentice. Three years later he entered as a student at University College, had a brilliant career, and was elected House Surgeon, with such success that Robert Liston (qv) invited him to become his private assistant. He accepted and acted in this capacity for three years. In 1843 he left England and practised in the City of Mexico. In 1848 he was appointed Surgeon to the Naval Hospital at Valparaiso, a post he held for eleven years, during which he built up a large and lucrative practice. Returning to England, he took the FRCS on Dec 12th, 1850, having been admitted MRCS on Oct 11th, 1839. During this visit he also became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He resigned his practice in Mexico in 1859, returned to London and took a house, 75 Inverness Terrace, Bayswater. He retired from all practice in 1863 and bought St Leonard's Court, Gloucester. From 1863 until his death in 1898 Ancrum took an active part in the public life of Gloucester. He served for twenty-seven years as Chairman of the County Infirmary, bringing method, order, and financial soundness into the working of the institution. A ward in the infirmary is named in his memory "The Ancrum Ward." He was appointed Chairman of the Committee of the Wotton County Asylum in 1878, and was mainly instrumental in founding and financing the second County Asylum in 1882. In 1878 he was also elected Chairman of the Barnwood House Private Asylum, which was much enlarged during his tenure of office. He was an active magistrate and was at one time Chairman of the Gloucester County Bench, a member of important Committees of the old Court of Quarter Sessions, and an Alderman of the County Council, where he was Chairman of the Prison Visiting Committee. He married in 1852 the youngest daughter of Arthur Lewis, of Brighton, and by her had three sons and two daughters. He was an invalid during the last three years of his life, died at St Leonard's Court, Gloucester, on Oct 9th, 1898, and was buried in the neighbouring churchyard of Upton St Leonard's.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000680
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mortensen, Peter James (1926 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-03-13 2012-03-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372786372786
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Jim Mortensen was a urological surgeon in Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Yarrawonga, Victoria, Australia, on 15 May 1926, the only child of Henry Newman Mortensen and Lorna née Bray, who were both general practitioners. His father went to England in the early 1930s to specialise in surgery and passed the FRCS Edinburgh, returning in 1937 to Melbourne to found the urological unit at St Vincent's Hospital. He was also president of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand on three occasions and, in 1964, was the first Australian to be made an honorary member of British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). His mother Lorna specialised in anaesthetics, was a Nuffield scholar at Oxford and subsequently returned to the Royal Melbourne Hospital as a consultant anaesthetist. Jim was educated by the Jesuits as a boarder at Xavier College, where he rowed in the first VIII and became a school prefect. He studied medicine at Melbourne University, residing at Newman College. After qualifying, he was a resident at St Vincent's Hospital, where he received permission to marry at the end of 1950. After three years as a resident he went to England, to work at St Peter's Chertsey, where he passed the FRCS. He returned to Melbourne as assistant urologist on his father's unit. In 1959 he won the Babcock travelling fellowship to Ann Arbor, Michigan, then led by Reed Nesbit, the doyen of transurethral resection. There he learned the new Bricker technique of ileal conduit urinary diversion. He returned to St Vincent's in 1966 to become head of the department, remaining in charge until he retired in 1988. Under his leadership St Vincent's became one of the leading urological units in the world, developing transplant surgery in the 1960s and installing the first extracorporeal lithotriptor in Australia. He was also consultant urologist to Williamstown and Box Hill hospitals from 1957 to 1973, worked at Swan Hill District Hospital from 1970 until he retired in 1994, and also worked in Indonesia and India, encouraging young surgeons from those countries to visit St Vincent's. In 1969 Jim followed his father by becoming president of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand. An excellent golfer and tennis player, Jim enjoyed reading, music and his garden. For a time he bred Murray Grey cattle, and he and Margot (née Collins) made several trips by Land Rover to central and Western Australia to see wild flowers in the outback. He and Margot had a long and happy marriage, with eight children and 18 grandchildren. By a sad irony he succumbed to cancer of the prostate which led to spinal cord compression from a metastasis. He died on 28 September 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000603
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Peter ( - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-03-27 2013-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372787372787
Occupation General surgeon
Details Peter Wilson was a consultant surgeon at Whitybush Hospital, Haverford West. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, qualifying in 1956. After junior posts he moved to Cardiff, where he became senior registrar in general surgery at the United Cardiff hospitals. He was then appointed to his consultant position at Haverford West. He was elected FRCS ad eundem in 1979. The college was informed of his death in May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000604
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shanmugalingam, Thamotharampillai Nadarajah (1928 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2009-03-27 2014-06-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372788372788
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Thamotharampillai Nadarajah Shanmugalingam was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Sri Lanka. He was born on 26 September 1928, in Point Pedro, Ceylon, the son of Thamotharampillai Nadarajah, a land owner and merchant, and Vettrivetpillai Muthuratnam, a housewife. He was educated at Hartley College, Point Pedro, and then Pembroke Academy, Colombo. He went on to study medicine at the University of Ceylon, qualifying in 1951 with a distinction in surgery. After junior posts he studied for the primary FRCS, winning the Hallett prize in the examination held in Ceylon in 1956. He then went to England to study surgery, passed the fellowship of the Edinburgh and English colleges in 1960, and then specialised in orthopaedics, passing the Liverpool masters degree in 1962. He then returned to Ceylon, becoming, in 1962, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon attached to the department of health services of the government of Ceylon. He also taught undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, and was an examiner for undergraduate examinations. He was initially based in the General Hospital, Galle, where he organised a new orthopaedic unit. From 1963 to 1965 he was an orthopaedic surgeon at the General Hospital, Badulla, where he again started an orthopaedic unit. From 1966 until his retirement in 1988 he was one of three orthopaedic surgeons at the General Hospital, Colombo. During his tenure there he dealt with many difficult, often neglected, orthopaedic problems, including TB of the spine, missed congenital dislocation of the hips, diseases of the shoulder and other major joints. He also treated all types of trauma, including closed and open fractures. He was an overseas fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association, and a member of the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Medical Association. He married Padmajothy (Pala) in 1952 and they had two sons, Shrikharan, a consultant surgeon practising in Sri Lanka, and Easwaran, and a daughter, Sumathi. Thamotharampillai Nadarajah Shanmugalingam died on 7 December 2007, aged 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000605
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hardcastle, Brian (1925 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Carey Curloss Kenred (1917 - )

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372790372790
Occupation General surgeon
Details Carey Smith was surgeon superintendent of Stratford Hospital, Taranaki, New Zealand. He was born in Slad, near Stroud, in Gloucestershire, on 5 June 1917. His father Kenred Smith was a missionary in the Baptist Missionary Society and his mother was Ethel May Walker. He was educated at the Birches, a private school in Stroud, Belmont School and Mill Hill School in London, from which he was sent to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1935, going on to St Thomas’ Hospital in 1938 for his clinical studies. Qualifying in 1941, he completed junior posts at the Royal Surrey County Hospital and Newbury and District Hospital, before joining the RAMC in 1942. He served in Sierra Leone, India and the Arakan region during the campaign in Burma. On demobilisation, he returned to London, first to St Thomas’ and then St James’s Hospital, Balham. From July 1950 to February 1951 he was a house surgeon to N R Barrett at St Thomas’ and then returned to St James, where, from April 1951 to May 1956, he was a senior registrar with Norman Tanner. He then emigrated to New Zealand, as surgeon superintendent of Stratford Hospital Taranaki. This was at that time a small rural hospital with no specialist or ancillary services. His training under Tanner enabled him to provide a comprehensive surgical service, as well as the only gastroscopy service within a radius of 150 miles. He built up the services in every department, installing new operating theatres and wards. There he remained until his retirement in 1982. In 1942 he married Helen Frances Dugon. They had four children. His sons Keith Alexander Carey and Timothy Kenred Carey are both doctors, while his other son, Christopher Mark Carey is an Anglican priest. His daughter, Jill Frances Carey, is a missionary. His death was notified to the College by his family in March 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000607
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Watkins, Sir Tasker (1918 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372791372791
Occupation Lawyer
Details Sir Tasker Watkins was a war hero, holder of the Victoria Cross, Deputy Chief Justice for England and Wales from 1988 to 1993, and an honorary fellow of the College. He was born in Nelson, Glamorgan, on 18 November 1918, the son of a mining engineer. He won a scholarship to Pontypridd County School, where he played rugby football, and was studying to become a commercial attaché when the war broke out. He enlisted into the Welch Regiment and rose to become a lieutenant in command of a company, which was ordered to attack the railway at Bafour, near Falaise, under intense fire. He charged two German posts, killing and wounding the occupants with his Sten gun, and went on to attack an anti-tank gun emplacement when his Sten jammed, so he threw it into a German’s face, and finished him off with his revolver. His company, now reduced to about 30, was now counterattacked by some 50 Germans. Watkins led a bayonet charge which wiped out many of the enemy and then attempted to withdraw round the enemy flank, but was challenged by a German position. Ordering his men to scatter, he charged the post with a Bren gun, silenced it, and led the remnants of his company back to headquarters, having saved the lives of half of his men. For his valour he was decorated with the Victoria Cross and promoted to major. After the war he took up the law. He was called to the Bar in 1948, took silk in 1965 and in 1971 joined the Bench as a judge. He enjoyed a distinguished legal career as Judge of the High Court, Lord Justice of Appeal, and Deputy Chief Justice for England and Wales from 1988 until he retired in 1993. Among his duties was to act as counsel during the enquiry into the Aberfan disaster. He was president of the Welsh Rugby Union from 1993 until 2004. He married Eirwen Evans in 1941 and they had two children, a son, who died in 1982, and a daughter, Mair. He died in the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, on 9 September 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000608
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Langley, Douglas Arthur (1917 - 2002)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372792372792
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Douglas Arthur Langley was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Royal Northern and Whittington hospitals in London. He was born on 18 April 1917 at Woolwich, London, to Arthur Langley, an Army officer, and Laura Elizabeth née Webber. He was educated at Cottingham College, Plumstead, and Woolwich County Secondary School and received his medical education at King’s College and St George’s Hospital. There he won the Johnson prize in anatomy, the Pollock prize in physiology and the Anne Selim scholarship. During the Second World War he served in the RNVR as a surgeon lieutenant. After leaving the Navy, he began his training in ophthalmic surgery and worked as resident surgical officer at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital, before his appointment as consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Royal Northern Hospital, the Whittington Hospital and the West End Hospital for Neurology. He was particularly interested in glaucoma and held annual meetings for north London opticians at the Royal Northern Hospital. His interests were varied: he had a private pilot’s licence, was a keen yachtsman and navigator, a skilled pianist and cabinet maker, and loved watching football. He married twice. In 1942 he married Myrtle Chinnery, an old school friend. They had two sons and a daughter. His second wife was Yvonne Patricia Peterson, a nurse, by whom he had a son. His health in latter years was poor and he underwent repair of an aortic aneurysm. He died on 16 June 2002.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000609
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walker, William Martin (1919 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Greaves, Desmond Peel (1920 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-05-15
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372794372794
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Desmond Peel Greaves was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at University College and Moorfields Eye hospitals in London. He was born on 14 December 1920 in the West Riding of Yorkshire to Bernard Peel, an optician, and Beatrice Peel. He was educated at High Storrs Grammar School, Sheffield, and then went on to study medicine at the University of Sheffield, where he was the Edgar Allen scholar. After qualifying, he was a demonstrator in anatomy at Sheffield before completing his National Service in the RAF, with the rank of flight lieutenant. His ophthalmic training was at Moorfields Eye Hospital. From 1950 he was senior registrar and Pigott-Wernheiz research fellow at the Institute of Ophthalmology. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to University College Hospital in 1952 and to Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1960. He was vice-dean and lecturer at the Institute of Ophthalmology. He was a recognised teacher in London University and a member of the Court of Examiners of our College. He retired in 1985. He was a council member and honorary secretary of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, a council member of the European Society of Ophthalmology from 1970 and in 1980 president. From his student days he was an accomplished and enthusiastic pianist and a keen sailor, becoming a member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club. He married Barbara in 1948. They had two children - Francis, who is a doctor, and Julia, a pharmacist. Desmond Greaves died on 11 March 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000611
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Winstanley, John (1919 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-05-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372795372795
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details John Winstanley was an ophthalmic surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. He was born in London on 11 May 1919, the son of Bernard Joseph Winstanley, a captain in the Burma Sappers and Miners, and Grace née Taunton, the daughter of a solicitor. The younger of three sons, he was educated at Stoke House, Seaford, Sussex, and Wellington College, Berkshire. From 1937 to 1946 he served in the 4th Battalion Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, with the British Expeditionary Force in Europe, in the Western Desert and in Burma. He was wounded twice, was twice mentioned in despatches and won the Military Cross. After leaving the Army, he studied medicine at St Thomas’, qualifying in 1951. For the next five years he held resident medical appointments at St Thomas’ and Moorfields Eye Hospital. From 1956 to 1960 he was chief clinical assistant at Moorfields and senior registrar at St Thomas’. From 1959 to 1970 he was a consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Lewisham and Greenwich health districts. In 1960 he was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to St Thomas’, a post he held until 1983. At St Thomas’ he expanded eye services, amalgamating with the Royal Eye Hospital, and developed a medical eye unit and a charity, the Iris Fund. He contributed papers on medical ophthalmology and medical history. He maintained his association with the armed services, serving as honorary consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Army, to Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, and to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of the College from 1972 to 1978. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (and vice-president in 1979). From 1973 to 1985 he was vice-president of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists, and from 1979 to 1990 a member of the council of the Medical Protection Society. A liveryman of the Society of Apothecaries of the City of London, he served on the livery committee from 1982. During his leisure time he enjoyed fishing and reading medical history. In 1959 he married Jane Mary Frost and they had one son (Richard) and two daughters (Emma and Sophie). He died from prostate cancer on 4 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000612
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kapur, Satya Bhushan (1920 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2009-05-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372796372796
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Satya Bhushan Kapur was an ophthalmic surgeon. He was born on 4 March 1920 in Rangoon, Burma, the second child but first son of Lal Chand Kapur, a civil engineer with Burma Railways, and Bhagwanti Devi, whose father was an Ayurvedic physician. He was educated in Rangoon at the primary DAV School and then at BET High School. He began his medical education in 1938 at the Medical College, Rangoon, but this was interrupted in 1942 when Burma was invaded by Japan. The family were held in Burma during the Japanese occupation, but then fled to India, where he resumed his studies at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Punjab, qualifying in 1946. He was one of the first Indian graduates to migrate to Britain and train successfully in ophthalmology. He was an ophthalmic house surgeon then a registrar at Guy’s Hospital, London, before becoming a registrar, then a senior registrar at Moorfields Eye Hospital. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon in 1962 to West Middlesex Hospital and later to St Albans City Hospital and Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City. He was a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the BMA, and he served on the council of the Medical Eye Centre Association, UK. A physically fit man, he enjoyed swimming, golf, hill walking, and reluctantly gave up skiing at the age of 85. He married Toini Kylliainen in 1955 and they had two daughters, Suri and Mira, both of whom are medically qualified and live in Australia. He died on 4 April 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000613
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chesterfield-Evans, Hugh Harvey (1922 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Arthur Chesterfield-Evans
Publication Date 2009-05-15 2021-05-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372797372797
Occupation General surgeon
Details As a consultant surgeon working in rural Australia, Harvey Chesterfield-Evans was a founder member and past president of the Provincial Surgeons Association. He was born in North Korea on 19 January 1922, the son of an Australian who worked for an American mining company and a New Zealander. He was educated at a missionary school, which left him with a marked distrust of organised religion. Before returning to Australia as a 16 year old, he had already assisted in operations and helped administer anaesthetics for the only doctor in the district. He had also witnessed the destructive Japanese occupation of North Korea, travelled widely, and absorbed Eastern cultures and philosophies, which encouraged a broader diagnostic approach in his later career. Harvey attended Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University faculty of medicine, graduating with second class honours. He married his wife Enid and became a general practitioner in Brisbane. With his wife and first child, Arthur, Harvey went to the UK to study for the fellowship, which he passed in 1955. They then returned to Australia, now with Deirdre and Nigel, to be followed two years later by Jan. Harvey established himself in a surgical practice in Wollongong. In 1968 he returned to the UK study neurosurgery in Edinburgh under John Gillingham, which greatly benefitted his patients in Wollongong, the nearest neurosurgeon then being in Sydney. Harvey dealt with a wide variety of surgical problems. The Port Kembla steelworks and the local mines were a constant source of accident and injury, in addition to the usual car accidents and elective surgery. As one of four ‘honoraries’ he was on call for 48 hours non-stop, every fourth weekend. The honorary system allowed specialists to admit private patients to hospital provided that pensioners or those who could not afford it were treated free of charge. This paternalistic system before Medicare ensured that no one who needed emergency surgery would go untreated. He believed in this system and treated everyone equally. Perhaps because of his upbringing in Korea, Harvey was always practical and inventive in his approach to surgical problems. As the senior surgeon in Wollongong for some years, his patients left hospital within four days, while other surgeons’ patients stayed in for ten. Together with a physiotherapist friend, Peter Swan, he developed a post-operative system for hand injuries which is now in widespread use. A strong believer that ‘prevention is better than cure’, he refused to operate on overweight patients because of the inherent risks and would tell them to “stop smoking and come back when you’ve lost three stone”. It did not help his popularity with some, but many complied, and it did help his success rate. He was an active member of the South East Medical Association, a local affiliate of the Australian Medical Association, but it was into the Provincial Surgeons Association (PSA) that he put his heart and soul, as one of its founders. In the 1950s, with the influx of post-war immigration and later the ‘ten pound’ immigrants, the need increased for experienced surgeons in the country regions of Australia. As with today, city-trained Australian doctors were reluctant to ‘go bush’, whilst surgeons who had trained in the UK and were emigrating to Australia found it impossible to obtain a position in a city. These surgeons were not products of the Royal Australasian College and had no affiliations or associations in Australia. Working in country towns, often far away from the capital, they were isolated. They faced everything from elective surgery to acute trauma, head injuries requiring decompression, caesarian section and multiple fractures. It was to meet this need that the PSA was formed. It quickly became not merely a fraternity, but a forum for brainstorming. At its meetings surgeons discussed their successes, their failures and their ideas. They invented new instruments and brought them to meetings to be discussed and fine-tuned. They telephoned each other when faced with a perplexing problem or shared a textbook over the phone. Lateral thinking was encouraged and indeed vital to their work. At the time of its inception the PSA was the only forum, medical or political, for rural surgeons. Today, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons is specifically training surgeons for work in rural areas. As its founder and past president Harvey was involved in every aspect of the PSA, worked tirelessly to extend its membership, organised and hosted meetings, maintained its records and wrote its history – *A mantle of care: a history of the first twenty five years of the provincial surgeons of Australia* (Mangerton, NSW: Provincial Surgeons’ Association of Australia, c.1991). He was very proud of his work on the road trauma committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which worked for some years to get seatbelts made mandatory. This was successful and the State of Victoria, home of RACS, was the first jurisdiction in the world to make wearing seatbelts mandatory. He spoke about the complete change in the pattern of road trauma injuries: instead of cases coming in with terrible head injuries, facial injuries from going through the windscreen and major chest injuries from the steering wheel hitting the chest, they were more likely to have abdominal organ ruptures, which were at least repairable with the hope of a normal life in the medium term. He was then part of RACS’ campaign for random breath testing to discourage drink driving. This campaign was also successful and caused another significant drop in Australia's road toll, which had been the highest in the world. Harvey was a generous contributor to his local area: he taught doctors and nurses, taught first aid to St John’s ambulance officers for 25 years (recognised by being made a serving brother of St John of Jerusalem). He was a charter member of West Wollongong Rotary, and was awarded its highest honour, a Paul Harris fellowship in 1989. He was a practical handyman, and as a founder member of the Illawarra Alpine Club, helped to build their lodge and organised the team that built the Rutherford scout hut at Tudor House. Meanwhile he raised four children and read voraciously – always fact rather than fiction, constantly educating himself. He resigned from his practice in 1984 with the re-introduction of Medicare. Having experienced the British NHS when training for the FRCS, he was disgusted that Australia could envisage an inferior system. He feared bureaucratic interference and, whilst espousing capitalism, practised socialism in terms of his attitude to people. In the two years before his death Harvey would have liked voluntary euthanasia, but did not have the strength: his demise was protracted by a system that, as he said, “has no mercy”. His mind was active until close to the end. After Sunday dinner with his family, he announced that he would not leave his bed again, had a last beer with a few friends, before losing consciousness under the care of the palliative care team and died on 15 September 2005 in Wollongong.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000614
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Horton, Robert Lister (1889 - 1955)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-06-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372798372798
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in 1889 son of Dr Thomas Horton of Torquay, he was educated at Mill Hill where he was awarded an entrance scholarship and at University College where he was Bucknill scholar. After a house surgeon’s appointment at University College Hospital and obtaining the Fellowship he joined the RAMC in 1914 for the duration of the war, becoming a surgical specialist in France and being mentioned in dispatches. In 1919 he became surgical registrar at University College Hospital and surgical tutor to dental students, obtaining a gold medal in the MS examination in 1920. He then entered a general practice in Weymouth as surgical partner, being attached to the Weymouth and District Hospital, the Dorset County, the Bridport and the Herrison Mental Hospitals. In 1946 he retired to Bournemouth but continued to work at Bridport until 1954. He was chairman of the West Dorset division of the BMA in 1934-36 and was an examiner for the General Nursing Council. In 1938 he was appointed JP for County Dorset. He was a kindly, high principled man of great energy; a good anatomist and a skilled operator. He married Elizabeth Mackay McDonald RRC in 1917 by whom he had a son and a daughter Jean, FFARCS.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000615
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Baxter, James Sinclair Rennick (1935 - 2009)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23 2014-04-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372799372799
Occupation Otorhinolaryngolologist
Details James Sinclair Rennick Baxter was first appointed as a consultant in otorhinolaryngology at King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 1969, but spent a very productive period of his clinical years in Canterbury, Kent, from 1971 until 1997. He was born in Canada on 6 September 1935. His father, James Sinclair Baxter, was a well-known anatomist and expert embryologist. His mother, Mona Earls, was a nurse. 'Rennie' went to school at Clifton College, Bristol, and spent his pre-clinical years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Proceeding to Charing Cross Hospital on a Thomas Henry Huxley exhibition, he qualified in 1960. House appointments at Putney Hospital and Charing Cross were followed by a rotating senior house officer appointment in Norwich, where he had the advantage of experience in general and plastic surgery. A further post in Bristol determined his future career in ENT. In Canterbury he instigated the audiology department and witnessed its growth. Rennie was an extremely amiable and outgoing colleague who had many musical interests. He sang in several choirs, including the Canterbury Choral Society, played the trumpet and was interested in organ building. Always a DIY enthusiast, he was a fine craftsman in carpentry, plumbing and electrical work. These led to the restoration of several old houses. A few months before his retirement, he had a major stroke that rendered many of his interests difficult to pursue. He read widely and hoped that physiotherapy would improve his disability so that he could pursue his other passions. Rennie remained a member of the council of the Sue Ryder Foundation from 1995. He married Patricia Noël Dunning on 5 March 1960. She pursued many interests of her own and was co-founder of Hope-Romania, a children's home and bakery project in north west Romania. Patty encouraged Rennie through his dark moments and nursed him over these years until he died in septic shock on 9 February 2009. Rennie was a practising Anglican and, after his stroke, worshipped regularly at Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday in his buggy. His funeral service was held in the undercroft of the cathedral. James Sinclair Rennick Baxter leaves his wife of 49 years, three children and six grandchildren. His daughter, Sara, is an anaesthetist. Timothy, who also qualified as a doctor, now works in the Department of Health. Adam was a political analyst and lobbyist for the trade union Equity, and is currently with Offcom.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000616
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bolam, Reginald Frederick (1924 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372800372800
Occupation General surgeon
Details Reg Bolam was a locum consultant general surgeon. He was born on 3 January 1924 in south London, the first of the three children of Harriet and Frederick Bolam. He grew up in Streatham and won a scholarship to Bec College, was in the top stream, joined several public libraries and borrowed several books from each, every week. Childhood holidays were spent with relatives who had a farm in Lincolnshire, to which his father took the family on his motorbike and sidecar, Reg riding pillion. At the outbreak of war the school was evacuated to Lewes, and Reg was billeted on a farm. There he learned to help with the harvesting, and to shoot rabbits for the pot. He played the piano, sang in the local church choir and played piccolo in the Boys’ Brigade, with whom he went to the Albert Hall. He became a good middle distance runner, and for a time was in the same club as Roger Bannister. He injured his right elbow as a boy, when falling through a trapdoor. This resulted in an ankylosed elbow, but the experience influenced him to become a surgeon, an ambition not encouraged by his headmaster, who thought him too shy and short-sighted. At 16 he had to leave school to help with the family finances, and worked in the Civil Service until he was old enough to volunteer for the Royal Navy. He served for the last three years of the war in Malta as a petty officer radar mechanic. It was there that he met his first wife, Joyce, saving all his tots of rum for the wedding. On demobilisation, he was awarded a grant to complete his education and entered University College Hospital to study medicine, qualifying in 1952. After junior posts he passed the FRCS in 1962 and was appointed consultant surgeon to the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells. There he was a really general surgeon. In the sixties he worked as a consultant surgeon in the Middle East, where he made good use of the opportunities to indulge his interest in archaeology. On returning to England he did a series of locum consultant posts, until he retired in his sixties. The long hours worked by junior doctors, and the repeated necessity of moving house every six months or so, put great strain on his marriage to Joyce, who had given him his first son, Roderick. Like so many wartime marriages, it failed. He then married Marie, who gave him his second son, Andrew. They moved to Tonbridge, and fostered a little girl called Anita. Sadly, Marie developed a terminal illness and died in 1994. He then married Susan, by whom he already had a daughter, Polly. One of his many interests was opera: he was a friend of the English National Opera and a keen member of the Tonbridge Music Club. In 2002, he suffered a fall on an escalator coming back from the British Museum, from which he never fully recovered. He died on 28 July 2007 in hospital in Tunbridge Wells, as a result of extensive cerebrovascular disease and epilepsy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000617
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Anderton, Henry (1790 - 1870)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Andrew, Edwyn (1832 - 1887)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372872372872
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College Hospital. Held the offices of Resident Medical Officer, House Surgeon, and Physician’s Assistant, as well as President of the University College Medical Society. Practised in Shrewsbury, devoting himself especially to the treatment of diseases of the eye and the ear. He was appointed Surgeon to the Shropshire and North Wales Eye and Throat Infirmary. At that time the building was very small and inadequate, “but under his exertion, and with the aid of others, he lived to see a new hospital erected and completed in 1881, replete with every comfort and with ample accommodation”. The hospital cost £10,000 to erect. It is a fine building and may be regarded as his monument. Andrew was President of the Shropshire and Mid-Wales branch of the British Medical Association, 1883-1884; Hon Local Secretary and Treasurer to the Royal Medical Benevolent College; Surgeon to the Shropshire Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital; Consulting Surgeon to the Montgomeryshire Infirmary; Certificated Factory Inspector; and Surgeon to Shrewsbury Royal Grammar School. He died at his residence, 12 St John’s Hill, Shrewsbury, on Jan 10th, 1887. Publications: “Extirpation of Lachrymal Gland in Obstruction of Nasal Duct.” – *Brit. Med Jour.*, 1877, ii, 256, 623. “Intestinal Obstruction.” – Ibid., 1878 ii, 470. “On the Extraction of Senile Cataract and its Capsule.” – Ibid., 1883, i, 41.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000689
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Andrew, Henry (1815 - 1875)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Andrews, John Goldwyer (1782 - 1849)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2016-01-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372874372874
Occupation General surgeon
Details Apprenticed at an early age to Sir William Blizard, became a Member of the College in 1803, a Member of the Council in May, 1827, in succession to Sir Everard Home, and in 1831 succeeded Richard Clement Headington as examiner. He was President twice, in 1835 and 1843, and during his office of presidency attended the funeral of his old master, Sir William Blizard. Appointed Surgeon to the London Hospital on Dec 19th, 1816, and became its Senior Surgeon. His relations with his hospital colleagues were not always harmonious, as one of his letters to Sir Astley Cooper, in the possession of the College, relates. A contemporary obituary notice in the *Lancet* (1849, ii, 139) remarks that he "had not contributed anything to the advancement of medical or chirurgical knowledge, but was a great patron of the fine arts". His collection of paintings at Glaubrydan, Carmarthen, was valued at from £15,000 to £20,000. He died at his London residence, 4 St Helen's Place, on July 25th, 1849, of rupture of the aorta. It is not known where he was buried. He probably came of a good Wiltshire family. He left his property to two gentlemen, one of whom was William Andrews, gentleman, of Reading, the other, the Rev George Andrews, Vicar of Caister, Lincolnshire. There is no mention of wife or family in his will. A fine mezzotint portrait of Andrews, engraved by Easling in 1807, after the painting by Shee, is in the College collection. Andrews did not leave any serious contribution to literature, but in old medical journals are many interesting accounts of cases occurring under his care, including cases of traumatic peritonitis in 'Mellish Ward'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000691
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Andrews, William (1784 - 1862)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Angus, Henry Brunton (1867 - 1927)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-02 2016-01-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372876372876
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of James Ackworth Angus, a well-known medical man of Newcastle. Educated at Newcastle Royal Grammar School and Durham University College of Medicine, then situated in Orchard Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His early appointments were: Resident Medical Officer to the Newcastle Dispensary, Resident House Surgeon to the Southport Infirmary and Dispensary. He became House Surgeon to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1891, Assistant Surgeon in 1896, full Surgeon in 1905, and Honorary Consulting Surgeon on his retirement, owing to illness, in April, 1927. [1] In the Durham College of Medicine he was appointed Lecturer on Surgery in 1909, succeeded Professor Rutherford Morison as Professor of Surgery in 1921, becoming Emeritus Professor on his resignation in 1927. An active and wise member of his hospital and medical committees, he was elected a member of the Senate of Durham University in 1910, and Member of the Council of the College of Medicine in 1919. He did good work as a surgeon throughout the Great War, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, in the 1st Northern General Hospital. Subsequently he was on the staff of the Newcastle Pensions Hospital, where he had opportunity for plastic and reconstructive surgery, for which he had a special bent. Though not possessing great capacity for original work, Angus was a faithful surgeon, a sound teacher, and a fair-minded examiner. "He was an excellent influence in the Medical School, an ideal hospital officer, and the very model of the perfect English gentleman", says his contemporary biographer. His portrait accompanies his biographies. He suffered for years from progressive anæmia before he died at his residence, 5 Eslington Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Oct 4th, 1927. He married Marian, daughter of J Arnison, of Sandyford, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She, with two daughters, survived him. Publications: "A Method of treating Damaged Intestine without Resection." Brit. Med. Jour., 1912. "Case of Subcortical Cerebral Tumour - Tuberculous Successfully Removed." Lancet, 1913, i, 678. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] "In the earliest days of the development of X rays, he was in charge of the then primitive department." [*Brit Jour Surgery*. 1931, xviii, 676]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000693
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bedford, Edward Samuel Picard ( - 1875)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Bedwell, Henry ( - 1873)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Beecroft, Samuel (1821 - 1880)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Beevor, Charles (1805 - 1872)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Belcher, Robert Shirley ( - 1901)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-17 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372993372993
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals. Practised at Burton-on-Trent, where for many years he was Surgeon and then Consulting Surgeon to the Infirmary. After his retirement he lived for some twenty years at 'The Heath', Stapenhill, Burton-on-Trent, and died in 1900-1901.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000810
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bell, Hugh ( - 1897)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Bell, Hutchinson Royes (1842 - 1886)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372995372995
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Sydney, New South Wales; he came of a Yorkshire family long established near Leconfield in the East Riding, and of the large estate once possessed by them, he retained to the last a small portion. Educated at a private school in Jersey, after his family had returned to England, and at King’s College School, he entered King’s College as a medical student in 1859 and was a private pupil of Henry Smith (qv). He obtained the Leathes’ Prize and held various offices at the Hospital and College, including the House-Surgeoncy and then the Assistant Demonstratorship of Anatomy, the Surgical Registrarship and Administratorship of Anaesthetics. He was also Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. On his return to London after a period of professional study in Vienna and Paris, he came under the observation of Sir William Fergusson, who made Bell his constant associate in private practice. The two remained friends till Fergusson’s death, and Bell always spoke of Fergusson with the utmost reverence. He was appointed Surgeon to the St Pancras and Northern Dispensary, and, in 1877, Surgeon to King’s College Hospital with charge of out-patients and several beds. He was also appointed, in 1877, Demonstrator of Operative Surgery. In January, 1886, he fainted in the presence of his class when giving his customary demonstration, and on Whit Monday, 1886, when on a visit to Folkstone, he had a cerebral haemorrhage, and died on June 15th, 1886, sixteen hours later without recovering consciousness. He was buried at the Brompton Cemetery. His address latterly had been 12 Queen Anne Street, W. Bell was unmarried, and his two sisters had resided with him. Of his two brothers, at the time of his death, one was a medical practitioner in the Isle of Wight and the other was Lieut-Colonel Mark Bell, VC, RE. Besides the offices above mentioned at King’s College, Mr Royes Bell had been Hon Secretary, Hon Librarian, and Lettsomian Lecturer of the Medical Society of London. He was also a member of the Pathological Society of London. Publications: “Injuries and Diseases of the Male Genital Organs” in Ashhurst’s *Encyclopaedia of Surgery*, vi [published after his death]. Lettsomian Lectures on “Diseases of the Testis and their Coverings,” 1882. “Case of Excision of Proximal Phalanx of Right Thumb for Enchondroma.” – *Lancet*, 1872, ii, 346. Various papers in the *Med. Times and Gaz*. and *Lancet*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000812
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Holden, Luther (1815 - 1905)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-08 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372392372392
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in his grandfather's house at Birmingham on Dec. 11th, 1815. He was the second son of the Rev. Henry Augustus Holden, who married his cousin Hyla Holden of Wednesbury in Staffordshire. His elder brother, Henry Holden, D.D. (b. 1814) , was Canon of Durham, a fine scholar and the editor with Richard Dacre Archer Hind of the *Sabrinœ Corolla*; the fourth brother, Philip Melancthon (1823-1904) was Rector of Upminster, Essex. Luther was educated with his father's pupils, at a private school in Birmingham, and at Havre, where in 1827 he learned to speak French fluently. He entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1831 as an apprentice of Edward Stanley (q.v.), and in 1838 went for a year to study in Berlin and for a second year in Paris. An Italian student in Paris taught him to read and speak Italian. He was appointed Surgeon to the Metropolitan Dispensary, Fore Street, E.C., in 1843, and was then living in the Old Jewry, teaching anatomy to private pupils, one of whom was William Palmer, the poisoner. Holden presented himself at the first examination for the newly established diploma for the Fellowship, and was one of the twenty-four candidates who passed successfully on Christmas Eve, 1843. Appointed in 1846, with A. M. McWhinnie (q.v.), Superintendent (or Demonstrator) of Dissections at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, he was elected in 1859, jointly with Frederick Skey (q.v.), to lecture upon descriptive and surgical anatomy. He resigned the office in June, 1871. Elected Assistant Surgeon to the hospital in July, 1860, with Frederick Skey as his Surgeon, he became full Surgeon in August, 1865, with Alfred Willett as his Assistant Surgeon. He resigned his hospital appointments in 1880 on attaining the age of 65, and was made Consulting Surgeon. He then retired from his house, 54 Gower Street, which had a garden, moved to Pinetoft, Ispwich, and spent much of his life in travel. He visited at different times Egypt, Australia, India, Japan, and was entertained by the medical profession at Johannesburg in 1898. He was Surgeon to the Foundling Hospital from 1864 until his death. At the Royal College of Surgeons Holden was a Member of the Council from 1868-1884; an Examiner in Anatomy and Physiology, 1875-1876; a Member of the Court of Examiners, 1873-1883; and a Member of the Dental Board of Examiners, 1879-1882. He served as Vice-President for the years 1877 and 1878, was President in 1879 and Hunterian Orator in 1881. He married: (1) Frances, daughter of Benjamin Wasey Sterry, of Upminster, Essex, in July, 1851, and (2) Frances, daughter of Wasey Sterry, in 1868, who survived him. Both wives bore the same name and were of the same family. Both had independent fortunes. There were no children of either marriage. Holden died at Putney on Feb. 5th, 1905, and was buried in the cemetery of the Parish Church, Upminster. By his will he bequeathed £3000 to endow a scholarship in surgery in the Medical School at St. Bartholomew's Hospital; he also made handsome bequests to St. Bartholomew's and to the Foundling Hospitals. A three-quarter-length portrait in oils - an admirable likeness - by Sir J. E. Millais, R.A., hangs in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted on the occasion of Holden's retirement from the active staff of the hospital and has been engraved. A crayon sketch by Gordon Stowers hangs on the walls of the College of Surgeons. It is dated 1881, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy. There is also a fine portrait by Maguire, dated 1851, in the College Collection. Holden was one of the last members of the school of surgeons who based their practice on anatomy, and for that reason he is remembered by his *Osteology* and *Surgical Landmarks* rather than by his surgical attainments. The imperfect treatment of syphilis in the mid-Victorian period allowed of the production of many aneurysms. Holden was a great advocate for the treatment of popliteal aneurysm by continuous digital pressure in preference to the Hunterian operation, which was often followed by secondary haemorrhage. He invented 'Holden's sausage', a cylinder of Gooch's splint containing a bag of shot. The cylinder was slung from a pulley above the bed, and was so adjusted as to press upon the fingers of the assistant who was compressing the femoral artery with one hand whilst the other was placed upon the aneurysm to make sure that the pulsation had ceased. The pressure was kept up for many hours by relays of students. The method was irksome to the students and painful to the patient, who had often to be kept under morphia. It was occasionally successful, but there was frequently so much chafing and bruising of the skin, that it fell into disuse. For many years he 'coached' students privately for their examinations, and no one possessed a stronger hold on the affections of his pupils, nor did anyone take greater pleasure in teaching, than did Luther Holdern. One thing he abhorred with all his might, and that was the modern specialist. He believed in the good general surgeon who knew his anatomy and physiology and their applications to surgery. He was an excellent operator, and devoted the greatest care to the work in the wards and to his clinical teaching. Years advanced, but they made little impression on Holden's marvellous physical vigour and lightness of heart. He was a very accomplished and courteous gentleman, with a charm of manner that gained the confidence of the most shy student. He cared little for private practice, but had a passion for teaching, and a patience that was inexhaustible, even when dealing with those whose mental capacities were least developed. He was the personal friend and confidant, as well as teacher, of all who experienced difficulty in acquiring what they had to learn, and he succeeded in teaching those whom no one else could teach. He was beloved alike by the students amongst whom it was his delight to work, and the colleagues with whom he was ever in harmony and affectionate relations. A fluent linguist and a good classic as well as a keen sportsman, he was a conspicuously handsome member of a handsome family, and it was interesting to notice that the older he grew the more handsome he became. He was seen at his best when he was riding to hounds. It is noteworthy, perhaps, that he was one of the few Presidents of the College who received no outside recognition in the form of honorary degrees or other decorative titles. A pencil sketch of his head is in the Royal College of Surgeons. PUBLICATIONS: - *A Manual of the Dissection of the Human Body*, in four parts without illustrations, London, 1850; 2nd ed., 1 vol., copiously illustrated, 8vo, 1851; 2nd ed., 1859; 5th ed., Philadelphia, 1885; 7th ed., 1901, 2 vols. *Human Osteology*, 2 vols., London, 1855; the later editions were in one volume; 8th ed., 1929. This work marked a distinct advance in the study of the human skeleton. It is written in an easy style by a master anatomist. The author drew the illustrations himself and they were etched on stone by Thomas Godart, Librarian of the Medical School at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who afterwards died in Australia. These illustrations formed at the time a new feature in the teaching of anatomy, for the origin and insertions of the muscles are shown upon the figures of the bones by red and blue lines. *Landmarks Medical and Surgical*, first published as a series of papers in the *St. Bart.'s Hosp. Rep.*, 1866, ii, and 1870, vi. They were issued separately in a large and revised form in 1876; 4th ed., 1888; and were translated into Spanish by Dr. Servendo Talón y Calva, Madrid, 1894. The book is an application of anatomy to surgery and shows how much anatomy can be learnt by studying the surface of the body whilst yet the skin is unbroken. There were at first no illustrations to distract from personal observations, but woodcuts were added in the later editions.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000205
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Erichsen, Sir John Eric (1818 - 1896)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-08 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372393372393
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Copenhagen on July 19th, 1818, the eldest son of Eric Erichsen, banker at Copenhagen by his wife, who belonged to the Govett family of Somerset. The Erichsens are a well-known Danish family and the 'Palais Erichsen' in Copenhagen perpetuates the name. Eric Erichsen received his early education at the Mansion House School, Hammersmith, and studied medicine first at University College, London, where he was a pupil of Robert Liston (q.v.), and afterwards in Paris, where Amussat invited him to witness his first colotomy. He then returned to London and served as House Surgeon at University College Hospital. He bought on July 9th, 1843, a half-share in the lectureship on anatomy at the Westminster Hospital Medical School, his colleague being Dr. Robert Hunter, of Glasgow, who had paid £100 for the post in 1841. The lectures, which dealt with physiology as well as with anatomy, were given conjointly until 1846, when Erichsen bought out Hunter. The result was unsuccessful financially, as the Westminster authorities obtained the premises by compulsory purchase for city improvements and the school was discontinued from October, 1847, till 1849. In 1844 he acted as Secretary of the Physiological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and was afterwards appointed a member of a small committee to undertake an experimental inquiry into the mechanism and effects of asphyxia and to suggest methods for its prevention and cure. He drew up a report published in 1845 under the title "An Essay on Asphyxia", and was rewarded, on the recommendation of Sir Benjamin Brodie, by the Royal Humane Society with its Fothergillian Gold Medal. Erichsen was appointed Assistant Surgeon to University College Hospital in 1848 in succession to John Phillips Potter (q.v.), the promising young surgeon who died of pyæmia contracted in dissecting a pelvis for Robert Liston, whose House Surgeon he had been. John Marshall (q.v.) was elected Assistant Surgeon on the same day to a vacancy arising by Syme's return to Edinburgh disgusted with life in London. Moncrieff Arnott succeeded Syme but quickly resigned, and in 1850 Erichsen became full Surgeon to the hospital at the age of 32. The appointment carried with it the Chair of Surgery at University College. Erichsen resigned the professorship on his becoming Holme Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1866. The office of Surgeon he retained until 1875, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon. At the College of Surgeons he served as a member of the Council from 1869-1885, a member of the Court of Examiners from 1875-1879, Vice-President 1878-1879, and President in 1880. He was a busy reformer at first in College politics, but later he opposed the democratic demands of the Members on the ground that the Fellows, as an aristocracy of intellect, should have a monopoly of the College franchise. He put forward this view in a pamphlet, but it was on his motion that the first meeting of the Fellows and Members was called in 1870. Erichsen was President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society from 1879-1881, and in 1881 he was President of the Surgical Section at the meeting in London of the International Medical Congress. As a Liberal he contested unsuccessfully in 1885 the parliamentary representation of the United Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews. He was elected F.R.S. in 1876, and the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Edinburgh in 1884. The Royal University of Ireland elected him an honorary M.Ch. in 1887 and in the same year he was made an honorary F.R.C.S.I. In 1887 he was appointed the first Inspector under the Vivisection Act (39 & 40 Vic., c. 77), and in the same year he was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen. He was created a baronet in January, 1895 - but the honour which he chiefly prized was his election in 1887 to the important and dignified post of President of the Council of University College, an office he held until his death. He married in 1842 Mary Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Cole, R.N.; she died in 1893. There were no children. He died at Folkestone on Sept. 23rd, 1896, and was buried in Hampstead Cemetery. As a surgeon Sir John Erichsen's reputation was world-wide. His strong faculty was his sound judgement ripened by a vast experience which gave him an almost unrivalled clinical insight. There was no man in the profession whose opinion in a difficult case was more justly held to be of great weight. He was especially interested in the results of railway accidents, and wrote a treatise on Concussion of the Spine which caused him to be a principal witness in cases brought against railway companies at a time when less was known about malingering and obscure nervous conditions than at present. He had, in his earlier days at least, no English superior as a clinical teacher. Lord Lister, Sir Henry Thompson, and Marcus Beck were amongst his house surgeons, and he may be looked upon as one of the makers of modern surgery. As a man he possessed a most attractive character. He was honourable and candid in all the relations of life, a generous friend, a gentleman in every sense of the word, of peculiar affability and courtliness of manner. Richard Quain had long refused to speak to him on the ground that he, although senior, had been passed over in favour of Erichsen, a junior, in the appointment to the Chair of Surgery at University College, but Sir John Erichsen's patience and conduct at length convinced Quain of the injustice of his attitude, To everyone's surprise the two men one day entered the hospital arm-in-arm. He was very successful in his profession and he owed much of this to a happy combination of good qualities. His work occupied a high place in surgical literature, and he was always ready to accept the surgical advances of younger men. He was a distinguished teacher in a school where many distinguished surgeons had preceded him. If he did not strike out any new path in the field of surgery, he possessed a sound judgement enlightened by a long experience, had much administrative talent, a wise eloquence, dignity of presence, and elevation of view. A bust by Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., presented to Erichsen on his retirement from the hospital stands in the Museum of University College. A replica is in the hall of the Royal College of Surgeons. It is a good likeness. He appears in Brookes's portrait group of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons and there is a lithograph portrait dated 1853 by Hullmandel and Walton after Baugnut. PUBLICATIONS: - Erichsen wrote a widely read and very excellent text-book on *The Science and Art of Surgery*. The 1st edition was published in 1853 in one volume of 950 pages with 250 illustrations. The 5th edition was issued in 1869 in two volumes. The 8th and 9th editions were edited by MARCUS BECK (q.v.), who brought it up to date as regards Listerian surgery; the 10th edition appeared under the supervision of RAYMOND JOHNSON. Editions from the 2nd London edition were published by Blanchard & Lea, of Philadelphia, in 1859, and again in 1860, and a copy was issued by the American Government to every medical officer in the Federal Army during the American Civil War. *The Science and Art of Surgery* was translated into German by Dr. Thudicum, of Halle; into Italian by Dr. Longhi, of Milan; and into Spanish by Drs. Benavente and Ribera. Parts of it also appeared in Chinese.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000206
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Sir William James Erasmus (1809 - 1884)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-22 2014-07-23
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372394372394
Occupation Dermatologist
Details William James Erasmus Wilson, generally known as Erasmus Wilson, was the son of William Wilson, a native of Aberdeen, who had been a Surgeon in the Navy and had settled as a parish surgeon at Dartford and Greenhithe in Kent. He afterwards opened a private asylum at Denham in Buckinghamshire. Erasmus was born on November 25th, 1809, in High Street, Marylebone, the house of his maternal grandfather, Erasmus Bransdorph, a Norwegian. He was educated at the Dartford Grammar School and afterwards at Swanscombe in Kent, but was soon called upon to help in his father's practice. At the age of 16 he became a resident pupil with George Langstaff (qv), Surgeon to the Cripplegate Dispensary, and began to attend the anatomical lectures given by John Abernathy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. At his master's house he became acquainted with Jones Quain, Sir William Lawrence, and Thomas Wakley, whilst his skill in drawing and his neat dissections soon attracted general attention. Wilson was one of the first students at the Aldersgate School of Medicine, and won prizes for surgery and midwifery in the session 1829-1830. In 1831 he was asked by Jones Quain, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the London University, to become his Assistant. He accepted the post and was soon afterwards appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy. He filled this post until Jones Quain retired from the London University in 1836, when Wilson established a School of Anatomy, called Sydenham College, which proved unsuccessful. In 1840 he lectured upon anatomy and physiology at Middlesex Hospital, and in the same year he became assistant editor of the *Lancet* under Thomas Wakley, whose son, Thomas Henry Wakley (qv), he had 'coached'. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the St. Pancras Infirmary, and on Feb 20th, 1845, he was elected FRS. Erasmus Wilson began to devote himself more particularly to dermatology about 1840, largely, it is said, at the suggestion of Thomas Wakley, who advised him to link himself so closely with skins that when he entered a room the company would scratch themselves. He did so with such success that he left a fortune of £200,000. At the Royal College of Surgeons Erasmus Wilson sat on the Council from 1870-1884, was Vice-President in 1879 and 1880, and President in 1881. In 1870, at an expense of £5,000, he founded the Chair of Dermatology, of which he was the occupant till 1878. The Trust was varied in 1879, in 1881, and in 1908. The Professorship has now become the "Erasmus Wilson Lectureship". In 1870 he presented to the Museum his very extensive and valuable collection of drawings and models illustrative of diseases of the skin. In 1883 he gave to the Museum a valuable collection of anatomical specimens. The College marked its appreciation of these benefactions by presenting him with the Honorary Medal, which has only been bestowed thirteen times since it was instituted in 1802. Wilson was particularly fond of foreign travel. He visited the East to study leprosy, Switzerland and the Vallais to examine goitre, and Italy to become more closely acquainted with tinea pellagra and other diseases of the skin in the underfed and dirty vegetarian peasantry. He became particularly interested in the study of Egyptian antiquities, and in 1877 he paid the cost (about £10,000) of the transport of 'Cleopatra's Needle' to London. He was President of the Biblical Archæological Society and was President of the Medical Society of London in 1878 after he had given the Oration in 1876. One of the most notable incidents of Wilson's career occurred on the occasion of an inquest taking place at Hounslow upon the body of a soldier who had died from the effects of a regimental flogging. Owing greatly to Wilson's evidence a final verdict was returned by the jury, after ten adjournments, to the effect that the man had really died of his injuries. The coroner on this occasion was Wakley, and the result of the inquest was a Parliamentary inquiry, which led to the abolition of flogging in the army. He married Miss Doherty in 1841. She survived him, but there were no children. He died on August 7th, 1884, at Westgate-on-Sea, after two years of ill health. Erasmus Wilson ranks as one of the first and best of English specialists in diseases of the skin. He found the field of dermatology almost virgin. To his teaching we owe in a great measure the use of the bath which has since become a conspicuous feature in the life of our upper and middle classes, and to his advocacy is to be attributed the spread of the Turkish bath in England. Skillful investments in the shares of gas and railway companies made him a rich man, and he devoted his wealth to various charitable objects, for he was a prominent Freemason. He restored Swanscombe Church; he founded a scholarship at the Royal College of Music; and was a large subscriber to the Royal Medical Benevolent College at Epsom, where he built a house for the head master at his own expense. At a cost of nearly £30,000 he built a new wing and chapel at the Sea-Bathing Hospital at Margate, where diseases of the skin were extensively treated, and in 1881 he founded the Erasmus Wilson Professorship of Pathology at the University of Aberdeen in memory of his father. The bulk of his fortune reverted to the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1884 on the death of Lady Wilson. A bust by Thomas Brock, RA, stands in the Library of the College. It was ordered by the College on May 14th, 1885. A three-quarter-length portrait in oils in the robes of a Lecturer at the College of Surgeons is in the possession of the Medical Society of London. The Silver Medal presented to him by the Royal Humane Society is in the possession of the College. It was awarded for saving the life of Olivia Green, who attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the Regent's Park Canal on April 22nd, 1857. Publications: It is unquestionable that Wilson knew more about skin diseases than any man of his time. He identified the dermatological terms used by Celsus (vi, i-v) and thereby showed himself to be a learned as well as a practical physician. Hs works on dermatology, though they met with pretty searching criticism at the time of their appearance, have nearly all maintained their position as text-books. These works were: - *Diseases of the Skin*, 1842; 4th ed., Philadelphia, 1857. *On the Management of the Skin as a Means of Promoting and Preserving Health. Ringworm*, 8vo, London, 1847. *Atlas of Portraits of Diseases of the Skin*, folio, London, 1848-55. *The Anatomist's Vade Mecum*, 8vo, London; 2nd ed, 1842; 11th ed, 1892. "Skin" in Cooper's famous *Surgical Dictionary*. He also prepared elaborate anatomical plates in conjunction with Jones Quain, and published various articles and reports in the scientific journals. *History of the Middlesex Hospital during the First Century of its Existence*, 8vo, London, 1845. In 1867 he established the *Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Diseases of the Skin*, and acted as editor until 1870.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000207
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wells, Sir Thomas Spencer (1818 - 1897)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-22 2012-03-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372395372395
Occupation General surgeon Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Born at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on February 3rd, 1818, the son of William Wells, a builder, by his wife Harriet, daughter of William Wright, of Bermondsey. He soon showed a marked interest in natural science and was sent as a pupil, without being formally apprenticed, to Michael Thomas Sadler, a general practitioner at Barnsley in Yorkshire. He afterwards lived for a year with one of the parish surgeons at Leeds, where he attended the lectures of William Hey II (q.v.) and Thomas Pridgin Teale the elder (q.v.), and saw much practice at the Leeds infirmary. In 1836 he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he learnt more surgery from Whitley Stokes, Sir Philip Crampton, and Arthur Jacob. In 1839 he entered St. Thomas's Hospital, London, to complete his education under Joseph Henry Green (q.v.), Benjamin Travers, senr. (q.v.), and Frederick Tyrell. Here, at the end of the first session, he was awarded the prize for the most complete and detailed account of the post-mortem examinations made in the Hospital during the time of his attendance. He joined the Navy as an Assistant Surgeon as soon as he had qualified, and served for six years in the Naval Hospital at Malta. He combined a civil practice with his naval duties, and was so highly spoken of that the Royal College of Surgeons of England elected him a Fellow in 1844. His term of service at Malta being completed, he left the Navy in 1848, having been promoted Surgeon on Feb. 3rd of that year. He then proceeded to Paris to study pathology under Magendie and to see the gunshot wounds which filled the hospitals after the struggle in June, 1848. He afterwards accompanied the Marquis of Northampton on a journey to Egypt, where he made some valuable observations on malarial fever. Wells settled in practice at 30 Brook Street, London, in 1853 and devoted himself at first to ophthalmic surgery. In 1854 he was elected Surgeon to the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women and Children, which was then an ordinary dwelling-house - 27 Orchard Street, Portman Square - with hardly any equipment. It had been established for seven years and was little more than a dispensary, as there was no accommodation for in-patients. About the same time he was editor of the *Medical Times* and *Gazette* for seven years (1851 ?-1858). Wells temporarily abandoned his work in London on the outbreak of the Crimean War, volunteered, and was sent first to Smyrna, where he was attached as Surgeon to the British Civil Hospital, and afterwards to Renkioi in the Dardanelles. He returned to London in 1856, and in 1857 lectured on surgery at the School of Anatomy and Medicine adjoining St. George's Hospital, which was commonly known as 'Lane's School'. Wells did an unusual amount of midwifery in his youth, but never thought seriously about ovariotomy until one day in 1848 when he discussed the matter at Paris with Dr. Edward Waters, afterwards of Chester. Both surgeons came to the conclusion that, as surgery then stood, ovariotomy was an unjustifiable operation. Spencer Wells and Thomas Nunn (q.v.) of the Middlesex Hospital assisted Baker Brown (q.v.) in his eighth ovariotomy in April, 1854. This was the first time that Wells had seen the operation, and he admitted afterwards that the fatal result discouraged him. The ninth ovariotomy was equally unsuccessful, and Baker Brown himself ceased to operate on these cases from March, 1856, until October, 1858, when Wells's success encouraged him to recommence. The experience of abdominal wounds in the Crimea had shown Wells that the peritoneum was much more tolerant of injury than was generally supposed. He therefore proceeded to do his first ovariotomy in 1858 and was not disheartened although the patient died. He devoted himself assiduously to perfect the technique, and the rest of his life is practically a history of the operation from its earliest and imperfect stage, through its polemical period, to the position it now occupies as a well-recognized and most serviceable operation, still capable perhaps of improvement, but advantageous alike to the individual, the family, and the State. It has saved many lives throughout the world, has opened up the field of abdominal surgery, and has thereby revolutionized surgical practice. Wells completed his first successful ovariotomy in February, 1858, but it was not until 1864 that the operation was generally accepted by the medical profession. This acceptance was due chiefly to the wise manner in which Wells conducted his earlier operations. He persistently invited medical men in authority to see him operate. He published series after series of cases, giving full accounts of the unsuccessful as well as the successful cases, until in 1880 he had performed his thousandth ovariotomy. He had operated at the Samaritan Free Hospital for exactly twenty years when he resigned his office of Surgeon in 1878 and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. He frequently modified his methods throughout the whole of this time, and always towards greater simplicity. The hospital never contained more than twenty beds, and of these no more than four or five were ever available for patients needing ovariotomy. At the Royal College of Surgeons Spencer Wells was a Member of Council from 1871-1895; Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology, 1877-1888, his lectures dealing with "The Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Abdominal Tumours"; Vice-President, 1880-1881 ; President, 1882 ; Hunterian Orator, 1883 ; Morton Lecturer "On Cancer and Cancerous Diseases", 1888 ; and Bradshaw Lecturer "On Modern Abdominal Surgery" in 1890. He received many honours, acting as Surgeon to the Household of Queen Victoria from 1863-1896 ; he was created a baronet on May 11th, 1883, and he was a Knight Commander of the Norwegian Order of St. Olaf. He married in 1853 Elizabeth Lucas (*d*. 1886), daughter of James Wright, solicitor, of New Inn and of Sydenham, by whom he left five daughters and one son, Arthur Spencer Wells, who was Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1893-1895. Spencer Wells's operations were models of surgical procedure. He worked in absolute silence, he took the greatest care in the selection of his instruments, and he submitted his assistants to a rigorous discipline which proved of the highest value to them in after-life. At the end of every operation he personally superintended the cleaning and drying of each instrument. He was an ardent advocate of cremation, and it was chiefly due to his efforts and to those of Sir Henry Thompson (q.v.) that this method of disposing of the dead was brought into early use in England. Almost to the last Wells had the appearance of a healthy, vigorous country gentleman, with much of the frankness and bonhomie of a sailor. He was an excellent rider, driver, and judge of horseflesh. Besides his London residence, 3 Upper Grosvenor Street, he owned the house and fine gardens at Golder's Green, Hampstead, which were bought for public recreation in 1898. He drove himself daily in a mail phaeton with a splendid pair of horses down the Finchley Road from one house to the other, dressed in a grey frock-coat with a flower in the buttonhole and a tall white top hat. A half-length oil painting by Rudolph Lehmann executed in 1884 represents Wells sitting in the robes of a President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It was bequeathed to the Royal College of Surgeons at his death. A bust executed in 1879 by Oscar Liebreich is in possession of the family. He appears in Jamyn Brookes's portrait group of the Council. PUBLICATIONS:- *The Scale of Medicines with which Merchant Vessels are to be Furnished…with Observations on the Means of Preserving the Health and Increasing the Comforts of Seaman*, 12 mo, London, 1851 ; 2nd ed., 8vo, 1861. *Practical Observations on Gout and its Complications,* 8vo, London, 1854. *Cancer Cures and Cancer Curers*, 8vo, London, 1860. *Diseases of the Ovaries : their Diagnosis and Treatment,* 8vo, London - vol. i, 1865 ; vol. ii, 1872. It was also issued in America, and was translated into German, Leipzig, 1866 and 1874. *Note-book for Cases of Ovarian and other Abdominal Tumours*, 8vo, London, 1865 ; 2nd ed., 1868 ; 7th ed., 1887. Translated into Italian, Milan, 12mo, 1882. *On Ovarian and Uterine Tumours, their Diagnosis and Treatment*, 8vo, London, 1882. Translated into Italian, 8vo, Milan, 1882. *Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Abdominal Tumours*, 8vo, London, 1885. Translated into French, 8vo, Paris, 1886.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000208
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marshall, John (1818 - 1891)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-22 2012-03-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372396372396
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Ely in Cambridgeshire on Sept. 11th, 1818, the second son of William Marshall, solicitor, an excellent naturalist. John Marshall's elder brother, William (d. 1890), sometime Coroner for Ely, was an enthusiastic botanist, who first elucidated the life-history of the American pond-weed, *Anacharis alsinastrum*, which had been accidentally introduced into this country and had done much damage to the waterways. John Marshall was educated at Hingham, Norfolk, under J. H. Browne, uncle of Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'), and was apprenticed to Dr. Wales in Wisbech. He entered University College, London, in 1838, where William Sharpey was lecturing on physiology. He was on terms of intimacy with Robert Liston for many years, acting for a time as his private assistant and beginning to practise at 10 Crescent Place, Mornington Crescent. He succeeded Thomas Morton (q.v.) about 1845 as Demonstrator of Anatomy at University College, and in 1847, by the influence of Quain and Sharpey, he was appointed an extra Assistant Surgeon at University College Hospital. The appointment caused considerable surprise, for Marshall was looked upon as an anatomist, who had never held the office of house surgeon, and had shown no special surgical aptitude. He moved to George Street, Hanover Square, and in 1854 to Savile Row, where he remained until his retirement to Cheyne Walk, Chelsea - the west corner house overlooking the bridge. On June 11th, 1857, he was elected F.R.S., after presenting in 1849 a valuable piece of original work "On the Development of the Great Anterior Veins in Man and Mammalia" (*Phil. Trans.*, 1850, cxl, 133). In 1866 he was appointed Surgeon and Professor of Surgery at University College in succession to John Eric Erichsen (q.v.), and in 1884 he retired with the rank of Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital. Many thought at the time of his appointment as Professor of Surgery that the post should have been offered to Lister. At the College his career was extremely active. He became a Member in 1844, a Fellow in 1849, was a Member of Council from 1873-1890, of the Court of Examiners from 1873-1881, was representative of the College on the General Medical Council from 1881-1891, Vice-President in 1881 and 1882, President in 1883, Bradshaw Lecturer in 1883, his subject being "Nerve-stretching for the Relief or Cure of Pain", Hunterian Orator in 1885, and Morton Lecturer in 1889. He was official representative of the College at the Tercentenary of the University of Edinburgh, on which occasion he was created LL.D. He acted as President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society of London in 1882-1883, and in 1887 he replaced Sir Henry Acland as President of the General Medical Council. For four years he held the Chair of Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution. Marshall adopted the galvano-cautery, and the operation for the excision of varicose veins. This operation was at first violently assailed; it is now accepted. He was one of the first to show that cholera might be spread by means of drinking water, and issued an interesting report on the outbreak of cholera in Broad Street, Soho, in 1854. He also advocated the system of circular wards for hospitals, and to him are largely owing the details of the modern medical student's education. He also tried hard to establish a teaching University in London. He gave his first course of lectures on anatomy to the art students at Marlborough House in 1853, a course which he repeated when the art schools were removed to South Kensington. On May 16th, 1873, he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy. This office he held until his death, and his great facility in drawing on the blackboard gave additional attraction to his lectures. He died at his house in Cheyne Row, after a short illness from bronchitis, on New Year's Day, 1891, survived by his wife, one son, and two daughters. A bust of him by Thomas Thornycroft, dated 1852, is in the possession of the family; another, by Thomas Brock, R.A., dated 1887, was presented to University College by Sir John Tweedy (q.v.) on behalf of the subscribers to the Marshall Memorial Fund. A replica is in the College Hall. He appears in Jamyn Brookes's portrait group of the Council. Marshall was a good surgeon of the old school, who failed to appreciate the new surgery introduced by Lister, which was enthusiastically taken up by the younger men at University College Hospital. He was a somewhat slow operator and an uninspiring teacher. Verbatim notes of his lectures taken by James Stanton Cluff are preserved in the Library of the College, to which they were presented to Sir John Tweedy after passing through the hands of Marcus Beck.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000209
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Forster, John Cooper (1823 - 1886)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-22 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372397372397
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born in Mount Street, Lambeth, where his father and grandfather had carried on a successful practice. The house was at the junction of the Westminster Bridge Road with Kennington Lane. It had a large garden, which Forster tended as a boy, and thus gained his lifelong love for flowers and ferns. He was educated at King's College School, then under the headmastership of Dr. Major, and entered Guy's Hospital in 1841. He acted as dresser for Aston Key (q.v.), and was captain and trainer of the Guy's Hospital Boat Club, which he raised to a high state of efficiency. He graduated M.B. at the University of London in 1847 after gaining the Gold Medal in Surgery. Between 1844 and 1850, whilst waiting for an appointment at Guy's, he held the post of Surgeon to the Surrey Dispensary, and was one of the very first to administer anaesthetics in the hospital. He was also Surgeon to the Royal Hospital for Women and Children in the Waterloo Bridge Road, a position he held for many years. In 1848 he visited Paris to study gunshot wounds. He was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital in 1850, and in the same year married Adela, the only daughter of Munden Hammond, of Kennington, by whom he had seven children. At this time he was living at 11 Wellington Square, the back of his house looking on to St. Saviour's Church, and the front into the large square of St. Thomas's Hospital. He was bequeathed a considerable fortune in 1859, and in 1864 he moved to 10 St. Thomas's Street, where two of his children died of diphtheria, and later in life he lived at 29 Upper Grosvenor Street. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1855, and in 1870 he succeeded John Hilton (q.v.) as full Surgeon. This post he resigned in 1880, when Senior Surgeon, the occasion being an unfortunate dispute with the Treasurer and Governors of the hospital caused by some necessary changes in connection with the nursing staff introduced by a new matron somewhat untactfully. Dr. Habershon, the Senior Physician, resigned at the same time. Their action met with the sympathy of many former members of the school, four hundred of whom subscribed to a testimonial and a presentation of silver plate. Cooper Forster was a member of the Council of college from 1875-1886, of the Court of Examiners from 1875-1884, Vice-President in 1882-1883, and President in 1884. During his year of office he did much to promote the establishment with the Royal College of Physicians of a Conjoint Examining Board for England which enabled students to be examined satisfactorily both in medicine and surgery. On the day he ceased to be President he ceased to practise, although for many years his easy circumstances had led him not to desire private patients. He died of an obscure illness, which was not elucidated by a post-mortem examination, at his house in Upper Grosvenor Street on March 2nd, 1886, and was survived by his wife, one son and three daughters. Cooper Forster had a good, bold, and neat hand, which made him a skilful operator. When Dr. Habersohn, his medical colleague, proposed that he should follow Sédillot in opening the stomach in the case of cancer of the œsophagus in 1858 he did so readily, and thus performed what was practically the first gastrostomy in England. The operation was undertaken too late and the patient died forty-five hours after its completion. He went to Aberdeen in 1867 to study Pirie's methods of arresting hæmorrhage by acupressure, practiced it enthusiastically for a few months, and then returned to torsion of the arteries, known as 'the Guy's method' of stopping bleeding during amputations. He is described as quick in forming an opinion and in deciding upon a line of treatment, impatient of 'fads', deficient in scientific knowledge, and essentially a practical surgeon. His clinical lectures were noted for their decisiveness, terseness, and abounding common sense ; but he disliked lecturing, and having been appointed Lecturer on Surgery in succession to John Poland (q.v.), he soon resigned. Personally as well as socially he was a striking figure : considerably over six feet in height and of a commanding presence, he had a handsome expression ; his head was covered with bushy black hair ; quick and lively in manner, always courteous, he was, as he seemed, a great gentleman. He loved rowing, and his dinghy and four-oared boat manned by his family were well known on the Thames from Richmond to Oxford. When rowing became too strenuous for him he took to fly fishing, and later still in life he was accustomed to take a country walk on every fine Sunday. He carefully ascertained the direction of the wind before starting, took the train against it, and walked back with the wind behind him. He was a keen horticulturist, and his house in Grosvenor Street contained one of the best ferneries in London. After his death Mrs. Forster gave his *Trichomones reniforme* to the Conservatory at Kew Gardens. Cooper Forster was also a gourmet, and nothing pleased him more than to entertain his friends either at home or at Greenwich with a very carefully chosen bill of fare and the most choice wines. He is the central figure as President in Jamyn Brookes's portrait group of the Council, which hangs in the Hall of the College, and there is a portrait in the Council Album. Both are good likenesses.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000210
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Savory, Sir William Scovell (1826 - 1895)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-22 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372398372398
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Monument Yard, London, on Nov. 30th, 1826. His father, William Henry Savory, a surgeon long resident at St. Mary-at-Hill, was churchwarden of the parish ; his mother was Mary Webb, the second wife. The younger son, Charles Tozer Savory (1829-1913), who was M.D. St. Andrews, practised in Canonbury. His father dying young, both children were brought up by their mother and appear to have been educated privately. William entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1844 and distinguished himself by winning the chief prizes. He served temporarily as House Surgeon to Edward Stanley (q.v.), and afterwards won the Scholarship and Gold Medal in Comparative Anatomy and Physiology in 1848 ; the Gold Medal in Surgery ; the Gold Medal in Midwifery, and honours in medicine at the London University. At St. Bartholomew's Hospital he was appointed a Demonstrator of Anatomy and Teacher of Operative Surgery in 1849, posts he held until June 21st, 1859. It was resolved by the Committee of the Medical School on Sept. 21st, 1850, that a tutor should be appointed to supervise the studies of students reading for degrees in the University of London. Savory was chosen and retained office until 1859. In 1859 he was appointed Lecturer on General Anatomy and Physiology in succession to Sir James Paget (q.v.). The post carried with it the Curatorship of the Museum, to the enrichment of which he especially devoted himself, adding many pathological specimens and leaving everything in admirable order when he resigned it in 1869. Eusebius Lloyd (q.v.) resigned the office of Surgeon of the Hospital in 1861. He was succeeded by Thomas Wormald (q.v.), and Savory was elected Assistant Surgeon, becoming Surgeon in 1867 on the retirement of Wormald. He followed Paget as Lecturer on Surgery in 1869, at first jointly with Holmes Coote (q.v.), then with George William Callender (q.v.) ; finally from 1879-1889, and at the special request of his colleagues, he remained the sole Lecturer, worthily maintaining and even enhancing the reputation made by his predecessors Abernathy, Lawrence, and Paget. The emoluments which he received for his clinical duties in the hospital and for his lectures in the medical school during the year 1881-1882 exceeded £2000 exclusive of 'dressers' fees', and was probably the largest income ever received for surgical teaching in London. He resigned all his appointments in 1891 on reaching the age limit of 65, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon and a Governor of the Hospital. Early in his career he was Surgeon to the Royal General Dispensary, and for many years was Surgeon to the Foundling Hospital. At the Royal College of Surgeons Savory was Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology from 1859-1861, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1870-1884, and of the Dental Board, 1873-1878. Elected a Member of the Council in 1877, he was Vice-President in 1883 and 1884 ; President for the years 1885, 1886, 1887, and 1888, a sequence which had never before occurred ; and a Trustee in 1893. He delivered the Bradshaw Lecture, "On the Pathology of Cancer", in 1884, and was Hunterian Orator in 1887. His oration was as unique in its style as in its substance. It was an admirable exposition of Hunter's work and character, delivered without a note, in faultless periods, in the presence of those who were themselves masters of oratory. He was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1887, and in 1890 he was created a baronet. Savory wrote little. He read a paper at the Royal Society on Dec. 18th, 1851, on "The Valves of the Heart" (published 8vo, London, 1852), in which he explained thoroughly the structure, connections, and arrangements of the valves. He also contributed papers to the *Proceedings of the Royal Society* "On the Development of Striated Muscular Fibre in Mammalia" (1854-5, vii, 194), and in 1857 an account of experiments "On the Relative Temperature of Arterial and Venous Blood", and was elected F.R.S. in 1858. He published in 1863 (8vo, London) four lectures on *Life and Death*, which had been delivered before the Royal Institution. He lived at first at 13 Charterhouse Square - a house on the east side - because the unwritten rule of the hospital required the Assistant Surgeons to live within a reasonable distance, which was interpreted as a mile. Most of his professional life was spent at 66 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. Shortly before his death he bought Woodlands, Stoke Poges, Bucks, where he had intended to spend the evening of his life. He married on Nov. 30th, 1854, Louisa Frances Borradaile (*d.* 1868), by whom he had one child, Borradaile (*d.* 1906), who became M.A. Cantab. and Rector of St. Bartholomew's-the-Great adjoining the hospital in West Smithfield. Savory died at 66 Brook Street on March 4th, 1895, of a cardiac attack associated with influenza, shortly after the death of his friend, J. Whitaker Hulke (q.v.), which had greatly affected him. A marble bust of Savory was executed by Hope Pinker, R.A., in 1888. It was subscribed for by his thirty-five house surgeons, each of whom received a terra-cotta miniature. The original is in the possession of his grandson, Sir William Borradaile Savory, Bart., at Stoke Poges. A replica stands in the Council Room at the College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields and is a very striking likeness. A seated portrait by Walter Ouless, R.A., hangs in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted for his colleagues and friends in 1891 and has been engraved. It is a fair likeness, but is wanting in the forceful character which was always expressed in Savory's face. He appears as a Vice-President in Jamyn Brookes's portrait group of the College Council in 1884. Savory was an outstanding figure in the surgical world of his time. A clear thinker and a great orator, he dominated every assembly in which he took a part, and he did this by sheer force of character, for he never raised his voice nor did he lose his temper. At the College of Surgeons he was masterful, and as President guided its fortunes through several perilous years. As an examiner he was just, critical, and sufficiently sarcastic to be a terror to the idle and ignorant, though he honours candidate had nothing to fear. At St. Bartholomew's Hospital he upheld the great surgical traditions of the school, which taught that each should act to the best of his ability, be scrupulously honest in word and deed, fear no one, and act together for the good of the Institution. In the operating theatre he showed himself to be a great surgeon of the old anatomical school. He was ambidextrous, and performed the classic operations of amputation, lithotomy, and the ligature of arteries in their continuity with great skill and extraordinary rapidity ; but he struck out no new line, was averse to opening the sac in operations for strangulated hernia, and viewed interferences with the venous system with horror. These limitations led him to oppose the teaching of Lister in his celebrated address at the Cork Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1879, when he uttered the last formal pronouncement against Lister. The address is in perfect good taste, but shows that he was quite unable to follow advances which had been made in the science he had taught so long. Savory was a born orator. He spoke without notes and without preparation, in full rounded periods and with slight but appropriate gesture to emphasize the point he was making. He thus differed entirely from Paget, after whom he usually spoke at hospital meetings. It was of the greatest interest to compare the two - the one suave, fluent with a cadence in his sentences which could be recalled ; Savory more rugged, with a deeper voice, arresting by the matter as well as the delivery, and without compromise - yet both great speakers and remarkably fluent. As a man Savory was considerably above middle height, loosely built, somewhat shambling in gait - for he was flat-footed - clean-shaven, with sharp-cut features, and hair that curled slightly at the end. His face was expressive and marked him out at once as a man beyond the ordinary. He had various little mannerisms which betrayed his state of mind to those who knew him best - the working of his masseters when he was out of humour, the scratching of is right ear when he was pleased or puzzled. He never laughed, and rarely smiled. He made no pretence of clinical teaching, but he inspired all his house surgeons with respect, and they learnt from him the art of so treating patients after operation as to ensure a speedy convalescence. In private life he was wholly different. He was a lover of home, and, belonging to a generation which played no games, he spent much of his life in his study. A lonely man, who felt keenly the loss of his wife, he was cared for at first by Miss Borradaile, his sister-in-law, and afterwards by his daughter-in-law, Florence Julia (*d.* 1902), the daughter of his old friend Dr. F. W. Pavy. To his friends, like Hulke (q.v.) and Henry Power (q.v.), he was as true as steel. Throughout his life he showed evidence of his Cockney upbringing, for he systematically failed to pronounce the aspirate *h*. He was conscious of the omission, but took no steps to amend it, and showed no feeling except that of amusement when his son used to go round the room with a hearth-broom and fire-shovel, saying, "Father, I am sweeping up the *h*'s you have dropped."
Resource Identifier RCS: E000211
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan (1828 - 1913)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-04 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372399372399
Occupation Dermatologist Ophthalmologist Pathologist Venereologist
Details Born on July 23rd, 1828, the second son of Jonathan Hutchinson and Elizabeth Massey, both members of the Society of Friends, at Selby, Yorkshire. Hutchinson continued throughout life to exhibit some of the external characteristics of a Quaker. After an education at Selby, he was early apprenticed to Caleb Williams (q.v.), Lecturer on Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the York School of Medicine, and he attended the York Hospital. At this very small York School of Medicine he received individual instruction from Dr. Thomas Laycock - later Professor of Medicine in Edinburgh - which made a life-long impression, on the importance of heredity, and of physiognomy in diagnosis. He passed on to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where Sir James Page's influence was dominant; he studied under him, including the subject of syphilis, and qualified M.R.C.S. in 1850. He then pursued the post-graduate study of which he became afterwards such a strong advocate. He acted as Assistant Physician at the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest; Surgeon to the Metropolitan Free Hospital; Surgeon to the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields (1862-1878), where he had Edward Nettleship (q.v.) as Assistant; Surgeon to the Blackfriars Hospital for Diseases of the Skin; and Assistant Surgeon to the Lock Hospital for a while from 1862. He continued Surgeon to the Moorfields and Blackfriars Hospitals for many years. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the London Hospital in 1860; and after passing the F.R.C.S. examination in 1862 became Surgeon until 1883, then Consulting Surgeon. From 1862 he lectured on the principles and practice of surgery, from 1863 on medical ophthalmology, and in that year gained the Guy's Hospital Astley Cooper Prize for his essay "On Injuries of the Head". After 1883 he gave an annual course of lectures as Emeritus Professor of Surgery. A Triennial Prize for an essay was instituted to commemorate his services and teaching. He was an active member of various London medical societies and served as the President of five of the most important. At the meeting called to wind up the old Sydenham Society he proposed a continuation as the New Sydenham Society, of which he was Secretary from 1859-1907. The translations from the chief writings of Continental authorities constitute an extraordinarily well-selected collection. The publications especially due to him in the New Sydenham Society were the *Atlas of Skin Diseases* and *The Atlas of Drug Eruptions.* At the Royal College of Surgeons he was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology, 1879-1883; Member of Council, 1879-1895; Member of the Court of Examiners, 1880-1887; Bradshaw Lecturer, 1888; President, 1889 (returning to the previous custom of holding office for one year, broken by the four years' tenure of his predecessor, W. S. Savory); Hunterian Orator, 1891; Trustee of the Hunterian Collection, 1897. He sat on the Royal Commission on Small-pox and Fever Hospitals, 1881, and that on Vaccination, 1890-1896; his demonstration of vaccino-syphilis as a possible consequent of arm-to-arm vaccination put a stop to that method of vaccinating. As Hunterian Professor he gave six lectures on "Neuropathogenesis, chiefly with reference to Diseases of the Eye, Skin, Joints, etc.", four lectures "On Some of the Surgical Aspects of Gout and Rheumatism", and two lectures "On the Etiology of True Leprosy". His Bradshaw Lecture dealt with "Museums in reference to Medical Education and the Advance of Knowledge". Jonathan Hutchinson, as a clinical diagnostician by naked-eye observations, was one of the great medical geniuses of his time, and there is no one superior in the history of medicine, whether in the diagnosis of cases in surgery, ophthalmology, dermatology, or syphilology. This was conjoined with a peculiar strain of philosophy. He was a colleague of another extraordinary genius in neurology and philosophy - Hughlings Jackson - and the interest of the two met over the ophthalmic side of neurology, and the general use of the ophthalmoscope as an instrument of diagnosis. His remarkable talent was exhibited in the discovery of syndromes; his audience supposed he was exhibiting a rare case, but after listening to him they discovered that they were able to recognize such cases, and his syndromes have now become commonplaces in the text-books. Examples are his 'triad' in inherited syphilis - deformity and notching of the teeth, labyrinthine deafness, and interstitial keratitis; defects in children's teeth, associated with infantile convulsion and lamellar cataract; the peculiar physiognomy in ophthalmoplegia and tabes dorsalis; the inequality of the pupils in cerebral compression; gout and haemorrhages; tobacco amblyopia; and idiosyncrasies of many kinds. He had, too, a remarkable fund of illustration and simple comparison - the 'apple-jelly' appearance of some forms of lupus; the imitative characteristics of the superficial appearances of syphilis. He had a slow and precise delivery, with eyes turned to the ground. An endless series of cases were stored in his memory, recalled by the initial of the patient's name and the outstanding feature presented. His broad-minded philosophy made him hold, as to his rare cases, that they afforded clues to the pathology of the class, links between some one already recognized group and another. His crowded audiences listened intently as he passed, by some ingenious connection, from one subject to another - a custom defended by him on the plea that, for the attention of his audience, a 'mixed diet' was needed. At the hospital one lecture had as title, "On Fairy Rings and Allied Phenomena". From fairy rings in fields, he passed on to ringworms and herpes, phenomena he held to be allied. One lecture at Haslemere commenced with the earth's crust, passed to elephants, and ended on John Wesley; another, on whales, tailed off to Wordsworth's poetry, and then to social questions relating to tuberculosis and leprosy. No one of his colleagues equalled him in a 'spotting diagnosis', for he was nearly always right, very exceptionally wrong. A young surgeon who had married and was beginning surgery broke out into a rash all over, which rapidly became nodular. Several who saw him murmured, "Syphilis, however acquired", until 'Jonathan' at once said, "General sarcomatosis", and this was confirmed in a few weeks. In another case, however, he diagnosed syphilis, in spite of the patient's protests that he had not undergone exposure, and in a couple of days small-pox was evident. His genius in diagnosis and his philosophy were remarkably combined in all he wrote and said on syphilis. At the discussions on the pathology of syphilis at the London Pathological Society in 1876 (*Pathol. Soc. Trans.*, 1876, xxvii, 341) he held that the condition was due to a specific and living microbe, contagious and transmissible only so long as the microbe retained its vitality. "Someone will see it one day, for it is beyond doubt that it must be there" (p. 446). With this should be compared Moxon's sarcasms whilst avoiding question of causation (pp. 403-410), the gibe by Gull - "Well, I think syphilis is a flesh and blood disease" (p. 415). He taught the treatment of early syphilis by long persistence in the administration of metallic mercury by the mouth, very finely divided as 'grey powder', the course being interrupted at increasing intervals, for two to three years, but always short of salivation. He made but little use of arsenic, for he was impressed by it as a cause of cancer. In 1855 he began to observe cases of leprosy from the East End in the London Hospital, and thus called attention to a number of instances wandering about and mixing with the general populace in many cities of the world. He took up the view that in Norway and elsewhere lepers persisted owing to the custom of eating stale fish. Until he stirred up inquiry the subject leprosy was in a state of stagnation. After the discovery of the bacillus he made further observations in South Africa and India, in which he grafted to his first theory the transference of the bacillus by contact and contamination of food - but it continued until the end of his life a non-proven thesis. In 1868 he suggested that a museum illustrating the progress of medicine and surgery during the past year should be instituted at the Annual Meetings of the British Medical Association; this came into force. His houses at Nos. 14 and 4 in Finsbury Circus and in Cavendish Square, one after the other, became filled by a vast collection of specimens, coloured drawings, and charts used by him for his clinical lectures and demonstrations, until he collected them in the clinical museum attached to his son's house, 1 Park Crescent, Regent's Park. For years he was making provision for post-graduate instruction, and in 1899 he instituted a Medical Graduates' College and Policlinic at 22 Chenies Street, of which he was at once the life, the soul and the financier. He made exhibitions for short periods of illustrations he had collected on various subjects, and, through his persuasion, lectures and demonstrations were given by a great number of members of staff of hospitals, and by special practitioners. The history of Hutchinson's Policlinic will form an important chapter when systematic post-graduate instruction becomes definitely established in London; it came to an end after his death and the outbreak of the War. All that is of special and permanent value has been collected and preserved in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, including MSS., such as his research on the arthritic diathesis. The abundance of his collections was so great that duplicates of illustrative material were dispersed and in part taken over to the United States. There was yet another remarkable endeavour. At his country house at Haslemere, Surrey, he set up an educational museum and library, a miniature of the Natural History Museum in London, and a library providing an outline of history, for the benefit of the population of the locality. The museum displayed rocks, fossils, plants, flowers, preserved as well as freshly gathered, birds' eggs, an aviary and vivarium exhibiting natural objects of the neighbourhood, including the common viper. The library contained charts of figures tabulating events from antiquity to the present day. King Edward VII knew of him as the surgeon who had a hospital for animals on his farm. Lectures and addresses were given - including Sunday afternoon addresses - on the potato, tuberculosis, poetry, the inner life, and new birth. This 'home university' published a monthly journal, which includes features of a school book, encyclopaedia, and a journal of science and literature. After his death the executors handed it over, pruned of its diffuseness, to Haslemere. Hutchinson also started a somewhat similar museum at his birthplace, Selby, but that did not excite so much local interest. The object of the museum was to establish evolution as a motive for right living in place of personal immortality as usually taught. Throughout his life he jealously retained his membership of the Society of Friends, although he accepted 'evolution' as a renaissance of religion. Hutchinson was a good walker, fond of shooting and riding; he swam in a cold-water pool in his grounds until nearly the end of his life. He died at his house, The Library, Inval, Haslemere, on June 23rd, 1913, and was buried at Haslemere. By his orders there was inscribed on his gravestone, "A Man of Hope and Forward Looking Mind". Portraits accompany his obituary notices, and there are several in the College Collection. He figures in the Jamyn Brookes portrait group of the Council, 1884. His wife died in 1886; their family included six sons and four daughters. One son, Jonathan, F.R.C.S., followed his father as Surgeon to the London Hospital; another, Proctor, a laryngologist, died early ; Roger Jackson was in practice at Haselemere; and H. Hutchinson became an architect. PUBLICATIONS: - Hutchinson's publications were very numerous; the chief works are: - *The Archives of Surgery*, 10 vols., 1889-1900. His archives include what Hutchinson deemed of importance from among his previous publications, together with notes and additions. "Syphilis, the Discussion at the London Pathological Society, 1876." - *Trans. Path. Soc.*, 1876, xxvii, 341. *Notes about Syphilis*, 1887; new. ed., 1909. The introduction to the *System of Syphilis*, by D'Arcy Power and J. Keogh Murphy, in 6 vols., 1908, pp. xvii-xxxv. Hutchinson Collection in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Illustrations, notes and MSS.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000212
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bryant, Thomas (1828 - 1914)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Bernard, Ralph Montague (1816 - 1871)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373048373048
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a medical man in Bristol, whose brother was the Rev Samuel Edward Bernard (1800-1884). Educated at Bristol, St George’s Hospital, London, at Dublin, and in Paris. He was elected Surgeon to the Bristol Royal Infirmary on May 4th, 1854, after the contested election usual at that time when committees were formed, “refreshments were provided, flys were engaged, all was bustle and hurry. From ten in the morning till late in the evening Broad Street was completely blocked with flys, all were on the *qui vive* to aid their favourite candidate, and the Guildhall all day was regularly crammed with individuals who appeared to take a very lively interest in the proceedings”. Bernard fought the election twice – in 1850 he was bottom of the poll with 276 votes, and in 1854, proxies being allowed, when he was successful. There were seven candidates. His brother, Dr J Fogo Bernard, had been elected Physician to the Infirmary in 1843. Ralph Montague Bernard was accidentally killed in the presence of his wife and children by the fall of a cliff when he was on a holiday near Lampeter in Wales on August 18th, 1871. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to the Bristol Police and was practising at 5 Victoria Square, Bristol.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000865
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Berney, Edward ( - 1890)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373049373049
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital. He practised at 73 High Street, Croydon, and died at his residence, Kirby Bedon, Lower Addiscombe Road, Croydon, in the period between November, 1889, and November, 1890.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000866
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Berry, Samuel (1808 - 1887)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373050373050
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, who practised for forty years in Birmingham, especially as an obstetrician. He was for twenty years Obstetric Surgeon to the Queen’s Hospital, also Professor of Midwifery and Diseases of Women at Queen’s College. He was the founder of the Children’s and Womens Hospital, becoming Surgeon and then Consulting Surgeon to the Birmingham and Midland Free Hospital for Children. He was also Surgeon to the Hospital for Women and to the Magdalen Home, Edgbaston. On his retirement in 1881 he was the recipient of a handsome testimonial. He was also President of the Midland Medical Society and of the Birmingham Branch of the British Medical Association. Berry retired to Clapham Park, London, where he died on September 29th, 1887, and was buried at Birmingham, leaving a widow and a daughter who married Thomas Bartleet (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000867
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Berry, Sidney Herbert (1874 - 1901)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373051373051
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a Wesleyan Minister, entered Charing Cross Hospital as the Livingstone Scholar in 1892, and distinguished himself as a student by gaining several prizes, also the Llewllyn Scholarship in 1896. He afterwards acted as House Surgeon and as House Physician. Whilst in the latter post he observed and published a rare instance of aneurysm in a boy aged 15. The large aneurysm of the first part of the aorta had ruptured into the pericardium. There was besides a persistent thymus the size of the hand, but no other explanation of the disease. After supplementary attendance at St Bartholomew’s Hospital he passed the FRCS examination in 1899 and settled in practice in Brixton. But his health soon failed, and he had to retire to Margate, where he died on March 5th, 1901. Publication:- The case of aneurysm is recorded in *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1898, ii, 1745.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000868
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Berry, Titus (1779 - 1868)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Besemeres, William ( - 1871)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching MacCormac, Sir William (1836 - 1901)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-04 2012-03-13
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372403372403
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Belfast on January 17th, 1836, the elder son of Henry MacCormac, a physician at Belfast, and Mary Newsham his wife. The younger son, John, became a director of the Northern Linen Company. His father gained notoriety in the North of Ireland as a strenuous advocate of the fresh-air treatment of phthisis. William was educated at the Belfast Royal Academical Institution and afterwards studied at Dublin and Paris. He entered Queen's College, Belfast, in October, 1851, as a student of engineering, and gained scholarships in engineering during his first and second years. He then turned aside to the arts course, graduated B.A. at the Queen's University in 1855, and proceeded M.A. in 1858. He won the senior scholarship in natural philosophy in 1856 and was admitted M.D. in the following year. The honorary degree of M.Ch. was conferred upon him in 1879, and the D.Sc. in 1882 with the Gold Medal of the University. The honorary degrees of M.D. and M.Ch. were also bestowed upon him by the University of Dublin in June, 1900. After graduation MacCormac studied surgery in Berlin, where he made lasting friendships with Langenbeck, Billroth, and von Esmarch. He practised in Belfast from 1864-1870, becoming successively Surgeon, Lecturer on Clinical Surgery, and Consulting Surgeon to the Belfast General Hospital. MacCormac volunteered for service on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, undertook hospital duties at Metz, was treated as a spy and was returned to Paris. Here he joined the Anglo-American Association for the care of the wounded, and with others arrived at Sedan on the night of August 30th, 1870, bivouacking in the waiting-room at the station. MacCormac wandered up and down the platform until 2 am, when an engine with a single cattle-truck stopped and Napoleon III stepped out with two attendants. MacCormac followed the party and was the sole spectator of the Emperor's hardly gained admission to the town, which he left soon afterwards as a prisoner. The Battle of Sedan began at 4 a.m. on Sept. 1st, and during the first day more than a thousand soldiers were brought for treatment to the Caserne d'Asfeld, a deserted infantry barracks on the ramparts which MacCormac and his companions had hastily converted into a hospital of 384 beds. Some attempts were made to follow out the new Listerian methods, but for the most part the old rates of mortality prevailed. Returning to London at the end of the war, he settled at 13 Harley Street, where he died more than thirty years afterwards. MacCormac was admitted in 1871 to the rare distinction of an ad eundem Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and in February of the same year was elected, after a sharp contest, Assistant Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, which had just moved to the new buildings on the Albert Embankment. He became full Surgeon in 1873 on the resignation of Frederic le Gros Clerk (q.v.) and lectured on surgery for twenty years. He was elected Consulting Surgeon to the hospital and Emeritus Lecturer on Clinical Surgery after resigning his active posts in 1893. In 1876 MacCormac was present at the Battle of Alexinatz as chief surgeon of the National Aid Society for the Sick and Wounded in the Turco-Servian Campaign. He contributed largely to the success of the brilliant Seventh International Congress of Medicine which was held in London in 1881, when he was General Secretary and Editor of the *Transactions*. For his services in this capacity he received the honour of knighthood on Dec. 7th, 1881. He was President of the Medical Society of London in 1880, and of the Metropolitan Branch of the British Medical Association in 1890. He was Surgeon to the French, Italian, Queen Charlotte's, and the British Lying-in Hospitals, and was an Examiner in Surgery at the University of London and for Her Majesty's Naval, Military, and Indian Medical Services. He was created a baronet in 1897, was appointed Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, and was decorated K.C.V.O. on September 27th, 1898, in recognition of services rendered to the Prince when he injured his knee. At the Royal College of Surgeons MacCormac was elected a Member of the Council in 1883, and of the Court of Examiners in 1887. He served as President during the years 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, being specially re-elected on the last occasion that he might occupy the Chair at the centenary of the College. He delivered the Bradshaw Lecture in 1893, and was Hunterian Orator in 1899. War claimed him again in 1899-1900, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon to the South African Field Force, and in this capacity visited military and civil hospitals in Cape Colony and Natal, going to the Front on four occasions. For these services he was created K.C.B. in 1901, and was gazetted Hon. Serjeant Surgeon to King Edward VII. He abducted and married in 1861 Katherine Maria, daughter and heiress of John Charters, of Belfast. She survived him, but there were no children of the marriage. He died at Bath on December 4th, 1901, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. MacCormac was a strikingly handsome man, standing six feet two inches in height and being proportionally well built. He was soft-voiced, singularly courteous in manner, and apparently - but only apparently - inattentive to what was being said to him. His industry, mastery of detail, rapidity of work, and Irish bonhomie made him a first-rate organizer. He was as widely known on the Continent of Europe as he was in England and Ireland, and he did much to break down the insularity which militated so long against the progress of British surgery, for he learned and taught what was done at home and abroad. MacCormac was the best decorated practising surgeon of his generation. He was, in addition to the honours already mentioned, an Hon. Member of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg; an Hon. Fellow or Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, Paris, Brussels, Munich, and Rome; a Commander of the Legion of Honour; of the Orders of Dannebrog of Denmark, of the Crown of Italy, and the Takovo of Servia; of the Crown of Prussia, St. Iago of Portugal, North Star of Sweden, Ritter-Kreuz of Bavaria, Merit of Spain, and the Medjidie. An oil painting of MacCormac by H. Harris Brown was presented to Queen's University, Belfast, on March 9th, 1897. There are two oil paintings by the Russian painter, Prince Troubetskoi; the better of these was presented to the College on the death of Lady MacCormac in 1923. Another oil painting hangs in the Medical Committee Room at St. Thomas's Hospital. A marble bust by Alfred Drury, A.R.A., is in the Central Hall at St. Thomas's Hospital; a replica in white marble was presented to the College by subscribers in 1903. A caricature by 'Spy' in *Vanity Fair* in 1906 gives a good idea of MacCormac's height. PUBLICATIONS:- *Notes and Recollections of an Ambulance Surgeon, being an Account of Work done under the Red Cross during the Campaign of 1870*, London, 1871. This was translated into German by Professor Louis Stromeyer, Hanover, 1871, and into Italian by Dr. Eugenio Bellina, Florence, 1872. *Surgical Operations*, Part I, 1885; 2nd ed. 1891. Part II, 1889. *On Abdominal Section for the Treatment of Intraperitoneal Injury*, 1887; translated into German, Leipzig, 1888. The most noteworthy of his occasional publications is "Some Observations on Rupture of the Urinary Bladder, with an Account of Two Cases of Intraperitoneal Rupture Successfully Treated by Abdominal Section and Subsequent Suture of the Hernial Rent." - *Lancet*, 1886, ii, 1118. (The accident is uncommon, attracts little notice at the moment, and is followed by a latent period until fatal peritonitis sets in.) Recovery followed in both instances, the first on record so far as is known. *An Address of Welcome on the Occasion of the Centenary Festival of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,* 1900; with the biographical accounts, often with portraits, of the sixty-one Masters or Presidents. There are two issues of this work, which was presented to the distinguished delegates attending the Centenary Meeting - the first in July (220 pp.); the second, with additional matter and illustrations (232 pp.), at Christmas, 1900. MacCormac was materially helped in its preparation by Victor G. Plarr, M.A., Librarian of the College, and by D'Arcy Power, F.R.C.S. He also published an illustrated Souvenir of the Centenary of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 4to, London, November, 1900.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000216
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Howse, Sir Henry Greenway (1841 - 1914)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Tweedy, Sir John (1849 - 1924)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372405372405
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born at Stockton-on-Tees, the son of John Tweedy, a solicitor. He was educated at Elmfield College, York, and at University College, London, from which he went to University College Hospital for his medical course. He qualified in 1872, and in 1873 became a Clinical Assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, thus beginning a long and distinguished association with that institution. Tweedy was never a robust man, and always suffered from an embarrassment of respiration, a wheeziness, the nature of which was obscure. It is said that his frail physique determined Tweedy not to attempt the career of general surgery and led him to become an ophthalmic surgeon. In this line he soon showed himself something above the ordinary, by his work, his early publications and his wide interest in the whole field of medicine. At Moorfields he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in 1877 on the resignation of Sir Jonathan Hutchinson (q.v.), Surgeon in 1878, Consulting Surgeon in 1900, when he was placed upon the Committee of Management in recognition of the "numerous occasions he had pleaded the cause of the Hospital in powerful and most interesting public addresses, endorsing his advocacy with liberal donations to its funds". He was likewise appointed Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Great Northern Hospital in 1878, Assistant Ophthalmic Surgeon to University College Hospital in 1881, and Professor of Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery in University College. In addition to his professional work, Tweedy was interested in music, politics, books, history, and journalism. He was the editor of the "Mirror of Hospital Practice" in the *Lancet* and became the close friend of Dr. James Wakley, the editor of that journal, for which he was a constant leader-writer. The centenary number of the *Lancet* speaks of his being offered the editorship and refusing it. It is said that he was largely responsible for the utterance of the editorial views of the *Lancet* on the constitution of the Royal College of Surgeons, and it was as a reformer that Tweedy stood for and was elected to a seat on the Council in 1892. Here, however, he expressed moderate views and gained for himself the warm friendship and hearty co-operation of the leaders of the medical profession, so much so that in 1903 he was elected President of the College, and retained office for three years, being succeeded in 1906 by Sir Henry Morris (q.v.); in his final year as President (1906) he received the honour of knighthood. Tweedy was the first surgeon practising purely as an ophthalmologist to obtain the presidency of the College, and during his term of office he gave the presidential badge to the College to be worn by future Presidents when in their robes of office. While President of the College, Tweedy was also President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, President of the Medico-Legal Society, of the Medical Defence Union, and of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund. He took an active share in King Edward's Hospital Fund, serving on the Distribution Committee, for which his powers of organization peculiarly fitted him. He was admitted to the Livery and Court of the Barbers' Company, where he was chosen Master and thus brought about a *rapprochement* between the Company and the College of Surgeons. The Barbers' Company having founded the Vicary Lectures at the Royal College of Surgeons, he was appointed to deliver the first lecture in December, 1919, when he chose as his subject "Surgical Tradition". Tweedy was an excellent speaker, whether in a set lecture or after dinner. He showed precision, making his points deliberately, and his speeches were always imbued with a kindliness and modesty which were characteristic of the man. In 1905 he was Hunterian Orator, and in his later years one of the Hunterian Trustees. On the occasions when the Hunterian Trustees met at the College, the sound of his horses' hoofs might be heard with measured tat-tat in front of the portico, for Sir John was perhaps the last consulting surgeon in London to keep a brougham instead of a car. Almost immediately afterwards a measured but laboured breathing announced the arrival at the door of the Librarian's room of Sir John himself, who, after making his courteous old-world greetings, would proceed to the discussion, and nearly always the presentation of valuable books, for which benefactions the Library is grateful. He lived at 100 Harley Street, where he had a large library of some 6000 volumes. By his will he bequeathed to the Royal College of Surgeons such of his medical and surgical books and instruments as the College might select, and to University College Hospital Medical School any others to be selected by that body after the College had made its choice. He left over £61,000, ultimate residue as to one-half, after other bequests, to go to the College in case of the failure of his heirs. In 1895 Tweedy married the daughter of Mr. Richard Hillhouse, of Finsbury Place, and left two sons and one daughter. He died on Jan. 4th, 1924, after a short illness following an operation, and his ashes were interred at Holder's Green Crematorium on Jan. 8th. Though Tweedy published no large work he had written a great deal, as the following list of his publications shows. Possibly his best-known original observation was that the physiological 'lens star' could be recognized clinically. He also advanced a theory as to the causation of conical cornea being due to developmental defect and brought the idea before the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, in whose *Transactions* (xii, 67) it appears. He was also a pioneer in practising the extraction of immature cataracts. There are several portraits of him in the College Library, the largest a photograph from a portrait by Frank B. Salisbury. PUBLICATIONS: "On a Visible Stellation of the Normal and of the Cataractous Crystalline Lens of the Human Eye," - *Royal London Ophthal. Hosp. Rep.*, 1876, viii, 24. This paper, accompanied by drawings, attracted a good deal of attention and was a sequel to one published in the *Lancet*, 1871, ii, 776. "On an Improved Optometer for Estimating the Degree of Abnormal Regular Astigmatism," 8vo, illustrated, London, 1876; reprinted from *Lancet*, 1876, ii, 604. "Treatment of Hardness of the Eyeball by Mydriatics and Myotics." *Practitioner*, 1883, xxxi, 321. "On an Improved Optometer for Estimating the Degree of Astigmatism and other Errors of Refraction." *Lancet*, 1886, i, 777. "On the Meaning of the Words 'Nyctalopia' and 'Hemeralopia' as disclosed by an Examination of the Diseases described under these Terms by the Ancient and Modern Medical Authors," 12mo, London, 1882; reprinted from *Royal London Ophthal. Hosp. Rep*., 1882, x, 413. "On a Case of Large Orbital and Intracranial Ivory Exostosis," 8vo, London, 1882; reprinted from *Royal London Ophthal. Hosp. Rep.,* 1882, x, 303. "An Inaugural Address delivered in University College, London, on October 1st, at the Opening of the Session 1883-4," 8vo, London, 1883; reprinted from *Lancet*, 1883, ii, 577. "Lectures on the Ætiology of Constitutional Diseases of the Eye," 12mo, London, 1887; reprinted from *Lancet*, 1887, i, 57. "Extraction of Immature Cataract." - *Lancet*, 1888, i, 966, "On Some Phases of the Constitutional History of the College of Suregons," 8vo, London, 1889; reprinted from *Lancet*, 1889, i, 957, 1112. "On Cicatricial Ectropion of the Lower Lid following Caries of the Orbit," 8vo, illustrated, London, 1890; reprinted from *Ophthal. Soc. Trans.*, 1890, x, 211. "The Physical Factor in Conical Cornea," 8vo, London, 1892; reprinted from *Ophthal. Soc. Trans*., 1892, xii, 67. "The Relation of Ophthalmology to General Medicine and Surgery and to Public Health" (Presidential Address to the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom), 8vo, London, 1904; reprinted from *Ophthal. Soc. Trans.*, 1904, xxiv, 1. *A Clinical Lecture on the Forms of Conjunctivitis, with Special Reference to the Treatment of Ophtalmia Neonatorum*, 8vo, London, 1895. *An Address delivered by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in Norwich Cathedral on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the William Cadge Memorial Window on the 6th of December,* 1904. *The Hunterian Oration delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the 14th of February, 1905,* 8vo, London, 1905. *An Address to Medical Students delivered at University College Hospital Medical School on the 1st of October, 1909, on the Occasion of the Opening of the Winter Session,* 8vo, London, 1909. "Presidential Address on the Influence of Social and Legal Restrictions on Medical Practice. Delivered before the Medico-Legal Society on the 25th October, 1910," 8vo, London, 1910; reprinted from *Medical Mag*., 1910, xix, 701. "The Mutual Relations and Influence of Law and Medicine. A Presidential Address," 8vo, London, 1910; reprinted from *Trans. Medico-Legal Soc*., 1910, vii, 1. *The Medical Tradition; being the Annual Oration delivered before the Medical Society of London on May 12th*, 1919, 8vo, London, 1920. *The Surgical Tradition; being the First Thomas Vicary Lecture delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England, on December 3rd*, 1919, 8vo, London, 1920. "Eyelids," "Cornea," and "Sclerotic," in Heath's *Dictionary of Practical Surgery*. "Cataract," "Hemeralopia," "Nyctalpoia," and "Pupil," in Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, "Diseases of the Skin" in Roberts's *Text-book of Medicine*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000218
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morris, Sir Henry (1844 - 1926)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-03-13
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372406372406
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Born at Petworth on January 7th, 1844, the son of William Morris, surgeon of that place, and grandson of a Morris practising in North Wales. The surname Morris has been traced in particular to families of mixed Welsh and Jewish descent who settled on the Welsh border after the explusion of the Jews from England by Richard I. Morris in his prime, black-haired, fresh-complexioned, dignified, and a fluent speaker, seemed to point to a mixed Welsh and Jewish descent. He was educated at Epsom College, being one of the first hundred boys admitted to that Institution under the Rev. Dr. Thornton. He then went to University College, London, where he graduated B.A. in 1863 with philosophy (i.e., the philosophy dominant in the early part of the eighteenth century) as his special subject. He proceeded M.A. in 1870, and was throughout life ruled by opinions acquired during this philosophic studies. He studied at Guy's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon after graduating M.B. Lond. For a short time he was Resident Medical Officer of the Dispensary, Stanhope Street. In January, 1870, he was appointed Surgical Registrar at Middlesex Hospital; in August, 1871, was elected Assistant Surgeon, and Surgeon in the Out-patient Cancer Department; from 1879 until 1889 he was Surgeon to the Hospital and was in charge of the Cancer Department. He retired at the age limit in 1905. He was appointed Lecturer in Practical Surgery in 1871, but it was as Lecturer in Anatomy from 1872-1881 that he distinguished himself the most. It gave origin to his most original and permanent publication, *The Anatomy of the Joints of Man* (8vo, 43 plates, 1879; 8th American edition, Philadelphia, 1925). He followed this up later by acting as the editor of *A Treatise on Human Anatomy*, by various authors, 1893. Morris wrote on "The Articulations", other contemporaries contributing. The work ran through a number of editions. In 1881 he became Lecturer on Surgery. In 1880 a domestic servant, aged 19, was diagnosed by the physician, Sydney Coupland, to have a calculus in an undilated kidney, the diagnosis being made from the signs of pain and hæmaturia only. Morris removed the stone on Oct. 22nd, 1880, and the case was reported, as the first designed operation of its kind in this country, in the Clinical Society's *Transactions* (1881, xiv, 30), the stone being preserved in the Hospital Museum. The patient made a complete recovery. This brought him an extended practice and gave him the opportunity of publishing a number of books on genito-urinary surgery; he was for a time the leading authority, until examination by X-rays and the cystoscope expanded the methods of diagnosis. In the latter part of his life he was known outside Middlesex Hospital as a medical educationalist and politician. He became dogmatic and dictatorial in manner, long-winded in speech, influenced by rather an antiquated philosophy, and unsympathetic with novelties which could not be squared with his ingrained views. He believed that the Middlesex Medical School should continue to teach all the subjects of the curriculum, and he opposed with a donation of £1000 the Medical Schools Amalgamation University of London scheme in 1906. Great efforts were made to endow the Medical School and the fund amounted in 1927 to £130,000. He took a lifelong interest in his old school, Epsom College, was for many years Treasurer, and by visiting constantly was practically Manager. As the Surgeon-in-charge of the cancer wards at Middlesex Hospital, he wrote much on the subject, including the Bradshaw Lecture, 1903, before the experimental and radiological developments of the subject. The Imperial Cancer Research Fund was originated in his house, No. 8, at the north-east corner of Cavendish Square, and he acted as Treasurer and Vice-President. In connection with the British Medical Association he was Secretary of the Section of Surgery at Manchester in 1877, and in 1889 Vice-President at Leeds. In 1895 he was President of the Section of Anatomy and Histology in London. In 1893 he delivered the Cavendish Lecture, and in 1908 the Sir William Mitchell Banks Memorial Lecture. At the College Morris held the following posts: 1884-1889, Examiner in Anatomy for the Fellowship; 1893-1914, Member of Council; 1894-1904, Member of the Court of Examiners; 1898, Hunterian Professor (three lectures on Renal Surgery); 1899, Examiner in Dental Surgery; 1903, Bradshaw Lecturer; 1904-1917, Representative on the General Medical Council, and was for ten years (1907-1917) Treasurer; 1906, Member of the Committee of Management of the Conjoint Board; 1906, 1907, President; 1909, Hunterian Orator. He took for the subject of his oration John Hunter in his relation to eighteenth-century philosophic literature, and delivered it in the presence of T.R.H. the Prince and Princess of Wales, shortly after King George V and Queen Mary; in 1918 he was elected a Trustee of the Hunterian Collection. He also examined in Anatomy at the University of Durham and in Surgery at the University of London. During his last years he led a lonely life; his wife, a Russian dancer, predeceased him and bore him no children. After leaving his house in Cavendish Square he lived at 42 Connaught Square, ailing and afflicted by a slight facial tic. He was definitely ill for some three weeks, and died on June 14th, 1926. He left estate to the value of £44,000. A fine portrait of him in his prime and in the full-dress President's gown by W. W. Ouless, R.A., hangs on the College staircase. There are others at different ages in the College Collection. PUBLICATIONS:- In addition to those already noted Morris wrote: - *Surgical Diseases of the Kidney*, 12mo, 6 plates, 1885. *Injuries and Diseases of the Genital and Urinary Organs,* 8vo, London, 1895. *Hunterian Lectures on Renal Surgery*, 8vo, London, 1898. *Surgical Diseases of the Kidney and Ureter*, 2 vols., 1901. *The Profession of Medicine: Introductory Address at the Middlesex Hospital Medical College, 1st October,* 1873, 8vo, London. "Clinical Lecture on Rupture of the Bladder and its Treatment." - *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1879, ii, 603. "Remarks on Epithelioma and Ichthyosis of the Tongue." - *Med. Soc. Proc.*, 1881-3, vi, 194. *On the Treatment of Inoperable Cancer*, 8vo, London, 1902. *Essentials of Materia Medica*, 7th ed., Philadelphia, 1905. *The Etiology, Symptoms and Treatment of Gallstones, *1896. "Statement of Further Evidence proposed to be given before the Committee on the London Ambulance Service by the President R.C.S.," fol., London, 1908. "Statement prepared for the Royal Commission on Vivisection by the President R.C.S.," fol., London, 1908. "The Darwin Centenary - an Address from the Royal College of Surgeons to the University of Cambridge, 1909," 8vo, 1909. "On the Need of the Medical Representation in Parliament." - *Outlook*, 1918, Oct.5.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000219
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Butlin, Sir Henry Trentham (1845 - 1912)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372407372407
Occupation General surgeon
Details The fourth son and fifth child of the Rev. W. Wright Butlin, M.A., of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, who died in 1902 at the age of 88. His mother was Julia Crowther Trentham, a clever and strong-minded woman coming of an evangelical Northamptonshire family who, in spite of delicate health, lived to be 84. The Butlins were a Rugby family who carried on the business of Butlin's Bank which was established in 1791 and was absorbed by Lloyds Bank in 1868. The Rev. W. W. Butlin was Curate of Camborne, then held the joint living of Cury and Gunwalloe, Cornwall, and was finally Victor of Penponds, near Camborne, where he is said to have been instrumental in building the church. Later in life he came into some property at Rugby which had been left to his father - a medical man - by Mr. Benn, a cousin. It had belonged to Mrs. Anne Butlin, who carried on Butlin's Bank after the death of her husband. Henry Trentham Butlin was born on Oct. 24th, 1845. He was educated at home with his brothers by a resident tutor until he entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital in October, 1864, where he lived in the residential college of which Dr. James Andrew was Warden. The appointment of House Surgeon to Sir James Paget (q.v.) became vacant unexpectedly in 1868 by the resignation of William Square (q.v.), of Plymouth, and Butlin was appointed in his place from April to October. When the House Surgeoncy ended Butlin went to Charing, in Kent, with a view to partnership with Charles Wilks, who had taken his M.R.C.S. in 1825 and was a devoted adherent to this old medical school. An agreement was drawn up but never signed, as Butlin felt himself unsuited for a country practice after the stimulus of acting as House Surgeon to Sir James Paget, and had determined to settle in London as a surgeon. He was appointed Medical Registrar to the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street and held the post until July, 1872. It was generally recognized on his resignation that he could have been elected an Assistant Physician had he chosen to apply. Whilst he was Registrar he passed the F.R.C.S. examination, and was appointed Surgical Registrar at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in December, 1872. The duties were arduous, for the Registrar had to examine every patient admitted to the surgical wards and write a note with his own hand in specially kept books. He had to attend in the operating theatre, verify the diagnosis of tumours by microscopical examination, and conduct the surgical post-mortems. All these duties Butlin performed to the entire satisfaction of the staff, and soon made such a reputation for himself that he was co-opted to the Morbid Growths Committee of the Pathological Society, of which he was Secretary from 1884-1886. Being as poor as Job, he married in 1873 Annie Tipping, daughter of Henry Balderson, merchant, of Hemel Hempstead, took a house, No. 47 Queen Anne Street, and kept the wolf from the door with resident pupils who paid £126 a year apiece. The marriage was singularly happy, and Butlin rightly attributed much of his success in life to the sterling qualities of his wife, who relieved him of all domestic anxieties. By her he had two daughters and a son. The elder daughter, Olive, married Percy Furnivall, F.R.C.S., only son of F. J. Furnivall, the well-known Shakespearean scholar; the younger married Norman Morice, of the firm of J. C. & C. W. Moore, stockbrokers. The son, Henry Guy Trentham, survived his father, volunteered whilst still at Cambridge, and was reported missing and wounded from the Cambridgeshire Regiment near Beaumont Hamel, France, on Sept. 16th, 1916. Whilst acting as Surgical Registrar Butlin was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Metropolitan Free Hospital, a post he resigned on becoming Assistant Surgeon to the West London Hospital, where he remained from 1872-1880, having a few beds of his own, learning to do major emergency operations, and having Sir Alfred Cooper (q.v.) as his chief. He was also Surgeon to the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease which then occupied a single house in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. He was appointed Demonstrator of Practical Surgery in the Medical School attached to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1879, and in the following year he was elected Assistant Surgeon in the vacancy caused by the unexpected death of George W. Callender (q.v.). He was immediately put in charge of the Out-patient Department for Diseases of the Throat upon the resignation of Sir T. Lauder Brunton, M.D. He held the post for twelve years, and with the help of Dr. F. de Havilland Hall raised the department to as high a pitch of excellence as could be obtained in the cramped quarters assigned to it. He also made for himself a leading position amongst contemporary laryngologists, though he never pretended to specialize in surgery of the throat, and with Felix Semon and de Havilland Hall he was a principal founder of the Laryngological Society, which is now a section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He became full Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital when Morant Baker (q.v.) resigned in 1892, and was appointed joint Lecturer on Surgery with John Langton (q.v.) in 1896. He resigned the office of Surgeon in November, 1902, before he had reached the age limit, and was elected Consulting Surgeon and a Governor of the Hospital. He was placed on the Visiting Governors Committee in 1909. Butlin's connection with the Royal College of Surgeons began in 1873, when he won the Jacksonian Prize with his essay on "Un-united Fractures". He delivered the Sir Erasmus Wilson Lectures on Pathology in 1880 and 1881. The lectures were published in 1862 under the title *Sarcoma and Carcinoma, their Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment.* In 1892 he lectured, as Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology, "On Chimney Sweeps' Cancer". He delivered the Bradshaw Lecture in 1905, and in 1907 he gave the Hunterian Oration without a note or a falter - a feat which had only been accomplished in recent years by Sir James Paget, Sir William Savory, and Henry Power. He was a Member of the Council, 1895-1912. In 1909 he became President, was re-elected in 1910, and again in 1911. Failing health prevented him from completing his third year; he resigned, and Sir Rickman J. Godlee (q.v.) acted in his stead. Butlin had an equally brilliant career in the British Medical Association. A Vice-President of the Section of Pathology at the Worcester Meeting in 1882, he was President of the Section of Laryngology at the Leeds Meeting in 1889, and at the Portsmouth Meeting ten years later he was President of the Surgical Section. He delivered the General Address in Surgery at the Exeter Meeting in 1907, speaking of the "Contagion of Cancer in Human Beings". In 1910, as President of the Association, he spoke on the "Evolution of the British Medical Association and its Work". He was Treasurer of the Association from 1890-1893, and again from 1893-1896, being the only person who had been re-elected to that important and responsible office. At the University of London he was the first Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. He was President of the Pathological Society of London 1905-1907, during which he gave the Jubilee Address; and President of the Laryngological Society. During the latter years of his life he had the pleasure of acting as a Governor of Rugby School and thus renewing his ancestral ties with the County. He died after a long period of failing health due to laryngeal tuberculosis on Jan. 24th, 1912, and was cremated at Golder's Green. Butlin was a man of rather frail and slender physique, slightly above medium height, but possessed of such vitality, nervous energy, and endurance that after a long morning of private practice he would never leave the operating theatre at the hospital until the list was finished, so that he often remained standing from 1.30 to 7.30, when he was left in a state of profound exhaustion. He loved horses took his exercise in riding, and would often ride to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on a Sunday morning. His holidays were usually spent in travelling through France, Spain, and Italy. His carriage, always painted an olive green decorated with his coat-of-arms, and drawn by a well-groomed pair of excellent horses, made him recognizable everywhere, for, thanks to Lady Butlin, he always had a very smart turn-out. He was a good and fluent speaker, and it was clear that he had deliberately modelled his style on that of Sir James Paget. As a teacher of students both in the wards and in the lecture theatre he was excellent. He leant to the pathological side of surgery and was always much interested in tumours and their structure. As a surgeon he was bold, and undertook very extensive operations for the complete removal of malignant growths, so that he may be said to be one of the pioneers in England who adopted the radical cure of cancer and was not contented with the local removal practised by his predecessors. His practice was extensive and lucrative - beginning with nothing he left the sum of £90,996. He would have been equally successful had he gone into business, for he was far-seeing, had large ideas, was very careful in detail, and from a business point of view was one of the best occupants of the Presidential Chair at the Royal College of Surgeons. Honours came to him from many sources. He was created a baronet in 1911; he was an honorary D.C.L. of Durham (1893), and a LL.D. of Birmingham (1910). Butlin stood at the parting of the ways when Sir W. Mitchell Banks (q.v.) drew attention in 1877 and again in 1882 to the good results obtained by removing the axillary glands with the breast in cases of cancer. He had followed the example of his seniors, and especially of Sir James Paget, in adopting local removal. For a while he followed the new teaching, but it was breaking away from tradition and for a time he went back to the old methods. In the end he became a whole-hearted adherent, and, like a true convert, he practised larger and larger extirpations in every case of malignant disease, more especially of the tongue, and followed up the results with unusual energy. His lectures on diseases of the tongue were published in 1885 and were illustrated with water-colour drawings made by T. Godart and Dr. Leonard Mark. The original drawings are preserved in the Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. This excellent manual was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1895, was translated into German in 1887 by Julius Beregszaszy and into French by Douglas Aigre in 1889. Large additions were made when a new edition was published in 1900. The patients seen by Butlin in his private practice came in a much earlier stage of the disease than the ordinary hospital patient. He was therefore able to state that in 197 cases where he had removed the tongue for cancer quite 30 per cent were alive and free from recurrence three years after the operation. He recommended local removal as soon as possible, with subsequent excision of any leucoplakic patches. He foresaw that treatment by radium was likely to be serviceable, but before his death he had attained to a degree of success which remained unsurpassed until the treatment by radium came into general use. Of his portraits the best is the photograph in the obituary notice in the *British Medical Journal.* A three-quarter length in oils by the Hon. John Collier hangs in the Museum Hall at the Royal College of Surgeons. This is a replica of the picture exhibited in the Royal Academy. PUBLICATIONS:- *Sacroma and Carcinoma, their Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment,* 8vo, London, 1882. *On Malignant Diseases (Sarcoma and Carcinoma) of the Larynx*, 8vo, 1883. *Diseases of the Tongue,* 12mo, London, 1885. An excellent manual on the subject. It was reprinted and an American edition was published in Philadelphia, 1885; it was translated into German (Vienna, 1887) and into French (Paris, 1889). The original water-colour drawings by T. Godart and Leonard Mark are in the Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 2nd ed. (with W. G. SPENCER), 1900. *On the Operative Surgery of Malignant Disease,* 8vo, London, 1887. *On Cancer of the Scrotum in Chimney Sweeps,* 8vo, 1892.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000220
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Godlee, Sir Rickman John (1849 - 1925)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-03-22
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372408372408
Occupation General surgeon Thoracic surgeon
Details Born of Quaker parents in Queen Square, London, W.C., on February 15th, 1849, the second son of Rickman Godlee, a barrister of the Inner Temple who had married Mary Lister, the only sister of Joseph, Lord Lister. Marcus Beck (q.v.), therefore, was a cousin, and Lord Lister his uncle. Godlee was brought up in the prosperous and quiet environment of which he afterwards gave so charming an account in the *Life* of his uncle. He was sent to Mr. Abbott's school at Grove House, Tottenham, where most of the Friends' children were educated, and here he learnt to become a field botanist and ornithologist, for natural history was prominent in the curriculum. He graduated in Arts at the University of London before he embarked on medicine, and entered University College in 1867, where he soon attracted attention as a neat dissector. He graduated M.B. and M.S. at the University of London, winning a Gold Medal at each examination. He served the office of House Surgeon to Sir John Eric Erichsen (q.v.), and at the end of the year 1872 he went to live with his uncle, who was then Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh. He studied his methods, and published the results of his observations in the *Lancet* (1878, i, 694, 729) with the title, "The Antiseptic Treatment in Edinbugh". Godlee then returned to London and was appointed Surgical Registrar at University College Hospital. Whilst acting in this capacity, on May 20th, 1874, he opened an abscess connected with acute necrosis of the tibia. He made careful drawings of the microscopic appearances of the pus with the aid of a camera lucida, and observed "certain curious minute bodied which were arranged in rows or chains". They were streptococci, but he failed to name them. It was not until the International Congress of 1881 that Koch showed photographs of the micro-organisms he had found at the margins of erysipelatous lesions. Godlee afterwards wrote on the drawing, "This was, so far as I know, the first time that organisms were seen in the pus of an abscess immediately it was opened". The drawing is now in the Lister wall case in Room I of the College Museum. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital and Lecturer on Anatomy in the Medical School in 1876, and resigned both offices in 1878. He was also Surgeon to the North-Eastern (now the Queen's) Hospital for Children in the Hackney Road from 1876. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to University College Hospital in 1877. The post was a new one and carried with it an Assistant Demonstratorship of Anatomy in University College. As a demonstrator of anatomy Godlee was able to make use of his great artistic powers. He began the drawings for *An Atlas of Human Anatomy* in 1876, with the design of illustrating most of the ordinary dissections and many not usually practised by the student. The *Atlas* was accompanied by an explanatory text. Over one hundred dissections were made for its preparation, mostly by himself during the years 1876-1880, the years during which he waited for patients. He drew each dissection in pencil, giving the vessels and nerves their distinctive colours, and the drawings were then reproduced on stone. The lithographer was able to retain the clarity of the originals but lost much of their softness. Parts I-V of the *Atlas* were published in 1877-1878, and the whole appeared with 48 plates in 1880. Godlee also made the drawings for Quain's *Anatomy* and Erichsen's *Science and the Art of Surgery*. He drew them on wood himself and they were then beautifully engraved by the elder Butterworth. There appears to be very little doubt that Godlee inherited his artistic powers and tastes through his mother from the Lister side of the family. The collection at the Royal College of Surgeons contains drawings made by Sir Joseph Lister in 1862-1864 when he was planning his operation for the excision of the wrist. Some are in black-and-white, some in water-colour, and some in oils. They all show that Lister could have made his name as an artist and draughtsman. Godlee's style resembles that of his uncle, but his work is rather more accurate and delicate. He was appointed Surgeon to the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest on Nov. 6th, 1884, and retained the office until June 6th, 1900, when he was nominated Consulting Surgeon. The post was a new one; his predecessors, Robert Liston, Sir William Fergusson, John Marshall, and Sir Joseph Lister, had only been called in occasionally. Godlee soon justified the appointment. He began to lecture, and published in the *Lancet* for 1885 and 1887, "The Surgical Treatment Empyema and of Pulmonary Cavities", and in 1890 there appeared, "On the Surgical Aspect of Hepatic Abscess, being three Lectures delivered at the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton", with 7 illustrations. In 1898 he joined Sir James Kingston Fowler in writing the surgical portion of *The Diseases of the Lungs*, in which they were assisted by Drs. Percy Kidd and A.E. Voelcker. Godlee acted as private assistant to Lord Lister for some years whilst he was waiting for promotion at University College, and on November 25th, 1884, he came prominently before the public as a pioneer in cerebral surgery. The patient, a man of 25, was diagnosed by Dr. Hughes Bennett as having a tumour of the brain. He was admitted into the Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralysis, Regent's Park, and the position of the tumour was located by the recent experimental work of Ferrier as being situated in the cortical substance near the upper third of the fissure of Rolando. The patient expressed a strong desire to have it removed, and Rickman Godlee was called upon to operate. The localization proved to be accurate and the glioma was extirpated without difficulty, but the patient died of secondary surgical complications. An outcry at once arose that the operation was unjustifiable, but *The Times* published two sensible leading articles and it was generally agreed that an advance had been made in regard to surgical interference with the human brain. The details of the case appear in the *Lancet* (1884, ii, 1090). Godlee became full Surgeon at University College Hospital in 1885 and resigned on April 1st, 1914. He succeeded his cousin, Marcus Beck, as Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1892, and was appointed Holme Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1900 in succession to Christopher Heath (q.v.). At the Royal College of Surgons Godlee held many honourable offices. He was an Examiner in Anatomy in 1884, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1893-1903, Bradshaw Lecturer in 1907, and Hunterian Orator in 1913. He was elected a Member of the Council in 1897, and as Vice-President filled the place of President during the year 1911 when Sir Henry Butlin died in office. He was re-elected President in 1912 and again in 1913. One of his last acts as President was to deliver an address in the United States on the occasion of the Foundation of the American College of Surgeons, of which he was elected an honorary Fellow. He then reviewed the history of the English College in such a spirit of brotherhood that his address on the eve of the Great War formed a valuable link between the medical activities of the two countries. At the Royal Society of Medicine Godlee acted as one of the honorary librarians from 1907-1916, having filled the same post in the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society from 1895, and was President in 1916-1917. During the War (1914-1918) he worked steadily to maintain medical efficiency, and was a constant attendant of the Central Medical War Committee, whose duty it was to recommend methods by which our armies abroad could be adequately supplied with medical officers without depleting the medical service at home. He was also Chairman of the Belgian Doctors' and Pharmacists' Relief Fund, and in this position was instrumental in bringing to the notice of the General Medical Council the advantage of allowing Belgian practitioners to qualify in England and thus to place them in a position to earn their living. Early in 1916 it became possible to relieve the medical men and pharmacists in Belgium itself, and for some months sums of money were sent to Brussels every week through the agency of the International Commission for Relief until the amount disbursed had risen to £25,000. Godlee carefully investigated the amounts paid out and made himself acquainted with the details of each grant and the destination of every cheque. In 1920 he retired to Combe End, a farm which he had long cultivated at Whitchurch in Oxfordshire. It overlooked the Thames and the grounds ran down to the river. Here he made many improvements and additions to the house, acted as a gentleman farmer, took part in the affairs of the village, and wrote a history of it in the Parish Magazine. He did not, however, lose interest in the College, and was enabled to carry out a project which had been long in his mind - the worthy display of Lord Lister's instruments and manuscripts. It was proposed at first to place the memorial in the Library, but when this was found inappropriate, a cabinet made from the design of the College architect - Mr. Freer - was placed in the Museum and was formally inaugurated on the occasion of the First Lister Memorial Lecture, May 14th, 1925. Godlee married in 1891 Juliet Mary, daughter of Frederic Seebohm, LL.D., D.Litt., of the Hermitage, Hitchin, but had no children. He died at Whitchurch on Sunday, April 18th, 1925, with the diagnosis of ruptured abdominal aneurysm, but there was no post-mortem examination. He was buried at Whitchurch. Lady Godlee survived him. Many honours fell to Rickman Godlee. He was surgeon to the Household in the time of Queen Victoria, and Surgeon in Ordinary to King Edward VII and to King George V. He was created a baronet in 1912 and was decorated K.C.V.O. in 1914. He was a Fellow of University College, London, an Hon. LL.D. of the University of Toronto, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and an Hon. M.D. of Trinity College, Dublin. A striking portrait in oils was presented to the College by Lady Godlee in 1925. Godlee retained to the last many traces of his Quaker ancestry. Absolutely honest, downright, and somewhat sarcastic, he took nothing for granted that was capable of demonstration. Whatever he undertook was done thoroughly, and he thus became an expert oarsman, for he loved the river; a good carpenter; an excellent farmer; and a field naturalist. His artistic tastes extended beyond drawing, for he made a fine collection of etchings and was an expert in books, their paper and their binding. Courteous in manner and easy of address, he filled the office of President of the College with great dignity. He was a good teacher, but not so good as Marcus Beck, and he left no school as did his cousin. He operated well and did much to improve the surgery of the chest, and more to ensure that his uncle's methods were carried out in their entirety. He left about £94,000, and, after making certain specific bequests, directed that the residue should be divided between University College Hospital and College, £10,000 being devoted to the foundation of Travelling Scholarships. PUBLICATIONS:- Godlee has a permanent place in the history of surgery both for his *Life of Lister* and for the part he took in collecting and publishing Lister's writings:- (i) *Lord Lister*, 8vo, portraits, illustrations, etc., London, 1917; 3rd ed., revised, 8vo, Oxford 1924. This biography is written, like all Godlee's works, in excellent idiomatic English. It is written, too, in the spirit dictated by Lister himself, who said that "a scientist's public life lies in the work that is his". That is to say, the main part of the biography is a history of antiseptic surgery written by one who was intimately associated with Lister in his experimental work and its developments, and who for many years, in association with Sir W. Watson Cheyne, assisted him in his operative practice. It includes, therefore, a graphic sketch of Victorian medicine in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London, as well as on the Continent. It shows how the revolutionary doctrines were received and the spirit in which they were interpreted. (ii) *The Collected Papers of Joseph, Baron Lister*, 2 vols., 4to, Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1909. These volumes were prepared for the Press by a committee consisting of Sir Hector C. Cameron, Sir William Watson Cheyne, Bart., Rickman J. Godlee, C. J. Martin, M.D., and Dawson Williams, M.D. The volumes are illustrated throughout and must always remain the classical corpus of Lister's work. Amongst his other publications are: - *An Atlas of Human Anatomy illustrating most of the Ordinary Dissections and many not usually Practised by the Student*, 8vo, London, 1880. Parts I-V were published in 1877-8. "Cases of Intussusception treated by Operation." - *Lancet*, 1898, ii, 1262. "Case of Rare Fracture of the Radius," 8vo, London, 1884; reprinted from *Clin. Soc. Trans*., 1883, xvi, 120. "Nephrectomy for Tumour in an Infant," from *Clin. Soc. Trans.*, 1885, xviii, 31. "On a Case of Obstruction of One Ureter by a Calculus, accompanied by Complete Suppression of Urine," 8vo, London, 1887; reprinted from *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1887, lxx, 237. "Surgical Treatment of Empyema" and of "Pulmonary Cavities," Lectures, *Lancet*, 1886, i, 51; 1887, i, 457. "Reflections suggested by a Series of Cases of Renal Calculus." - *Practitioner*, 1887, xxxix, 241, 329. "Some Cases of Abdominal Cysts following Injury," from *Clin. Soc. Trans*., 1887, xx, 219. *Introductory Address in the Faculty of Medicine at University College, London, October,* 1889, 8vo, London, 1889. "On the Surgical Aspect of Hepatic Abscess. Being three Lectures delivered at the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton," 8vo, 7 illustrations, London, 1890; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.,* 1890, i, 61, etc. *The Past, Present and Future of the School of Advanced Medical Studies of University College, London:* being the Introductory Address at the Opening of the Winter Session, October, 1906, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1907. *The Bradshaw Lecture on Prognosis in Relation to Treatment of Tuberculosis of the Genito-urinary Organs,* delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England, December, 1907, with portrait of Dr. William Wood Bradshaw, 8vo, London, 1908. *The Hunterian Oration* delivered at The Royal College of Surgeons, 1913, with portraits of John Hunter and of the several conservators, plates of the Museum, John Hunter's death-mask, etc., 8vo, London, 1913. *Birmingham and Midland Institute. Our Attitude towards Modern Miracles.* A Presidential Address, 1919, 8vo, portrait, 1919. "Thomas Wharton Jones," with portrait, and bibliography of Wharton Jones, 8vo, London, 1921; reprinted from *Brit. Jour. Ophthalmol*., 1921, v, 97, 145. *The Diseases of the Lungs* (with JAMES KINGSTON FOWLER), 8vo, London and New York, 1898. Godlee revised the 6th and 7th editions of Heath's *Practical Anatomy*, 8vo, 24 coloured plates, London, 1885 and 1888. Appendix, "Superficial and Surgical Anatomy" (with G.D. THANE), in Quain's *Anatomy*, 10th ed., 8vo, London, 1896. *Two Cases of Bronchiectiasis,* etc (with Charles Theodore Williams), 8vo, London, 1886. "Stretching of the Facial Nerve for the Relief of Spasm of the Facial Muscles" (with W. ALLEN STURGE), 8vo, London, 1881; reprinted from *Clin. Soc. Trans.*, 1881, xiv, 44. "The Doctors and Mr. Lloyd George. Reply of the Royal Colleges" (with Sir THOMAS BARLOW), a letter in *The Times*, 1912, Feb. 15. *Six Papers by Lord Lister, with a Short Biography and Explanatory Notes by Sir Rickman J. Godlee, Bt., K.C.V.O.* (Medical Classics Series), 8vo, portraits, coloured plates, etc., London, 1921. *See also* Holmes and Hulke's *Surgery*. A further list of pamphlets is contained in a volume of *Pamphlets and Reprints*, presented to the Library by Lady Godlee after Sir Rickman's death. Among the 37 titles are a number not mentioned in the foregoing bibliography.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000221
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cheyne, Sir William Watson (1852 - 1932)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-06-27
Unknown
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372409372409
Occupation General surgeon Member of Parliament Naval surgeon
Details The only child of Andrew Cheyne of Ollaberry, Shetland and Eliza Watson, his wife (d. 1856), was born off Hobart's Town, Tasmania, on 14 December 1852. His father (d. 1867) was the owner of ships trading in the South Sea islands. His parents dying young, Cheyne was brought up by his uncle, who was the Minister of Fetlar, one of the Shetland Islands. He was educated in the name of William Watson at the local grammar school until 1864, when he went to the Aberdeen Grammar School. In November 1868 he entered King's College, Aberdeen, where he remained until the summer of 1870. He entered the University of Edinburgh in May 1871, resuming his full name of William Watson Cheyne, but symptoms of incipient tuberculosis prevented him from taking the full medical course. He devoted himself therefore to chemistry and obtained the first university prize in the subject in his first year and again in his second year. He was anxious to go to sea at this time but was unable to afford the preliminary expense, and he continued his medical studies, hoping to get the position of a ship's surgeon. In 1872 he won medals for anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, becoming the possessor of twelve such medals before he graduated. The courses of surgery, physiology, and practical anatomy were so arranged in his second year as to leave the hour 12-1 free. One wet day in October 1872 during this interval he drifted for the sake of shelter and warmth into Joseph Lister's lecture room, was fascinated by what he heard, the chemistry of anaesthetics, and attended the full course in 1872-73. At the end of the course it happened that the examinations for the physiology and the Lister class prizes were held on the same day. Chyene entered for both, tied with his chief competitor in physiology, both obtaining 99 per cent marks, in the morning and gained the Lister prize with 96 per cent marks in the afternoon. This success brought him prominently under the notice of Lister, at whose suggestion he applied for a dressership and was selected out of a class of 200-300 students. Cheyne graduated M.B., C.M. with first-class honours in the university and, again at Lister's suggestion, applied for the post of house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary. As there was no vacancy for a year, Cheyne, who had been left a legacy of £150, visited Strassburg and Vienna in the autumn of 1875. On his return to Edinburgh he began some bacteriological experiments and won the Syme bacteriological scholarship, which was of the value of £100 a year and was tenable for two years. He served as house surgeon to Lister from October 1876 and was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the university. One spring morning in 1877 he awoke in his lodgings to find Lister standing beside his bed with the news that he was going to London as surgeon to King's College Hospital. He said that he had accepted the invitation on condition that he might bring his own house surgeon and he asked Cheyne to accept the post. Cheyne was overjoyed, and with him went John Stewart as senior assistant, W. B. Dobie and James Altham as dressers. Lister with this team took over the wards at King's College Hospital in the winter of 1877-78, and Cheyne acted as house surgeon until he was chosen additional surgical registar to the hospital in 1879, with special charge of Lister's patients, when he was succeeded by John Stewart as house surgeon. Cheyne's position as a resident in the hospital at first was neither easy nor pleasant. He had to contend with the open hostility of the nursing staff who were Sisters of St John and looked upon surgery as a hand-maid of nursing and an incentive to the high church ritual to which they were devoted; the other surgeons, his colleagues, were merely apathetic and the students, finding that the methods taught had no examination value, attended Lister's lectures in such small numbers that Cheyne was often present to assist in forming an audience. As there was no immediate prospect of making a living Cheyne entertained some thoughts of entering the Indian Medical Service. Lister, however, came to the rescue and gave Cheyne a retaining fee of £200 a year to administer anaesthetics for him and share with R. J. Godlee, F.R.C.S., the work as his private assistant. In 1879 he passed in immediate succession the examinations for the Membership and Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; in 1880 he gained the Boyleston medical prize and gold medal; in 1881 he won the Jacksonian prize for his essay on the history, principles, practice, and results of antiseptic surgery, and in 1889 he was awarded the triennial Astley Cooper prize. Gerald F. Yeo, F.R.C.S., resigned his office of assistant surgeon at King's College Hospital in March 1880 to devote himself wholly to experimental physiology. Cheyne was appointed in his place, becoming surgeon in October 1887 and consulting surgeon on 25 October 1917. At the Royal College of Surgeons Cheyne was a Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology in 1888, 1890, and 1891, and a Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology in 1892. He delivered the Bradshaw lecture in 1908 and the Hunterian oration in 1915. From 1902 to 1907 he was a member of the Court of Examiners and a member of the Council from 1897 until 1918, becoming President in 1914-16. In 1924 he was awarded the first Lister medal in recognition of his contributions to surgical science, and in the same year he delivered the Lister memorial lecture which was afterwards published. His war service was considerable. During the South African war he served as a civil consulting surgeon to the forces and was created C.B. In 1908 he received a commission as surgeon rear-admiral in the Royal Naval Reserve and saw active service during the war of 1914-18, first with the fleet in the Dardanelles and afterwards at the naval hospital in the lines at Chatham. For these services he was created a K.C.M.G., and in 1919 was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Orkney and Shetland with the rank of vice-admiral. He retired from practice in 1917, and was then elected M.P. for the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews; from 1918 to 1927 he represented the combined Scottish universities. He spoke rarely and confined himself strictly to medical subjects. The House always listened to him with attention not unmixed with amusement, for he addressed it as though he was lecturing to a class. He married: (1) in 1887 Mary Emma (d. 1894), daughter of William Servanté, of Plumstead, by whom he had two sons, Joseph Lister Cheyne, lieutenant-colonel, Military Cross, in command of the 16/5th Lancers until 18 Janaury 1933, who succeeded to the title, and Hunter Cheyne; (2) in 1894 Margaret (d. 1922), daughter of George Smith of Lerwick, by whom he had one son, who predeceased his father, and a daughter. He died in a nursing home after a prolonged illness on 19 April 1932. Watson Cheyne rose to the top of his profession. He owed his position in part to the accidents of fortune, but mainly to his indomitable pluck and perserverance. An early and favoured disciple of Lister, he did much to promote the spread of antisepsis both by example and precept. He was not endowed by nature with a great degree of originality and was sometimes wrong in his deductions, but he clung firmly to the principles he had learnt from his great master. A good and safe surgeon, he was not a brilliant operator; as a speaker a certain shyness taught his hearers to look to the matter rather than to the manner of what he said. Accident made him a London surgeon. His blue eyes, open countenance, bluff and hearty manner showed him to be a Norseman by heredity and that his real home was the sea. W. G. Spencer, F.R.C.S. wrote of him: "He gave at King's College Hospital a flamboyant account of Koch's tuberculin to those invited, including C. Macnamara, F.R.C.S. and myself. There were two children in Macnamara's ward at Westminster Hospital with advanced hip-joint disease. On repeating Watson Cheyne's prescription and injecting tuberculin, both had acute suppuration and quickly died; no further use was made of the remedy. Operations for cancer of pharynx: he operated very well, but by removing the pillars of the fauces rendered the patients liable to fatal pneumonia by deglutition, as distinguished from the tongue operations then done in front of the fauces." *Publications*: For reprints of his articles up to 1896 see Surgeon General's Library, Washington, *Index Catalogue* 2nd Series, v.3, p.413. *Antiseptic surgery: its principles, practice, history, and results.* London, 1882; German translation 1883. Jacksonian prize essay; original MS. in College library. *Manual of antiseptic treatment of wounds, Ibid.* 1885. *Suppuration and septic diseases.* Edinburgh, 1889. *Abstract of all cases of tubercular disease…treated..with tuberculine.* London, 1891. *The treatment of wounds, ulcers, and abscesses. *Edinburgh, 1894; Philadelphia, 1895. *Tuberculous disease of bones and joints, its pathology, symptoms, and treatment.* Edinburgh, 1895; 2nd ed. London, 1911. *The objects and limits of operations for cancer.* Lettsomian lectures. London, 1896; New York, 1896. *Treatment of wounds* (Bradshaw lecture R.C.S.). London, 1908. *Lister and his achievements *(1st Lister lecture R.C.S.). Ibid. 1925. *Three orations: the Lister centenary. Ibid. *1927. *Manual of surgical treatment,* with F. F. Burghaard, 6 parts. London, 1899-1903; new edition, 5 volumes. Ibid. 1912-13. Editor of *Recent essays by various authors on bacteria in relation to disease.*New Sydenham Society, London, 1886.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000222
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Makins, Sir George Henry (1853 - 1933)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-03-14
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Occupation Military surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Born at St Albans, Herts, 3 November 1853, the only son of George Hogarth Makins, MRCS, and his wife Sarah Ellis. His father practised medicine at Walton-on-Thames and was Master of the Society of Apothecaries in 1889, but his chief interests lay in chemistry and metallurgy. He was at one time professor of chemistry at the Middlesex Hospital, and was advisor to H.M. Mint in matters concerning the coinage. He also played the organ at Hook Church, Surrey, having previously made a pitch-pipe for the vicar, which is preserved in the church. George Henry Makins was educated at the King's Collegiate School, Gloucester, and entered St. Thomas's Hospital, London in 1871, when George Rainey lectured and William Anderson was demonstrator of anatomy. He was house physician to J. Syer Bristowe in 1876, and at the end of his term of office went to Bethlehem Hospital, where he made a life-long friendship with Sir George Savage, who was afterwards superintendent of the hospital. From Bethlehem he went as house surgeon to the Seamen's Hospital at Greenwich, and then returned to St Thomas's, where he was house surgeon during the year 1878 to Francis Mason and William MacCormac. He spent some months at Halle and Vienna in 1879, and on his return to London in 1880 he was appointed resident assistant surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital, a post he held for five years. During this period he worked with Charles Smart Roy, who was then superintendent of the Brown Institute in the Wandsworth Road. He was elected surgical registrar to St Thomas's Hospital in 1885, and became assistant surgeon at the Evelina Hospital for Children. In 1887 he was elected assistant surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital in place of Francis Mason, becoming surgeon in 1898, and resigning under an age limit in 1913. His services at this time were so well recognized that he was given the title of emeritus surgeon with the care of patients for an additional term of two years. During 1887-99 he was demonstrator of anatomy in the Medical School, and in 1890 he succeeded Edward Nettleship as dean of the School. In this position he did much to complete the school buildings by the addition of two wings. In 1900 he was appointed lecturer on anatomy conjointly with William Anderson. His war service began in November 1899, when he accompanied Sir William MacCormac to South Africa as a civilian consulting surgeon, at the beginning of the Boer War. He first treated the wounded at the base, but was at the front during the fighting about the Modder River and with Sir Frederick Roberts' advance to Bloemfontein and Pretoria. For his services he was decorated C.B. He returned to England in 1900 and in 1901 published *Surgical experiences in South Africa*, which became a textbook at the Staff College and was used both in France and Germany. In 1908 he joined the Territorial Force, received a commission as major RAMC, à la suite, and busied himself with work for the British Red Cross at Devonshire House. In September 1914 he left for France as consulting surgeon, having Sir A. A. Bowlby as his colleague. He landed at St Nazaire and gradually made his way to Paris, where he worked for a short time in the British hospitals. From Paris he moved with G.H.Q. to St Omer, and spent a short time at Boulogne with F. F. Burghard and Percy Sargent as his colleagues. He finally took over the supervision of the newly established hospital centres at Camiers and Étaples, and made frequent trips up the line to the front. At Étaples he established a research centre, where new methods of wound treatment were put on trial. He left France in July 1917 and was appointed by the Government of India chairman of a commission to report on the British station hospitals. The Commission occupied seven months, which were spent in travelling over 11,000 miles in a special train, reporting and inspecting on hospitals all over India. Whilst in India he heard that H. M. King George V had conferred upon him the unusual honour of Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George. He returned home in March 1918 and retired from military service with the rank of major-general. He then gave up private practice, left 49 Upper Brook Street, and moved to 33 Wilton Place. He was for some years a member of the executive committee and later chairman of the Athenaeum Club. It was during his chairmanship that an additional storey was added to the Club buildings. At the Royal College of Surgeons Makins was a member of the board of examiners in anatomy for the Fellowship, 1884-94; and a member of the Conjoint examining board, 1894-99. He served on the Court of Examiners 1901-08; elected to the Council in 1903, he was a vice-president in 1912 and 1913 and president 1917-20. In 1913 he delivered the Bradshaw lecture, and in 1917 he was Hunterian orator. In April 1929 he was awarded the honorary gold medal of the College in recognition of his services, more especially in arranging and describing the specimens in the Army Medical War Collection. He was for some years treasurer of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and chairman of the distribution committee of the Hospital Sunday Fund. He married in 1885 Margaret Augusta (d. 1931), daughter of General Vesey Kirkland of Fordel, Perthshire, and widow of Major-General B. Fellowes; there were no children. As Miss Kirkland she accompanied her father wherever he was engaged in military service; as Mrs Fellowes she went with her first husband to South Africa, the West Indies, and Ireland. When he died in 1879 she entered the Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas's Hospital and, after a short training, was selected by Florence Nightingale to accompany Sir Frederick Roberts' force to the Transvaal in February 1881. On her return to England she was appointed sister-in-charge of Leopold ward at St Thomas's Hospital, and in 1882 she was seconded for service in the Egyptian war. She again returned to St Thomas's Hospital, and in 1884 was amongst the first to receive from Queen Victoria the decoration of the Royal Red Cross, which had been instituted in the previous year. She accompanied her second husband, G. H. Makins, to the Boer War in 1899. During the war of 1914-18 she was in charge of the Hospital for Facial Injuries in Park Lane. Makins died after a short illness at 33 Wilton Place, S.W., on 2 November 1933, the eve of his eightieth birthday; he was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He left £1,000 to St Thomas's Hospital Medical School's war memorial fund. Makins was possessed of great administrative and constructive ability, which was shown so early that MacCormac as secretary-general of the International Medical Congress held in London in 1881 made him the assistant secretary. In this position Makins, by his mastery of detail, did much to ensure the running of the huge meeting, whilst MacCormac took general control and by his personality and linguistic powers supplemented the work. In 1913 Makins as treasurer was most helpful at the International Medical Congress, which was again held in London. As a surgeon he stood in the first rank, skilful, imperturbable, conservative, but resourceful. His wartime experience made him especially interested in diseases and wounds of the blood-vessels. As a man he was certainly the best loved surgeon of his generation. Absolutely honest in thought and purpose, he was a genuine friend, and had a keen desire to help in every good cause. Courteous to all, quiet and unassuming, he was seen at his best sitting before the fire in an old jacket with a pipe in his mouth and his elbow on his knee. In disjointed sentences and with a characteristic smile he would then thresh out a difficult problem in surgery, or give good practical advice. When necessity arose he spoke impressively, shortly, and always to the purpose. Tall, but of a spare and active habit, he took early to mountaineering and was a member of the Alpine Club. He was too a skillful dry-fly fisherman, and shared a cottage on the Test with Sir George H. Savage. A bronze bust by Mrs Bromet stands in the inner hall at the Royal College of Surgeons; it does not do him justice. Makins himself presented it to the College in 1931. *Publications:* *Surgical experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900, being mainly a clinical study of the nature and effects of injuries produced by bullets of small calibre.* London, 1901; 2nd edition, 1913. A case of artificial anus treated by resection of the small intestine. *St Thos. Hosp. Rep.* 1884, 13, 181. Rickets, in Treves, *System of surgery,* 1895, 1, 363. Surgical diseases due to microbic infection and parasites. *Ibid.* 1895, 1, 294. Injuries of the joints; dislocations, in Warren and Gould, *International text-book of surgery*, 1899, 1, 589. *Gunshot injuries of the arteries* (Bradshaw lecture, R.C.S.). London, 1914. *On gunshot injuries to the blood-vessels, founded on experience gained in France during the great war 1914-1918.* Bristol, 1919. *Operative surgery of the stomach,* with B. G. A. Moynihan. London, 1912. The influence exerted by the military experience of John Hunter on himself and the military surgeon of today. (Hunterian oration, R.C.S.). *Lancet,* 1917, 1, 249. *Autobiography*:- typescript copy, with portrait-photograph, in the R.C.S. library.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000223
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bowlby, Sir Anthony Alfred (1855 - 1929)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2012-03-22
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Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon
Details Anthony Alfred Bowlby was born on May 10th, 1855, in Namur, the third son of Thomas William Bowlby, of Durham and Darlington, by his wife, Frances Marion, the youngest daughter of Pulteney Mein, of Canonbie, Dumfriesshire, formerly Surgeon in the 73rd Regiment, and his wife, Anne Harrington (*née* Hawes). Thomas William Bowlby was the eldest son of Thomas Bowlby, Captain R.A., by his wife, Wilhelmina Martha Arnold, second daughter of Major-General William Balfour, 57th Regiment, President of New Brunswick. Thomas William Bowlby became a solicitor, but subsequently ceased to practise and undertook numerous missions to foreign countries, many of them on behalf of *The Times* newspaper, to which he was a frequent contributor. In April, 1860, he accepted the appointment of Special Correspondent to *The Times* with the British Expedition to China. While acting in that capacity he was, with others, taken prisoner by the Chinese on September 18th, 1860, and about a week later died in captivity after much suffering. His body was brought to the English camp, and buried in the Russian cemetery at Pekin on October 17th, 1870. Anthony Bowlby, who was five years old at the time of his father's death, was brought up by his mother and educated at Durham School. From there he proceeded to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which he entered in 1876, and qualified MRCS and LSA, as was then the custom, in 1879. As a student he gained the Brackenbury Scholarship in Surgery in 1880, and he played with zest Rugby football, in which he remained interested all his life. In 1880 he served as House Surgeon to Luther Holdern (q.v.), who retired in the same year and was succeeded by Thomas Smith (q.v.). In 1881 he became F.R.C.S, and in the same year was appointed Curator of the Museum at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he completed the catalogue which had been begun by Frederick Eve (q.v.). This work gave Bowlby the idea of writing his successful book, *Surgical Pathology and Morbid Anatomy*, which appeared in 1887 and ran into many editions. In 1882 he won the Jacksonian Prize at the Royal College of Surgeons with a dissertation on "Wounds and Other Injuries of Nerves". In 1884 he became Surgical Registrar to the Hospital and Demonstrator of Practical Surgery, and in 1886 won the Astley Cooper Triennial Prize for his essay on "The Surgical Treatment of Diseases and Injuries of Nerves". In 1891, after serving seven years as Surgical Registrar and developing his distinguishing characteristics, he was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on the retirement of Sir William Savory (q.v.), and in 1903 he became full Surgeon. During this time he became also Surgeon to the Alexandra Hip Hospital and to the Foundling Hospital, and built up his reputation as a sound surgeon and sagacious counsellor. Soon after the start of the South African War in 1899, Bowlby went out as Senior Surgeon to the Portland Hospital, where he was associated with Sir Cuthbert Wallace. Here it was that he acquired the knowledge of military surgery and organization which stood him in such good stead during the Great War, and where he displayed that capacity for dealing with difficult situations and smoothing out differences which was one of his marked characteristics. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the C.M.G. In 1901 he published *A Civilian War Hospital*, in which he gave an account of his experiences. In 1904 he was appointed Surgeon to the Household of King Edward VII, and in 1910 Surgeon in Ordinary to King George V, and was knighted the following year. In 1905 Bowlby was one of the three surgeons chosen by Queen Alexandra to act on the Council of the newly formed British Red Cross Society, and from that day till his death he took a prominent share in all its activities. In 1908, in common with other members of the staff of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, he joined the newly formed Territorial Medical Service and was given a commission as Major, being attached on mobilization to the First London General Hospital. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Bowlby joined his unit, which was located at Camberwell, but he offered his services to General Head Quarters, was accepted, and sent to France on Sept. 23rd, 1914, as Consulting Surgeon to the Forces, with the rank of Major-General. Bowlby thus received the opportunity of work for which he was peculiarly fitted, and now embarked on a period of nearly five years which proved to be the hardest and best spent of his life. At first he was the only consultant, but in May, 1915, the increase in the size of the British Expeditionary Force and the formation of two Armies gave too much work for one man; Sir Cuthbert Wallace was appointed Consulting Surgeon to the First Army, while Bowlby did the work of the Second Army. Later, with the establishment of additional armies, new consultants were appointed, and Bowlby became a super-consultant and general adviser at the Front to the Director-General, Army Medical Service, and towards the end of the War, after Sir George Makins had retired, he became Adviser on Surgery for the whole of the British area, Front and Base. During these four years and seven months of active service, Bowlby rose to his greatest height. In his own estimate he had never spent years better. He was intensely interested in all aspects of military life, passionately desirous of beating the enemy, and peculiarly fitted to carry out this task. His great work was his insistence that surgery should be done at the Front and now at the Base. Casualty Clearing Stations, which were conceived after the Boer War, were small units capable of doing but little surgery. Bowlby turned them into large hospitals where surgery of the most advanced order was regularly practised. This early surgery, for which he was responsible, saved the lives and limbs of thousands of wounded, and was no doubt one of the chief reasons for the commendation earned by the medical services during the War. Amongst his contemporaries at the hospitals he had the sobriquet of 'The Baron', to which during the War was added the territorial title of 'Bapaume'. To Sir William Osler, and to many others, he was 'The Consoler-General', for he had often to report the deaths of the sons of many of his friends. His connection with the College of Surgeons was long and honourable. He became a Councillor in 1904 and served without a break till 1920, when he became President in succession to Sir George Makins and served for three years. He delivered the Bradshaw Lecture in 1915 upon "Wounds in War", in which he summarized the first year's surgical work of the British Expeditionary Force in France, and was Hunterian Orator in 1919, when he reviewed military surgery from the time of Hunter to the date of the Oration. When Bowlby retuned to England at the end of the War he did not resume active work at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, though he retained the greatest interest in it, constantly attended the weekly 'Consultations' of the Staff, and as a Governor and Consulting Surgeon gave the benefit of his counsel and experience. Though retired from practice, he lived an active life. He was Chairman of the Radium Institute and took a keen interest in its activities. He was Chairman of the Board of Management of King Edward VII Convalescent Home for Officers at Osborne, and was instrumental in carrying out many improvements which added materially to the well-being of the inmates, and he remained till his death an active member of the Executive Committee of the British Red Cross Society. Bowlby was a man of keen intellect and strong character, with a quiet determination which enabled him to carry out what he believed to be right. His teaching was practical, and he had a knack of conveying a lesson in a way which could not be forgotten. The following is an instance: he was going round the wards with some students when he came to a patient suffering from extravasation of urine. After demonstrating the lesion, he said, in his characteristic, slightly guttural voice - he had a little difficulty rolling his r's - "The right thing to do is to make a cut into it, even if you have only got a bit of rusty hoop-iron to do it with." He spoke well and to the point with a curious jerking of the whole body, but he wrote his books and articles with difficulty. The above is a fine record a man's work. It is not so easy to describe the nature of the man who did it. Bowlby was of medium height, sparely built, but of an active frame. In his youth he played games and was always interested in them. For many years he was a keen Alpine climber, doing many of the great ascents, though he never became a member of the Alpine Club. He had a talent for friendship, and hundreds of his old students retained a love for him which approached veneration. His surgery was influenced most by that of Sir T. Smith (q.v.) and Howard Marsh (q.v.), both of whom he assisted for a long time, and through there have been finer technicians and greater researchers, his undoubted success as a surgeon and in private practice lay in his sound judgement. It was this that made his advice and help sought for. He was possessed of that sound common sense and cool practical judgement which characterized him both in surgical practice and in military surgery. In 1898 he married Maria Bridget, the daughter of Canon the Hon. Hugh Wynne Mostyn, by whom he had three sons and three daughters, all of whom survive him. His eldest son, Anthony Hugh Mostyn, who succeeded to the baronetcy, was born in 1906. Sir Anthony Bowlby lived for many years at 4 Manchester Square, and later at 25 Manchester Square. He died while on holiday at Stoney Cross, Lyndhurst, after a short illness, on April 7th, 1929, was cremated at Brookwood, and was buried at Brooklands Cemetery. Bowlby's portrait, in uniform, painted by Sir William Llewellyn, K.C.V.O., R.A., and presented by his past students and colleagues, hangs in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. His portrait also appears in a panel in the Royal Exchange, painted by Frank O. Salisbury, R.A., which shows their Majesties the King and Queen visiting the battle districts of France, 1917: the lower panel representing the Queen visiting the wounded soldiers, accompanied by Dame Maud MacCarthy, Matron-in-Chief, Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Slogget, Director-General Army Medical Services, and Major-General Sir Anthony Bowlby. He also appears in Moussa Ayoub's portrait group of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1928. PUBLICATIONS: - *Surgical Pathology and Morbid Anatomy*, 16mo, London, 1887. The 5th edition was edited with the assistance of F. W. ANDREWES (1907); 7th edition published in 1920. *Injuries and Diseases of Nerves and their Surgical Treatment*, 8vo, 20 plates. London, 1889; Philadelphia, 1890. "Injuries and Diseases of Nerves" in Treves' *System of Surgery*, i, 681. *A Civilian War Hospital*, being an account of the work of the Portland Hospital and of experience of wounds and sickness in South Africa, 1900 (etc), 8vo, 50 plates, London, 1901. "The Bradshaw Lecture on Wounds in War." - *Brit. Jour. Surg.*, 1916, iii, 451;* Jour. R.A.M.C.*, 1916, xxvi, 125. "Application of War Methods to Civil Practice." - *Lancet*, 1920, i, 131. "Results of Fracture of Femur caused by Gunshot Wounds." - *N.Y. Med. Jour.*, 1920, iii, 133. "Care of the Wounded Man in War." - *Surg. Gynecol. and Obst*., 1920, xxx, 13. "Surgical Experiences in South Africa." - *Monthly Rev.*, 1900, Oct., 52. "An Address on 900 cases of Tuberculous Disease of the Hip, treated at the Alexandra Hospital, with a Mortality of less than 4 per cent." - *Brit. Med. Jour*., 1908, i, 1465. "A Clinical Lecture on some Surgical Complications of Tabes Dorsalis." - *Ibid.*, 1906, i, 1021. "A Sketch of the Growth of the Surgery of the Front in France." - *St. Bart's Hosp. Jour.*, 1919, xxvi, 127; *Brit. Med., Jour.*, 1919, ii, 127. "Reminiscences of the War in South Africa." - *St. Bart's Hosp. Jour.*, 1900, Oct. "Abdominal Wounds." - *Lancet*, 1917, i, 207. "British Surgery at the Front." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1917, i, 705. "Wounds of Brain." - *Arch. de Med. et Pharm. mil.*, 1917, lxvii, 427. "Wounds of Spinal Cord." - *Ibid.*, 1917, lxvii, 463. "Traumatic Shock." - *Ibid*., 1917, lxvii, 123. "Wounds of Joints." - *Ibid.*, 1917, lxvii, 302. "Penetrating Wounds of Abdomen." - *Ibid.*, 1917, lxvii, 486. "Wounds at Front." - *Ibid.*, 1917, lxvii, 25. "Traumatic Shock." - *Ibid.*, 1918, xlix, 80. "Thoracic-abdominal Wounds." -* Ibid.*, 1918, lxix, 34. "Primary Suture of Wounds." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1918, i, 333. "British Military Surgery in the Time of Hunter and in the Great War" (Hunterian Oration.) - *Lancet*, 1919, i, 285; *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1919, i, 205. "Gunshot Fracture of Femur." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1920, i, 1; *Surg. Gynecol. and Obst*., 1920, xxx, 135. "Fractures of the Femur at the Casualty Clearing Station." - *Brit. Jour. Surg*., 1916, iii, 626. "A Clinical Lecture on Strangulated Hernia." -* Clin. Jour.*, 1908, xxxi, 385. Joint editor of the *History of the Great War Medical Services: Surgery of the War*, 2 vols., H.M.S.O., 1922. Contributed "Development of Casualty Clearing Stations, etc.," vol. i. Introduction to *Atlas of Pathological Anatomy. - Brit. Jour. Surg.*, 1925, July. Introduction to Carrell and Dehelly's *Treatment of Infected Wounds,* London, 1917.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000224
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bradford, Edward (1802 - 1888)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Attenburrow, Henry Clinton ( - 1891)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04 2016-01-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372908372908
Occupation General surgeon
Details Surgeon to the General Hospital, Nottingham, and to the County Gaol. He went to Jersey about 1863 and practised for many years at St Brelade's. He died before 1891. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: ? connected with John Attenborrow, Surgeon, of Nottingham see below life of John Higginbottom p.535. John Attenborrow (-burrow, or -burough) was surgeon to the General Hospital, Nottingham for 62 years 1781-1843. He died on 8 November 1843 aged 87 (*Gentleman's Magazine*) so must have been born about 1756. RCS has a drawing & engraving of him.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000725
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Austen, John Colmer ( - 1861)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Aveling, Charles Taylor (1844 - 1902)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04 2016-01-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372910372910
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Thomas's Hospital, where he became House Surgeon. Settled in practice at 14 Portland Place, Lower Clapton, London, where he held a number of public appointments - Public Vaccinator, Police Surgeon, Medical Referee to the Edinburgh Assurance Company, and Medical Officer of the City of London Union House. Later he resided at Cedar House, 136 Stamford Hill, London, where he was in partnership with John Bradshaw White, MD. He was a member of the British Medical Association, of the Hunterian Society, and a Fellow of the Obstetrical Society. He was drowned at Mullion Cove, Cornwall, on Sept 5th, 1902, in a brave attempt to rescue a lady from the like fate.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000727
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Avery, John (1807 - 1855)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372911372911
Occupation General surgeon
Details A pupil of William Cother, a very able surgeon, at the Gloucester Hospital, which, being situated in the midst of an extensive manufacturing district, gave abundant opportunities for practice in the art of operative surgery. The surgeons of that day were not generally operators, and consequently all operative surgery in the county and even in South Wales was concentrated in the hospital and in the private practice of its surgeons. Under Cother and his colleague, R Fletcher, young Avery proved an observant pupil. Entering St Bartholomew’s Hospital “he spent the greater part of his time either in the wards or the dissecting-room. Here he laid the foundation of that distinction as an operating surgeon which he afterwards reached.” He devoted much of his time to minute dissections of the dead body, and became an excellent anatomist. After qualifying he went to Paris and took the MD degree, but did not use the title. From Paris he travelled through different countries and continued his studies. He possessed ample means, but was never tempted to become an idler. Whilst he was in Italy there was war in Poland, and he conceived the idea of entering the Polish service, where he was at once appointed Surgeon-in-Chief to the 5th Polish Ambulance. He was made prisoner, lost his papers and baggage which were seized by the Russians and, being unable to communicate with his friends, lived for many months on an allowance of tenpence a day. After his release he began practice as a consultant in London, and was appointed Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital in 1841. At the time of his death, he had accomplished much that was original in practice, particularly in the treatment of cleft palate with large deficiency of bone, in the treatment of urethral stricture, and in the inspection of the internal canals of the body. By means of his lamp, tubes, and reflectors he was able to examine the ear, urethra, bladder, oesophagus, and larynx, as probably no surgeon had ever examined them before him. He was the originator of an improved method of treating cleft palate in the worst cases of this malformation, by dissecting the soft palate away from the vault of bone, and uniting the flaps thus obtained in the centre. In this way he cured cases which his more skilful contemporaries had attempted in vain. He had also made improvements in the exploration and treatment of stricture. He published nothing on this last subject, for he was waiting, as he told his admiring friends, to perfect his views. His only formal publications were his papers in the Lancet in 1850 on cleft palate. With him, operations, particularly in their results, were a source of pleasure – of real enjoyment. No sculptor, no artificer in silver or gold, ever viewed his work with more delight than that with which he contemplated his operations when, as was generally the case, they turned out well. A handsome stump, a symmetrical fracture, an effaced hare-lip, a cleft palate restored, a stricture relieved, would give him the most heartfelt satisfaction. For his invention of a lamp for the examination of the outer passages of the body Avery received two medals, one from HRH Prince Albert, as President of the Society of Arts, and the other from the adjudicators of the Great Exhibition in 1851. For some time before his death he suffered from an obscure disease, which he and others suspected to be a malignant affection of the stomach. He was frequently harassed by vomiting and extreme pain, and to assuage these took inordinate quantities of opium and chloroform. Of the latter he inhaled sometimes three or four ounces in a day. He died at his residence, Queen Street, Mayfair, on March 3rd, 1855, and must have been literally starved to death. So popular was he that his decease excited much attention, and a post-mortem examination showed evidence of generalized tuberculosis. His brother and sister had both died of phthisis. Publications: “Illustrations of the Successful Treatment of Cleft Palate by the Division of the Levator Palati and Palato-pharyngeus, and sometimes the Palato-glossus Muscles.” – *Lancet*, 1850, ii, 337. “An Apparatus for Exploring the Internal Cavities of the Body.” This was an endoscope somewhat similar to that used by Segulas at Naples in 1827, and by Warden, of Edinburgh, in 1844.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000728
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bacot, William George (1830 - 1910)

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First Title value, for Searching Baddeley, William Edward ( - 1869)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Porritt, Arthur Espie, Baron Porritt of Wanganui and Hampstead (1900 - 1994)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-03-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372421372421
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arthur Espie Porritt was born in Wanganui, New Zealand, the elder son of E E Porritt, VD, MD, FRCS, and of Ivy Elizabeth, née Mackenzie, whose father was also a medical practitioner. After education at Wanganui Collegiate School and Otago University, where he had an outstanding athletic record, he secured a Rhodes scholarship to Magdelen College, Oxford, in 1923. He went on to St Mary's Hospital, London, with an Oxford scholarship, qualifying MRCS LRCP London and MB BCh Oxford in 1928, and becoming FRCS in 1930 and later MCh Oxford. After house surgeon and registrar jobs at St Mary's he was appointed assistant director of the surgical unit there before becoming assistant surgeon and then surgeon to his teaching hospital. He was later also consultant surgeon to King Edward VII Hospital, the Royal Masonic, St John and Elizabeth, Paddington General, the Royal Chelsea, Princess Louise, Kensington Children's and Hitchin Hospitals. Porritt was an essentially general surgeon with a special interest in breast and abdominal surgery. An ever kind and considerate doctor much loved by his patients, he was a tireless worker, an expert teacher and a true leader. Always cheerful and optimistic, and supremely practical, he was an ideal member of staff for an undergraduate hospital. He was always popular with students, nurses and resident staff who found him most approachable, and he had a wonderful capacity for getting on with people of all ages. In the operating theatre he was quick, decisive, and never out of temper. His busy life did not allow him to publish many papers but his book, *Essentials of modern surgery*, written with the late R M Handfield-Jones, was popular and widely read and went into six editions between 1939 and 1956. In 1929, with D G A Lowe, he had also written a book on athletics. Shortly after the outbreak of the second world war he joined the RAMC as a lieutenant-colonel in charge of the surgical division of a hospital with the BEF. After the withdrawal from France he served in Egypt for two years. Recalled to the UK in 1943 he joined 21 Army Group with the rank of brigadier and became a consultant surgeon to Montgomery's army in north-west Europe. On demobilisation he returned to his pre-war work, having been made OBE in 1943 and advanced to CBE in 1945. From his early school days, Arthur Porritt had made his mark in swimming, riding, rugby and, most notably, in athletics, where his performance soon reached the highest international level. He was already an athlete of national standing before leaving New Zealand: he was a member of the Oxford University athletic team in 1923 and became president in 1925. His sprint record of 9.9 seconds for the 100 yards in the Oxford v Cambridge event remained unbroken for many years. He also achieved records in the 100 and 220 yard hurdles at Oxford before going on to represent his country in the Olympics in Paris in 1924, where he took a bronze for the 100 metres, and in Amsterdam four years later. He again acted as team manager in 1936. Knee trouble in 1928 compelled him to give up competitive running but he became a member of the Olympic International Council, and a member of the Commonwealth Games Federation, of which he was chairman from 1945 to 1966, and later vice-president. He rode with the Burghley hunt until he was 50. Outside the ambit of his hospital and private work Porritt gave himself unstintingly to many important activities. He served on the College Council from 1950 to 1966 and was President 1960 to 1963. He was honorary Fellow of the Faculties of Dental Surgery and of Anaesthetics, Hunterian orator, Webb-Johnson lecturer and a patron of the College. He was a member and vice-chairman of the trustees of the Hunterian Museum until his death. The very first year of his Presidency of the College he was also President of the British Medical Association, a unique distinction. He performed a notable task as chairman of the Medical Services Review Committee of the BMA: what became known as the 'Porritt Report' put forward a number of valuable ideas and recommendations, some of which were to be subsequently fulfilled. For these services he was awarded the gold medal and honorary fellowship of the BMA, though he had twice resigned his membership in the past. He was a man of integrity who made close and firm friendships with all manner of people. Not surprisingly, he became an honorary Fellow of every Royal Surgical College in the Commonwealth, as well as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the College of Surgeons of South Africa. He also held the United States Legion of merit and was a Knight of the Order of St John. He had a particular love for some of the other medical bodies, notably the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, of which he was Master, and of the Hunterian Society, over which he twice presided. He had been President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and was a Fellow of the American Surgical Association and of the French Academy of Surgery. In addition he was patron and past President of the Medical Council on Alcoholism, and had been President of the Medical Commission on Accident Prevention and of the Company of Veteran Motorists. In 1973 he was appointed Chairman of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council; the African Medical and Research Foundation (amongst other things sponsoring the flying doctor service in East Africa) and also Chairman of the Royal Masonic Hospital. Prior to the second world war Porritt had been appointed Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Duke of York. Shortly after the war he became Surgeon to the Royal Household and then Serjeant-Surgeon from 1952 to 1967. He was awarded the KCMG in 1950; the KCVO in 1957 (later advanced to GCMG, 1967 and GCVO, 1970) and a baronetcy in 1963 on completing his period as PRCS. After finishing service on the Council of the College he became President of the Royal Society of Medicine for two years. He considered it fortuitous that his appointment as Governor-General of New Zealand in 1967 compelled him to give up active surgery for he did not think it wise for most surgeons to continue long after retirement from hospital work. He and Lady Porritt then had a very happy and fulfilling five years in the country of his birth. On his return to Britain Lord Porritt of Hampstead and Wanganui he made a nmber of sincere and thoughtful contributions to the work of the Upper House and continued to attend there until the end of his life. He was a keen Freemason, had been Master of several lodges and became Senior Grand Deacon in 1951 and Junior Grand Warden in 1964. He was a founder member and vice-President of Lord Horder's Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine, which was dedicated to the highest standards of medical care and very much concerned with the freedom of patients as well as doctors. Porritt was a great ambassador. Apart from his many overseas trips on athletic business (and he attended the Commonwealth Games and Olympics into his ninth decade), he had ranged far and wide for surgery and was a powerful advocate of Britain's finest medical brains and skills being freely available abroad. He was also anxious that foreign medical graduates should be encouraged to study here and, as chairman of the medical advisory committee of the Ministry of Overseas Development, he was well able to further these aims. His first marriage to Mary Frances Wynne in 1926 was dissolved; in 1946, he married Kathleen Peck who had served as a sister in the QAIMNS during the war. They had two sons and a daughter. Fully active until a few weeks before his death, Lord Porritt died peacefully at his home in St John's Wood on New Year's Day 1994, aged 93. A portrait by Sir James Gunn hangs in the College. The Hon Jonathon Espie Porritt, formerly director of Friends of the Earth and one-time Ecology Party parliamentary candidate, inherited the baronetcy and gave the address at his father's service of thanksgiving in St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, on 26 April 1994. The service was attended by the Governor General of New Zealand, the Lord Chancellor, representatives of seven members of the Royal Family, the President and Council of the College, the Chairman and members of the Board of the Hunterian Trustees, the Court of Patrons and a large congregation. This was followed by a reception at New Zealand House.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000234
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bird, Henry ( - 1892)

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First Title value, for Searching Bird, James (1797 - 1864)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373066373066
Occupation General surgeon
Details Entered King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1810; apprenticed to his uncle in Elgin in 1812, then became a clinical pupil at the Aberdeen Infirmary. He entered Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals in 1815 and studied anatomy and surgery under Joshua Brookes at the Blenheim Street School, and midwifery under Merriman at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1816 he gained the second prize in anatomy and surgery at a viva voce examination by Sir Astley Cooper. After qualifying MRCS he joined the Hon East India Company’s service on the Bombay side, and on reaching India in August, 1818, found himself in the midst of a great cholera epidemic. His detailed observations as he travelled from Nagpore to Poonah and Tanneh were published in the *London Journal of Medicine* in 1849. He served with the 7th Regiment in Bengal in 1819 and noted the prevalent forms of tropical fever, serving through the Kaira campaign and being present at the siege of Kittore. He was diligent in acquiring the local vernacular and so came to act as vaccinator. He published “Observations on Guinea Worm” in the *Calcutta Medical Transactions*, i. In 1826 Mount Stuart Elphinstone appointed him Residency Surgeon at Saltara, which gave him leisure to pursue studies in Persian, from which he translated the *Political and Statistical History of Gujerat*, published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1835. In 1832 on his way home he visited Egypt, including Nubia, and Syria, where he was received by Lady Hester Stanhope at Joorie. In 1834 he gave evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on Communications with India in which he supported Waghorn’s recommendation of the route by Egypt and the Red Sea as better than that overland by Aleppo and the Euphrates. On his return he acted as Surgeon to both the European and Native Hospitals in Bombay, and was Chief Medical Attendant of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Keane. Later he was promoted to be Surgeon of a Division of Madras troops, and then Physician General with a seat on the Medical Board. On his retirement in 1847 he settled in London at 1 Brook Street, as the chief authority upon the diseases of Europeans in hot climates, and was an active member of the Medical Societies. He became President of the Harveian Society, Foreign Secretary for India of the Epidemiological Society, a Lecturer on Military Surgery and Tropical Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, also senior Vice-President, Treasurer, and in 1863 Lettsomian Lecturer at the Medical Society. He died on July 10th, 1864, at Gerrard’s Cross; his wife predeceased him, leaving two children. In Bird’s *Contributions to the Pathology of Cholera*, 1849, there is no mention of infection through drinking water. In his Introductory Address to the Epidemiological Society in 1854 under the title “The Laws of Epidemics and Contagious Diseases” he quotes from Caius: “For as hereafter I will shew, and Galen confirmeth, our bodies cannot suffer anything or hurt by corrupt and infectious causes, except there lie in them a certain matter prepared apt and like to receive it.” And in a debate, “and though he was not prepared to deny altogether the truth of Dr Snow’s views that it could be multiplied through the medium of water, impregnated with the poisonous dejecta of cholera patients, he could not believe that such medium of communication had more than a partial effect.” – *Lond. Jour. of Med.*, 1849, i, 1082. His most serviceable address was: “The Military Medical Instruction of England compared with that of France, and its insufficiency for training Army Medical Officers” – being the introductory lecture to a Course of Military Surgery delivered in the School of St Mary’s Hospital, 1855.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000883
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bird, Peter Hinckes (1827 - 1891)

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First Title value, for Searching Bird, Robert (1866 - 1918)

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First Title value, for Searching Birks, Melville (1876 - 1924)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04 2015-06-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373069373069
Occupation General surgeon Occupational health specialist
Details The following was published in volume one of Plarr's Lives of the Fellows. Was a student of Adelaide University and Hospital, and at the London Hospital, acting at the former as House Physician and House Surgeon. He practised for many years at Petersburg, South Australia, and later became Surgeon Superintendent of the Broken Hill and District Hospital, New South Wales. He died in or before the year 1925. Publications: "Mine Accidents at Broken Hill and District Hospital." - *Med. Jour. Australia*, 1918, i, 507. "Health Conditions at Broken Hill Mines." - *Jour. State Med.*, 1921, xxxix, 121. See below for an amended version of the published obituary: Melville Birks was surgeon superintendent of Broken Hill Hospital from 1913 to 1923 and an authority on industrial diseases. He was born on 30 January 1876, the son of Walter Richard Birks and Jemima Scott Birks. He was educated at state schools and at Way College, and then attended Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia. He was awarded a silver medal and his diploma of agriculture in 1896. He went on to study medicine at the University of Adelaide, gaining his medical degree in 1902. He served for a year at Adelaide Hospital as a house surgeon and then went to England, where he spent three years. He gained his FRCS in 1907. While in London he met Miss MacIntyre, daughter of P B MacIntyre of Ross-shire, Scotland, a crofters commissioner, and they married shortly afterwards, on 5 March 1909. He returned to South Australia, where he practised at Peterborough until 1913. While he was in the town he was also involved in civic affairs and served for a time as mayor. He was then appointed surgeon superintendent at Broken Hill. Here he made a study of miners' diseases. He was also a referee under the Workers' Compensation Act; he had a reputation for fairness and was respected by both miners and employers. He worked for long hours in the operating theatre, supported only by nursing staff. After some time at Broken Hill he began to suffer from ill health. In 1918 he was granted leave for a year. He went to Europe and America with his wife and family, and made a study of occupational diseases, visiting factories and hospitals. He attended a Medical Congress in Brussels, where he read a paper on lead poisoning. He returned to Broken Hill in 1920, but in August 1922 his health broke down once again and he was advised to go to the eastern states of Australia. He was in a private Melbourne hospital for 11 months and then in Melbourne General Hospital for a further three months. He returned to his mother's home in Adelaide in December 1923 and died there on 24 April 1924 at the age of 48. He was buried in Payneham Cemetery, Payneham South, South Australia. He was survived by his wife and their children - two sons and a daughter. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E000886
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birmingham, George ( - 1878)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373070373070
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Middlesex Hospital, and entered the Bengal Army as Acting Assistant Surgeon on December 9th, 1824. He retired in October, 1827. He saw active service in Burma, 1824-1825, was afterwards in the Portuguese Navy. He was in practice in London in 1871 and he died in or before 1878. The name is spelt 'Bermingham' in the *Medical Directory* for 1871. In 1853 he gave his address as in Kentish Town.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000887
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birt, Hugh (1814 - 1875)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Birtwhistle, John (1800 - 1863)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Birtwhistle, Richard L ( - 1846)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Bishop, Edward Stanmore (1848 - 1912)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373074373074
Occupation General surgeon Gynaecologist
Details Educated at the Pine Street Royal School of Medicine in Manchester, which was also known as Mr Turner’s School, and gained the Turner Scholarship in three successive years – 1868-1869, 1869-1870, and 1870-1871. He settled in the Ardwick District of Manchester, where he was in general practice until his appointment as Surgeon to the Ancoats Hospital. He qualified himself for this appointment by coming to London and taking out courses of anatomy and physiology at the London Hospital and of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and thus passing the Fellowship examination. Returning to Manchester, he devoted himself to the surgery of the abdomen and to gynaecology. He was appointed Operating Surgeon to the Jewish Memorial Hospital. At the time of his death he was President of the Manchester Clinical Society and Vice-President of the Manchester Medical Society. He died at 3 St Peter’s Square, Manchester, on July 25th, 1912, and his remains were cremated. Bishop was a man of great energy, somewhat reserved in manner, and a lover of music. He had at heart the best interests of Ancoats Hospital, and did much to place it in the position which it now occupies both as a hospital and as a centre of medical teaching. His resources in the technique of abdominal operations were very considerable. Publications:- Bishop’s publications, which were well known both here and in America, include:- *Enterorraphy*, 8vo, Manchester, 1885, from *Med. Chron*. *Lectures to Nurses on Antiseptics in Surgery*, 12mo, 11 plates London, 1891. *The Etiology of Chronic Hernia, with Special Reference to the Operation for Radical Cure, with Additional Tables*, 12mo, 1894, from *Lancet*. “A New Operation for Vesico-vaginal Fistula.” – *Med. Soc. Trans*., 1897, xx, 123. *Sealing of Operative Wounds about the Abdomen versus Treatment by Dressing*, 8vo, Manchester, 1899, from *Med. Chron*. *Uterine Fibromyomata; their Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment*, 8vo, 49 illustrations, London, 1901. The book is full of information, though somewhat biased towards operative surgery. “Changes observed in Uteri the seat of Fibromyomata.” – *Brit. Gynaecol. Jour.*, 1901, xvii, 286. *The Essentials of Pelvic Diagnosis, with Illustrative Cases*, 1903. This is an attempt to clarify the mental processes necessary in deducing disease from the absence or presence of symptoms. “Evolution of Modern Operations for Hysterectomy.” – *Practitioner*, 1908, lxxxi, 776. *Lectures on Surgical Nursing*, 1909. “Points in Gastric Surgery.” – *Surg. Gynecol. and Obst*., 1909, viiii, 559. “Address on Surgical Gastric Disorders” delivered before the Blackburn Medical Society, 1911. – *Lancet*, 1911, ii, 743.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000891
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bishop, John (1797 - 1873)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373075373075
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born September 15th, 1797, fourth son of Samuel Bishop of Pimperne, Dorsetshire; educated at the Child-Okeford Grammar School in Dorsetshire. It was intended that he should be a lawyer, but at the age of 25 he was induced by his cousin, John Tucker, of Bridport, to become a doctor. He entered St George’s Hospital as a pupil of Sir Everard Home, and attended the lectures of Sir Charles Bell, George James Guthrie (qv), and George Pearson. He was also a regular attendant at the chemical courses given at the Royal Institution. He became Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary, to the Northern and St Pancras Dispensaries, and to the Drapers’ Benevolent Institution. In 1844 Bishop contributed a paper published in the *Philosophical Transactions* on the “Physiology of the Human Voice”, and was shortly afterwards elected FRS and a Corresponding Member of the Medical Societies of Berlin and Madrid. The Royal Academy of Science of Paris awarded him two prizes for memoirs “On the Human and Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Voice”. He was also the author of: “On Distortions of the Human Body”, “On Impediments of Speech”, and “On Hearing and Speaking Instruments”. These works were remarkable for the careful examinations which the author had made on the subjects under investigation and for the mathematical demonstration given of each theory advanced by him. He contributed several articles to Todd’s *Cyclopœdia* and many papers of more or less importance to the medical literature of the day. Bishop was a man of varied attainments; he was conversant with Continental as well as with English literature, and to within a few months of his death he was deeply interested in the progress of science. He died on September 29th, 1873, at Strangeways-Marshale, Dorsetshire, within a few miles of his birthplace.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000892
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bissill, John Henry (1817 - 1895)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Black, Cornelius (1822 - 1886)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373077373077
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on August 2nd, 1822, at Radcliffe-on-Trent, Notts. Educated at the University of Edinburgh until 1844, apprenticed to John Cartledge Botham, of Catherine Street, Hartlepool, who was Surgeon to the Hartlepool Iron Works. He settled at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, where he practised at St Mary’s Gate, and died there on June 24th, 1886. He was Physician to the Chesterfield Dispensary; a Fellow of the Medical Society of London; a Member of the Pathological Society of London; a Corresponding Fellow of the Imperial Society of Physicians, Vienna, and of the Société Medicale, Lyons. Publications: “The Management of Health.” “The Pathology of the Broncho-Pulmonary Mucous Membrane,” 8vo, Edinburgh, 1853; reprinted from *Monthly Jour. Med. Soc. Lond. and Edin*. “The Clinical Examination of the Urine in Relation to Disease,” 8vo, London, 1840; reprinted from the *St Andrews Med. Grad. Assoc. Trans.,* London, 1869, iii. “Hydatids from the Left Lung, Subsequently to the Occurrence of Typhoid Fever, Complicated with Double Pneumonia,” 8vo, plate, London, 1853; reprinted from *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, iv, 44-61. *The Pathology of Tuberculous Bone*, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1859. *The Insanity of George Victor Townley*, 8vo, London ; 2nd ed., 1865. “How to Prevent Pitting in Small-pox.” – *Lancet*, 1867, i, 792. “On Arsenic a Remedy for Cholera.” – *Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1854, N.S. ii, 971. “On Conception.” – *Med. Gaz*. “On Caries of the Tarsal Bones and Amputation at the Ankle-joint.” – *Monthly Jour. Med. Sci. Edin.*, 1852, xv, 113. “Case of Ileus, in which a Portion of the Ileum was Discharged per Anum, followed by Recovery of the Patient.” – *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, 1855-6, vii, 199. “On Perforating Ulcer of the Stomach.” – *Ibid.*, 191. “Melanic Cancer of the Horse.” – *Ibid.*, 1851, vii, 400. “On Ovariotomy.” – *Lancet*, 1857, i, 110, 138; 1863, 62. “On the Value of Arsenic in Cholera,” (serial). – *Ibid.*, 1857, ii, 388, 541, 573.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000894
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blackmore, Edward (1808 - 1883)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Blades, William Dawson ( - 1869)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Charles, Thomas ( - 1873)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Charleton, George Washbourn ( - 1881)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Chater, George (1812 - 1883)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Chavasse, Charles Allen ( - 1863)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Chavasse, Pye Henry (1810 - 1879)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20 2018-03-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373333373333
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Cirencester, was apprenticed to his cousin, Thomas Chavasse (qv), then in practice at Old Square, Birmingham. Later he studied at University College Hospital, and having qualified began practice in Birmingham, especially among women and children. He was a regular attendant at the meetings of the Birmingham Branch of the British Medical Association; also at one time he was President of Queen's College Medico-Chirurgical Society. Frank and genial, he was a good colleague. Five years before his death he retired, suffering from cerebrospinal sclerosis, and died at Edgbaston on September 20th, 1879. His photograph is in the Fellows' Album. Publications: He was the author of popular works on motherhood, subjects which ran through many editions, and were translated into nearly all European and many Asiatic languages, as also American editions. They include: *Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children, and on the Treatment on the Moment of some of their more pressing Illnesses and Accidents*, 9th ed, Philadelphia, 1868; 18th ed, 1878. *Counsel to a Mother*, being a continuation and completion of *Advice to a Mother*, Philadelphia, 1871. *Advice to a Wife on the Management of her own Health, and on the Treatment of some of the Complaints incidental to Pregnancy, Labour, and Suckling*, 12th ed, Philadelphia, 1871. *Physical Training of Children, or Advice to Parents*, Philadelphia, 1571. *Aphorisms for a Mother*, 2nd ed, 1877. "A Chart of Auscultation and Percussion." - *Lancet*, 1881-2, ii, 260. "Treatment of Scarlatina Anginosa." - *Assoc. Med. Jour.*, 1856, 210. Different editions of these works show certain changes of title, as do also the American editions. In his particular branch of medical authorship he may be said to have been the successor of Conquest and Bull. "The Mental Culture and Training of Children." - *The Mother's Book*, Philadelphia, 1880.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001150
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chavasse, Thomas (1800 - 1884)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373334373334
Occupation General surgeon
Details Thomas Chavasse, originally of French extraction, came of a family who had practised for generations at Burford, Oxfordshire. His father, who had qualified before there was a vacancy in the family practice, started in Walsall, where Thomas Chavasse was born in 1800. He went to a Kensington School, and at 16 was apprenticed as resident pupil for five years in the General Hospital, Birmingham. After that he became a student at St Bartholomew's, and a follower of Abernethy. On returning to Birmingham in 1822, he quickly obtained the largest general practice. Working early and late, in 1850 his health gave way; he moved to Leamington and purchased property at Wylde Green. After a rest of three years he was able to recommence consulting practice, acquiring a wide county connection, and attending on two days a week at the Minories, Birmingham. At Sutton Coldfield, near which is Wylde Green, he was a member of the Corporation, and for three years Warden, or Mayor. He was one of the first members of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association which enlarged into the British Medical Association, and a Trustee of the Medical Benevolent Society. He married twice and left ten children, his sixth son being Sir Thomas Chavasse (qv). He died at Wylde Green House on October 19th, 1884, and the *Birmingham Daily Post* published an appreciation of him as a family practitioner.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001151
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Osborne, David Robert (1943 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2015-09-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372808372808
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details David Osborne was a consultant surgeon who established the first urological department in Basildon. He was born in Weston-super-Mare on 12 December 1943, the son of Alan John Osborne, a leading aircraftman, and his wife, Tilly Fleming née Straiton. He was educated at Hazelcroft Primary School and then Weston-super-Mare Grammar School. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School from 1963 to 1968, winning the Ruth Bowden anatomy prize and the George Quist surgery prize, and playing in the first XV rugby team. After qualifying, he was a house officer at Hampstead General Hospital and then at St Andrew's Hospital. In 1970 he was a casualty officer at the Royal Free. He then held senior house officer posts at Luton and Dunstable, and at Frenchay and Southmeads hospitals, Bristol. He was then a registrar in general surgery at Cheltenham and Gloucester. From 1976 to 1983 he was a lecturer in surgery at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1983 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to Basildon and Thurrock hospitals. In 1985 he became a consultant surgeon to South Ockendon Hospital and in 1991 became head of the department of urology with full-time responsibility for urology services. He established a specialist urology department with three surgeons, each with a subspecialty interest. He was interested in reading, gardening, walking and painting, and loved fine wines. In 1969 he married Brenda Mary Cornforth, a general practitioner and a fellow student at the Royal Free, who was the daughter of Sir J W Cornforth FRS KBE. They had one son, Andrew John (a GP in New Zealand), and a daughter, Catherine Jane (a marketing manager). He died on 17 October 2008. His love of surgery was so great that he continued seeing patients and operating until three weeks before he died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000625
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shuttleworth, Kenneth Ernest Dawson (1922 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2010-12-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372809372809
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Ken Shuttleworth helped establish the urology department at St Thomas' Hospital, London. He was born on 30 April 1922 in Bradford to Frederick and Edith Shuttleworth. His father won a scholarship to Oxford from Bradford Grammar School to read mathematics: his mother was at Girton College, Cambridge. His father won the Military Cross in 1918 for successfully evacuating his gun crew despite a severe wound to his leg. After the war, he became a chartered accountant at Deloitte's, despite his disability, but for a long time it was Ken's mother who kept the family afloat by teaching mathematics at Queen's College in Harley Street. Ken was educated at Watford Grammar School. Despite some early experience in hospital, where he had fainted at the sight of blood every day for a fortnight, he entered St Thomas' Hospital to study medicine in 1939. He qualified in 1944 and at once joined the RAMC, serving in Italy, Egypt and Palestine, an experience which included taking out the appendix of the son of a sheikh, who rewarded him with a feast including the traditional sheep's eyes. On demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas', at first at Midhurst, where he married Phillippa Hartley, and then as a surgical registrar in Lambeth. He was put in charge of an audit of the results of hernia repairs in a large number of policemen, mostly using the nylon darn method, which he published in 1962. He was an exchange fellow at McGill University at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, where he carried out research into intravenous fat therapy and the metabolism of glyceride clearance under Gavin Miller, and took the opportunity to tour America and visit Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. On his return he was appointed to the staff of St Thomas' and awarded a Hunterian Professorship in the College in 1962. From the days of Cheselden, the urological tradition at St Thomas' had always been a strong one, and at this time was being upheld by R H O B Robinson and Walter 'Gaffer' Mimpriss, who had taken the trouble to visit the United States to learn the technique of transurethral resection with the cold punch from Gershom Thompson at the Mayo Clinic. Both Robinson and Mimpriss continued with general surgery until they retired in 1962 and 1970 respectively. Shuttleworth replaced Mimpriss as a general surgeon, but at once realised the necessity of setting up a specialist department of urology, entirely separate from that of general surgery. Such specialisation in London was at that time exceptional, and he faced opposition from some colleagues who were keen for the overlap between urology and general surgery to continue. But Shuttleworth stuck to his guns and eventually won the day. He realised too that a specialist department must be seen to be carrying out research if it was to be credible, and if its trainees were to gain higher degrees in surgery. At this time at St Thomas' Brian Creamer was breaking new ground with his measurements of the pressure changes in the oesophagus, and this stimulated Shuttleworth to do the same thing in the urinary tract, long before urodynamics had been dreamed of. He sent several of his brighter protégés to San Francisco to learn the latest techniques from Frank Hinman Jr. He extended these studies to the upper urinary tract in the physiology of the ureter and hydronephrosis. The theoretical advantage of combining of hyperbaric oxygen with external beam irradiation was then being developed at St Thomas', and Shuttleworth was keen to offer its advantages to men with carcinoma of the prostate, among whom were some very distinguished people. He was president of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) from 1982 to 1984, at a time when many in the surgical subspecialties were urging the surgical Royal Colleges to set up a higher surgical qualification which would indicate when a candidate had been fully trained in his or her specialty. The Edinburgh College had led the way by setting up specialist assessments in neurosurgery and orthopaedics, and approached Ken on the feasibility of a similar examination in urology. Representatives from BAUS visited Edinburgh to observe the assessment in orthopaedics, which impressed and persuaded them of the need for a comparable assessment in urology. BAUS were persuaded to support this concept, but not without some difficulty and only on condition that it would be set up jointly by all four surgical Royal Colleges. The invention by Dornier of the method of extracorporeal shock wave destruction of urinary stones came at a time when the NHS budget was under unusual strain and the Department of Health asked for bids from different London hospitals. The competition was intense, but Shuttleworth put forward a scheme which won the prize, and for the next decade large numbers of renal calculi were referred to St Thomas' for the new treatment. The results of the first thousand cases were published in the *British Journal of Urology* [1986 Dec; 58(6):573-7]. His publications included his Hunterian Lecture [*Ann Roy Coll Surg Eng* 1963; 32:164-179] and a chapter on urological surgery for De Wardener's textbook, *The Kidney*. In committee he was often dogmatic and, as a consequence, nearly always got his way, although not when he was outvoted in the appointment of the first female surgical registrar! (In his view a surgical career was for men.) Because of his strong personality and strong views he had many detractors in the hospital, and strained relationships were also apparent in relation to his somewhat turbulent private life. He was a lover of sunshine and of Italy, owning a villa in Tuscany, where he retreated each summer and produced his own wine. He had three marriages, all of which failed, and from each of which there were children. This was unusual in the then conformist establishment of St Thomas' and some of his more puritanical colleagues were distinctly disconcerted. He also attracted a circle of devoted supporters. In retirement he moved permanently to his Tuscan farmhouse, where he was happy growing his own vegetables, harvesting his hay field, picking his own grapes and making wine, and entertaining friends who visited him from England. Left alone after the death of his partner Pamela, he continued to be a generous host and kept in touch with several of his family. A hip replacement in London did not slow him up and it was only when he suffered progressive amnesia that his family brought him back to England to a nursing home. He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer from which he eventually died on 8 March 2006. His supporters felt that it was sad there was no memorial service for him at St Thomas', as was customary for a departed senior member of the consultant staff.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000626
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Terry, Henry (1791 - 1873)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372723372723
Occupation General surgeon
Details Became Assistant Surgeon to the Wiltshire Militia on May 6th, 1812, and on March 21st, 1814, was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 14th Regiment of Foot, with which he was present at Waterloo. He was placed on half pay in 1816 and commuted it in 1830. On leaving the Army he practised at Northampton in partnership with his son, Henry Terry, MRCS, and was for forty years Surgeon to the County Gaol and House of Correction, and for thirty years Surgeon to the Northampton Regiment of Militia. He was also Surgeon Extraordinary to the Northampton General Infirmary. His grandson was Professor Sandford Terry, Professor of History in the University of Aberdeen. He died in retirement at Northampton on Dec 26th, 1873.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000539
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brigham, William ( - 1864)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Briscoe, John (1820 - 1908)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373150373150
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Montgomeryshire and was of Welsh extraction. He was apprenticed to Frederick Wood (qv), the Surgeon Apothecary at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and was one of the earliest pupils of James Paget (qv), whose teaching made a lasting impression upon him. In 1845 he was elected House Surgeon Apothecary at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, a position he held until 1857. It is possible that his wish to come to Oxford may have been due to the fact that the Rev Thomas Briscoe, of Jesus College, a benefactor to the Infirmary in 1856, was probably a kinsman. His appointment was marked by considerable changes for the better in the organization of the charity. After twelve years’ service as a resident officer he was appointed, in 1857, to the post of Surgeon to HM Prison at Oxford, when he commenced to practise privately in the city. In 1858 he inherited a property in Montgomeryshire near Shrewsbury which rendered him independent of his profession. His interest in the Radcliffe Infirmary continued unabated, and in 1858 he was co-opted to the weekly board and became a member of a sub-committee to consider the accommodation for out-patients. He was about the same time appointed Surgeon to the Oxford Militia. Briscoe was elected Surgeon to the Infirmary at a special General Court held on April 29th, 1865, on the retirement of James T Hester (qv), and he retained the office until 1878. As he lived close to the hospital, he did gratuitously a large share of the hospital and private practice for his colleagues, both surgical and general, in Oxford from 1869-1872, performing at the infirmary all operations upon the eye as well as those of general surgery. On his retirement from the active staff of the hospital he practically gave up practice, but continued to go to the infirmary for at least two evenings a week, and used to attend the Tuesday Clinics given by Sir William Osler. He lived at 5 Broad Street, and died unmarried on September 28th, 1908, being buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery. By his will he left the whole of his fortune, amounting to £62,799, to the Radcliffe Infirmary. The bequest led the way to a complete rebuilding of the out-patient department, with accommodation for pathological, X-ray, and electro-therapeutical services, together with a lecture-room, library, sleeping accommodation for some of the staff, and a new dispensary and waiting-room. The building was formally opened by the Chancellor of the University, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, on November 26th, 1913. Briscoe was a careful but not a brilliant surgeon, eminently practical as a diagnostician. He took great care of his patients, but, having no special incentive to work and no special standard to maintain, he failed to improve in surgery as he grew older, and his wards retained the characteristic surgical odours long after they had vanished elsewhere. In appearance he was well set up, short, sturdy, and of huge chest capacity. He numbered among his colleagues Sir Henry Acland, Dr Henry Tuckwell, Dr Edward B Gray, Edward L Hussey (qv), Frederick Symonds (qv), and Alfred Winkfield (qv). His great friend was Mr Justice Wright, whom he had seen through a severe illness when he was a Balliol undergraduate, and there were periodical dinners or visits in London, at Oriel College, and in Hampshire. The friendship lasted till the judge died. Briscoe himself gave delightful little dinner-parties at his house in Broad Street, which were attended by Washbourne West, Bursar of Lincoln, John Martin, the oldest practitioner in Oxford, Harry Mallam, Randall, and Winkfield. He was a good swimmer in his early days, a great walker, and a good shot.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000967
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rix, Joseph (1804 - 1878)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Robarts, Henry Pratt (1801 - 1893)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Charles ( - 1901)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375290375290
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Roberts, by birth a Yorkshireman, was a distinguished student at St George's Hospital at the time when Henry Gray (qv) was preparing the first edition of his *Anatomy*. Roberts was Scholar in Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Lewis Powell Prizeman in Clinical Medicine, Bath and Wells Prizeman in Animal and Vegetable Histology, Scholar and Prizeman in Anatomy, Chemistry, Botany, and Materia Medica. He was afterwards House Surgeon at the York County Hospital, Resident Medical Officer to the York Dispensary, Surgeon to the North Riding Prison, and he practised for a time in Blake Street, York. After 1871 he moved to London to practise as a surgeon at 2 Bolton Row, Mayfair, then at 68 Curzon Street, and was Surgeon to Out-patients at the Victoria Hospital for Children from 1872-1874. Possessed of ample means, he devoted himself to anthropology, was Secretary of the Anthropometrical Section of the British Association, edited the Selborne Society's magazine for some years, and promoted scientific methods of education by systematic cultivation of observation, and by physical training. Of a spare figure and intelligent face, he was singularly popular and a well-known member of the Savile Club. He married late in life and moved to Eastbourne, where he entertained his friends at Cornfield House, Devonshire Place. Towards the end he moved to Tunbridge Wells, where, after more than a year of ill health, he died at Silverdale, Boyne Park, on December 31st, 1901. Publications:- *A Manual of Anthropometry, or a Guide to the Physical Examination and Measurement of the Human Body*, London, 1878. "The Physical Requirements of Factory Children." - *Jour Statistical Soc*, 1876, xxxix, 681. *The Detection of Colour Blindness and Imperfect Eyesight*, 2nd ed, 1884. "Eyesight of Savage and Civilized People." - *Jour of Anthropological Institute*, 1886, xv, 127. *The Medical Inspection and Physical Education of Secondary Schools*. Reports of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education, 1895. *Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee of the British Association*, 1883.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003107
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Charles Hubert (1866 - 1929)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375291375291
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Educated at Bedford School, and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital on October 1st, 1884, where he gained in succession the Junior Scholarship, the Senior Scholarship, the Kirkes Scholarship and Gold Medal for Clinical Medicine, and the Brackenbury Scholarship in Surgery. His career at the University of London was equally brilliant. At St Bartholomew's Hospital he served the offices of House Surgeon, House Physician, Resident Midwifery Assistant, Casualty Physician, Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy, Demonstrator of Practical Midwifery and Diseases of Women, and temporary Physician-Accoucheur, the last post being held under the inspiring influence of Dr Matthews Duncan. As there was no immediate prospect of a vacancy at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Roberts attached himself to Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital and to the Samaritan Free Hospital, where he attracted large classes by his powers of teaching both by lectures and at the bedside. During the European War he performed useful and arduous work as accoucheur to Lady Howard de Walden's Maternity Home for Officers' Wives and also as a member of the Visiting Staff of the Epsom War Hospital. He was Secretary and Vice-President of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Royal Society of Medicine, and was Secretary of a similar section at the Sheffield Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1908. As an Examiner he was a member of the Midwives Board, of the Conjoint Examining Board RCP Lond and RCS Eng, and of the Sheffield University. He died of influenza in Denmark in January, 1929, having been landed from a ship in which he was making a pleasure cruise. Roberts was a great teacher of students, an able diagnostician, and a highly skilled obstetrician who by force of circumstances never gained the position to which his mental attainments justly entitled him. He practised at 48 Harley Street, and had a country house, The Riverside, Taplow, Bucks. Publications: *Outlines of Gynaecological Pathology and Morbid Anatomy*, 8vo, London, 1901. Translation of Orthmann's *Handbook of Gynaecological Anatomy* (with Max L TRECHMANN), 8vo, London, 1904. Numerous papers in *Trans Obst Soc* and *Proc Roy Soc Med*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003108
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Field-Marshal Earl (1832 - 1914)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Frederic ( - 1858)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, John Henry (1814 - 1900)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Robertson, Cecil Frederick ( - 1913)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375295375295
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was a theological student at the Regent's Park College, and, with the object of becoming a medical missionary, simultaneously entered the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, where he was first Brodrip Scholar and Prizeman, and after graduating at the University of London acted as House Surgeon to Sir Alfred Pearce Gould (qv). Having become FRCS he went out in October, 1909, to the English Baptist Mission at Sian Fu, the capital of the province of Shensi, North China, as the colleague of Stanley Jenkins (qv). In 1911 Jenkins returned home on furlough, and Robertson was in charge of the hospital when the Revolution broke out and some 15,000 Manchus were slaughtered in Sian Fu on October 22nd, 1911, their heads being exposed on the city walls. Other missionaries had withdrawn to the coast, but Robertson remained. He replied to the request to organize ambulances, and through scenes of the utmost horror he worked with skill, performing many operations successfully whenever the prejudices of the people did not prevent him. The Chinese authorities marked their gratitude when the Army presented him with a tablet containing a laudatory address, and the populace presented him with a red silk umbrella. In addition he operated successfully on a fellow-missionary for appendicitis, and shortly before his death he went a six days' ride to visit the child of a missionary. He had contracted typhus fever from his out-patients, in which he was attended and nursed by his elder colleague, Stanley Jenkins, but he died on March 16th, 1913. He was a manly, skilled Christian medical missionary. Typhus fever carried off James Glenny Gibb (qv) in 1912, and Stanley Jenkins succumbed to it in the month following Robertson's death - April, 1913. They may be justly regarded as martyrs to the highest form of duty. Chinese officials and soldiers alike recognized his work. Robertson had organized a Corps of Bearers and Nurses to care for the wounded, and so originated a Red Cross League in China. He also persuaded the Governor of the Province to institute a Hospital for Disabled Soldiers, styled 'Robertson's Pensioners'. The Military Governor accorded him a full military funeral; his 'Pensioners' provided a white silk pall for his burial; the military carried banners inscribed with the words, "He created happiness throughout the Province of Shensi." At the funeral service the Governor, who had not been in sympathy with the Mission and its work, used words as follows, "No doubt he was God's servant."
Resource Identifier RCS: E003112
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robertson, James (1823 - 1862)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07 2015-03-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375296375296
Occupation General surgeon
Details Graduated at St Andrews; practised for a time at Hitchin, and subsequently at Wynyard Square, Sydney. He died at Woodside, Paramatta, New South Wales, on November 17th, 1862.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003113
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robertson, Thomas Storm (1809 - 1857)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Richard Chambers (1815 - 1891)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Stewart Blacker ( - 1877)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Roberts, Watkin William (1818 - 1897)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Robinson, Charles (1820 - 1873)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07 2013-08-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375301375301
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and practised at 11 Montagu Street, Portman Square, London, W; next at Hereford Gardens, Marble Arch; then at Edgware. He was a fellow and member of several Medical Societies, and died suddenly at Dorking on June 13th, 1873.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003118
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robinson, Frederic John ( - 1869)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Johnston, Ivan David Alexander (1929 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372811372811
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ivan Johnston was professor of surgery at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and made major contributions to endocrine surgery. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 4 October 1929, the son of David Johnston, a company secretary, and Mary née Clarke, and was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He went on to study medicine at Queen’s University, qualifying in 1953. He did his house officer jobs at the Royal Victoria Hospital under Sir Ian Fraser. After passing the primary, he joined the new department of surgery in Dublin under Harold Rodgers and Dick Welbourn, where Dennis Burkitt was another assistant. During this time Ivan was sent to Manchester under Michael Boyd. In 1958 he passed the FRCS, married Elizabeth (Beth) and won a Fulbright scholarship to the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, where he carried out research into gastro-intestinal function. After touring the United States in an elderly Dodge, he returned to Hammersmith Hospital as a senior lecturer, promoted to consultant status in 1963. During this time he was part of a team from the hospital, accompanied by Sir George Godber, the Chief Medical Officer, sent to India by the Ministry of Overseas Development, which resulted in the development of research facilities at the medical school in Chandigarh. In 1965, Ivan was appointed professor of surgery at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in succession to Andrew Lowdon, who had died suddenly. He encouraged visitors from abroad and ensured that his juniors would travel abroad. His researches were chiefly in endocrinology and his extensive publications included monographs on *The metabolic basis of surgical care* (London, William Heinemann Medical Books, 1968) and *Advances in parenteral nutrition* (Lancaster, MTP press, and Baltimore, University Park Press, 1978). At the Royal College of Surgeons Ivan served on the Court of Examiners for six years, and on the Council from 1974 to 1986 and was chairman of the specialist advisory committee in general surgery. He travelled extensively to examine in Khartoum, among other centres. He was a keen member of the Travelling Surgical Society and its president in 1991. In 1993 he was president of the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons. His first wife, Beth, died in 1987 from renal failure secondary to diabetes, and he married again in 1989, to Annette Maiden née Elphinstone. He had two sons from his first marriage, Stephen and Philip, who became a doctor and a vet. In his latter years Ivan developed failing eyesight and Parkinsonism. He died on 29 December 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000628
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Goddard, Una Kathleen (1931 - 2012)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Jim Innes
Publication Date 2012-11-09 2013-10-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375304375304
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Kate Goddard was a consultant ophthalmologist at Hull Royal Infirmary and one of a generation who, by their persistence and determination, helped change the way we perceive women in the professions. She was born in Sheffield on 12 July 1931, the daughter of Henri Arnold Joel Merrill and Una Adelaide Merrill née Watson. She spent some of her early childhood in the Belgian Congo, where her father was a personal assistant to the industrialist Sir William Lever and, for a period, vice consul in Stanleyville, before returning with the family to Sheffield in the mid-1930s. She was educated at Sheffield High School, interrupted by wartime evacuation to Derbyshire, and became head girl in 1948. Her father, then managing director of a chain of chemist shops, fostered her interest in science, not least by the purchase of a quality microscope and a skeleton. She studied medicine at Sheffield University from 1949, gaining her coveted place by dint of much persuasion from Kate and her father, along with a promise to pay all the fees privately! She graduated in 1954, passed her primary fellowship examination in 1955 and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1959 - one of only three women to do so that year. Early house posts in Sheffield sparked her interest in ophthalmology and paediatrics (she was to remain a lifelong benefactor of the Sheffield Children's Hospital), and she trained in Sunderland and Sheffield. She was a lecturer in ophthalmology and then a senior registrar in Sheffield, before being appointed to her consultant post at Hull Royal Infirmary around the time of the opening of the new hospital, where she was able to combine her medical interests to great effect. Kate had married Mike (Charles Michael Goddard), a Master Mariner, in 1960, having a short career break to have her two children, Charles and Katherine. There was no expansion of consultant posts in the whole of Yorkshire during Kate's early years as a consultant, and as her senior colleagues retired she became the senior consultant and served as clinical lead for many years. She welcomed and supported junior doctors and new colleagues throughout this time, and oversaw the process to begin the expansion of the department in the 1980s. Kate was always friendly and approachable, with a solid opinion and advice, maintaining her interest in paediatric ophthalmology until she retired. In her later years as a consultant her management interests expanded to include work within the surgical division. In 1967 Kate began her association with Soroptimist International, an organisation of professional women focused on developing opportunities for women and girls. She was president of the Beverley Soroptimist club in 1971 and president of the Yorkshire region in 1978. During those terms of office Kate adopted ophthalmic projects, supporting Sightsavers with visits to hospitals and clinics in Dhaka and Mymensingh, Bangladesh. She was later honoured with life membership of the Beverley club. In the 1970s she was also a governor of a further education college in Beverley. Kate also had a lifelong interest in the law, sparked by seeing the barristers in wigs and gowns at the nearby Royal Courts of Justice while she was at the Royal College of Surgeons. Eventually she satisfied her interest when in 1985 she qualified LLB following five years of hard work on a part-time course at Hull University, and it was this example which encouraged her daughter Katherine (now a criminal barrister) to study law. In retirement, sadly without Mike, who died shortly before her retirement, Kate continued to work in aspects of health care, as a lay member of the local primary care trust and in law, sitting on industrial tribunals. She travelled extensively in association with the Soroptimists and privately, visiting every continent except Antarctica. She took lessons in Swedish to enhance her many visits to Scandinavia, and followed several of the historic trails of North America. Kate was a Christian, and appreciated church music and architecture. She loved opera and was a knowledgeable plantswoman. She played hockey at school and cricket at university, and later enjoyed spectating - including American football and baseball. Kate Goddard became a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at a time when surgery was mainly a male domain. By her quiet persistence she championed the place of women in the professions, both in her medical career and through the Soroptimists. Kate Goddard and other 'women doctors' led by example in her generation, leaving a lasting legacy of equality in the surgical professions. She died on 9 October 2012, aged 81.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003121
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nwakanma, Benson Ihukwumere ( - 2012)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-11-09 2015-02-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375305375305
Occupation General surgeon
Details Benson Ihukwumere Nwakanma gained his FRCS in 1964. He died in Imo State, Nigeria, on 31 August 2012, after a brief illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003122
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fleming, Leslie Brian (1927 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Goldberg, Hanns-Martin (1913 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Atkinson, Leicester (1917 - 1993)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-07-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372816372816
Occupation Radiation oncologist
Details Leicester Atkinson was a consultant radiation oncologist. He was born in London on 25 May 1917, the son of Guy Christopher Leicester Atkinson and Agnes née Mingay. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, and then studied medicine at the Middlesex Hospital, where after qualifying he completed junior posts. After National Service in the Royal Navy as a surgeon-lieutenant, he returned to the Middlesex Hospital to specialise in radiotherapy. In 1954 he emigrated to Sydney, Australia, as director of radiotherapy at St Vincent’s Hospital. Thirteen years later, in 1967, he moved to become director of the new institute of radiation oncology at the Prince of Wales Hospital. During this time he was a consultant radiation oncologist to the Women’s Hospital, the Royal Hospital for Women, and the St George Hospital. He collaborated with Noel Newton in providing a combined radiation and surgical service, and set up visiting consulting services to rural areas surrounding Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Tamworth and Wollongong, with regular clinics staffed by visiting specialists. He was a stickler for accurate observation and documentation, illustrating his own records with clearly-labelled diagrams. He also insisted on reviewing the pathology of all his cases, an innovation at that time. Atkinson later became interested in the epidemiology of cancer, which took him to New Guinea and other countries, and motivated him to set up cancer registries. He was a keen golfer and a great supporter of the English cricket XI. He married Maria Jenvey in 1945 and they had one son. He died at Yass, New South Wales, on 9 August 1993 and is survived by his son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000633
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crosby, David Lewis (1930 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372817372817
Occupation General surgeon
Details David Crosby was a consultant general surgeon at the University Hospital of Wales. He was born in Cardiff on 12 November 1930, the son of William Crosby, a salesman who had served as a quartermaster in the RAMC during the First World War, and his wife, Elsie. He was educated at Court Road Primary School, Cardiff, and Bangor Grammar School in Northern Ireland, when his father was posted there. He later went to Cathays High School, Cardiff. He entered the Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff, in 1948. In his preclinical years, during a paid student holiday attachment to the Medical Research Council’s survey of pneumoconiosis in the miners of the South Wales valleys, he had contact with Archie Cochrane, who subsequently became professor of tuberculosis and chest medicine in Cardiff. Cochrane took an interest in medical students and, with his sceptical approach to medicine and diagnostic methods, and advocacy of clinical trials, was a lasting influence on Crosby. After qualifying in 1953 and a preregistration year in his teaching hospital, he spent his two years of National Service in the Army in Germany. On his return to civilian life, an appointment as a casualty officer, through the resulting contact with orthopaedics and fractures, inclined him to a surgical career, which he commenced as a surgical registrar at the Morriston Hospital, Swansea. At that period, in the early 1960s, senior registrar appointments were difficult to obtain and, realising that he needed to strengthen his CV, he applied, with encouragement from a local consultant, for a research fellowship with Francis Moore at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston. He spent the year there involved, among other things, in research into the efficacy of a series of drugs on the survival of dogs with transplanted kidneys, thus developing operative skill in this procedure and knowledge of the possibilities of organ transplantation. On returning to the UK, he obtained a registrar appointment at Hammersmith Hospital, where work was being done on dialysis, and renal transplantation using living donors had been carried out. He became involved in the surgical side of setting up renal dialysis at a time when it was realised that it, by itself, would put a cumulative load on the NHS, which the development of transplantation might lighten. In 1964 he returned to Cardiff Royal Infirmary as a senior registrar in the professorial surgical unit under Patrick Forrest and, after two years, was appointed consultant surgeon, with the task of establishing renal transplantation in Cardiff, which he successfully did, in conjunction with his colleague in renal medicine. He did not wish to abandon general surgery and he gradually withdrew from the specialty when a second transplantation surgeon was appointed. Previously full-time, he now started doing some private practice and also became involved in the administration of the NHS, of which he remained a devoted supporter, though a critical one, always clear-sighted in seeing its defects and its virtues. He and his anaesthetic colleague, Gareth Rees, fought for and succeeded in establishing an intensive care service in the hospital. From the 1980s, he became interested in how the NHS was run, served on the health authority management team and later was a full member of the South Glamorgan Health Authority. He retired from the NHS in 1995, the year he was awarded the OBE. David Crosby had a critical mind and his liking for argument and debate led him to examining the difficulties and shortcomings of the NHS as it increased in size and complexity. He was a member of a group which, confronted by those proposing that rationing of health care was essential because the NHS could not afford to provide unlimited services, argued that the problem should not be tackled in this way but, rather, by examining closely the efficacy of what was being done and eliminating services which were not of proven value. No doubt this approach was based on his student experience with Archie Cochrane. He was keenly interested in the ethical and legal problems raised by the advances in medicine, including the rationing of care, organ donation, brain death and the position of private practice in the NHS. He approached these questions with a clear and unprejudiced mind, could see both sides of an argument, was adept at arguing a case and would come down on one side or the other. Both verbally and in writing, he could express his opinions lucidly and distinctly, and delighted in doing so in letters to The Times, The Daily Telegraph and other organs of opinion. His success in having these letters printed was doubtless due to their incisiveness. He took an interest in cars, golf and rugby, and was a keen member of the Cardiff Club, where he would lunch with colleagues weekly and indulge in the arguments and discussions he so much enjoyed. After retirement, he did a law degree, was chairman of the Cardiff Medico-Legal Society and served on the Prison Visitor Service. He married, in 1959, Gwenda Harcombe, a senior house officer in anaesthetics at the time. They had two sons, William and Thomas, one a consultant oncologist in Cardiff, and a daughter, Alice. David Crosby died on 1 November 2008 of carcinoma of the prostate.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000634
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rustomjee, Rusie Cawasjee Jamshedjee (1912 - 2012)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-11-09 2013-08-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375306375306
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Rusie Rustomjee, an ENT surgeon, practised medicine for 75 years, starting in Colombo, Ceylon and finally retiring in Australia at the age of 89. He was born in Colombo on 9 November 1912 one of the six children of Cowasjee Rustomjee, whom he described as a merchant, and his wife Piroja née Mistry. His grandfather, Jamshed Ji Rustomjee JP a prominent Ceylonese philanthropist, donated money to the Children's Hospital and the Victoria Home for Incurables in Colombo. He studied at Ceylon Medical College where he was awarded a bursary, and won the Rockwood gold medal for operative surgery. During the Second World War he served as a temporary major in the Ceylon Army Medical Corps. Travelling to London after the war he passed the FRCS in 1949 and became a clinical assistant at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in 1950, working with William McKenzie and Maxwell Ellis, both distinguished fellows of the College. Returning to Colombo he became senior ENT surgeon to the General Hospital. In 1975, concerned by the political situation in Sri Lanka, he and his family emigrated to Australia and settled in the Blue Mountains at Lapstone. He continued to practice ENT surgery at Springwood Hospital and at Nepean and Governor Phillip Hospital, Penrith, finally retiring in 2002. He had married his cousin, Jer Rustomjee in 1948 and they had three children: two daughters, Zarine Mistry (born 1949) who became a consultant physician in Virginia, USA; Tehmi Meher-Homjee (born 1950) who managed a fashion boutique in Australia; and son, Jamshed (born 1951) who worked for the NSW transport board. He was a past president of the Colombo Lions Club and of the Sri Lanka College of Surgeons. In Australia he became a member of the Australian Returned Serviceman's Club and of the Penrith Rugby Leagues Club. He enjoyed swimming, walking, reading and bridge and noted that he regretted not having enough opportunity to practice ocean swimming which had been one of the favourite pastimes of his youth. A year before he retired he remarked that he had had "a varied but happy medical career." He died on 6 October 2011 survived by his wife, children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003123
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Woolf, Cyril Isaac (1930 - 2012)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-11-09 2014-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375307375307
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Cyril Isaac Woolf was an ear, nose and throat surgeon in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was born in the East End of London, into an orthodox Jewish family, the eldest of three sons of Adolph Woolf and Regina Woolf née Frey. He studied medicine in London, qualifying MB BS in 1952. After house posts, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps for his National Service, as a medical officer in Germany. There he met his future wife, Margaret Gibson, at that time serving as a British Army nursing officer. They married in England in 1956. After leaving the Army, Woolf trained in ENT surgery at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology in London. He then went to Northwestern University, Chicago, USA, as a research fellow. In 1961 he emigrated to Winnipeg, where he practised as an otolaryngologist for 45 years, for 22 of which he was head of otolaryngology at St Boniface Hospital. He was particularly interested in the training of graduate students and made a major contribution to the University of Manitoba's programme in otolaryngology. He also carried out voluntary work, especially in the Northwest Territories, where he made numerous visits to tend to the ear problems of children from indigenous communities. Outside medicine, he was passionate about classical music. He was a talented amateur pianist, and in retirement bought his own concert grand piano. He was also interested in modern languages, and spoke French and fluent German. Cyril Isaac Woolf died at the Victoria General Hospital, Winnipeg, on 3 October 2012 from a stroke. He was 82. He was survived by his wife, their sons Daniel and Jeremy, and grandchildren Sarah, Sam, David and Bridget.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003124
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Acherley (or Ackerley), Richard Yates ( - 1862)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-31
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372820372820
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at 6 Prince Edwin Street, Everton, Liverpool, and died on Dec 20th 1862. Publications:- “Tartar Emetic and Opium in Spasmodic Affections.” – *Lond.Med.Gaz.* 1837-8, i, 56. “Nature and Treatment of Puerperal Fever.” – *Ibid.*, 1837-8, ii, 463. “Hydrophobic Mania Successfully Treated with Chloroform” – (Subsequent correspondence elicited that the supposed incubation period was ten years and a few months and that the bite had been inflicted by a cat. It was not, therefore, an instance of rabies at all.) – *Lancet*, 1848, ii, 122, 299, 409.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000637
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Acheson, Johnston Hamilton ( - 1864)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Rogers, Samuel (1802 - 1860)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Rogers, Thomas King (1850 - 1884)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Sieff of Brimpton, Rt Hon Lord Marcus Joseph, Baron Sieff of Brimpton (1913 - 2001)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373436373436
Occupation Businessman
Details A businessman and former chairman of Marks and Spencer, Marcus Sieff was elected to an honorary fellowship in 1984 in recognition of his contributions to the College. He was born in 1913, the younger son of Israel Sieff and Rebecca Marks, an ardent Zionist. Rebecca's father Michael had co-founded the retailer Marks and Spencer in Leeds in 1884. Marcus was educated at Manchester Grammar School, St Paul's in London and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read economics. He started working at Marks and Spencer in 1935. In the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery, winning an OBE for gallantry and reaching the rank of colonel. From 1954, he was successively a director, assistant managing director, vice-chairman, joint managing director and deputy chairman of Marks and Spencer. He was chairman of the company from 1972 to 1984. He introduced schemes to improve the welfare of his employees, including profit sharing. He was created a life peer in 1980. He died in London on 23 February 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001253
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rope, Henry John (1849 - 1899)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375328375328
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Suffolk; studied at King's College Hospital, where he was a distinguished student, and acted as House Surgeon and as Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. He was next House Surgeon at the Shrewsbury Infirmary, and then for some years devoted himself to the care of an invalid brother. Returning to Shrewsbury, he became a partner of Edward Burd, MD, MRCS, and married Burd's daughter, Agnes. When Burd's son, Edward Burd, BA Cantab, etc, joined his father the firm became Burd, Rope & Burd. Rope was appointed Surgeon to the Infirmary, Medical Officer to Shrewsbury School, and for a time was Surgeon to the Dispensary. He gained a large surgical practice through his devotion to his profession, his unselfishness, and kindness to the poor. At one time he was President of the Shropshire and Mid-Wales Branch of the British Medical Association, also a member of the Medical Officers of Schools Association. In August, 1899, he began to show signs of a cerebral tumour, from which he died on September 13th, 1899, at St Mary's Court, Shrewsbury. He was survived by his widow and six children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003145
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Caleb (1820 - 1895)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Downs, George (1807 - 1884)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Douty, Edward Henry (1861 - 1911)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373630373630
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on December 17th, 1861, at Wilton, near Salisbury, the second son of Joel Douty, a well-known schoolmaster, whose address was Netherhampton House, and of Mary, daughter of J Donaldson, of Carlisle. He was educated at St Edmund's School, Salisbury, and at King's College, Cambridge, which he had entered as a Choral Scholar intended for Holy Orders. He graduated in Part I of the Natural Science Tripos in 1884. His father dying the day he took his BA, he went home to carry on the school, which he afterwards sold. In 1885 he returned to Cambridge and supported himself by coaching while reading medicine for a degree. During the next twelve years he worked incessantly and with restless activity, becoming Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy in 1887 and Supervisor of Medical Students at King's and Emmanuel Colleges. Indeed, it was said that at one time he was nearly elected a Fellow of King's with a view to his being made Dean. In 1889 he was House Surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, having worked there in his vacations. Settling in practice at Cambridge with Hyde Hill, MRCS, he achieved great success in a short period. He had, indeed, already shown himself to be a very able teacher and had a large coaching connection. After a contested election, he became Assistant Surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, as also Surgeon in charge of the Gynaecological Department there, and was appointed Lecturer in Midwifery at the University. He was elected to the Cambridge County Council, held a post in connection with the Cambridge District Nurses, and was Surgeon Captain in the Harwich Infantry Brigade. In 1890 he performed cholecystotomy, an unusual operation in East Anglia, and was supported at this operation by the presence of his senior, Sir George M Humphry, whom he resembled in his impressive manner and powers of teaching. In 1897, suffering from haemoptysis after influenza, he sent a specimen of his sputum to Professor A A Kanthack (qv), who, thinking it to be from some patient of Douty's, remarked to the latter that it was teeming with tubercle bacilli. Douty's Cambridge activities were ended by this announcement, and he became a wanderer in search of health. For a time he was a patient under Walther at Nordrach, and later settled in practice at Davos, where he carried out the Nordrach treatment at the Belvedere Hotel. After some years the excessive cold of Davos led him to seek a pleasanter climate. He settled eventually at Cannes, at the same time retaining rooms in Paris. Seeking to improve his position as a surgeon, he spent some months in London and passed the Fellowship in spite of severe intercurrent illness. He had wished to settle in London, where doubtless his connection among his old Davos patients would have been extensive, but his health would not permit this course. He returned to the Riviera and laid himself out for surgical practice. At Cannes he was Surgeon to the Asile Evangélique, and he was also Surgeon to the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital at Nice. Douty was a man of many-sided character, outspoken, upright, with troops of friends, of whom some had not always understood his candid utterances. He had a facility for attracting and managing patients. A man of the world, of extraordinary versatility, he was a connoisseur in music, literature, and in almost every form of art. There were, indeed, few subjects on which he had not clear and independent views. With a mind exceptionally virile, and little inclined to bow to authority as such, he had a shrewd eye for humbug in high places and a generous appreciation for merit in unlikely subjects. His striking personality exerted a direct and wholesome influence over his pupils and patients, especially the undergraduates at Cambridge between 1885 and 1897. No one was less like the traditional don. His degrees and diplomas were so numerous that, at the time of his death, he was probably the best qualified medical man in the world. His foreign degrees were necessary to enable him to practise in France, and he told interesting stories of his examinations, particularly of his struggle for the Paris MD. After a long courageous fight with ever-increasing physical disabilities and a life of very arduous work, Douty succumbed to an attack of fever and to cardiac failure at the Villa Florence, Cannes, on May 27th, 1911. In 1909 he had married Kathleen, third daughter of Sir Frederick Wills, Bart., and was survived by this lady and an infant son. He was buried at Clifford Chambers, near Stratford-on-Avon. A portrait of Douty accompanies his biography by Sir Humphry Rolleston in the *Lancet*, 1911, i, 1618. Publications:- *Quicksilber bei Syphilis*, Davos, 1899. *Le Sanalorium Idéal*, Thesis, 8vo, 5 plates, Paris, 1904. "Case of Cholecystotomy." - *Trans. Cambridge Med. Soc.*, 1890. "Laparotomy for Post-Typhlitic Abscess." - *Ibid.*, 1893. "Case of so-called Super-foetation." - *Ibid.*, 1894. "Caesarean Section." - *Ibid.*, 1897. "Climate and Cure of Consumption." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1899, ii, 56; *Lancet*, 1899, i, 1055. "Case of Traumatic Aneurysm of the Carotid Artery caused by a Sewing Needle." - *Lancet*, 1899, ii, 1584.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001447
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mearns, Alan James (1940 - 2008)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Tom Treasure
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-05-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373678373678
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Alan Mearns was a cardiothoracic surgeon in Bradford. He studied medicine in Liverpool, qualifying MB ChB in 1963, and continued his surgical training in the city, passing his FRCS Edinburgh in 1969 and his FRCS in 1970. After a post as a senior registrar in cardiothoracic surgery at Killingbeck Hospital, Leeds, he was appointed to his consultant post in Bradford in January 1980. Alan was widely read but very down to earth. He got on well with patients and staff alike with an easy going nature on the ward and in the outpatient setting. He was good at oesophageal surgery, bringing the same easy going nature to the theatre as on the wards. He published numerous papers and contributed to major textbooks. A series of studies on pain reduction after thoracotomy was a particularly important contribution. He worked closely with his colleague 'Sabba' Sabanathan and their anaesthetist colleagues, completing an influential randomised controlled trial. As a result, continuous paravertebral intercostal nerve block has become a standard method of postoperative pain relief in thoracic surgery ('A prospective, randomized comparison of preoperative and continuous balanced epidural or paravertebral bupivacaine on post-thoracotomy pain, pulmonary function and stress responses.' *Br J Anaesth*. 1999 Sep;83[3]:387-92). He was a regular attendee and frequent contributor at society meetings, appearing as a tousle-haired, sometimes sandal-wearing and somewhat eccentric figure. His views were forthright but well-founded and delivered with generosity to his colleagues and trainees, and always with good humour. He is spoken of with great affection by his one-time trainees. He created an ambience of good will in his staff, which had a positive influence on patient care. His first wife died young and he married for a second time, to Sally. Alan James Mearns died on 23 May 2008. He was 68. He was survived by Sally and by seven children from his two marriages and six grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001495
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mills, Eleanor Mary (1911 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2014-09-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001500-E001599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373683373683
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Eleanor Mary Mills was a consultant gynaecologist at North Manchester General Hospital and Stretford Memorial Hospital, Manchester. She was born in Royton, Lancashire, the only child of Joseph Mills, a cotton mill manager and director, and Ada Eleanor Mills née Wood, the daughter of an engineer. She was educated at Miss Rees' School in Royton, Oldham Grammar and Queen Ethelburga's School in Harrogate. She then went on to study medicine at Manchester University. She qualified MB ChB in 1936 and gained her conjoint diploma in 1937. She was a house surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary and to St Mary's Hospital, Manchester. She then became a resident surgical officer at Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute. She was an assistant resident obstetric officer at Withington Hospital, Manchester, and subsequently a surgical chief assistant at Manchester Royal Infirmary. She was then appointed as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Crumpsall Hospital and Stretford Memorial Hospital, and later became a consultant at North Manchester General Hospital. She was a member and then fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and served as an examiner for the membership examinations. Outside medicine, she enjoyed gardening. In 1937 she married and became Mrs Heslop, although she used her maiden name in her profession. She had no children. She died in 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001500
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doyne, Robert Walter (1857 - 1916)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Bevan, Peter Gilroy (1922 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by John Black
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2012-03-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373638373638
Occupation General surgeon
Details Peter Bevan was professor of surgery at Birmingham and a former vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was born in Birmingham on 13 December 1922, of Welsh and Yorkshire roots, the elder son of Thomas John Bevan, a Congregational minister who served as a chaplain at Gallipoli, and Norah née Gilroy. He was educated at King Edward's High School, where he excelled at athletics and cricket, and was deputy head boy. His Higher School Certificate was in modern languages, but he decided to become a surgeon and entered Birmingham University Medical School in 1940. He enlisted in the Home Guard, and his duties included taking theodolite bearings of fires from the 300-foot Chamberlain Tower during air raids. In his last year before qualification he became a house surgeon to H H Sampson at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. His duties included triaging batches of up to 30 wounded soldiers transported from Europe each morning. His National Service was spent in occupied Germany, where he met his first wife in the course of administering a Schick test for diphtheria. After an anatomy demonstratorship in Birmingham, he became one of two casualty officers dealing with 55,000 patients a year at Birmingham General Hospital. He devised a method of treating painful chest wall injuries with intravenous procaine, which led to his first publication, in no less a journal than the *Lancet*. After registrar posts he became a lecturer in the academic department of Alan Stammers and Bryan Brooke. He shared an office with a fellow lecturer, Geoffrey Slaney, future president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and obtained his mastership for a thesis investigating pulmonary complications of abdominal surgery. He did not obtain the academic appointment he aspired to, and in 1958 he joined the staff of Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham, built in 1889 to Nightingale Ward design, with 1,000 beds and a main corridor a quarter of a mile long. He was the junior of six surgeons and was given an all-day operating list and fixed emergency call day, in each case on Saturday! He had a house surgeon but no registrar. His initial surgical practice was extraordinarily wide-ranging, including treatment of hip fractures, and specialised clinics for clubfoot and the hand. With the development, led by him, of departments of orthopaedic surgery and urology, he was able to concentrate on introducing vascular surgery to the hospital, and developing gastro-intestinal surgery, particularly pancreatic. He produced approximately 65 publications and countless presentations, attracted registrars and senior registrars, and trained many future consultants. Early in his career he introduced teaching rounds for final year medical students, started the Saturday morning FRCS course, and was the main driver behind the first postgraduate centre, opened in 1959. The current third generation building commemorates his name in the Bevan Library. Dudley Road, renamed City Hospital, is now a full teaching hospital of the University of Birmingham. In 1977 he was a natural choice to become postgraduate dean, and his efforts led to the conferment of a personal chair from the University of Birmingham with the title 'Professor of Surgery and Postgraduate Medical Education'. In the early 1960s Peter Bevan became the first Royal College of Surgeons surgical tutor in the West Midlands, and started the regional network. In 1971 he was elected to the College Council, where his eloquent speaking and multitude of ideas made him a perfect chairman of the board of surgical training. He was vice-president from 1980-to 1982, joined the Court of Patrons and was a trustee of the Hunterian Collection. In 1980 he came up with idea of 'surgical workshops', and in 1981 started a series of annual four-day College workshops, using models and animal tissue. This was well ahead of his time, and led ultimately to the present skills unit in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1974 he published an article in the *Annals* of the College entitled 'The surgeon as teacher, counsellor, and politician' (1974 Sep;55[3]:143-6). This advocated national political involvement, and was again prescient. Peter Bevan took numerous other national leadership roles. He was president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, the British Association of Surgical Oncology, the Pancreatic Society and the National Association of Theatre Nurses. He was an adviser in surgery to the Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, also to the Royal Navy, somewhat ironically for a man whose nautical experience was confined to his much-loved canal long boat! In 1975 he was one of the first ever representatives from the UK to a European Community institution, joining the monospecialist section in surgery, in Brussels, where his French learnt at school proved useful. This was not his only foray abroad - in 1969 he was World Health Organization visiting professor in Burma. Peter's first wife Pat, whom he met when doing National Service in Germany, died in 1985 of a rare spinal tumour. There are two children of the marriage, a son who is a chartered accountant, and a daughter who is a solicitor. Happily he contracted a second happy marriage in 1990 to Beryl, a professional pianist. Together they gave many joint presentations on 'the melodies and maladies' of some of the great composers, with Peter lecturing and Beryl illustrating by playing their works. His younger brother David was a Conservative Member of Parliament for a Birmingham constituency for many years. Peter Bevan was a man of remarkable charm and personality, tall, and with an infectious sense of humour and a loud laugh. He was devoid of enemies, being immensely polite and charming to everyone he met regardless of rank or position. He turned his institution into one of the best-known and respected district general hospitals in the country. In it he treated many thousands of patients in a state of the art manner and produced a stream of publications. He held every possible local and regional office and was a major national figure, maintaining a full clinical commitment throughout. He described election to the College Council as the greatest honour a surgeon could aspire too, and was proud to have been a vice-president. This was reflected in the award of the CBE, although many felt he merited higher recognition. He died on 11 September 2011.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001455
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chandrasekharan, Aluvangal Pulparambil (1956 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2013-11-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373639373639
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Aluvangal Pulparambil Chandrasekharan was a cardiothoracic surgeon in the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, Pushpagiri Medical College, Kerala, India. He died on 20 June 2011, aged just 54, after sustaining a head injury in a traffic accident three days earlier. He was survived by his wife, Jyothi Chandrasekharan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001456
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dudley, Hugh Arnold Freeman (1925 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by R C G Russell
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2013-11-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373640373640
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hugh Arnold Freeman Dudley was professor of surgery at St Mary's Hospital, London, and foundation professor of surgery at Monash University, Melbourne. He was born in Dublin on 1 July 1925, the third child and first son of Walter Lionel Dudley, a schoolmaster, and Ethel Marion Dudley née Smith. He was educated at Heath Grammar School, Halifax, and then went on to study medicine at Edinburgh University, where he won several prizes and topped his year in 1947. After house posts in Edinburgh, he joined the Army and served for two years as a medical officer in the Parachute Regiment. He left the Army with the rank of major. He returned to Edinburgh for his surgical training. Here he was influenced by the distinguished surgeon Sir James Learmouth. Dudley became interested in the body's response to injury, and he undertook a fellowship with Francis Moore at Harvard, the world authority on this area. His research formed the basis of his ChM thesis, for which he was awarded the gold medal and the Chiene medal of Edinburgh University in 1958. From Edinburgh he was appointed as a senior lecturer in the department of surgery at Aberdeen University at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. In 1963 he was invited to become the foundation professor of surgery at the then newly-established Monash University, Melbourne, based at Alfred Hospital. He developed a strong research base in his department, and encouraged young trainee surgeons who were studying for higher degrees. He was active within the Surgical Research Society of Australasia and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Along with other civilian surgeons, physicians and anaesthetists from Australia, Dudley served in the Vietnam War. He was decorated by the South Vietnam government for removing a live shell detonator cap from the abdomen of a wounded civilian. In 1973 Dudley returned to the UK, as professor of surgery at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. Here he introduced evidence based medicine to the surgical unit, together with strict record keeping. He expected high standards from his trainees, and they were worked very hard, but most felt they learnt a lot from the experience. Dudley wrote extensively throughout his career, including editing and contributing to the classic textbook *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworths). He was president of the Surgical Research Society in the UK. He was particularly proud to become chairman of the *British Journal of Surgery*, and transformed the *Journal* from a traditional and rather staid contribution to the surgical literature, by changing the publisher and the then owner of *Journal* from John Wright of Bristol to the publisher, Butterworth. In this negotiation he proved that the *Journal* belonged to the surgeons and established a company, The British Journal of Surgery, which became the owner of the *Journal*, with all rights to the *Journal* from its establishment. This enabled the editors to negotiate the content and the size of the *Journal* with freedom, dependent only on making a profit, which was used for the benefit of surgery. Thanks to Hugh's focus on excellence the editors improved the presentation, content and profitability of the *Journal*. It was this dedication to excellence which tarnished Hugh's image with his colleagues, house staff and students. He transformed the standard of clinical practice wherever he worked by setting an example of commitment to the patient, which involved seeing the sick patient several times in the day, and ensuring that all instructions on management were meticulously followed. His management of fluid balance was exemplary, ensuring that the patient had the best possible chance of recovery. His reputation of irritability was unjust; it was his passion for excellence in patient care, research and writing that gave him a reputation of directness, but his motive of achieving excellence could never be doubted. Socially, he was a pleasure, particularly as host of a dinner, usually within the role of chairman of the *British Journal of Surgery*, displaying a breadth of knowledge of great erudition. Within this part of his character was a dedication and loyalty to his trainees quite beyond that of his colleagues. He was a man whose influence in British surgery was considerable. In 1988 he retired from St Mary's. He continued to write and carried out consultative work for the Ministry of Defence. He moved to Aberdeenshire in Scotland, in the hope of enjoying an outdoor life, but his later years were marred by illness. He died on 28 June 2011 aged 85. He was survived by his wife, Jean, a former nurse, a son (Nigel) and a daughter (Iona), eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. A son (Raymond) predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001457
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching England, Henry Richard (1917 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2013-12-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373641373641
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Henry Richard England gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1954. He was originally from Auckland, New Zealand, and was born on 30 June 1917. He died in London, aged 94, on 18 August 2011. He was survived by his wife, Joy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001458
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fraser, Ian Urquhart (1926 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Margaret Bird
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2012-02-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373642373642
Occupation Anatomist
Details Ian Urquhart Fraser was an anatomy lecturer in London. He was born in Bangkok in 1926. During the Second World War he served in the Army and, in 1945, was based in Germany. Following his demobilisation, he returned to Britain to begin his studies as a medical student at King's College, London. Following the completion of his medical training, Ian obtained his MRCS and LRCP in 1954, and then worked at the American Hospital in Paris between 1956 and 1957. Back in the UK, he took up posts at Basildon and North End Hospital, Hampstead. By 1968 he was working at St Bartholomew's Hospital in West Smithfield and discovered a talent for teaching anatomy to medical students. He devoted the rest of his career to teaching medical students, initially at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and then at Bart's and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine following the merger of the basic medical sciences departments at Bart's and the Royal London with Queen Mary and Westfield College in 1990. During this period he often carried out locum work as a GP both in the Barbican and in Chalk Farm. He continued to teach well into his seventies and was considered to be one of the finest teachers of anatomy in the school of medicine. Ian had a wonderful sense of humour and a seemingly endless supply of witty comments and stories. He inspired his students with his command of anatomy coupled with memorable anecdotes, which aided the learning of a detailed and essential subject, thus vastly improving the recall of important anatomical facts. He was a valued colleague and friend who had the capacity to entertain and enliven even the dullest and most tedious meeting. He was immensely well-read and educated, and an enormous loss to the department when he retired. Ian was an intensely private person who, sadly, did not have any immediate family. In 2011 he was taken ill with heart and kidney problems. He was admitted into the Royal London Hospital and then to the cardiology ward at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he subsequently developed pneumonia. He died in hospital on 1 September 2011 at the age of 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001459
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hale, John Edward (1936 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Robin Lightwood
Publication Date 2011-10-06 2015-09-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373643373643
Occupation Colorectal surgeon General surgeon
Details John Hale was a consultant general and colorectal surgeon at Redhill in Surrey. He was born into a family of market gardeners in the Vale of Evesham, Worcestershire. He showed early academic promise and attended Prince Henry's Grammar School in Evesham, where he was head boy. He then gained a scholarship to King's College in London and Westminster Hospital Medical School, where he met his future wife Patricia Hikins, who was a student nurse, and they later married in 1964. Having qualified in 1960 and after house jobs at Westminster Hospital and in Southampton, he set off to Nigeria, where he did a year in tropical paediatrics and obstetrics in Ibadan. He drove back to Europe across North Africa. Following a spell in casualty at Edgware General Hospital, he set sail again, this time as a ship's doctor, travelling through the Suez Canal to the Far East. Having studied for the primary FRCS while at sea, he passed the exam after returning to London. After senior house officer posts in Bath and Bristol, he moved back to the Westminster and Gordon hospitals with the final FRCS under his belt. He then spent a year doing research into colonic healing in rats, using cyanoacrylate glue, at the University of California in San Francisco, under the direction of Englebert Dunphy and Tom Hunt, which led to his thesis for the MS. He returned to work at Roehampton Hospital with Alan Rutter and then as a senior registrar to Harold Ellis at the Westminster. He gained his MS in 1976 and a year later was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Redhill, first at Redhill General and Smallfield hospitals and later at the new East Surrey Hospital, where he remained until his retirement in 2001. Here he developed his interest in coloproctology. He belonged to the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, was an honorary member of the American Medical Association and was an elected member of the Société Internationale de Chirurgie. With the development of laparoscopic surgery, he became an enthusiastic advocate. For several years he visited the Norwegian fjords, operating at local hospitals with a nurse anaesthetist, while his wife and three daughters enjoyed a holiday. John was a kindly person, with wide interests outside medicine and great enthusiasm for all he did. Subject throughout his life to periods of depression, he was devastated to be sent on permanent leave at the age of 62. His many interests kept him busy, with music playing a large part in his life. As a young man he was a church organist in Evesham and he had a fine voice, singing as a baritone with Pat in local choral societies. He enjoyed gardening and in later life he kept bees. He was a keen Rotarian and a member of a walking group. In retirement he studied history, art history and literature to gain a BA in combined studies at the University of Surrey. He also managed his own investments. Latterly he took up windsurfing, but never learned how to turn round. He always maintained his roots in Worcestershire, with a cottage in Broadway and his bank in Evesham. He loved family holidays on the Scilly Isles. He diagnosed his own carcinoid syndrome in 2009, and died on 8 September 2011. He was 74.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001460
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maudsley, Roy Homer (1918 - 2011)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2015-04-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373677373677
Occupation Accident surgeon Trauma surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Roy Homer Maudsley was a consultant accident and orthopaedic surgeon at the King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, Maidenhead General Hospital, Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, and Heatherwood Orthopaedic Hospital, Ascot. He was born on 18 December 1918, the second son of William Maudsley, a clergyman, and Edith Annie Maudsley née Chapman. He was educated at Mount Florida Elementary School in Glasgow, Wyggeston School, Leicester and Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby. He studied medicine at Liverpool University, qualifying MB BCh in 1942 and MRCS LRCP in 1943. He held junior posts in Liverpool and then served in the RAF Medical Service as a flight lieutenant. He gained his FRCS in 1950. Prior to his appointments as a consultant surgeon, he was a surgical registrar at the British Postgraduate Medical School and then a senior orthopaedic registrar at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He was a fellow and honorary secretary (from 1968 to 1972) of the British Orthopaedic Association and honorary secretary of the section of orthopaedics at the Royal Society of Medicine (from 1967 to 1968). Outside medicine he was interested in golf, sailing and skiing. He married a Miss Madgwick in 1947. They had three sons. Roy Homer Maudsley died on 10 March 2011. He was 92.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001494
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Porter, Richard William (1935 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372431372431
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Richard William Porter was a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon in Aberdeen. He was born on 16 February 1935 in Doncaster, the son of J Luther Porter, a china merchant and Methodist minister, and Mary Field. He was educated at Oundle and Edinburgh University, and completed his surgical training at Edinburgh. Following house appointments he became a ships' surgeon for three months before returning to Edinburgh as a senior house officer and passing the FRCS Edinburgh and the DObstRCOG. He began his surgical training as a registrar in Sheffield and after obtaining the FRCS England in 1966 he became a senior registrar on the orthopaedic training programme at King's College Hospital, where he was much influenced by Hubert Wood and Christopher Attenborough. He returned to Doncaster as consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and soon took an interest in low back pain, a common problem among the coal miners. He set up a research programme and established a department of bioengineering which attracted postgraduate students from home and abroad. He became an authority on the use of ultrasound in the investigation of back pain published papers and a book on the subject and was awarded an MD in 1981 for this work. His reputation resulted in the presidency of the Society for Back Pain Research and a founder membership of the European Spine Society. He was also on the council of the British Orthopaedic Association and the Society of Clinical Anatomists. In 1990 he was appointed to the Sir Harry Platt chair of orthopaedic surgery in Aberdeen and developed links with China and Romania, and later became the first Syme professor of orthopaedics in the University of Edinburgh and director of education and training at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Following his retirement he returned to Doncaster and, as a devout Christian, played a very full part in the local Evangelical Methodist Church. He published extensively and was the author of three textbooks. In 1964 he married Christine Brown, whom he had known since his schooldays. They had four sons, one of whom is an orthopaedic surgeon, two are Anglican ministers and one a Methodist minister. He died on 20 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000244
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Booth, John Barton (1937 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372432372432
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John Barton Booth was a consultant ENT surgeon at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospitals. He was born on 19 November 1937, the son of Percy Leonard Booth and Mildred Amy née Wilson. He was educated at Canford School and at King's College, London, where he became an Associate (a diploma award given by the theology department), flirted with politics (the Conservative Party) and law, but in the end qualified in medicine. After house appointments at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, he started ENT training at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. He subsequently became a senior registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, working with John Ballantyne and John Groves, and for one day a week he was seconded to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases as clinical assistant to Margaret Dix, who was famous as an audiological physician with a particular interest in balance problems. The influence of these mentors very much guided John into a career in otology and he later confirmed his position in that field by being elected a Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. His lecture was based on his work on Ménière's disease. He was appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and consultant ENT surgeon to the London (later Royal London) Hospital and subsequently to the Royal Hospital of St Bartholomew's. John was never happy with the fusion of the Royal London and Bart's, particularly as the ENT department was relocated at Bart's. He was appointed as a civilian consultant (otology) to the RAF, which gave him the opportunity to practise otology in Cyprus for two weeks in June every year. John Booth had a strong Christian belief and moral code, which underpinned his life. He was always immaculately dressed, precise in his manner, thoughtful in his approach to problems and determined in his belief that a job should be well done and with no half measures. He was always a person who could be relied upon, which explains the succession of responsible positions he held. He edited the *Journal of Laryngology & Otology* from 1987 to 1992, as well as the volume on diseases of the ear in two editions of *Scott-Brown's Otolaryngology*. For the Royal Society of Medicine he was president of the section of otology and council member, honorary secretary and subsequently vice-president of the Society. For the British Academic Conference in Otolarynoglogy he was honorary secretary of the general committee for the eighth conference, becoming chairman of the same committee for the ninth. John inherited the significant voice practice of his father-in-law, Ivor Griffiths, and continued his association with the Royal Opera House, the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain, the Concert Artists Association and the Musicians Benevolent Fund, until his retirement in 2000. In addition, he was honorary consultant to St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy. John had a great interest in the history of his specialty and in art. He was able, with Sir Alan Bowness, to combine these two interests in a publication on Barbara Hepworth's drawings of ear surgery, which appeared as a supplement in the *Journal of Laryngology & Otology* (April 2000). He married Carroll Griffiths in 1966. They both enjoyed playing golf, either at the RAC Club or on the Isle of Man, where they retired. John took great pride in his membership of the MCC and the R and A at St Andrew's. On retirement he switched from ENT and became a physician at St Bridget's Hospice in Douglas. He managed to combine part-time work at the hospice with the care of Carroll, who had been ill for eight years. She died on 3 July 2004 and John died of a massive coronary thrombosis on 22 July 2005. He left their son, James. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000245
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Collis, John Leigh (1911 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372229372229
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Jack Collis was a pioneering thoracic surgeon. He was born in Harborne, Birmingham, on 14 July 1911, the son of Walter Thomas Collis, an industrial chemist, and Dora Charton Reay. His choice of medicine was greatly influenced by his local GP and his two medical uncles, one of whom was a professor of medicine at Cardiff. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and studied medicine at Birmingham. There he was a member of the athletic club and captained the hockey team. He was equally outstanding as a scholar, winning the Queen’s scholarship for three years running, and the Ingleby scholarship and Priestley Smith prize in his final year, together with gold medals in clinical surgery and medicine. He graduated in 1935 with first class honours. He was house physician to K D Wilkinson at Birmingham General Hospital and then house surgeon to B J Ward at the Queen’s Hospital. He went on to be surgical registrar to H H Sampson at the General Hospital, before becoming a resident surgical officer at the Brompton Chest Hospital in London under Tudor Edwards and Clement Price Thomas. The outbreak of war saw him back in Birmingham as resident surgical officer at the General Hospital. By July 1940 he was surgeon to the Barnsley Hall Emergency hospital, which received Blitz casualties from Birmingham and Coventry. He was in charge of the chest unit for the next four years, during which time he wrote a thesis on the metastatic cerebral abscess associated with suppurative conditions of the lung, where he showed the route of infection via the vertebral veins. This won him an MD with honours, as well as a Hunterian professorship in 1944. In February 1944 he joined the RAMC to command the No 3 Surgical Team for Chest Surgery, taking his team through Europe into Germany shortly after D-day, for which he was mentioned in despatches. From Germany he was posted to India to receive the anticipated casualties in the Far East. He ended his war service as a Lieutenant Colonel. At the end of the war he applied to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, from his posting in India, with a glowing reference from Tudor Edwards. He was appointed initially as a general surgeon, though he was soon engaged mainly in thoracic surgery, especially thoracoplasty for tuberculosis, and spent much time travelling between sanatoria in Warwick, Burton-on-Trent and Malvern. With the advent of cardiac surgery, Jack was responsible for a successful series of mitral valvotomies and was one of the first to remove a tumour from within the cavity of the left atrium, using a sharpened dessert spoon and a piece of wire gauze. Later he withdrew from open heart surgery to concentrate on the surgery of the oesophagus. He became celebrated for three advances in the surgery of the oesophagus – the Collis gastroplasty for patients with reflux, the Collis repair of the lower oesophagus and, above all, a successful technique for oesophagectomy. In this his mortality and leakage rates were half those of his contemporaries. He attributed his success to the use of fine steel wire: his assistants attributed it to his outstanding surgical technique. He was Chairman of the regional advisory panel for cardiothoracic surgery, an honorary professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Birmingham, and was President of the Thoracic Society and the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. He was Chairman of the medical advisory committee at the Birmingham United Hospitals from 1961 to 1963, and Chairman of the planning committee from 1963 to 1965. He trained a generation of thoracic surgeons whose friendship he retained, along with those medical orderlies who served with him during the war. Vehemently proud of Birmingham, he devoted much of his retirement to promoting the city. He married Mavis Haynes in 1941. They had a holiday bungalow in Wales, where he enjoyed walking, gardening and fishing. They had four children, Nigel, Gilly, Christopher and Mark, two of whom entered medicine. He died in Moseley, Birmingham on 4 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000042
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crabtree, Norman Lloyd (1916 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Siegler, Gerald Joseph (1921 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2009-05-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372436372436
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Gerald Joseph Siegler, or ‘Jo’ as he known to colleagues, was an ENT consultant in Liverpool. He was born in London on 3 January 1921, and studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He held junior posts in Huddersfield, Lancaster, Nuneaton and Birkenhead, before completing his National Service with the RAF. After passing his FRCS he specialised in ENT, becoming a registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and then a senior registrar at Liverpool, where he was appointed consultant in 1958. He was past president of the North of England ENT Society and an honorary member of the Liverpool Medical Institute. After he retired in 1986 he continued to be busy, working for Walton jail until 1995. He died from the complications of myeloma on 4 October 2005, leaving a wife, Brenda, two daughters, Sarah and Pauline, and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000249
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Yellowlees, Sir Henry (1919 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372437372437
Occupation Chief Medical Officer
Details Sir Henry Yellowlees was Chief Medical Officer for England from 1973 to 1983. He was born on 16 April 1919 in Edinburgh, the son of Sir Henry Yellowlees, a psychiatrist, and Dorothy Davies, a cellist. He was educated at Stowe and University College, Oxford, but deferred his medical training to join the RAF, where he became a flying instructor. After the war he went up to Oxford to read medicine, going on to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies. After house appointments he became a resident medical officer at the Middlesex. His skilful handling of an epidemic among the staff drew him to the attention of Sir George Godber and before long Henry was involved in medical administration, first as medical officer at the South West and later the North West Regional Hospital Boards, and finally the Ministry of Health. There he became Deputy Chief Medical Officer in 1966 and finally Chief Medical Officer in 1973, despite having suffered a coronary thrombosis. During his time the NHS went through a series of massive and destructive reorganisations, wrought by Barbara Castle and her successors just at a time when important new developments were taking place in medicine and surgery. After he left the Department of Health he worked at the Ministry of Defence, restructuring the medical services of the Armed Forces. He married Gwyneth 'Sally' Comber in 1948. They had three children, Rosemary (a nurse), Lindy (a psychiatrist) and Ian (an anaesthetist and pain specialist). After his wife's death in 2001 he married Mary Porter. He died on 22 March 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000250
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doey, William David (1922 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Fiddian, Richard Vasey (1923 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2007-08-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372243372243
Occupation General surgeon
Details Richard Vasey ‘Dick’ Fiddian was a consultant general surgeon at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital from 1964 to 1989. He was born on 6 October 1923 in Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire, where his father, James Victor Fiddian, was a general practitioner-surgeon. His mother, Doris Mary née White, came from a farming family. Dick was the last of five children, and the second son. From the age of eight he attended the Old College boarding school in Windermere, and then, at 11, went to Manchester Grammar School. In October 1941 he went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read for the natural sciences tripos. In 1943 he was drafted into the Army and spent three years as a fighting soldier in the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of captain. As well as serving in the field with the 14th Army in Burma, he also helped to oversee the rebuilding of the Burma Road with the help of Japanese POWs. In October 1946 he returned to Emmanuel College, completing his first and second MB. He was also awarded an MA in anthropology, physiology, pathology and biochemistry. Whilst at Emmanuel, Fiddian became captain of the golf team, and was awarded a Cambridge blue. After qualifying, he did two years of house appointments at Bart’s, including anaesthetics, and a further year as junior registrar (SHO) to Rupert Corbett and Alec Badenoch. He then took a year off as a ship’s doctor on the Orsova of the Orient Line, before taking his Fellowship in 1956. He then became a registrar to Norman Townsley and John Stephens at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. When the Queen came to open the new operating theatres, Fiddian escorted the Duke of Edinburgh round the male Nightingale ward and introduced him to his patients, one of whom had been operated on by Dick, but failed to recognise his surgeon. He was heard to say in a broad Norfolk accent: “Nice to meet the Duke, but who was that good-looking young man in a white coat walking with him?” Dick returned to Bart’s in 1958 as chief assistant to John Hosford, whom Dick greatly admired. He also worked with Sir Edward Tuckwell, whose rapidity as an operator was legendary. After two years he went to the North Middlesex Hospital under Basil Page, the urologist. Spending a year in Boston, Massachusetts, he worked as an assistant in surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital under Francis Moore, professor of surgery at Harvard and chief surgeon at the Brigham. In 1963 he completed a Milton research fellowship in surgery at Harvard Medical School. In 1964 he was appointed as a consultant to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. There he developed a special interest in wound infection and made some useful contributions on the use of metronidazole. He retired from the NHS in 1989. In 1985 he started learning Spanish at the local adult education college in Luton, continuing to study the language until he was 80. He visited Spain many times and often went on cultural trips, which he thoroughly enjoyed. After his retirement he studied Spanish literature at Birkbeck College, and received an award from the Institute of Linguists for his command of the language. He married twice. His first wife was Aileen, an Australian he met on board ship. They had one son, Jonathan. After her death he married Jean née Moore, a medical secretary, by whom he had a son, James, and two daughters, Emily and Sarah. They also adopted the child of one of Jean’s friends. Although they became estranged, they remained good friends and Jean cared for him in his latter days, which were marred by a degree of dementia. He died on 30 December 2004. Dick Fiddian was an extremely affable man who was everyone’s friend, not because of a wish to be universally liked, but for his capacity to see the best in people. He was a self-effacing man, describing his contributions to the literature as “numerous, none of which were important”. Conversation with him was always a pleasure, as was listening to his after-dinner speeches which were interspersed with bon mots and limericks which probed the idiosyncrasies of the company, never with malice but always with a twinkle in his eye.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000056
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fison, Lorimer George (1920 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372244372244
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Lorimer Fison was an innovative ophthalmic surgeon who introduced a revolutionary new procedure for the repair of retinal detachment from the United States. He was born on 14 July 1920 in Harrogate, the third son of William James Fison, a well-known ophthalmic surgeon, and Janet Sybil née Dutton, the daughter of a priest. He was educated at Parkfield School, Haywards Heath, and then Marlborough College. He then studied natural sciences at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and then went on to St Bartholomew’s Hospital. After qualifying, he joined the Navy during the war as a Surgeon Lieutenant. Following demobilisation, he became a resident surgical officer at Moorfield’s, despite having caught tuberculosis. He then became a senior registrar at St Thomas’s Hospital and later at Bart’s. In 1957 Fison went to the Schepens unit in Boston in the United States, after Sir Stuart Duke-Elder, the then doyen of British ophthalmology, suggested that fellows be despatched to learn the new techniques of retinal detachment surgery. There Fison learnt the procedure of scleral explantation, and was also impressed by the ophthalmic instruments then available in the US. Back in England, Fison faced some opposition when he attempted to introduce the new procedures he had been taught in the States, but was finally given beds at Moorfield’s annexe in Highgate. With the help of Charles Keeler, he modified the Schepens indirect ophthalmoscope, which was put into production and sold around the world. Fison was also the first to introduce the photocoagulator, the forerunner of the modern ophthalmic laser, which was developed by Meyer-Schwickerath in Germany. In 1962, after a brief appointment at the Royal Free Hospital, he was appointed as a consultant at Moorfield’s. He was held in great affection by his colleagues and juniors, who remember his warmth and generosity. Fison was President of the Faculty of Ophthalmologists from 1980 to 1983 and of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom from 1985 to 1987. He was an ardent supporter of the merging of these two organisations – they became the Royal College of Ophthalmologists in 1988. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was an examiner for the FRCS in ophthalmology, Chairman of the Court of Examiners in 1978 and a member of Council. He married Isabel née Perry in 1947 and they had one daughter, Sally, who qualified in medicine. On his retirement he moved to Sidmouth, where he continued his hobbies of woodworking and sailing. He died on 12 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000057
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fuller, Robert Charles (1914 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Gatehouse, David (1944 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Cutler, Geoffrey Abbott (1920 - 2000)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372529372529
Occupation General surgeon
Details Geoff Cutler was a surgeon in New South Wales, Australia. He was born on 29 February 1920 in Manly, a suburb of Sydney. He was the second of the three sons of Arthur and Ruby Cutler. Their father was a sales representative for Remington, who had been a crack shot and twice winner at Bisley. He was killed in a car accident in 1935 and Geoffrey left school at 17 to work in a bank, whilst studying for a degree at night. When the war came he was keen to enlist, but his mother would not sign the papers as his elder brother, later to become Sir Roden Cutler, future diplomat and Governor of New South Wales, had been seriously wounded in Syria, winning the VC, but losing his leg. Geoff joined the RAAF when he was 21. While he was learning to fly he became bored during a long formation flight to Goulbourn and decided to slip away to do a few loops and rolls, and then found to his consternation that he was quite alone and not sure where he was. He landed his Tiger Moth in a suitable field, but was quickly surrounded by a group of men in uniform, who told him that he was in the middle of a prison farm. Undeterred, on getting directions for Goulbourn, he persuaded them to hang on to his plane’s tail until he had sufficient power to take off. (He kept this story secret for many years.) Later he became a test and ferry pilot, and saw enemy action in Burma and New Guinea. After the war he was able to enrol in medicine, his first love, through the repatriation arrangements provided for ex-servicemen. Enrolling with 726 other students, they were warned that 50 per cent of their year would be failed at the end of the year. He graduated with honours in 1952 and did his house appointments at Manly Hospital, having been attached to the Royal North Shore Hospital as a student. He went to England in 1954, intending to specialise in gynaecology and obstetrics, but changed to surgery, and did junior jobs in Middlesex, Northampton, Guildford and Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, as well as attending courses at the College. After passing the FRCS he returned to Australia in 1957 to a registrar position at the Royal North Shore Hospital, and started in private practice in 1958. Among his other interests were reading history, and breeding Hereford cattle on his farm, which he owned for 25 years. He had met Dorothy Arnold, another Australian, when she was nursing in London. They married in 1959 and had three children, two boys and a girl. Stephen, the eldest, represented Australia at rugby for ten years, before going to the USA to work for the pharmaceutical firm Quintiles. Anne became a physiotherapist and Rob became a solicitor in Sydney. Geoff Cutler died on 20 October 2000 from carcinoma of the colon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000343
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Richmond, David Alan (1912 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372335372335
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details David Richmond was an orthopaedic surgeon in Burnley. He was born on 1 September 1912 in Stockport, where his father, George, was Manchester’s last private Royal Mail contractor. His mother was Edith Lilian née Hitchin. He was educated at Stockport Grammar School and went up to University of Manchester to read medicine. In 1933 he was awarded a BSc in anatomy and physiology and won the Dickinson scholarship in anatomy. On qualifying he won the Dumville surgical prize and the surgical clinical prize. He was captain of the lacrosse university team and was presented to the Duke of York, later King George V. After qualifying, he was house surgeon and demonstrator in anatomy at Manchester Royal Infirmary, and then became registrar to H H Rayner and Sir Harry Platt. From 1940 to 1946 he was a surgeon in the EMS Hospital at Conishead Priory under the supervision of T P McMurray and I D Kitchin, and was involved in the treatment of many casualties. After the war he went with his family to work as a surgeon to a general practice in Stratford, North Island, New Zealand, which proved to be a low point in his career. The family returned to England in 1947, when he joined the RAMC as an orthopaedic specialist with the rank of Major, and served in Malaya and Japan. Whilst in Japan he worked in the American Military Hospital in Tokyo with several reputed American surgeons. He returned to England in 1949 as first assistant to I D Kitchin at Lancaster Royal Infirmary. In 1950 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Burnley with the task of setting up an orthopaedic and trauma service where none had previously existed. This soon proved to be a success and he was joined by two other consultant colleagues. In 1960 he won a WHO travelling fellowship to work with Carl Hirsch in Sweden, and later his special interest in the surgery of the hand took him to the United States for several sabbaticals. In Burnley he was a respected member of the medical community, branch President of the BMA, and devoted much time to training junior medical staff and students, who remembered his freshly cut rose buttonhole. He married Eira Osterstock, a theatre sister, in 1939, and they had one son William David Richmond, a surgeon and a fellow of the College, and one daughter, Jennifer, who became a nurse. He retired in 1977 and the following year moved to Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, where he could devote himself to gardening and walking. Eira predeceased him in 1983 and he learned to cook and continued to be active in the Gatehouse Music Society. In 1996 he moved to Suffolk to be near his daughter, but began to develop signs of a progressive debilitating illness, from which he died on 9 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000148
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Riden, Donald Keith (1959 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2006-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372336372336
Occupation Oral and maxillofacial surgeon
Details Surgeon Commander Donald Keith Riden RN was born in Liverpool on 5 May 1959, the son of Alfred Donald and Mavis Irene Riden. He attended West Derby Comprehensive School in Liverpool from 1970 to 1977, and then went on to study dentistry at King’s College Dental School, winning the Wellcome award in pharmacology and therapeutics in 1980 and the annual oral surgery prize in 1981. With an increasing interest in oral and maxillofacial surgery, which had developed from his early days at dental school, he entered Southampton University Medical School in 1984, qualifying in 1988. Serving in the Royal Navy, he undertook his house surgeon appointments in urology, orthopaedics, general surgery and accident and emergency at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. He had short appointments in endocrinology at Southampton General Hospital and in general surgery at the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth. After an ENT job at RNH Haslar, he returned to RNH Plymouth to start his oral and maxillofacial training, becoming a registrar in October 1993 and gaining his FDS in 1994. Subsequently he entered the south west specialist registrar rotation in Plymouth, Frenchay, Southmead and Bristol Royal Infirmary from 1994 to 1999. As is customary with RN medical officers, he saw service overseas and at sea, serving in Gibraltar, on HMS *Tamar* (Hong Kong), HMS *Ariadne*, HMS *Minerva*, HMS *Nelson* and HMS *Illustrious*. He was on active service in Kosovo from 2000 to 2001. He loved to travel, particularly in the Far East and was able to serve in Hong Kong, China and India as a visiting registrar. He was awarded consultant status by the Defence Medical Service Consultant Approval Board of the College in 2000. His first posting as consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon and postgraduate clinical tutor was to RNH *Haslar*. In 2003 he was appointed to the Joint Services Hospital, the Princess Mary Hospital, RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, where he remained until illness intervened. He published papers on dental pain and, during his training rotation, wrote *Key topics in oral and maxillofacial surgery* (Oxford, Bios Scientific, 1998) and contributed to the UK national third molar audit in 1998. In his later years he honed his skills as both a facial trauma and head and neck cancer specialist, developing techniques for facial reconstruction and neck dissections. He was a particularly good teacher of house officers and SHOs, and enormously enjoyed this role. He thoroughly enjoyed his time in the Royal Navy, especially on overseas deployments. He had a lifelong interest in music and was a lover of classical music and opera. He was an accomplished classical guitar player. He regularly sang with a variety of groups, choral unions and barbershop, and was a member of Portsmouth Choral Union, Solent City Barbershop Club and Island Blend, a Cyprus barbershop group. He married Leslie Carol, a teacher and college librarian, in August 1981. They had three sons, Daniel James, Andrew Mark and Nicholas John. He died on 19 February 2005 from carcinoma of the oesophagus.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000149
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Saunders, Dame Cicely Mary Strode (1918 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372337372337
Occupation Nurse Physician
Details Dame Cicely Saunders established St Christopher's Hospice in London, which became the model for hundreds of other hospices. She was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, on 22 June 1918, the daughter of Gordon Saunders, a domineering estate agent, and Mary Christian Wright. She was educated at Roedean and St Anne's College, Oxford, and on the outbreak of war deferred completing her degree to become a nurse. She entered St Thomas's, but a back injury put an end to a career in nursing. She returned to complete her degree at Oxford and qualified as a lady almoner (a hospital social worker). By now she had fallen in love with David Tasma, a refugee from the Warsaw ghetto, who was dying of cancer. Through him she learned how the pain of cancer could be tamed by modern drugs, and that the inevitable distress of the dying could be made tolerable by care in which physical and spiritual needs were combined. At this time she also gave up her agnostic stance and became a committed and evangelical Christian. Her experience as a volunteer at St Luke's Home for the Dying Poor caused her to realise that the received medical views on dying and bereavement needed to be changed, and to do this she needed to become a doctor. She returned to St Thomas's and qualified in 1957, at the age of 38. She set up a research group to study the control of pain, while also working at St Joseph's, Hackney, which was run for the dying by the formidably down-to-earth Sisters of Charity. Before long Cicely had reached the unorthodox conclusion that the usual intermittent giving of morphine for surges of pain was far less effective than giving enough morphine to achieve a steady state in which the dying patient could still maintain consciousness, self-respect and a measure of dignity. It was at St Joseph's that she met Antoni Michniewicz, who for the second time taught her that loving and being in love were powerful medicaments in terminal illness. His death determined her to set up St Christopher's Hospice, named after the patron saint of travellers, as a place in which to shelter on the most difficult stage of life's journey. Her unorthodox views were published as *The care of the dying* (London, Macmillan & Co) in 1960. This opened many eyes, and soon another edition was needed. There followed years of hard work, lecturing, persuading and fund-raising. St Christopher's was set up as a charity in 1961 and the hospice was opened in 1967. That her methods worked was soon apparent and before long Cicely was invited to join the consultant staff of St Thomas's and the London Hospital. In 1980 she married Marian Bohusz-Szyszko who shared her love of music and with whom she was blissfully happy. Sadly he predeceased her in 1995. A tall, impressive lady, she had a tremendous though quiet personality that shone with honesty and wisdom. Innumerable distinctions and honours came her way - honorary degrees and fellowships galore, the gold medals of the Society of Apothecaries and the British Medical Association, the DBE and the Order of Merit - but it was the establishment of hundreds of hospices according to her principles and the revolution in the care of the dying that will be the real measure of her greatness. She died from breast cancer on 14 July 2005 at St Christopher's.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000150
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Savage, Christopher Roland (1915 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Shaw, Denis Latimer (1917 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Skinner, David Bernt (1935 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2007-08-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372340372340
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details David Skinner was an eminent American thoracic surgeon and one of the most influential individuals affecting surgical and medical care in the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century. He was born on 28 April 1935 in Joliet, Illinois, the first child of James and Bertha Skinner, and educated at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He joined the Boy Scouts and maintained an interest in the movement throughout his life. After graduating with distinction from the University of Rochester, he studied medicine at Yale, where his MD was awarded *cum laude*. He trained in general and thoracic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, completing his residencies in 1965, when he went to Bristol as senior surgical registrar to Ronald Belsey and developed a life-long interest in surgery of the oesophagus. During the Vietnam war he served for two years in the US Air Force. He returned to join the surgical faculty of Johns Hopkins Hospital under George Zuidema. At Johns Hopkins he rapidly rose to full professor in 1972. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as the first Dallas B Phemister professor of surgery at the University of Chicago Medical School. He developed an administrative model that encompassed clinical excellence, basic surgical research, dedicated teaching and a remarkable degree of autonomy for faculty growth. His personal devotion to the development of his faculty was life-long and legendary. In 1987 he moved to New York to become President and chief executive officer of the New York Hospital and professor of surgery at Cornell Medical College. Under his leadership financial difficulties were reversed, a new hospital purchased, a new pavilion built and a merger achieved with the Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia University. He retired in 1999, but remained active as President emeritus of the New York Presbyterian Hospital and professor of surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell. He served on several philanthropic and corporate boards. He generously hosted the group that travelled from our College to New York under the presidency of Sir Barry Jackson. During his career he served as President of several scientific and surgical societies, including the Association of Academic Surgery, the Society of University Surgeons and the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus, and was a member of multiple societies, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science. He received three honorary degrees and 15 medals or prizes for his contributions. He was made an honorary medical officer of the fire department of New York city, gaining the parking privilege that came with the honour. His faith was extremely important to him: he was a trustee of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago and the Fifth Presbyterian Church of New York. He died on 24 January 2003, following a massive stroke, and is survived by his widow Elinor and four daughters, Linda, Kristin, Carise and Margaret. Linda is a surgeon at Delaware County Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000153
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Soomro, Jamil Ahmed (1948 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Stephens, John Pendered (1919 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372342372342
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Stephens was a general surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born on 29 March 1919 in Northamptonshire, where his father was an engineer with farming interests. Educated at Stowe School, his scholastic achievements were complimented by a flair for sport, particularly rugby. At Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he read natural sciences, played for the University XV (winning a wartime blue) and represented the University at tennis. Clinical training followed at St Bartholomew's Hospital during the Blitz, where he captained a strong Bart's rugby XV. He held house appointments with J Basil Hume at Friern Barnet, one of the hospitals used by Bart's during its evacuation from London. On joining the RAMC in 1943, he served as regimental medical officer to the 1st Battalion Sierra Leone African Regiment in Sierra Leone, Burma and India. His release testimonial described him as "…a first class officer who fully understands the African soldier and as a result exerts an excellent influence over the whole battalion". Returning to civilian life in 1947, he passed the Cambridge qualifying examination, followed by the FRCS a year later. Further surgical experience was gained as a supernumerary registrar with J Basil Hume and Alan Hunt at Bart's, during which time he continued to play rugby for Bart's, Blackheath, Northampton and Kent. In 1952, John went to Norwich as a surgical registrar to the Norfolk and Norwich and allied hospitals, including the Jenny Lind Hospital for Children and the West Norwich Hospital. This widened an already good general surgical base, to which he added thoracic and cardiac procedures. He gained his masters in surgery in 1953 and in 1955 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon in Norwich. He developed an interest in breast diseases and, as an enthusiastic protagonist of immunology and the use of BCG therapy for breast cancer, was ahead of his times. Sadly, he never published his results. He was a modest, charming man, with an excellent sense of humour. Despite having large hands, he was a gifted surgeon - those working with him admired his all round ability and remarkable clinical judgement. Norfolk suited his balanced life, combining medical practice with his outside pursuits. Ever a countryman at heart, he loved his thatched house at Bergh Apton, with its large garden, greenhouses and trees. He was a golfer, fly fisherman, ornithologist, skier and an excellent shot, rearing pheasants for his own shoot. Sailing was an abiding interest. In retirement he kept his boat on the west coast of Scotland. Retiring in 1984, his last few years were dogged by immobility due to spinal stenosis. John died on 11 April 2004 at the age of 85, and is survived by his wife, Barbara, two daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000155
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Stephenson, Clive Bryan Stanley (1933 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2007-02-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372343372343
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Clive Stephenson was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 12 November 1933 and was educated at Scots College. He studied medicine at Wellington, where he qualified in 1957, held house posts and was a surgical registrar. After a year demonstrating anatomy in Otago, he went to London in 1962 to specialise in surgery and completed SHO jobs at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital for a year, and registrar posts at Bristol Royal Infirmary and Hackney General Hospital. In 1965 he was a lecturer in surgery at St Mary’s Hospital, London, where he became particularly interested in vascular surgery. He went on to be a senior registrar at Chelmsford for two further years. In 1969 he returned to Wellington as a full-time vascular and general surgeon, becoming surgical tutor in 1970, and finally visiting vascular and general surgeon at Wellington Hospital in 1971, a post he combined with that of visiting general surgeon at Hutt Hospital. He died in Lower Hutt on 3 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000156
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Thackray, Alan Christopher (1914 - 2004)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

First Title value, for Searching Vaughan, Sir Gerard Folliott (1923 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2006-10-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372345372345
Occupation Politician Psychiatrist
Details Sir Gerard Vaughan was a former Minister of State for Health in the Thatcher government. He was born on 11 June 1923 in Mozambique, Portugese East Africa, the son of a Welsh sugar planter who was more interested in big game hunting than sugar and was later killed in the RAF. Gerry was educated by a series of governesses, notably one Mafeta, who coached him through the matriculation at the age of 14. At first he wanted to become an artist and enrolled at the Slade and St Martin’s School of Art, but as war broke out he entered Guy’s Hospital to study medicine, helping in the casualty department during the Blitz. After qualifying, he became a house surgeon to Russell Brock, who encouraged him to become a surgeon, but suggested he learn some medicine first and take the MRCP. While doing a medical registrar job at the York clinic he became fascinated by psychiatry and went on to the Maudsley Hospital, returning to Guy’s as a consultant psychiatrist. There he became interested in the treatment of children and adolescents, particularly those with anorexia, and was responsible for the establishment of the Bloomfield clinic at Guy’s. Always interested in politics, Gerry sat on the London County Council as alderman for Streatham, becoming chairman of the strategy and planning group, and in 1970 he was elected MP for Reading. He was one of Ted Heath’s whips, and was Minister of State for Health for five years, first under Patrick Jenkin and later under Norman Fowler. He was knighted in 1984 on being dropped from the government. His views were on the extreme right, and among other things he championed homoeopathy. He died after a long illness on 29 July 2003, leaving a wife, Joyce Thurle, whom he married in 1955, and a son and daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000158
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Vaughan-Jackson, Oliver James (1907 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372346372346
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Oliver Vaughan-Jackson was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the London Hospital and a specialist in hand surgery. He was born in Berkhamstead on 6 July 1907, the eldest son of Surgeon-Captain P Vaughan-Jackson RN. He was educated at Berkhamstead and Balliol College, Oxford, where he played for the winning rugby XV, before going on to the London Hospital for his clinical studies. After completing his house jobs he specialised in surgery and passed the FRCS in 1936. Realising war was on the horizon, he joined the RNVR in 1938 and by 1939 found himself a surgeon in the Royal Naval Hospital at Chatham, where he remained for the next four years, until in 1944 he was posted to the RN Hospital, Sydney. At the end of the war, he returned to the London Hospital as consultant orthopaedic surgeon, joining the energetic new team led by Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke. He was also on the consultant staff of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Rochester. At the London his particular interest was in the surgery of the hand, and especially the treatment of the complications of rheumatoid arthritis. In 1948 he published an account of a hitherto undescribed syndrome whereby extensor tendons, frayed by underlying arthritic osteophytes, rupture – a syndrome to which his name is eponymously attached. A gentle and genial man, Oliver was a popular teacher and much admired by his juniors for his patient and painstaking surgical technique. Towards the end of his career he spent a good deal of his spare time in Newfoundland, Canada, at the Memorial Hospital, where a new multidisciplinary department for rheumatology had been set up. He was appointed professor of orthopaedic surgery there. After retirement he went to live in Newfoundland, but returned towards the evening of his life to live in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, where he died on 7 November 2003. He married Joan Madeline née Bowring in 1939. They had two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000159
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Witte, Jens (1941 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372347372347
Occupation Colorectal surgeon Oesophageal surgeon Upper gastrointestinaI surgeon
Details Jens Witte, doyen of German surgery, was born on 4 February 1941 in Perleberg, Mark/Brandenburg, the eldest of three sons of a surgeon father. He studied medicine at the Universities of Homburg/Saar, Hamburg and Berlin. After qualifying, he became a medizinalassistent in Bielefeld and Hamburg, spent some time in a mission hospital in Tanzania, and returned to work under Egerhard Weisschedel in Konstantz. There followed a series of brilliant appointments under Georg Heberer, first in Cologne and then in Munich, becoming professor in 1982 and head of viszeralchirugie in 1984. His special interests were in oesophageal and colorectal surgery. He was a prominent member of the professional surgical organisation, becoming its President in 1998. Active in the European Union of Medical Specialists, he was President of the section of surgery in 2002 and devoted himself to the integration and training of surgeons in the former East Germany. He was the recipient of many honours, including that of our College. He died unexpectedly on 12 June 2003 in Augsburg.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000160
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Allan, Walter Ramsay (1927 - 2003)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2006-07-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372348372348
Occupation General surgeon
Details Walter Ramsay Allan, known as ‘Peter’, was a consultant surgeon at Bolton Royal Infirmary. Born on 26 October 1927, he was the second of four sons of Walter Ramsay Allan, a general practitioner based in Edinburgh who had fought in the first world war before completing his medical studies at Glasgow University. His mother was Elizabeth Brownlee née Moffat, a classical scholar who studied at Oxford. Peter went to Lincoln College, Oxford, to read medicine, along with his two younger brothers, all of whom represented the university at sport. Peter also won a Scottish cap for cricket in 1950. He went on to Edinburgh for his clinical studies, qualifying in 1951. After house physician and house surgeon posts at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Stornaway, he spent two years in the RAMC from 1952 to 1954. He returned to continue his surgical training at Bangor Hospital and Manchester, becoming a senior registrar at Preston and Manchester Royal Infirmaries and finally being appointed consultant surgeon at Bolton. Following his retirement he developed an interest in the Scottish writers of the 18th century and enjoyed walking in the Borders and Pennines. He also enjoyed music and made annual trips to Glyndebourne. He married Anne Evans, a senior house officer in anaesthetics, while he was a surgical registrar. They had two daughters (Ann Ellen Elizabeth and Victoria Jane Moffat) and two sons (Walter Janus Thomas and James Dillwyn Douglas). James became a consultant urologist. Peter died on 12 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000161
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Cleland, William Paton (1912 - 2005)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372349372349
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Bill Cleland was a pioneering thoracic surgeon who helped develop open heart surgery in London in the 1950s. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 30 May 1912, the son of Sir John Burton Cleland, professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, and Dora Isabel Robson. He was proud to be the 26th head of his ancient Scottish family who were kinsmen of William Wallace. He was educated at Scotch College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he qualified in 1934. He then completed two years as house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Adelaide and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He went to England, to King’s College Hospital, in 1938 to be a resident medical officer and passed the MRCP. With the outbreak of war he was evacuated with King’s to Horton, Surrey, where he was busy in the Emergency Medical Service dealing with wartime injuries. This generated an interest in surgery: he quickly passed the FRCS and then went on in 1948 to the Brompton Hospital as house physician and resident medical officer, where he was influenced by Russell Brock, Tudor Edwards and Price Thomas. He soon specialised in chest surgery, moving gradually on into cardiac surgery. He was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon at King’s College Hospital and the Brompton in 1948, and the following year as a lecturer at the Hammersmith, where he worked with Denis Melrose on the prototype heart-lung machine with which he performed the first successful open-heart operation in Britain in 1953. He was a pioneer in the subsequent development of cardiac by-pass surgery, which he described in a classic paper in *Thorax* in 1983. He wrote more than 70 papers, and was much sought after abroad, setting up cardiothoracic units in Russia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Iceland. He was consultant adviser in thoracic surgery to the Department of Health and the Royal Navy. He married Norah Goodhart in 1940 who predeceased him. They had two sons and a daughter. In retirement he continued to follow up his old patients, and enjoy his hobbies of fishing, the opera, gardening and beekeeping. A strongly built man, he became somewhat frail in old age, and died peacefully at home in Goodworth Clatford, Hampshire, on 29 March 2005, just before his 93rd birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000162
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Alan Godfrey (1938 - 2006)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2008-02-07 2018-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372629372629
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Alan Johnson was a leading gastro-intestinal surgeon and medical ethicist. He was born on 19 January 1938, at Epsom Downs, Surrey, the son of Douglas Johnson, a doctor. He was educated at Epsom College and Trinity College, Cambridge, with his clinical studies being carried out at University College Hospital Medical School, London. He graduated in 1963 and, after house appointments, trained in surgery at UCH with Anthony Harding Rains and at Charing Cross Hospital with Norman Tanner. In 1971 he was appointed senior lecturer and later reader in surgery at Charing Cross, before taking up the chair of surgery at Sheffield in 1979, an appointment which he held until his retirement in 2003. He specialised in surgery of the upper gastro-intestinal tract, in which he became a world authority. Over the years he published some 200 peer-reviewed articles and 35 book chapters on topics such as gastric motility, portal hypertension, highly selective vagotomy for peptic ulcer, Barrett's oesophagus, surgical treatment of morbid obesity and various aspects of biliary disease. His randomised clinical trial published in 1996 comparing cholecystectomy by either laparoscopy or mini open incision was heralded by The Lancet as setting a new gold standard for surgical research. This was later acclaimed as one of the five most important articles in gastro-enterology published worldwide in that year. He authored or edited ten textbooks and was in wide demand as an authoritative and lucid lecturer. He gave invited lectures in more than 20 countries ranging over five continents. He took an active part in surgical professional organisations and was elected president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, the British Society of Obesity Surgery and the National Association of Theatre Nurses. For several years he was chairman of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee to the Secretary of State for Health and he also served as chairman of the Specialty Advisory Committee in General Surgery. He chaired several Medical Research Council committees and, owing to his incisive critical faculty, was a much-valued member of the editorial board of a number of surgical journals. He was elected an honorary fellow of the American Surgical Association and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Sheffield University. Alan Johnson was an outstandingly popular colleague with his peers and a much-loved mentor to his junior staff and students. Gentle and compassionate, he had no enemies. Throughout his career he was keenly interested in medical ethics and wrote and lectured widely on this subject, in addition to his many surgical contributions. This interest stemmed from his deep Christian faith. His father had been founder of the Inter Varsity Fellowship and later became the first general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship. Following in his father's footsteps, at the time of his death Alan was president of the Christian Medical Fellowship, having previously been chairman. His lectures on medical ethics were legendary; they were always well-reasoned with a touch of humour and never table-thumping. One of them began: "Hitler and Mother Teresa each had 24 hours in every day - they just used them differently!" His last book, titled *Making sense of medical ethics: a hands-on guide* (London, Hodder Arnold, 2006) and written jointly with his son Paul, was completed a month before his death. In his youth he was a keen sportsman, playing hockey and cricket for his school, university and hospital. As he grew older he turned to wood carving and painting in watercolours and pastels. He was also enjoyed ornithology and country walking. He played the piano and the organ and was a patron of the Sheffield Chorale, in which his wife was a singer. Married to Esther, he had two sons, Paul, who became a paediatric surgeon, and Andrew, and a daughter, Fyona. During a routine medical check up two weeks before he died, his doctor jokingly said that Alan was so fit "he would live forever". His reply was typical: "I am going to live forever, but not in this life!" A fortnight later, he was due to preach on 'the place of compassion in modern medicine' at St John's Church, Wotton, near Dorking. There on 15 October 2006, in the churchyard, just before the service began, he had a massive myocardial infarction and died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000445
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Raje, Dilip Raghunath (1936 - 2007)

2025-06-19T01:30:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372630372630
Occupation General surgeon
Details Dilip Raje was a former consultant surgeon in Jamaica and senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies. He was born in Gwalior, India, on 26 October 1936, the son of Raghunath Raje, a professor of English literature, and Vaidehi née Kotwal, a headmistress. He was educated at the Aryan Education Society’s School and Anand College, Bombay, where he matriculated with a distinction in mathematics in 1951. He then went to Victoria College, Gwalior, where he graduated in science in 1953, before entering Vikram (now Jiwaji) Medical College, Gwalior, qualifying in 1958. After a year as a house surgeon, he spent two years as a research assistant at his medical college, where the principal, Balkrishna Rao, was a great influence. He then went to England to specialise in surgery, working first at the General Hospital in Sunderland as a senior house officer and then as a registrar in Dryburn Hospital, Durham. He then held posts at the Royal Infirmary and Ronkswood hospitals, Worcester. In 1972 he went to Jamaica, working as a registrar at Kingston Public Hospital for two years. There he was singled out by Sir Harry Annamunthodo and appointed consultant to the University Hospital of the West Indies, being promoted to senior consultant surgeon and lecturer in surgery, and then senior lecturer. His surgical work, which was characterised by uncompromising thoroughness, included highly selective vagotomy, but was mainly centred on cancer. From 1985 to 1987 he was professor of surgery at the National University of Malaysia and there he set up the Malaysian Breast Cancer Rehabilitation Group. He returned to his post in Jamaica, where he became dean of the faculty of medicine in 1991. He attended courses in the UK on hospice care, at St Christopher’s Hospice and Birmingham, and on retirement from the University of the West Indies in 1997 returned to the UK to work as a consultant in palliative medicine and as clinical director of the Myton Hamlet Hospice, Warwick. He was appointed as a clinical tutor at Birmingham University in 1998 and to the Leicester Medical School in 2002. Raje was an honorary consultant to the Jamaica Cancer Society and the Missionaries of Charity, one of Mother Teresa’s foundations. Also in Jamaica, he founded the Hospice Homecare Centre, the Stoma Association and Reach to Recovery – a group for breast rehabilitation. On his return to England, he became a lay member of the Patient Liaison Group of the Royal College of Physicians, in which capacity he was a member of working parties which formulated the RCP response to the European Commission. On its foundation he became a keen member of the Senior Fellows Association of our College. His keen interest in cancer care helped him with his own battle with leukaemia, which was diagnosed three months before his retirement in 2001. He outlined his experience in the seventeenth Sir Harry Annamunthodo memorial lecture, describing the isolation he felt (“no trees, no pets, no birds”), the weight loss and some of the insensitive remarks made by the members of the medical team. Finally, he achieved remission and life became “less complicated”. Living with cancer, he found, meant no procrastination, no long term plans. When he suffered a relapse in 2005 he once again adopted a philosophical approach which helped him through more chemotherapy treatment. In May 2007, he was diagnosed with colon and prostate cancer and, after palliative surgery, was cared for by colleagues in Myton Hamlet Hospice. He spent his final weeks at home in the Lake District, where he had moved after his retirement, being cared for by his wife and daughter. He married Maureen Clasper, a nurse whom he met in Sunderland, in 1966. They had one daughter, Fiona, who became a senior lecturer in transport. A keen cricketer in his youth, he continued to follow cricket, and attended the world cup final in Barbados in April 2007 shortly before the onset of his last illness. He died on 7 September 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000446
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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