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First Title value, for Searching Norman, George (1783 - 1861)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372653372653
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of a surgeon in good practice in Bath. After a short stay in London he returned to Bath and began professional life as his father’s assistant in the year 1801. On the death of an elder brother, a surgeon, he began to practise on his own account. In 1817 he succeeded his father as surgeon to the Casualty Hospital, and in 1826 was the first surgeon appointed to the Bath United Hospital, then newly formed by the Union of the Casualty Hospital and the City Dispensary. He continued to hold office till 1857, discharging his duties with the utmost attention. This long period of service was the more honourable to him because, during the greater part of it, from the wide extent of his private practise, the calls upon his time were so incessant that his gratuitous labours must have entailed upon him sacrifices which few are found willing to make. In his private practice he took the highest position in Bath, and while he was at his zenith his practice probably exceeded that of any other provincial surgeon. For a long period his receipts verged upon, if they did not exceed, £4,000 a year. On his retirement from the hospital he was at once made one of its Vice-Presidents, and his bust, executed in marble by the then popular sculptor Behnes, was set up in the hall of the institution. After this honour had been paid him the working men of Bath presented him with a handsome testimonial to mark their sense of his services to the public. His professional character stood very high, and he has been described as the very type of an English gentleman – simple, unaffected, perfectly self-possessed. In politics he was a strong Liberal and was an active politician. For forty years he was a member of the Bath Corporation and twice Mayor of the City. He was also Deputy Lieutenant of the County. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the United Hospital, Surgeon to the Puerperal Charity, Vice-President of the British Medical Association, and Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. He died of pleuropneumonia after a few days’ illness on Jan 17th, 1861, at his residence, 1 Circus, Bath. Norman contributed three papers to the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*, of which the first (1819, x, 94) on aneurysm, contains the history of two hospital patients in whom he had successfully tied the external iliac artery. In a second paper (1837, xx, 301) he described the dissection, twenty years afterwards, of one of these men. In a third paper (1827, xii, 348) he describes a remarkable case of extra-uterine foetation, which, in the ninth month of pregnancy, the foetus was extracted by means of an incision through the posterior wall of the vagina. He communicated also some three or four other papers, dealing with remarkable cases, to the Bath and Bristol Branch of the British Medical Association. A numerous and valuable series of preparations made by him for the Museum of the United Hospital, of which they constituted the first nucleus, must not be omitted form the list of his scientific labours. A fine mezzotint portrait of Norman is in the Young Collection (No 59). It was published by Henry Benham on Oct 16th, 1840, and is engraved after the painting by W O Geller. It represents a seated figure in the typical professional costume of the period.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000469
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Dyer, Samuel (1781 - 1846)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Toogood, Jonathan (1784 - 1870)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372667372667
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was apprenticed to Mr Dawe, of Bridgwater, and was educated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He practised for many years at Cornhill, Bridgwater, Somerset, where he founded, and was for thirty-three years Surgeon to, the Infirmary. He also practised at Taunton. He died at Torquay, after his retirement, on Dec 7th, 1870, being then Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Toogood’s *Reminiscences* are dedicated to Dr Francis Sibson, FRS, who conducted the author safely through a very severe and dangerous illness. Though not a biography, the work contains interesting accounts of West Country practice in the first half of the nineteenth century and of the extraordinary survivals of superstitions. The following letter is quoted by Toogood as a specimen of the familiar correspondence of Abernethy, whom he had consulted in a hopeless case:- “MY DEAR SIR, “All I can say to patients situated as yours is, after telling them what treatment seems rational and appropriate to the case, to exhort them not to despond; because we know many obstinately disordered states of the bowels which have continued until they have nearly exhausted the patient, have unexpectedly arrived at a kind of crisis, by the production of morbid discharges, etc. And with regard to local diseases, the proverb of ‘‘tis a long lane that has no turning’, is fully verified, for when least expected, a favourable change often occurs, as I suppose you can testify. In every situation of life our primary enquiry ought to be what is right to be done, and having ascertained as far as we have the power, we must then perform or endure it. I have no objection to opiates when required to soothe pain.” And he adds, in reference to a second case - “I hope Miss F - will do well under your care; I know the amendment of the health is the primary object in the cure of all local diseases; ‘tis the removal, in my opinion, of the cause. I feel that I am writing what you know, and that you will think me stupid; I will therefore add no more than that I remain, “Yours most sincerely, “J TOOGOOD, ESQ, JOHN ABERNETHY. “*Bridgwater*.” Publications: - *Hints to Mothers. Reminiscences of a Medical Life; with Cases and Practical Illustrations,* 8vo, Taunton and London, 1853.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000483
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching West, Sir Augustus (1788 - 1868)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Rideout, John (1784 - 1855)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Knipe, John Augustus (1778 - 1850)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Kemball, Vero Clarke (1780 - 1853)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Ransome, John Atkinson (1779 - 1837)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372679372679
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of Thomas Ransome, manager of Messrs Gurney’s Bank at Norwich. He was born at Norwich on March 4th, 1779, was apprenticed to a surgeon at Lynn, and entering Guy's Hospital became a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, with whom he was ever afterwards in friendly correspondence. He endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to establish himself first in Ipswich and afterwards at Bury St Edmunds, but moving to Manchester he was elected Surgeon to the Infirmary on March 20th, 1806. In conjunction with James Ainsworth he lectured on anatomy and physiology at the Literary and Philosophical Institute, the earliest syllabus being published in 1812. The course, perhaps, was a continuation of that given by Peter Mark Roget and Benjamin Gibson in 1806-1807. Thomas Turner founded the Pine Street School of Medicine at Manchester in 1824 and enlisted the willing services of Ransome, who began to lecture on the principles and practice of surgery in 1825. His lectures fulfilled the requirements of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and the Pine Street School thus became the first provincial medical school whose teaching was formally recognized. Ransome’s lectures dealt chiefly with his own experience gained in a large surgical practice and were greatly appreciated by the students, as he rarely entered upon matters of hypothesis or controversy. The notes were written in his carriage whilst he went from patient to patient. Amongst his patients was William Huskisson, the statesman, who was accidentally killed at the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway on Sept 15th, 1830, and Ransome’s only contribution to surgical literature is the account of the accident, which he published in the *North of England Medical and Surgical Journal* for 1830 (p. 268). He was appointed Librarian of the Literary and Philosophical Society in 1809 and acted as one of the Secretaries from 1810-1820. He lived in Princess Street, at No 1 St Peter’s Square, and finally at Old Trafford, where he died on Feb 10th, 1837, and was buried behind the meeting-house of the Society of Friends in Mount Street. His son was Joseph Atkinson Ransome (q.v.), and it was perhaps the similarity of name that led to the error of including his distinguished father in the first list of 'Fellows when it was intended to honour the son. Ransome had a high and well-deserved reputation as a surgeon; he was a skilled operator, and was the first in Manchester to suggest catgut or silk ligatures for tying arteries on the ground that, being of animal origin, they would the more readily be absorbed. He was a skilled draughtsman and drew the illustrations for Benjamin Gibson’s *Practical Observations on the Formation of an Artificial Pupil, etc.* (London, 1811), a subject to which Ransome himself paid special attention. His strict integrity, spotless moral character, and honourable bearing gained him the respect and goodwill of all those with whom he was brought in contact. There is a fine portrait, a chalk drawing by Bedford, in the possession of the family. It is reproduced in Dr. Brockbank’s *Sketches of the Lives and Work of the Honorary Medical Staff of the Manchester Infirmary.*
Resource Identifier RCS: E000495
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Estlin, John Bishop (1785 - 1855)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-04 2008-05-01
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/372680372680
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Dec 26th, 1785, at St Michael’s Hill, Bristol, the son of John Prior Estlin (1747-1817) and his second wife, who had been Miss Bishop. His father was the well-known Unitarian, friend of Coleridge, Southey, and Priestley, who kept a school in a large house at the top of St Michael’s Hill. In this school John Bishop Estlin was educated until he began his professional studies at Bristol Infirmary in 1804. He continued his studies at Guy’s Hospital and completed them at Edinburgh. He settled in practice at Bristol in 1808 and soon became interested in ophthalmology. In 1812 he established in Frogmore Street, Bristol, a dispensary for the treatment of diseases of the eye which he maintained for some time at his own expense. His reputation as an ophthalmic surgeon was soon established and he became well known throughout the West of England. He married in 1817 Margaret Bagehot, aunt of Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), the English economist and journalist: she died four years later, leaving an only daughter. His health failing, Estlin visited the island of St Vincent in 1832, where the warmer climate soon restored him. In 1838 he obtained and circulated a fresh supply of lymph from cows near Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, where Jenner had originally obtained the material for vaccination against small-pox. In 1845 he published his *Remarks on Mesmerism*, in which he gave a lucid exposition of the scientific method of investigating the phenomena said to be due to the hidden forces of nature. He was also a social reformer, dealing with temperance, the abolition of slavery, religious toleration, and the suppression of medical impostures. In religion he was a convinced Unitarian like his father, and wrote in favour of the Christian miracles and on Prayer and Divine Aid. He was always generous, but nevertheless grew rich and became, by force of upright character and professional skill, one of the most trusted men in Bristol. He died on June 10th, 1855, and was buried in the Lewins Mead burial ground, Bristol. There are monumental tablets to him and his wife in the adjoining meeting-house. PUBLICATIONS:— *Remarks on Mesmerism*, 1845. “Observations on Diseased Spine . . . Strictures on Baynton’s Treatise,” 8vo, Bristol, 1818; reprinted from *Edin Med and Surg Jour*, 1817, xiii, 341. Papers on “Amaurosis.” - *Edin Med and Surg Jour*, 1815, xi, 410. “Cases of Cysticercus Cellulosæ in the Eye.” - *Lond Med Gaz*, 1837-8, 839; and 1839-40, N.S. ii, 35. “One Hundred Cases of Operation for Strabismus.” - *Prov Med and Surg Jour*, 1842, iv, 303. “On Pretended Cure of Cataract by Prussic Acid.” - *Ibid*, 1842-3, v, 209. “An Address on Mesmerism.” - *Ibid*, 1843, vi, 303; and 1845, ix, 513.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000496
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Boutflower, Charles (1782 - 1844)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-24
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/372682372682
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Feb 2nd, 1782. Received his later professional training at St George’s Hospital, where he was entered as a six months’ surgical pupil on Oct 7th, 1814. He had previously seen much active naval and military service. He joined the Royal Navy as Assistant Surgeon on April 4th, 1800, and became Surgeon’s Mate on the Hospital Staff not attached to a regiment on May 24th, 1801. He joined the 40th Foot as Assistant Surgeon on April 27th, 1802, being promoted to Surgeon of the 96th Foot on March 25th, 1808, and transferring to the 40th Foot on June 8th, 1809. He was placed on the Staff on Sept 3rd, 1812, and was on half pay from Sept 25th, 1814, to June 25th, 1815. He retired on half pay on Jan 25th, 1816. He saw active service as a surgeon in America in 1807, when he was taken prisoner, and in the Peninsula from 1809-1814. He practised in Liverpool after leaving the Army, and died on March 26th, 1844. PUBLICATION: *The Journal of an Army Surgeon during the Peninsula War*. [Colonel Johnston notes in his *RAMC Roll*, No. 2418, that in the *London Gazette* the name is wrongly given as ‘Boat Flower’ and in some *Army Lists* as ‘Boatflower’. His signature was ‘Boutflower’, but the name is certainly pronounced ‘Bo-flower’, which may have led to the mistake in spelling.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000498
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lister, Joseph, Baron Lister of Lyme Regis (1827 - 1912)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-24
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/372684372684
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on April 5th, 1827, at Upton House, Stoke Newington, then a pleasant suburb of London, the fourth child and second son of Joseph Jackson Lister and Isabella Harris. J Jackson Lister was a port-wine shipper in partnership with Thomas Barton Beck, of Tokenhouse Yard, the grandfather of Marcus Beck (q.v.). Joseph Jackson Lister (1786-1869) was the inventor of the achromatic objective used in modern microscopes, and was admitted a FRS on February 2nd, 1832. Like his wife and his partner he was a member of the Society of Friends. Isabella Harris, Lister’s mother, was the youngest daughter of Anthony Harris, a master mariner of Maryport, Cumberland. Before her marriage she had assisted her widowed mother, who was superintendent of Ackworth School, near Pontefract, in Yorkshire, a school intended for the education of the children of Friends who were “not in affluent circumstances”. Joseph Lister was sent first to a private school at Hitchin and afterwards to the Quaker School kept by Mr Binns, of Grove House, Tottenham, where he got a sound classical education with some knowledge of comparative anatomy. From an early age he determined to become a surgeon, and he soon learned to macerate bones, dissect fish and small animals, and articulate their skeletons. He also showed some ability in drawing and sketching. Lister entered the unsectarian University of London in 1844, taking the Arts course and graduating BA in 1847, with honours in classics and botany. He must also have visited the North London (now University College) Hospital, for he was [may have been] present on December 21st, 1846, when Robert Liston (q.v.) performed the first operation in London upon a patient anaesthetized with ether. During his undergraduate period he suffered from small-pox, followed by a nervous breakdown, leading to a long holiday, so that he did not begin his medical studies at University College until October, 1848. During his student career he took an active part in the Debating Society at University College and in the affairs of the Hospital Medical Society. He seems to have been influenced more especially by the teaching of Wharton Jones (q.v.) and William Sharpey, physiologists, and by Thomas Graham, the Professor of Chemistry; and in 1853 he published two papers based on experiments. The first confirmed Kölliker’s observations on the muscular tissue of the iris, in which he demonstrated the existence both of dilator and sphincter fibres; the second, on the involuntary muscle of the skin, showed the means by which ‘goose skin’ is produced. Both communications were illustrated by delicate camera lucida drawings such as his father had taught him to make. In 1851 he served as House Surgeon to Sir John Eric Erichsen (q.v.) after he had acted as House Physician to Dr Walter Hayle Walshe. Lister had no definite plan for the future at the end of his house surgeoncy, and was advised by Professor Sharpey to visit Edinburgh, where James Syme (q.v.) had made a great surgical reputation, and then proceed to the Continental schools. He took the advice, went to Edinburgh, lodged in South Frederick Street, and presented himself to Syme in September, 1853. Syme at once took a liking to the young Quaker. He was invited to Millbank, Syme’s country house at Morningside, and became a regular attendant at the Royal Infirmary and Minto House, being sometimes allowed to assist at private operations. By the end of October Lister had determined to stay in Edinburgh through the winter, and in November Syme appointed him ‘Supernumerary Clerk’, a non-resident post which was much coveted. The duties were to assist at every operation, to watch the subsequent course of the case, and to take notes. During his term of office he read a paper at a full meeting of the Royal Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society to show that cancellous exostoses ossified in the same manner as the epiphysial cartilages of long bones. He was appointed Resident House Surgeon to Syme on his return from a Christmas visit to his family at Upton House in 1854, and held office until the end of February, 1855. Syme had by this time formed so high an estimate of his surgical ability that he gave Lister to understand that they stood in the relationship of Surgeon and Consulting Surgeon, and that he had authority to operate upon such emergency cases as he thought fit. This privilege was very unusual at a time when hospital surgeons were most averse to delegate any of the duties entrusted to them either in teaching, operating, or treatment. Lister made the best use of his opportunities, and his twelve dressers were not slow to appreciate their good fortune; to them he was always known as ‘The Chief’, whilst Syme was spoken of as ‘The Master’. News reached Edinburgh in October, 1854, that Richard James Mackenzie, Surgeon to the Infirmary, and Lecturer on Surgery at the Edinburgh Extra-mural School, had died of cholera at Balbec on September 28th, whilst serving as temporary surgeon to the 79th Highlanders in the Crimean War. Lister determined to “take advantage of this unrivalled opportunity”, as he called it, hired a lecture-room at 4 High School Yards, was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh on April 21st, 1855, took lodgings at 3 Rutland Square, nearly opposite Syme’s consulting-room, and settled in Edinburgh to teach and practise surgery. He paid a hurried visit to Paris in June, 1855, to take a course of operative surgery on the dead body, returned to Rutland Square in July, and in August became engaged to Agnes, Syme’s elder daughter. The engagement led him to resign his membership of the Society of Friends and to become a Scottish Episcopalian, though he retained to the end of his life nearly all his Quaker characteristics. The wedding took place in Syme’s drawing-room at Millbank, in Scottish fashion, on April 23rd, 1856, and the marriage was supremely happy though there were no children. Lady Lister died of acute pneumonia whilst on a holiday at Rapallo on April 12th, 1893. Lister gave his first lecture on the “Principles and Practice of Surgery” at 4 High School Yards on Wednesday, November 7th, 1855. In preparation for it he had carried out a series of researches - mainly on the web of the frog’s foot - to show the early stages of inflammation, the results of which he communicated to the Royal Society on June 18th, 1857. At the end of the session he made an extended tour with his wife, visited France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, making the acquaintance of many Continental surgeons. He returned to Edinburgh in October, 1856, rented a house, No 11 Rutland Street, and was unanimously elected Assistant Surgeon to the Edinburgh Infirmary on October 13th, 1856. He began his second course of lectures on November 15th, and again dealt with the pathology of inflammation, treating also of the coagulation of the blood and the effects of stimuli on the pigment cells of the frog. He dealt, therefore, with the institutes of medicine rather than with surgery: his class, though small, was appreciative. James A Lawrie, Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Glasgow, became an invalid in August, 1859. The Home Secretary, Sir George Cornewall Lewis - on the advice of Allen Thomson, Syme, and Robert Christison - nominated Lister to the post, for which there were seven candidates. The appointment was confirmed on Jan 28th, 1860, and Lister’s departure from Edinburgh was celebrated by a banquet and the presentation of a silver flagon. He inaugurated his appointment as Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Glasgow by delivering a course of lectures to a class of 182 students. He had, however, no charge of beds, and it was not until August 15th, 1861 - nineteen months after his appointment to the Chair of Surgery - that he was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary; nor then without some opposition. As a result of his experiences as Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary at Glasgow Lister described and practised a new method of amputation at the knee, and invented a tourniquet for compressing the aorta during amputation at the hip and for use during ligature of the large arteries for aneurysm, which was then of frequent occurrence. He also devised a method for reducing the loss of blood during amputation by raising the limb for some minutes before a tourniquet was screwed home. He also invented a needle with an eye for passing wire sutures through the tissues. Lister was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1860 and delivered the Croonian Lecture in 1863, taking “Coagulation of the Blood” as the subject. James Miller, the Professor of Systematic Surgery at Edinburgh, died in 1864, and Lister was urged to apply for the Chair on the ground that it was held for life, whilst at Glasgow the Surgeon to the Infirmary could only be elected twice, each time for a period of five years, and he might thus again be left without a hospital appointment. Lister applied, but James Spence was elected. In this year he invented a simple instrument for removing foreign bodies from the external auditory meatus and described his well-known operation for excision of the wrist. The year 1865 is memorable in the life of Lister because Dr Thomas Anderson, the Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow, drew his attention to Pasteur’s work which showed that putrefaction was due to living organisms in the air. In March, 1865, he used liquefied German creosote and then carbolic acid in the treatment of compound fractures, and he thus began the use of antiseptic surgery. The stages through which it passed were: crude acid in a watery solution; a purer acid dissolved in oil; a putty made by mixing common whitening with a 1-4 or 1-6 solution of carbolic acid in linseed oil; and finally a dressing of lint soaked in carbolized oil. The experimental dressings were carried out quietly in his ward at the Glasgow Infirmary until he published his epoch-making papers in the *Lancet* from March to July, 1867, under the title, “On a New Method of Treating Compound Fractures, Abscess, etc., with Observation on the Conditions of Suppuration”. He made his system still more widely known by reading a paper at the Dublin Meeting of the British Medical Association in August, 1867, “On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery”. He directed attention in it to three causes of suppuration: “(1) Simple inflammatory suppuration; (2) Suppuration caused by a chemical or a mechanical stimulus; (3) Suppuration caused by decomposition.” It does not appear as if he had yet thought of ferments or fungi as a cause. In the summer of 1866 Lister applied for the post of Professor of Surgery at University College which had become vacant by the resignation of Sir John Eric Erichsen (q.v.), but John Marshall (q.v.), who had been Assistant Surgeon from 1847, was elected. From 1867-1869 Lister was occupied in experimenting with a variety of wound dressings whilst he continued to work at the Glasgow Infirmary and to give a daily lecture at the University to a crowd of enthusiastic students. Towards the end of this period he had learnt and accepted the germ theory of putrefaction. He tied the carotid artery of a horse with silk which had been soaked in carbolic acid on December 12th, 1867, and obtained union by first intention, and in December, 1868, he first used an absorbable ligature - catgut. Professor Syme - his father-in-law - fell into ill health in 1869 and resigned his chair of Clinical Surgery at Edinburgh in July. Lister was appointed in his place on Aug 18th, his pleasure being marred by the death of his father on October 24th. Lister returned to Edinburgh directly after the funeral and took a furnished house at 17 Abercromby Square, moving afterwards to 9 Charlotte Square, then a fashionable and medical centre. Here he soon became known as the leading surgeon in Scotland and acquired a larger practice than at any other time of his life. From 1873-1881 he was deeply interested in the effects of yeasts and micro-organisms on suppuration, and made a succession of changes in the dressings of wounds. He began to use the carbolic spray in 1871 and did not abandon it until 1887, although Sir John Burdon Sanderson had shown as early as 1873 that bacteria are not carried by the air and are killed by a dry heat of 100° C. In 1870 he employed many layers of carbolized gauze and a layer of ‘hat-lining’. In 1876 he used boric lint, on the suggestion of Louis Pasteur, as a dressing for wounds. In 1884 he used corrosive sublimate ‘blue’ wool and gauze and sal alembroth - a double salt of bichloride of mercury and chloride of ammonium. In 1889 he adopted a gauze charged with a double cyanide of mercury and zinc. He first used a rubber drainage tube in 1871, seemingly on his own initiative, though it had been employed by Chassaignac as early as 1859; his patient was Queen Victoria, upon whom he operated at Balmoral for an abscess in the axilla. He had been appointed Surgeon to the Queen in Scotland in 1870. Sir William Fergusson (q.v.) died on February 10th, 1877, and as early as Feb 18th Lister had been approached as to his willingness to become Professor of Clinical Surgery at King’s College Hospital in London, to fill the vacancy thus created. John Wood was next in order of succession. He was appointed, and on June 18th, 1877, Lister was elected to an additional chair of Clinical Surgery and was given beds in the hospital. He resigned his offices in Edinburgh and came to London purely in a missionary spirit to advance the cause he had so deeply at heart, and took a house at 12 Park Crescent, Regent’s Park. He brought with him Sir W Watson Cheyne, who had been his House Surgeon; John Stewart, who afterwards practised at Halifax, Nova Scotia; W H Dobie, who lived afterwards at Chester; and James Altham, who spent his life at Penrith. In 1892 he resigned his office of Professor of Clinical Surgery at King’s College on reaching the age of 65, but was invited to continue as Surgeon to King’s College Hospital for an additional year. At the Royal College of Surgeons of England Lister was a Member of the Council from 1880-1888, serving as Vice-President in 1886, but declining to be nominated for the office of President. He delivered the Bradshaw Lecture in 1887 “On the Present Position of Antiseptic Treatment in Surgery”. In 1897 he was given the Honorary Gold Medal, which is the highest distinction the College can bestow on its Members and Fellows. At the Royal Society he was elected a Fellow in 1860; served on the Council from 1881-1883; was foreign secretary from 1893-1895, succeeding Sir Archibald Geikie; and President in succession to Lord Kelvin from 1895-1900. He delivered the Croonian Lecture in 1863, was awarded a Royal Medal in 1880, and the Copley Medal in 1900. He became Surgeon in Ordinary to the Queen in October, 1878, following John Hilton (q.v.), and Serjeant Surgeon in 1900 in place of Sir James Paget (q.v.). He was created a baronet in 1883, and received the patent of a baron as Lord Lister of Lyme Regis at Queen Victoria’s second Jubilee in 1897. On the coronation of King Edward VII he was chosen one of the twelve members of the newly established Order of Merit and was gazetted a Privy Councillor. A British Institute of Preventive Medicine was established in London in 1891 on the lines of the Institut Pasteur in Paris and was called the Jenner Institute when it was opened in 1897, the name being changed in 1903 to “The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine”. Lister was appointed the first Chairman of the governing body, and became President of the Institute when the present building was completed in 1910. The touching meeting between Lister and Pasteur at the Sorbonne took place on Dec 27th, 1892, and in January, 1896, Lister attended Pasteur’s reburial in the chapel at the foot of the Institut Pasteur. In 1896 Lister gave an address as President of the Liverpool Meeting of the British Association; in the autumn of 1897 he visited Toronto in the same capacity; and in 1902 he made a voyage to South Africa. Most of the time from 1903-1907 was spent in London, where his household was superintended by his sister-in-law, Miss Syme; but he often paid visits to Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, where he had bought a house in 1870 jointly with his brother Arthur and his brother-in-law, Smith Harrison. Sight and hearing began to fail in 1909, and with gradually failing powers he died quietly of pneumonia on the morning of Feb 10th, 1912, at Park House, Walmer, Kent, without issue and the peerage ended. A stately Memorial Service was held in Westminster Abbey on Feb 16th and his body was buried by the side of his wife at the West Hampstead Cemetery, London. Lister was 5 feet 10 inches in height, well formed and well proportioned; the head round, the forehead broad, full, and in later life rather wrinkled; the eyes blue and soft, the nose small but well formed; the lips full, especially the upper lip, the left half of which had a slight tilt; the mouth expressive of rare delicacy of feeling; the lower jaw strong; the complexion fresh and healthy; the lips and chin carefully shaven, the cheeks with ‘mutton-chop’ whiskers, as was the usual fashion of his generation; a fine head of hair - brown in youth - worn rather long and ending in light curls at the back. He spoke softly, frequently with a slight stammer; he sighed often and had a pleasant gentle smile, though he laughed but rarely. Equable in temper, he never spoke unadvisedly with his lips, even under great provocation, and seemed rather to pity than to be vexed with his opponents. He was courteous to all, but sheltered himself behind a natural reserve which many attributed to shyness. A lover of home life and very simple in his tastes, he maintained to the last evidence of his Quaker upbringing by using ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ when writing familiarly to members of his family. He was deeply religious, but without ostentation, attaching himself to no sect, but living a Christian life. No lover of money, he proportioned his fees to what he thought a patient could afford rather than what it was right or customary to charge, and he never, therefore, acquired wealth. He had square thick hands with rather short fingers, the skin being cracked and roughened by the constant use of carbolic solutions. He used his hands to good effect, but he was a slow operator, and in the face of any temporary difficulty during an operation he sweated profusely. The *British Medical Journal* (1927, ii, 110) gives an account of the various portraits of Lister, with a full-page coloured plate of the portrait by J H Lorimer, RSA, dated 1895. A portrait by W W Ouless, RA, 1897, hangs on the staircase at the Royal College of Surgeons, and near it is a bust by Sir Thomas Brock, RA, who also executed the medallion in Westminster Abbey. A colossal bust by the same sculptor stands near the top of Portland Place in the centre of the roadway; it was executed in 1922. The Lister Memorial Fund was raised by public subscription with the object of showing a lasting mark of respect to the memory of Lord Lister and in grateful appreciation of his eminent services to the science of surgery and the signal benefit thereby conferred on mankind. It consists of a general fund out of which a lecturer is paid once in three years, and a Bronze Medal which is awarded, irrespective of nationality, in recognition of distinguished contributions to surgical science. The Museum of the College also possesses a Lister Memorial Cabinet filled with various objects belonging to Lord Lister and collected by the assiduity of the late Sir Rickman J Godlee, Bart, KCVO (q.v.). Many honours fell to Lister in addition to those already mentioned: FRCS Edin in 1855 and Hon in 1905; FFPS Glasgow, 1860 and Hon 1898; FRS and LLD, Edin, 1878; Hon MD Dublin, 1879; LLD Glasgow, 1879; DCL Oxon, 1880; LLD Cantab, 1880; DSc Vict, 1898; Hon MD, Würzburg, Bologna, Budapest, Geneva; Kt Grand Cross Ord Dannebrog; Kt Prussian Ord ‘pour le mérite’, 1885; Fellow of University College, London; Cothenius Med Germ Soc of Naturalists, 1877; Royal Medalist of the Royal Society, London, 1880; Copley Med, 1902; Laureate French Acad Sci and Bondet Prizeman, 1881; Mem Assoc de l’Institut de France; Mem Assoc de l’Académie de Méd, Paris; Hon Mem Amer Acad Arts and Sci, Med Socs Munich, Leipzig, Vienna, Budapest, Dresden, Amsterdam, Petersburg, and Finland, and Obstet Soc Leipzig; Corr Member Soc de Chirurg, Paris, etc; Emeritus Professor Clin Surg King’s College; Consulting Surgeon King’s College Hospital; a freeman of the City of London, June 20th, 1907, and of Edinburgh, January 22nd, 1908. ANTISEPSIS ENSURING ASEPTIC SURGERY Lister revolutionized the art of surgery and started an indefinite extension by inventing the first method through which a surgeon was able with certainty to prevent inflammation from disturbing the natural healing of a wound when made by the surgeon, as well as to restrict or even to prevent inflammation in an accidental wound. He achieved asepsis by using chemical antiseptics; subsequently an improved asepsis resulted from methods of sterilization by heat under pressure. The use of antiseptics is as old as surgery itself. As employed by Hippocrates, ασηπτος referred to that which does not putrefy, the unputrefiable; αποσηπεσθαι had reference to the prevention of putrefaction in honey by cooking it; δνσσηπτος, putrefying with difficulty, was applied by Galen to linen and hemp for ligatures as opposed to catgut. The balsams, benzoin surviving longest; the caustics, including boiling oil; later the vegetable and mineral acids; and throughout the various forms of alcohol - all were used with the object of neutralizing the ill consequences of decomposition. Many experiments during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had for their object the estimation of the relative antiseptic properties of various substances. In contrast with much popular opinion Ancient Medicine obstinately opposed the theory of contagion. The idea of contagion was discountenanced by medical authority, and philosophy firmly held that all infection, including that of wounds, was air-borne. Aristotle in one passage had named plague, phthisis, itch, and ophthalmia as diseases transmitted by contagion; but in another he had upheld spontaneous generation, the parasites of man generated ‘nits’ and the ‘nits’ generated nothing. The Hebrews, perhaps learning from Egypt, certainly believed in the contagion of leprosy and of venereal disease, and through flies. But there is no trace of such ideas in Hippocrates and his followers. The body parasites and flies were held to generate spontaneously until Redi in 1658 carried out before the Academy of Experience in Florence his experiment of preventing the development of maggots in meat if flies were kept away by fine wire netting. Avenzoar described how the itch mites burrow under the skin, and this was demonstrated by experiment by Galés in Paris in 1812 and again by Renucci in 1834. But the old humoral pathology held sway, and in 1842 Hebra still maintained that there was a special itch dyscrasia which resulted in the spontaneous generation of the itch insect. After a further series of experiments in France, Hebra in 1844 changed his opinion and accepted the itch insect as the cause of scabies. Improvements in the microscope, to which Lister’s father contributed importantly, permitted the discovery of micro-organisms. The large *Bacillus anthracis* was seen in the splenic blood of infected cattle in 1855 by Pollender, it was proved by Davaine in 1863 to be characteristic of the disease, and later was stained by Koch, so as to be seen in tissues. Fermentation attracted attention from earliest times in connection with the fermentation of wine, the leavening of bread, and the digestive processes in the stomach and intestines. Further, with the rise of chemistry came in a number of simple chemical reactions. By loose analogy these fermentations and reactions were transferred to the causation of disease and of inflammation in wounds. Liebig with other chemists adhered to old vague notions; putrefaction was attributed to an inherent tendency to decay, favoured by a supply of oxygen; any organisms appeared late and only modified the course of fermentation. The yeast organisms had been seen by Leeuwenhoek in 1680, and various observations followed until in 1844 Pasteur began to inquire into the correct fermenting of wine, and as to the production of tartar. Whilst he was continuing his observations the chief authorities in Paris were united in rejecting organisms as the cause of fermentation. In 1850 Claude Bernard at the Collège de France declared that the process of fermentation was an obscure one; in 1853 Dumas employed the same expression, ‘obscure’; Berzelius held it to be a catalytic process. It was in August, 1857, that Pasteur read to the Lille Scientific Society a paper on lactic acid fermentation by organisms, and in December, 1857, a paper to the Académie des Sciences on alcoholic fermentation and its relation to yeast globules. As to anticipations of Lister, a most remarkable and curious account published in the *Lancet* (1912, i, 885) relates to the opinion of Randall, a London surgeon, as described by Mr Justice Street in charging the Jury at the Guildhall on May 4th, 1687. The judge said, “The plaintiff did naught save wash and tend the wound, for he saith that the pus which all others admire and desire as showing that Nature hath armed herself for the fight is not to be desired but that it is itself an impurity which should be avoided. He hath even in his mind some crotchet that pus is engendered by some small animal or plant, some bug or gnat, or beetle or fungus belike, though he saith openly that he cannot prove the existence of such creatures. This, however, he contendeth is because his glasses do not magnify sufficiently to see them. And he meaneth not the glasses or spectacles for weak or aged eyes, but the microscope which hath a rare and admirable faculty of making small things appear large. He saith forsooth that the true treatment is to keep all extraneous matter from the wound and even the air which he imagineth to be full of his bugs, gnats and beetles.” The surgeon was non-suited. In 1860 Lister was appointed Regius Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow and Surgeon to the Glasgow Infirmary which had been built over the town pits filled with corpses during former epidemics. Naturally he taught that suppuration in wounds was due to decomposition brought about in some way by the air; the only alternative then held by many was that some change in the blood happened. He based his belief on experiences gained in the practice of subcutaneous surgery so-called, in the difference between the healing of a fracture uncomplicated by a wound and that of a compound fracture, between the healing after fracture of ribs with surgical emphysema following a crush, and that after a penetrating wound of the thorax. At Glasgow in the years 1864-1866 Lister had a mortality after amputation of 45 per cent. In 1865, of 15 excisions of the wrist, 6 were attacked by hospital gangrene, and 1 by pyæmia. Within one week 5 men, following amputation, died of pyæmia; in six months (1865-1866) there were 13 deaths from pyæmia. Lister, busily engaged on surgery, had not read widely; he had made no previous acquaintance with Pasteur’s researches until his attention in 1865 was drawn to them by his colleague, Thomas Anderson, Professor of Chemistry. He then learnt that putrefaction and fermentation were set up by the vitality of minute organisms suspended in the air, and that Pasteur had disproved the influence of oxygen and other gaseous constituents of the atmosphere. Neither had he heard of Semmelweiss, who had limited his statements to a cadaveric virus, and to a miasma given off from the bodies of lying-in women and their infants; he had made no point of a microbic infection. His ideas were opposed by German obstetric physicians and by Virchow. When poor Semmelweiss pricked his finger whilst operating on a new-born infant, the septic delirium which followed caused him to be sent into a lunatic asylum, where he died three weeks later of pyæmia. For a time his opinions were treated as those of a madman. Neither had Lister learnt beforehand of Lemaire’s use of carbolic acid. Between 1860 and 1865 Lemaire, without a hospital appointment, and with no opportunities of applying it as a preventive in surgical operations, had used saponized coal tar, i.e., coal tar dissolved in a tincture of *Quillaia saponaria* (soapwort), in various ways as an antiseptic, for the reduction of inflammation and suppuration already established. All his observations were the reverse of methodical; the use had already been discarded before Lister took it up. Lister’s statement as to the adoption of carbolic acid was that in the course of the year 1864 he had been much struck with an account of the remarkable effects produced by carbolic acid upon the sewage of the town of Carlisle. He obtained the carbolic acid he first used from Professor Thomas Anderson. The material was dark and tarry from impurities, largely insoluble in water, and corresponded with what the Germans named creosote. He first made use of it in March, 1865. When first used for swabbing out a wound it proved unsatisfactory; next the carbolic acid was made to saturate lint, and some cauterization followed. Next carbonate of lead, glazier’s putty, was employed as an excipient applied between two sheets of calico. His epoch-making paper “On a New Method of Treating Compound Fracture, Abscess, etc., with Observations on the Conditions of Suppuration” appeared in the *Lancet* from March to July, 1867. Note the use of the term ‘conditions’, and not of ‘causes’. Improvements in method were continuous; in 1867 Calvert, of Manchester, supplied pure crystalline phenol, and wounds were washed out with a 5 per cent solution of the pure phenol; silk ligatures, after being steeped in it, had their ends cut short and generally remained buried; the carbolic acid was mixed with melted shellac, 1-4, and spread on calico; over this was painted indiarubber dissolved in benzine; on evaporating it left a layer of indiarubber which prevented sticking. Immediately over the sutured wound a sheet of oil silk covered with gum copal was laid after it had been dipped in the carbolic acid solution to free it from organisms, and by this means irritation was prevented. The above formed the essential antiseptic dressing in use when Lister left Glasgow for Edinburgh in the autumn of 1869. In an infirmary hitherto notorious for erysipelas, pyæmia, hospital gangrene, and tetanus, Lister had almost abolished such occurrences, whilst he had commenced to undertake surgical operations hitherto considered unjustifiable. The principle of Lister’s dressing was, by means of an antiseptic, to keep out the causes of putrefaction from entering wounds from the air, at the same time to exclude the antiseptic from the wound. There were two persistent misconceptions of Lister’s dressing: one that the dressing was intended to close up an operation wound; the ‘occlusion band’ idea was a cause of much misconception abroad. Lister’s dressing gave vent to any discharge, and when Sir James Paget painted collodion over a closed incision and then applied Lister’s dressing over it he courted the failure which ensued. The other misconception was that Lister’s method comprised the free application of carbolic acid to an operation wound, hence the number of carbolic acid poisoning cases which occurred under Billroth and Kocher. Lister’s method was properly understood and followed with success by Bickersteth, of Liverpool, and others in this country, by Nussbaum, of Munich, and by R von Volkmann at Halle. Simpson, of Edinburgh, published cavilling articles against him. He made inapplicable references to Lemaire, germs were declared to be mythic fungi; he continued to advocate surgery in private houses in preference to hospitals, but this was countered by Prescott Hewitt’s note of twenty-three cases of pyæmia after operation in his private practice. Another cause of Simpson’s opposition was that Lister had not adopted his acupressure to which he had absurdly attributed a diminution of pyæmia at Aberdeen under Pirie. On the other hand, Lister adopted Simpson’s chloroform as an anaesthetic to the exclusion of ether. In 1868 Lister entered upon a very complicated subject - the use of catgut instead of the carbolized silk. He used catgut steeped in carbolic acid dissolved in olive oil, which proved satisfactory in experiments on animals. In June, 1876, he began to prepare the catgut with chromic acid, later he added sulphurous acid, which gave the catgut a green tint such as he described in 1908. Of the innumerable alternative methods of sterilizing catgut, none proved free from occasional septic contamination by streptococcal germs and by those of tetanus. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 Lister published *A Method of Antiseptic Treatment applicable to Wounded in the War*, which received no attention from either French or German surgeons. The immediate amputations practised by Wiseman and other English naval surgeons, and so extensively by Larrey, had been forgotten. William MacCormac (q.v.), the chief English surgeon, did not save a single case of amputation in French hospitals during the Franco-German War in 1870. Alphonse Guérin between September, 1870, and February, 1871, saved only one case of amputation. At the Hôpital Saint-Louis from March to June, 1871, he adopted Lister’s methods in a half-hearted sort of way, and out of 34 secondary amputations 19 survived. Lister’s paper in 1870, “On the Effects of the Antiseptic System of Treatment upon the Salubrity of a Surgical Hospital”, marks the starting-point of a revolution in hospital construction, maintenance, and sanitation, which had often to be forced upon unwilling authorities. It is no wonder, considering the general state of hospital wards and the continual infection of wounds by erysipelas, pyæmia, and gangrene, that Lister should have introduced first the hand spray and then the steam spray. Already by 1881, when research by Tyndall and others had tended to exclude the air as a cause, and in view of Pasteur’s and Koch’s researches on micro-organisms, Lister had begun to contemplate the possibility of dispensing with the spray; he finally abandoned its use in 1887, and made an apology for its previous adoption at Berlin in 1890. Lister’s way of urging the practice of antiseptic surgery may be gathered from his introductory lecture at Edinburgh on November 8th, 1869: “On the Causation of Putrefaction and Fermentation”. Note the use of ‘causation’ as compared with the use of ‘conditions’ previously. He commended the germ theory to the Edinburgh students. “You are as competent as you ever will be to draw logical inferences from established data.” In the course of a demonstration to members of the British Medical Association Lister remarked, “In order, gentlemen, that you may get satisfactory results from this sort of treatment, you must be able to see with your mental eye the septic ferments as distinctly as we see flies and other insects with the corporeal eye. If you can, you can be properly on your guard against them; if you do not see them, you will certainly be liable to relax in your precautions.” It is quite certain that disbelief among surgeons was largely occasioned because they had never themselves seen the objects under discussion. There is the tale of a senior at the meeting of the London Pathological Society asking what germs had to do with frogs; he had heard the term ‘bacteria’ used and he confused it with ‘batrachia’. Two opponents may be mentioned: Spence, a colleague of Lister in Edinburgh, painted the skin of the margins of incisions with tincture of iodine. But there was really no comparison between the limited surgery practised by Spence and Lister’s extended field of operations. Savory at the Cork Meeting of the British Medical Association put forward 619 surgical operations carried out in the old way at St Bartholomew’s Hospital - a hospital where general cleanliness and sanitation were the best at that day. The operations had been followed by 45 deaths, a mortality of 7.2 per cent. But all the operations belonged to the limited class practised before Lister’s changes. Also the list included minor operations, 74 circumcisions, 25 tenotomies, 36 cases of fistula in ano, without deaths. Of 29 removals of the breast, with no deaths, the axilla was not opened in any one case; among 73 major operations there were 11 deaths and 13 excisions of joints with 4 deaths; Savory himself preferred amputation to excision. There were 9 deaths from pyæmia, 28 operation cases were attacked by erysipelas, and 4 died. The exclusion of the minor operations would render Savory’s statistics still more unfavourable. Some use was made of Lister’s antiseptic method by Bergmann (q.v.) in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. Among 81 severe gunshot injuries treated in this way the deaths numbered 15 (18.6 per cent), while among 143 similar severe gunshot injuries treated by older methods the deaths were 71 (49.6 per cent). Whereas immediate amputation had hitherto been the best treatment for a gunshot wound of the knee-joint, Bergmann saved cases without amputation. In London, except by Howse at Guy’s Hospital, and by Marcus Beck at University College Hospital, Lister’s methods were but little understood or practised until after his removal to London as Professor of Clinical Surgery at King’s College Hospital in succession to Fergusson. MacCormac’s Address at St Thomas’s Hospital on December 5th, 1879, and the debate which followed, exhibited the limited knowledge and the confusion in the minds of London surgeons opposing Lister. MacCormac mentioned as alternative antiseptics to carbolic acid, thymol, salicylic acid, boracic acid, acetate of alumina, and chloride of zinc. He did not refer to perchloride of mercury, with which in a 0.5 per cent solution Bergmann treated wool used for dressing in 1877. Lister’s methods reached their acme at the London International Congress in 1881; Watson Cheyne gave a full account of them in his *Antiseptic Surgery*, 1882. The further developments which replaced Lister’s procedure may be dated from Koch’s *Untersuchungen ueber die Aetiologie der Wundinfectionskrankheiten*, Leipzig, 1878, and his demonstrations at the London International Congress, including the staining of micro-organisms, and their cultivation on solid media, in test-tubes and on plates, in addition to fluid cultures in flasks. In 1881 Koch described perchloride of mercury as having a much more powerful influence in killing spores of anthrax than carbolic acid. That sublimate combined with albumin and so became much less active failed to prevent it from replacing carbolic acid, and its free application to fresh wounds resulted in numerous cases of mercury poisoning. The enhanced reputation of mercury salts led Lister to further research on the medication of dressings in order to avoid the irritation and pustulation produced by the perchloride. He tried the combination of mercury and ammonium chloride, sal alembroth, which proved too freely soluble after further research he adopted a double cyanide of mercury and zinc in 1889. Mercuric iodide was also introduced as a less poisonous solution than mercury chloride. Then came the further researches by Pasteur, by Koch, and especially by pupils and followers of Koch who hunted out to their sources the causes infecting wounds; they distinguished in particular staphylococci and streptococci, and described methods of sterilizing by steam under pressure. Pasteur attended a debate on puerperal fever in Paris, and declaring that none of the causes ascribed was the true one, went to the blackboard and drew micrococci in a chain as the real cause (*see* R F Godlee). Following up others, Fehleisen in 1883 demonstrated that erysipelas and allied infections were caused by streptococci. Alexander Ogston, whilst studying in Germany, showed that pus from acute suppuration in the hip-joint contained a pure cultivation of *Staphylococcus aureus*, and this organism proved to be the usual cause of suppuration and abscess, whilst the *Staphylococcus albus* was relatively inert. By 1878 Pasteur had come to recommend the flaming of instruments, and the sterilization of materials for dressings, etc., by heat at 100°-120°C under pressure. Neuber at Kiel, in private practice as a surgeon without hospital appointment, set himself to attain sterility of everything coming in contact with a wound, by boiling in the soft Kiel water instruments, dressings, clothing of patients, and overalls of surgeons and attendants. He washed out wounds with boiled normal salt solution. By 1885 he had set up a small private hospital having general sterility as its object. To hard water bicarbonate of soda was added. In 1886, Schlange having shown that dressing materials of commerce were nearly always contaminated by germs, Bergmann with his assistants, in particular Schimmelbusch, instituted the sterilizing procedures which were demonstrated at the Berlin International Congress in 1890. They used the bacillus of blue pus as a naked-eye indicator. Lister, whilst being shown round by Bergmann, noticed some beads of pus under the dressings, probably indicating imperfection in the sterilizing of the patient’s skin. The account by Schimmelbusch in his *Antiseptische Wundbehandlung*, 1893, and Rake’s English translation from the second German edition in 1894, popularized a procedure which replaced Lister’s methods up to the war of 1914. Further research was made by a number of observers upon infection through the patient’s skin, the hands of the surgeons, his assistants and nurses, through the mouth and hair, and into the sterilization of catgut already mentioned. Cleansing of the skin by soap and water without scrubbing was shown to free it almost from infection, particularly in the delicate skin of children and the face and neck of adults; whereas more active scrubbing and treatment by carbolic acid or perchloride of mercury defeated the end in view by setting up dermatitis. A 2 per cent solution of iodine in rectified spirit painted once or at most twice upon clean skin came into general use. The hands and nails of the surgeon, his assistants and nurses were proved to require personal manicure. Sir Thomas Watson had suggested in a lecture the use of thin impervious leather gloves - to be destroyed at the end of the case - when attending a patient with puerperal fever. Mikulicz and others used cotton gloves, sterilized in boiling water, but being permeable they required to be often changed in the course of an operation. Halsted in the United States obtained the manufacture in 1891 of the rubber gloves which came into general use. The great harm to the individual caused by oral sepsis was exposed in particular by William Hunter, Physician to Charing Cross Hospital. An enormous development occurred in the better care of the mouth demanded of surgeons and nurses; whilst provisionally the wearing of masks was a protection to patients, yet persistence of oral sepsis rebreathed by the masked surgeon was an added danger to him. Also the sterilization of anaesthetic masks was shown to be needed, and above all things, the necessity of putting the patient’s mouth in good order before undertaking operations. Hair kept clean was proved not to be a source of infection. [Such is a summary of Listerism to the outbreak of the European War in 1914.] PUBLICATIONS:- Lister’s collected papers were published in two quarto volumes at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in June, 1909, having been prepared by a Committee to celebrate his eightieth birthday on April 5th, 1907. There are two impressions, nearly the whole of the first impression having been destroyed by a fire at the printers.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000500
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Denham, Robin Arthur (1922 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Connell, Anthea Mary Stewart (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2008-12-12
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/372333372333
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Anthea Mary Stewart Connell was a senior ophthalmic consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, from 1969 to 1996. She was born on 21 October 1925, the daughter of two medical doctors. Her father, John S M Connell, was a surgeon and gynaecologist and had served as a colonel in the RAMC on wartime hospital ships. Her mother, Constance B Challis, had trained at Cambridge and the University of Birmingham Medical School, and became a public health doctor. Anthea was educated at Edgbaston High School, before moving to City Park Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and then to the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She completed her medical education at the University of Birmingham Medical School, qualifying in 1952. Her ophthalmic training was at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, firstly as a resident, then as a registrar and subsequently as a senior registrar/first assistant in joint appointments at Moorfields, Guy’s Hospital and the London Hospital. In 1969 she moved to Barbados as a senior consultant and head of the department of ophthalmology and assistant lecturer at the University of West Indies until 1991. She initiated the Barbados Eye Study and was its director from 1987 to 1996. This group investigated glaucoma in the Barbadian population and founded the Inter-Island Eye Service. Although living in Barbados, she held courses and organised diploma of ophthalmology examinations in the Caribbean, which were recognised by the Royal College of Surgeons. She was also a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, giving presentations at their annual meetings. She wrote extensively, covering her work and research in Barbados and the islands. In 1963 she married George E P Dowglass, a master of wine, who was a wine merchant. They had one child, Charlotte, born in 1965, who became financial director to Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. Anthea supported the local community, was chairman of the local Conservative Policy Forum, and enjoyed painting in oil and acrylic, showing her work both locally and in London. She died on 23 September 2003 after a long series of strokes.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000146
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Soomro, Jamil Ahmed (1948 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372341372341
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Jamil Soomro was an orthopaedic surgeon at Orpington. He was born in Shikarpur, Sind, Pakistan, on 28 March 1948. His father, Haji Moula Bux Soomro, was a farmer. His mother was Fazlaan Soomro, a housewife. Jamil was educated at the Government High School, Shikarpur, where he gained a distinction in Islamic studies, and went on to the C&S College, Shikarpur, where he gained a first in intermediate science. He studied medicine at Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, passing with the highest marks of his year. After house posts in the Navy in Pakiston, he came to England in 1975. He was a senior house officer at Lewisham Hospital and then at Stoke-on-Trent. He then held a post in the accident and emergency department at Stockport for six months, before moving to Birmingham, where he carried out paediatric surgery for a year in the Children’s Hospital. He then worked in Hull, at the Royal Infirmary, as a paediatric surgeon. He then moved to Crawley, as a senior house officer, and embarked on his career in orthopaedics. He worked as an orthopaedic surgeon at Chelmsford, then Portsmouth, before joining Orpington Hospital, Bromley Hospital NHS Trust, in 1980. He became an associate specialist in 1990, and developed a special interest in knee surgery. He retired in 2003. He was an excellent surgeon and an active and enthusiastic teacher, teaching staff at all levels and regularly helping junior doctors prepare for their MRCS examinations. He had a warm bedside manner and is remembered not only for his surgical skills, but also for his politeness, kindness, sincerity and dedication to his work. In July 2006 a plaque was unveiled at Orpington Hospital to commemorate his service to the trust. He was married to Nigar. They had a daughter, Hibba, who is an ophthalmologist, and two sons, Omer, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, and Mohammed, a pharmacist. Jamil Soomro died on 12 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000154
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stephenson, Clive Bryan Stanley (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Graves, Frederick Thomas (1919 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Green, James Patrick (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372252372252
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Jim Green was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire. He was born on 17 March 1930 in Sheffield and attended High Storrs Grammar School, before going to Sheffield University in 1947. He had a great interest in anything to do with science, particularly physics and mathematics, often wondering whether he should have followed that particular path. Neither of his parents were medical. His father, Leonard Green, was a sergeant in the police force, and his mother, Edna Winifred Maxfield, was a teacher. His sister, Valerie White, also trained in medicine and entered general practice. After qualifying and following house appointments, he joined the RAMC for National Service in 1954 and reached the rank of major. A degree of boredom led him to study German, passing O-level in that subject. This stimulated a love of languages, particularly Russian, and he attended classes virtually up until the time of his death. Returning to Sheffield for two years as a demonstrator of anatomy from 1956, he was a general surgical registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Sheffield, from 1961 to 1963. He decided to specialise in orthopaedics, first as a registrar from 1963 to 1964, and then as a senior registrar at Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital, Mansfield, until 1968. On obtaining the Alan Malkin travelling fellowship in 1967, he spent six weeks gaining further experience in western Europe. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, in 1968 and remained there until he retired in 1996. Never one to take centre stage, he preferred to work away quietly in his own surroundings in the company of local colleagues, friends and family. After retirement he continued with medico-legal work. A quiet, modest man who was devoted to the care of his patients, he was recognised for a meticulous approach in all his work. He was a ‘direct’ Yorkshire man, whose love for patients was only matched by a greater one for his family. He had many hobbies. He loved astronomy, sailing and maritime navigation, and he gained qualifications in radio-communication. A member of the Witham Sailing Club, he loved to escape to the Wash in his 27-foot yacht. He was prominent in masonic lodges in Sheffield and Boston, a keen gardener, and a member of the Boston Preservation Society. He had played the violin in his school orchestra, and his love of music never failed. He married Pamela née Scott (known as ‘Frankie’) in 1968. She had been a district midwife and then did a full-time secretarial course, which proved a great asset to Jim in his work. They had four children, the eldest, Deborah, trained at Sheffield and is a part-time general practitioner in Leeds. In January 2001 Jim developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and over the next three years underwent repeated courses of chemotherapy, ultimately requiring dialysis for renal failure. He died from multiple organ failure in St James’s Hospital, Leeds, on 29 January 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000065
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cleland, William Paton (1912 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doll, Sir William Richard Shaboe (1912 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372350372350
Occupation Epidemiologist
Details Sir Richard Doll, the most distinguished epidemiologist of his generation, established that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. Born in Hampton, Middlesex, on 28 October 1912, he was the son of Henry William Doll, a general practitioner, and Amy Kathleen Shaboe. He was educated at Westminster and St Thomas’ Hospital, doing junior jobs as casualty officer, anaesthetist and house physician. He began his research career under Paul Wood at Hammersmith, while working as a resident medical officer at the London Clinic. When war broke out he was called up into the RAMC, where he served as a battalion medical officer at Dunkirk, was posted to a hospital ship, and served in the invasion of Sicily. He contracted tuberculosis of the kidney in 1944, underwent a nephrectomy, and was discharged in early 1945. He took a course on statistics under Sir Austin Bradford Hill, who was impressed by him, and in 1948 that he went to work with Bradford Hill at the Medical Research Council. They began to study the causes of the huge increase in deaths from cancer of the lung. It was a time when smoking was regarded as normal and harmless. Their preliminary study of hospital patients with cancer of the lung and other diseases showed, to their surprise, that those with lung cancer were smokers, those with other diseases were not. This was confirmed by a prospective study on doctors’ smoking habits. At this stage Doll himself gave up smoking. Immensely distinguished, honoured by innumerable institutions, Doll was a genial and likeable man whose juniors adored him. One of his last public speeches was to a meeting of the Oxford Medical Graduates Club, where to the relief of his audience he showed that there was no statistical harm done by wine. When asked how much, he replied: “enough”. Doll married Joan Mary Faulkner in 1949. They had a son and daughter. He died on 24 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000163
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ferguson, William Glasgow (1919 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2014-08-11
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/372352372352
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details William Glasgow Ferguson, or 'Fergie' as he was known, was a thoracic surgeon in Victoria, Australia. He was born in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, on 4 March 1919, the son of William and Sara Ferguson. He studied medicine at Durham, where he qualified in 1942. After four months as a house surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, he joined the RAMC and was posted to 144 Field Ambulance, Hull, and in the following March went to Accra, where he served in 2 (WA) Field Ambulance until April 1944, when he went with his field ambulance to Burma. There he was promoted to major and, in the following year, commanded 4 (WA) Field Ambulance with the rank of lieutenant colonel, being mentioned in despatches. At the end of the war he brought his field ambulance back to West Africa and was demobilised in 1946. On his return to the UK, he became a demonstrator of anatomy at the University of Durham, did general surgical training at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, completed the Guy's course and passed the final FRCS. He then decided to specialise in thoracic surgery, undergoing specialist registrar and senior registrar posts at the Royal Victoria Infirmary and the Shotley Bridge Regional Thoracic Surgical Centre. He was awarded the American Association for Thoracic Surgery travelling fellowship in 1953 as a post-doctoral first assistant. In 1958 he moved to Australia, as staff superintendent of Sydney Hospital. Two years later, he became a consultant at Goulburn Valley Base Hospital, Victoria, where he remained until he retired in 1985. He then continued in general practice in Omeo, Victoria, until 1992. He was previously married to Helen née Cowan. He had three children - two sons (Tim and Richard) and a daughter (Lisa). He died in Omeo, Victoria, on 20 July 2005, aged 86. He was also survived by a partner, Anne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000165
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Goodwin, Harold (1910 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Hall, Hedley Walter (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Hall, Rodney John (1928 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372255372255
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rodney John Hall was a surgeon in Adelaide, South Australia. He was born on 7 April 1928 at Waikerie, South Australia, and studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1957. He was a resident medical officer at the Bendigo and Northern District Bone Hospital from 1957 to 1958. He then spent almost as year as a locum in suburban practices in Melbourne. From March 1959 to December 1960 he was a full-time demonstrator in anatomy at the University of Melbourne. He was then appointed as a surgical registrar at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, South Australia, a post he held until February 1963. He then travelled to the UK, where he was a registrar at Oldchurch Hospital, Essex. He returned to Australia, where he was a registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, from 1966 to 1970. He was a visiting medical officer at the hospital between 1972 and 1977. From 1979 to 1998 he was on the staff of the University of Adelaide. He was a medical officer to the Adelaide Community Health Service from 1981 to 1991. He died on 24 November 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000068
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Booth, John Barton (1937 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Maguire, William Brian (1925 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-07
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372632372632
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Bill Maguire was an orthopaedic surgeon in Brisbane, Australia. He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, on 6 March 1925, the second son of John Francis Maguire, a schoolmaster, and his wife, Margaret née Jones. His father had lost his leg in France during the First World War and Bill later based his design for a simple prosthesis on that used by his father. Bill was educated at Coorparoo State Primary and the Church of England Grammar School in Brisbane, where he became a good swimmer and middle distance runner, and played rugby. He also developed an uncommon skill with languages, particularly French, and on leaving school he at first planned to teach French, but later decided to study medicine, for which he won a Commonwealth scholarship to the University of Queensland. There he paid his way by working at the Carlton and United Breweries, the Coca Cola factory, and as a labourer in the Mount Isa mines, working deep underground, freeing rocks that had become jammed after blasting. After a year at university he volunteered for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), where he won his wings and gained his licence. He returned to complete his medical degree, and then held junior posts at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and did his Primary from a post as demonstrator in anatomy. In 1952, by now married to Dorothy Friend, a nurse, he took a ship to England, to work as a registrar at the Queen Alexandra and the Royal hospitals in Portsmouth. He attended the FRCS course at St Thomas’s, passed the FRCS, and then worked at Walsall Hospital. In 1956 he returned to Australia, as medical superintendent at Toowoomba Base Hospital. There he did all types of surgery, but increasingly specialised in orthopaedics. He moved to Brisbane in 1958 as an orthopaedic supervisor. In 1964 he moved into private practice as visiting consultant at the Princess Alexandra and Greenslopes Repatriation hospitals. In the Australasian College Maguire helped develop the training programme in orthopaedics, examined in that specialty, and helped to set up a programme for training Indonesian surgeons in orthopaedics. In 1968 he joined an Australian medical team in Vietnam, where he found his facility in French helpful in dealing with the French-speaking nuns who nursed his patients. There he carried out a number of operations on lepers. When hostilities were over he continued to help Vietnamese doctors who had come to Australia. Bill Maguire was president of the Queensland branch of the Australasian Orthopaedic Association in 1983, served on the Australian Medical Association council in 1961, and continued in the RAAF reserve as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon with the rank of wing commander. He published *All you need to know about joint replacement* (Brisbane, Boolarong, 1990) and various papers on orthopaedic topics, published in the *Medical Journal of Australia* and the *Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery*. In 1996, whilst on holiday in Tasmania, Bill was involved in the notorious Port Arthur massacre, when a mentally disturbed young man murdered 35 people. Bill was one of the first doctors on the scene and helped tend the victims. He was decorated for his bravery. Outside medicine, Bill Maguire had many interests. He continued to fly and was a keen sailor. He was a voluntary doctor at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982. Above all, he was devoted to all things French, being a member of the French Orthopaedic Association, where he gave his papers in French, enjoyed Proust, and acted as the interpreter for the Australian Rugby Tour of France in 1984. Taking up golf later in life, he achieved two holes in one. He and his wife, Dorothy, had five sons, John William, Alan Henry, Bruce Douglas, Stephen Francis and Robert Evan. Bill Maguire died on 12 March 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000448
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Coates, Henry (1779 - 1848)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Fisk, Geoffrey Raymond (1916 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21 2009-02-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372634372634
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Geoffrey Fisk was a senior orthopaedic surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. He was born in Goodmayes, Essex, on 26 May 1916. His father, Harry Marcus Fisk, company director of Meredith and Drew, the biscuit manufacturers, was a descendent of an ancient Suffolk family. One of his ancestors, Nicholas Ffyske (1602-1680), was a physician and a prominent Parliamentarian. Geoffrey’s mother was Jane Gerdes. He was a scholar at Ilford County High School, from which he went on to study medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. After qualifying in 1939, he was house surgeon to Harold Wilson, and then casualty officer and senior orthopaedic house surgeon to Sidney Higgs. In 1941 he went to the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, as a junior surgeon, registrar and chief assistant, before joining the RAF medical branch in 1945. He was in charge of the orthopaedic division at Northallerton, then went to Wroughton Hospital, before becoming senior orthopaedic specialist at the Central Medical Establishment in London. Leaving the RAF as a wing commander in 1948, he returned to Bart’s as an orthopaedic registrar, was senior registrar at Black Notley and the Seamen’s Hospital, Greenwich, and was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Albert Dock Orthopaedic and Accident Hospital, Bishop’s Stortford Hospital and St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping, in 1950. In 1965 he moved to the new Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, remaining there until he retired in 1981. Geoffrey Fisk was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1952 and spent a year in St Louis, Missouri. Geoffrey was an active member of the management committee of the West Essex Group of Hospitals for 12 years and secretary, then chairman, of the North East Thames Orthopaedic Advisory Committee from 1975 to 1981. He was a Hunterian Professor in our College three times, in 1951, 1968 and 1978, presenting different aspects of his wide experience in hand surgery, on which he published extensively. He was a founder member and later president of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand and received the ‘Pioneer’ award of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand in 1998. Inevitably, he was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. When the Bart’s Orthopaedic Rotational Training Programme was devised in 1969 it included segments at Harlow, where the trainees greatly benefited from his excellent teaching and he regularly attended their meetings until the year of his death. His many interests outside surgery included gardening and classical music. He was a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of two Livery Companies, the Makers of Playing Cards and the Apothecaries, and he was a member of the Royal Institution. Following his retirement, he became a student at Darwin College, the postgraduate Cambridge college, which had been founded in 1964. There he took an MPhil in anthropology, and in 1995 bequeathed first editions of Andreas Vesalius’ *Fabrica* (1543) and Adrian Spigelius’ *Opera* (1645), which includes an early reprint of Harvey’s description of the circulation of the blood. He died on 10 November 2007 at the age of 91 and was survived by his wife of 63 years, Susan Airey (MB ChB Leeds) and by a daughter (Susan Clare) and two sons (Simon James and Jonathan, who is a consultant psychiatrist).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000450
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hammick, Sir Stephen Love (1777 - 1867)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Langstaff, Joseph (1778 - 1856)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Soden, John Smith (1780 - 1863)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21
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/372638372638
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Coventry on March 29th, 1780; was educated at King Edward’s Grammar School. He was then apprenticed to George Freer, of Birmingham, the author of *Aneurysm and some Diseases of the Arterial System* (1807), who evidently inspired his pupils with higher aims that the mere routine of practice, for Soden was Jacksonian Prizeman in 1810 with an essay on “The Bite of Rabid Animal”. Moreover, Joseph Hodgson (q.v.), a fellow pupil with Soden, President of the College in 1864, was the author in the following year (1811) of the Jacksonian Prize Essay on “Wounds and Diseases of the Arteries and Veins” – an elaborate piece of work. Having qualified in 1800, Soden entered the Army as a Hospital Mate on June 13th, 1800, became Assistant Surgeon in the 79th Highlanders three days later, served in Egypt, and resigned before April 16th, 1803. After returning to London he settled in practice at Bath, where he was appointed Surgeon to the United Hospitals, the Eye Infirmary, the Penitentiary, and the Lock Hospital. He thus took up a position as a leading practitioner in Bath, a successful operator and eye surgeon. He was an original member of the British Medical Association. He practised at 101 Sydney Place, Bath, and died in retirement on March 19th, 1863. His son, John Soden (q.v.), succeeded to his practice. He was ambidextrous in operating for cataract, sitting facing the patient, the patient also sitting; he made the lower incision by means of Baer’s triangular knife. Puncturing the cornea almost vertically, he watched for the jet of aqueous humour, then carried the knife across the anterior chamber without touching the iris. Soden made an admirable collection of the Portraits of Medical Men – Ancient and Modern, British and Foreign. It was presented after his death to the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society by his son John Soden, of Bath. The collection consists of four folio volumes containing 872 mounted medical portraits, with two additional volumes, the one of caricatures and newspaper cuttings, the other of autograph letters and signatures of medical men. The six volumes are preserved at the Royal Society of Medicine, where they are known as ‘The Soden Collection’. Publications:- “On Inguinal Aneurysm, Cured by Tying the External Iliac Artery.” – *Med-Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 536. “Of Poisoning by Arsenic” – *London Med Rev*, 1811. *Address* at the Third Anniversary of the Bath District Branch of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, 1839, 8vo, Bath, 1839. *Address* at the Annual Meeting of the Bath and Bristol District Branch of the above, 1854.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000454
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Young, George William ( - 1850)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Crowfoot, William Henchman (1780 - 1848)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21 2011-09-07
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/372640372640
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Sept 9th, 1780, at Kessingland, a village on the Suffolk coast, where his father occupied a large farm. His mother, who was a daughter of the Rev J Henchman, died while he was an infant, and he was placed in charge of his uncle by marriage, the Rev W Clubbe, Vicar of Brandeston. Mr Clubbe, an elegant Latin scholar, taught him to love classical studies. In 1794 he was apprenticed to his uncle, Mr Crowfoot, of Beccles, who was a second father to him, and in 1799 he came to London and entered as a pupil at the Borough hospitals under Cline and Astley Cooper, the latter of whom became his friend in after-life. Sir Astley Cooper in his work on *Dislocations* (1842) refers to Crowfoot as one who, "to high professional skill, adds all the amiable qualities which can become a man." Crowfoot hoped to obtain through his patron's influence a medical appointment in India, but he failed in this and settled at Framlington. In 1803, his practice being limited there, he removed at his uncle's suggestion to Beccles, and in 1805 became his partner, thenceforward obtaining high professional credit and success. It was in the December of 1805 that he accidentally met a party bearing the body of a soldier who had been thrown on the beach at Kessingland and lain for several hours apparently dead. Finding that the precordia still retained some warmth, he caused the body to be carried to a house, and persevering in the means of restoration which his professional skill suggested, he at length revived the sufferer. For this action the Royal Humane Society awarded him a silver medal. He died, after an illness of only four days, on Nov 13th, 1848, of typhus fever, contracting the disease from a post-mortem on a typhus patient. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Beccles Dispensary. Publications:- Crowfoot's publications record the remarkable results of his own experience and are characterized by strong good sense. They include:- "On Carditis." - *Edin Med and Surg Jour*, 1809, v, 298. He stressed the connection between rheumatism and carditis before that connection was so much insisted upon as at present. "Surgical Cases." - *Ibid*, 1825, xxiv, 260. "On the Use of Extension in Fractures of the Spine." - *Jour Prov Med and Surg Assoc*, 1843, xi, 337. In this paper he showed the value and success of the treatment in cases too often regarded as hopeless.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000456
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, James Marsh (1913 - 1965)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07 2014-07-18
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/372647372647
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Brown was born in 1913 and educated at Bishops Stortford. In 1930 he entered Guy's Hospital and for two years studied dentistry before changing to medicine. After qualification in 1936 he held various house appointments at Guy's before obtaining the Fellowship in 1938. Brown was then appointed lecturer in anatomy at Trinity College, Cambridge, but returned to Guy's as demonstrator of anatomy and physiology in 1939. When the second world war broke out he joined the Emergency Medical Service and went to Guildford as a surgical registrar. In January 1940 he joined the RAMC in the hope of being posted abroad but after a short time his commission was changed to that of Surgeon-Captain in the Royal Horse Guards and he was posted to Windsor. He spent much of his spare time at Windsor in helping at King Edward VII Hospital; here his abilities were quickly recognised and in January 1942 he was made temporary assistant surgeon. In 1946 this appointment was confirmed, and in 1948 he was made senior surgeon. When the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital was incorporated in the Health Service he was appointed to its surgical staff; he also became surgeon to the Maidenhead Hospital and to many other hospitals in that area; in addition he was on the staff of the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers in London. Brown did much work on the medical committees of his region and was keenly interested in the Windsor and District Medical Society. He was medical officer to the racecourses at Ascot and Windsor, and to the Windsor Polo Club and the Royal Windsor Horse Show Club. After demobilisation he was made Honorary Surgeon-Captain to the Royal Horse Guards. In April 1956 he was elected a Freeman of the City of London. He died suddenly in Guy's Hospital on 24 April 1965 at the age of 52, survived by his wife and four children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000463
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mayo, William James (1861 - 1939)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372648372648
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Le Sueur, Minnesota on 29 June 1861, the elder son of William Worrall Mayo and Louise Abigail Wright, his wife. The younger son Charles Horace Mayo was also an Honorary FRCS. For an account of W W Mayo, their father, see the life of C H Mayo, above. William J Mayo, was educated at the Rochester High School and at Niles Academy, working in a local drug store during the vacations. When a tornado struck Rochester in 1883, W Worrall Mayo was appointed to take charge of an improvized hospital and a number of Sisters of St Francis worked with him to help the wounded. The Mother Superior proposed to build a permanent hospital in memory of the catastrophe, provided sufficient money for the purpose and nominated Mayo to take charge of it. The hospital was opened in 1889 under the name of St Mary's Hospital with thirteen patients. It was always the rule that each patient paid according to his means, that fees would not be required from charitable organizations, and that the patient's promise to pay was a sufficient guarantee. The institution quickly became known, first as the Mayo Clinic, later (1915) as the Mayo Foundation. The Mayo brothers gave $1,500,000, and on making the endowment William Mayo, speaking also for his brother, said “We never regarded the money as ours; it came from the people, and we believe it should go back to the people.” The two brothers worked throughout in the utmost harmony and to the end of their lives had a common pocket book in which each wanted the other to have the greater share. Both had the essential attribute of a true gentleman, consideration for others. At first neither brother specialized in surgery; later William was the more inclined to operate upon the abdomen, Charles upon the head and neck. Of the two “Willie” was the better administrator, “Charlie” the more original. Both were simple in their lives and actions, both were humble-minded in spite of their great success in life, and both were witty, each in his own way. During the war William, who had received a commission as a first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps in 1913, was promoted major in 1917 and later colonel in the United States Army Medical Corps. During 1917-19 he was chief consultant for the Medical Service; he was appointed colonel, Medical Reserve Corps in 1920 and brigadier-general in 1921. A regent of the University of Minnesota since 1907, William Mayo was president of the Minnesota State Medical Society in 1895, president of the American Medical Association 1905-06, president of the Society of Clinical Surgery 1911-12, president of the American Surgical Association 1913-14, president of the American College of Surgeons 1917-19, and president of the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons 1925. In 1919 he was awarded a gold medal by the National Institution of Social Sciences for his services to mankind. In 1933 he received a special award from the University of Minnesota in recognition of his distinguished services in the furtherance of scientific studies. He married Hattie M Daman of Rochester, Minnesota. She survived, him with two daughters: Mrs Waltman Walters, wife of a director of the Mayo Clinic, and Mrs Donald C Balfour, wife of the director of the Mayo Foundation. He died in his sleep at Rochester, Minnesota, on 28 July 1939, after suffering from a sub-acute perforating ulcer of the stomach, for the relief of which he had been operated upon in the previous April.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000464
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Percival, William ( - 1849)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Bacot, John (1781 - 1879)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372655372655
Occupation General surgeon
Details Came of Huguenot stock, an ancestor having taken refuge in England after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Both his father and grandfather were members of the medical profession and practised in John Street, Golden Square, London. Educated at St George’s Hospital, he was a fellow-pupil with Sir Benjamin Brodie (q.v.), whose intimate friend he became. In 1803 entered the Guards as Assistant Surgeon, and with the 1st Battalion of the Grenadiers was present at Corunna, Nive, Nievelles, and the taking of St Sebastian. Leaving the service in 1820, he began to practise in South Audley Street, and was appointed Surgeon to the St George’s and St James’s Dispensary. He early became a member of the Apothecaries’ Company, and served all the offices of that Society, being also a Member of its Examinations Commission. Up to the year 1826, in conjunction with Dr Roderick McLeod, he was Editor of the *Medical and Physical Journal*, and was one of the first Members of the Senate of the University of London. He was an active supporter of the various benevolent medical societies, was Inspector of Anatomy, first for the Provinces and then for London, and in 1854 was appointed a Member of the Board of Health. He retired from the Inspectorship of Anatomy about the year 1856, and was given a small pension. He enjoyed at one time a good private practice, and educated a son, J T W Bacot, to the profession, who after twenty-six years’ service in the Army retired before his father’s death as Hon Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. John Bacot died at his residence, 4 Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square, London, on Sept 4th, 1870. At the time of his death he was Senior Fellow of the College. The *Medical Circular* of 1852 published an amusing and extremely impudent life of him up to that date. The article is notable as giving a Dickensian picture of the feelings of a candidate for the LSA entering “the cold dark shadows of that low portal in Water Lane” – in other words, Apothecaries’ Hall. The biography in its closing sentences describes Bacot as “an intelligent, judicious and honest medical politician. He is a small, plain man, of unassuming manners speaks calmly and gravely, and has been the champion of the interests of the Society of Apothecaries in the late discussion on medical reform.” Publications- *Observations on Syphilis*, London, 1821. *A Treatise on Syphilis, in which the History, Symptoms, and Method of Treating every Form of that Disease are fully Considered*. 8vo, London, 1829. *Observations on the Use and Abuse of Friction; with some Remarks on Motion and Rest, as Applicable to the Cure of Various Surgical Diseases*, 8vo, London, 1822. “A Sketch of the Medical History of the First Battalion of the First Regiment of Foot-Guards, during the Winter of 1812-1813.” – *Med.- Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 373. “Case of Steatomatous Tumour under the Tongue.” – Lond. *Med. and Physical Jour*., 1826.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000471
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Vaux, Bowyer (1782 - 1872)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Cousins, Adrian Gordon (1928 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2014-04-08
JPEG Image
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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Ludlow, Samuel ( - 1853)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Davis, Thomas (1778 - 1863)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-03 2013-08-07
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/372670372670
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards, having been appointed Assistant Surgeon to the regiment on Dec 26th, 1804. He resigned before Sept 22nd, 1812. He died at his residence, Boxmoor House, Herts, on May 2nd, 1863.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000486
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Wright, John ( - 1852)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Standert, Hugh Chudleigh (1782 - 1850)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Farrell, Charles (1779 - 1855)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, Robert (1787 - 1857)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-24 2013-08-07
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/372681372681
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Kirby Lonsdale, Westmorland, where his father was engaged in a large medical practice. He belonged to a family many of whom have been distinguished as bishops and clergy of the Church of England. After his apprenticeship he studied in Edinburgh and London, becoming an MRCS in 1806. After starting in practice he was elected at the age of 23 Surgeon to the Liverpool Infirmary in 1810, and held the appointment for forty years, when he was made Consulting Surgeon. His son Edward Robert Bickersteth (q.v.) and his grandson Robert Alexander (q.v.) succeeded him as surgeons to the Royal Infirmary. He was an active member of the Medical Institution, and joined the British Medical Association. He died of inflammation of the lungs at his house in Rodney Street on April 17th, 1857.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000497
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Alan Godfrey (1938 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Raje, Dilip Raghunath (1936 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Belsey, Ronald Herbert Robert (1910 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-07 2009-01-16
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372631372631
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Ronnie Belsey was a consultant thoracic surgeon, known worldwide for his innovative techniques in oesophageal surgery. He was born on 2 April 1910 in London, the son of Herbert Robert Belsey, a dental surgeon, and Marie Martha Annie née Moller. He was educated at Woodbridge School, Suffolk. There he excelled, not only in his studies but also in a variety of sports, and was made head prefect in 1926. From Woodbridge he won an entrance scholarship to St Thomas’ Hospital where, in addition to medical studies, he played rugby and ice hockey. Among his memories of this period he recounted the two London hospitals cup finals against St Mary’s, both of which Tommy’s won. After qualifying with the conjoint diploma in 1934, he went on to sit the London MB BS examination, winning the coveted Beaney prize for surgery (with honours). During his training he was house surgeon on the surgical unit to Max Page, Hugo Romanis and Norman (Pasty) Barrett. In later years he could concede that Barrett had a major influence in moulding his interests in oesophageal surgery. In 1936 he moved to the Brompton Hospital as a resident surgical officer, working with the doyens of thoracic surgery - Tudor Edwards, J E H Roberts and Clement Price Thomas, not to mention the up and coming Russell Claude Brock. With Roberts he was closely involved in developing extrapleural pneumonolysis and artificial pneumothorax in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. At the same time Brock was breaking new ground in our College in defining the anatomy of the bronchial tree. These influences by the giants of thoracic surgery kindled in Belsey a lasting interest in that field. In 1937 he was awarded the Dorothy Temple Cross scholarship, which enabled him to go to the USA as a research fellow at the Harvard Medical School, acting as clinical assistant to Edward (Pete) Churchill. The outcome of this collaboration was the outstanding contribution which they jointly made to pulmonary surgery: ‘Segmental pneumonectomy in bronchiectasis’ (*Annals of Surgery*, Vol.109, 1939, No.4, pp.481-499). He rounded this year off with a paper presented in Atlanta to the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons on extrapleural pneumothorax. On returning to England, he was appointed as a resident assistant surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital, in time to witness the outbreak of the Second World War. With the evacuation of the medical school to locations outside London, Belsey was left with a skeleton surgical staff to cope with war casualties, an experience he cherished. In 1941 he was sent down to the West Country to establish a thoracic surgical service for the south west region. Having initially worked at a tuberculosis sanatorium in Kew Stoke, outside Weston-super-Mare, in 1944 he moved to Frenchay Hospital, which until then had been a Nissen-hutted evacuation hospital run by the US Army Medical Corps for war casualties. Here he established the south west regional thoracic centre, training surgeons to man units in Tehidi (for Cornwall and south Devon) and Bovey Tracey (for north Devon). From the outset he worked on the principle (to put it in his own words): “you cannot make friends and at the same time get things done”. True to his word, he went ahead and made several enemies. The result was an excellent thoracic surgical centre manned by two consultants, well known all over the world, training surgeons who went on to lead some of the best centres in Europe and North America. He received a constant stream of trainees from the USA and Canada, initially from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and later from the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In reciprocation he made a visit each year to the USA to attend the annual meeting of the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons. It was on one such visit in 1966 that he delivered the honoured guest lecture to that association on the surgical treatment of functional diseases of the oesophagus, which to this day remains the authoritative paper on the subject. He will however be remembered for the Mark IV operation for control of gastro-oesophageal reflux. His interest in hiatal herniation was initiated during the year he spent in Boston, when Harrington presented his paper on the anatomical repair of hiatus hernia. Whilst working in Frenchay, Belsey made several attempts at a physiological repair constructing an anti-reflux valve mechanism. Having designated these attempts as Marks I to III, he came to the conclusion that a 270 degree partial inversion wrap produced the best result. This he called the Mark IV repair, the description and results of which were only communicated to the surgical world, not by himself but by his senior registrar, after a ten year follow-up of his patients. In the early fifties, with declining tuberculosis and bronchiectasis, and an increasing potential for cardiac surgery, the regional thoracic centre became the regional cardio-thoracic centre. Closed heart surgery flourished and with the advent of open heart surgery ‘the B’ (as Belsey came to be known) was invited to move the open-heart unit to the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Like the true researcher that he was, he set off to study cardiopulmonary bypass on animals at the Bristol University Veterinary School in Langford. He then took himself off to join his friend Charles Drew at the Westminster Hospital to learn the technique of profound hypothermia using quadruple cannulation. He returned to set up the cardiac unit at the Infirmary, devoting his time to the Children’s Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary and Frenchay. Despite his commitment to paediatric cardiac surgery, his main interest was in congenital tracheo-oesophageal fistula, atresia and other non-cardiac conditions in the newborn. He was a pioneer in the use of the left hemicolon in oesophageal replacement surgery and a firm believer in the place of stainless steel wire sutures in thoracic surgery, a conclusion arrived at in the tuberculosis era. Belsey was a meticulous technical surgeon, handling tissues with the utmost gentleness, and working with dexterity and complete economy of hand movement. “Doctor, remember you are dealing with human flesh, handle it with care, not macerate it,” he would tell his assistant if the latter was caught manhandling the organs. Even when confronted with a complex situation in the operating room ‘the B’ was in total command, and his assistants knew that he was. In 1973 he was awarded the Colles medal by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and a year later the Sir Clement Price Thomas medal of our College. In 1983 he delivered the Tudor Edwards memorial lecture under the auspices of our College. He also collected medals from the universities of Leiden and Padua for services to thoracic surgery. Belsey retired from the National Health Service in 1975 and in the following year was invited to join the department of surgery at the University of Chicago, where he spent six months of each year participating in teaching postgraduates until 1988. He published extensively and co-edited a book on *Gastroesophageal reflux and hiatal hernia* (Little Brown, 1972) and in 1988 (with David Skinner) the monumental textbook *Management of esophageal disease* (Philadelphia, Saunders). He travelled worldwide, and held visiting professorships in several universities in Europe and America. He took great delight in spending short sojurns in Cairo, operating on children with corrosive strictures of the gullet. He was awarded honorary memberships and fellowships of several surgical societies both in Europe and America. He was an early member of Brown’s Club and a founder-member of the Esophageal Club in the United States. He was a past president of the Society of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1996 during the presidency of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of his last registrar in Bristol, he was made an honorary member, the citation being presented by his last senior registrar and successor at Frenchay. Early in his surgical career, Belsey started planning for his retirement. He was an excellent shot, an aptitude he attributed to the genes he acquired from his father who had won several prizes at Bisley. He was a member of the Bristol Gun Club and was a collector both of long and short firearms. He was a keen fly fisherman and belonged to the Frenchay Fly Fishing Club, which met regularly on the Usk in Monmouthshire. When time permitted he would disappear into the depths of the Devon countryside with a local group of fly fishermen, delicately designing his own flies, and fishing on the Dart. In 1969 he acquired Combestone, an old farmhouse with a stretch of the river below Dartmeet. This was the family weekend retreat. Belsey married Pauline May Tilbury in October 1941, a graduate of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas’. Pauline, who loved the farm and nursed many a delicate and feeble lamb into healthy adulthood, died in 2000. They had three daughters, one of whom, Gay, died in infancy. Annabelle trained as a nurse at St Thomas’, where she became a theatre sister and is married to an anaesthetist, Stuart Ingram: they have two sons. Gillian followed her father into medicine, became a senior partner in a general practice in north Devon and predeceased Ronald in 2002. With increasing inability to walk down to his beloved Dart, Belsey took to carving handles for walking sticks out of wood and bone, which he would give away to friends and visitors. Despite his reluctance to move out of his farmhouse, and the dedicated support of his nursing carer, Dorothy Steele, it became clear that a remote dwelling on Dartmoor was not the best place for a 94 year old. In March 2004 he agreed to move to a nursing home in Denbury, near Newton Abbot, where he remained with excellent mental facilities, able to converse intelligently until his last days. Ronald Belsey died on 22 May 2007. His funeral service at the church of St Mary the Virgin, Holne, was attended by members of his family, fishing and local friends, and several of his medical and surgical colleagues and former trainees, who later retired next door to the Church House Inn, a popular old haunt of his.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000447
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bryce, Alexander Graham (1890 - 1968)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Golding-Bird, Cuthbert Hilton (1848 - 1939)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Gordon-Taylor, Sir Gordon (1878 - 1960)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-07
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/372643372643
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 18 March 1878 at Streatham Hill, London, the only son of John Taylor, wine merchant of Dean Street, Tooley Street, London Bridge and Alice Miller Gordon daughter of William Gordon, stockbroker of Union Street, Aberdeen; he and his sister were taken by their mother to Aberdeen when their father died in 1885. Educated at Gordon College and Aberdeen University, as a student he would retire at eight in the evening and would be called by his mother at midnight in order that he might continue his studies. As a result, he passed in English in March 1896, in logic and geology in March 1897, in botany in July 1897 and obtained the degree of MA with third-class honours in classics in April 1898. On the family returning to London, he entered the school of the Middlesex Hospital, being awarded a gold medal in anatomy in the intermediate examination for the London MB. Qualifying in May 1903 with the conjoint diploma and passing the final MB London also, he became, in addition to his other duties, a demonstrator of anatomy under Peter Thompson, working together with Victor Bonney to obtain first-class honours in anatomy in the BSc in 1904. In 1905 he took the BS examination and in 1906 the MS, at the same time passing the Fellowship examination. His first consultant appointment was that of surgeon to out-patients at the Royal Northern Hospital but, when a vacancy occurred at the Middlesex, he applied and was appointed to that hospital in 1907 at the age of 29, becoming assistant surgeon to (Sir Alfred) Pearce Gould and (Sir John) Bland Sutton. He also became attached as consultant to a number of smaller hospitals, St Saviours, the West Herts, Potters Bar, Welwyn, Kettering, Teddington and Hampton Wick Hospitals, and to the Ross Institute for Tropical Diseases. During the war of 1914-18 he was gazetted Captain in the RAMC in March 1915 and, serving first at home, proceeded to France being involved in the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. He was promoted Major, later acted as consulting surgeon to the 4th Army, and was awarded the OBE, returning to England in December 1918. By his experiences in France he had proved the value of prompt and fearless surgery in wounds of the abdomen, which often necessitated multiple resections of the intestine. After the war he built up a great reputation as an intrepid general surgeon, whose profound knowledge of anatomy and whose operative skill enabled him to undertake the most formidable operations. As a result of his war experience, he was a pioneer in the use of blood transfusion, using the Kimpton Tube technique as he distrusted the addition to blood of anti-coagulants, and so he was one of the first in the field in performing immediate gastrectomy for bleeding peptic ulcer. A truly general surgeon, it was however particularly in the field of the surgery of malignant disease affecting the breast, mouth and pharynx that his interest lay. His enthusiasm for anatomy led him to become an examiner in the Primary Fellowship examination in London for many years 1913, 1919, 1940-4 and 1950-3, and in 1934 he was the first surgeon anatomist to go to Melbourne, Australia, to participate in the second Primary examination to be held in that country as at the first only one anatomist, William Wright of the London, had taken part. He made five subsequent visits to Australia as an examiner, and conducted the examination in Calcutta and Colombo in 1935 and 1949. In 1932 he was elected to the Council of the College and thus began another of his life interests. In 1938 he spent some time as lecturer in surgery at the University of Toronto, where he delivered the Balfour lecture. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he offered his services to the Army, and, being rejected on grounds of age, he crossed Whitehall to be received enthusiastically by the Royal Navy, being gazetted Surgeon-Lieutenant and, very rapidly, promoted Surgeon Rear-Admiral, a very fruitful association which led him all over the world. He was, at some time, an examiner in surgery to the Universities of Cambridge, London, Leeds, Belfast, Durham and Edinburgh. At the College he was elected to the Council in 1932, was Vice-President 1941-3, Bradshaw lecturer in 1942 and a Hunterian professor in 1929, 1942 and 1944. In 1945 he delivered the Vicary lecture, and again in 1954. In 1950 he was appointed Sub-Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in recognition of his great assistance to overseas students. In 1952 when a memorial plaque to John Hunter was unveiled in St Martins in the Fields, he delivered the address, and in 1955 he was appointed a Hunterian Trustee. In 1941 he acted for a time as exchange Professor at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston and again in 1946, when he was also postgraduate Professor in Cairo. In 1943 he was a member of a mission to Russia sponsored by the British Council and, while there, he conferred the Honorary Fellowship on the Russian Surgeons Yudin and Burdenko. For the remainder of his life he acted as surgical adviser to the British Council in their choice of representatives to undertake missions abroad and to areas where British surgery could be of assistance. After his theoretical retirement during the war, distinctions were showered upon him. An outstanding orator, the result of punctilious care, effort and his upbringing in the classics, he gave the first Moynihan memorial lecture in Leeds in 1940, the oration to the Medical Society of London in 1940, the Syme oration to the Royal Australasian College in 1947, the Lettsomian lectures to the Medical Society of London in 1944, the Sheen memorial lecture to the University of Wales in 1949, the Rutherford Morison memorial lecture in Newcastle in 1953, the Hunterian oration to the Hunterian Society in 1954, the John Fraser memorial lecture in Edinburgh in 1957, the Diamond Jubilee oration to the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1958, the Mitchell Banks memorial lecture in Liverpool in 1958, the Cavendish lecture to the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1958, the Harveian lecture to the Harveian Society in 1949, and the Founder's Day oration to the Robert Gordon College, Aberdeen. All his life he maintained his contact with Scotland and with the classics, introducing Latin and Greek quotations in his addresses without any suspicion of pomposity. He was elected a member of the Highland Society of London in 1955, was Vice-President of, and honorary surgeon to, the Royal Scottish Corporation, was chairman of the Horatian Society and a member of the Classical Association. His very infrequent holidays were spent in the Highlands. He was President of the Medical Society of London in 1941-2, President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1944-5, and President of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1944-5, being elected an Honorary Fellow in 1949. In 1956 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, and on his eightieth birthday the *British Journal of Surgery* published a special edition in his honour. The Australasian College honoured him in 1949 by founding the Gordon Taylor prize for the best candidate in their Primary examination, on the suggestion of six of their Fellows all holders of the Hallett Prize, and that College commissioned his portrait by James Gunn in August 1960. He himself presented the portrait of his wife, painted in 1922 by Cowper, to the Australasian College. His own portrait by Anna Zinkeisen was commissioned by the Middlesex Hospital, where it now hangs. He was made consultant surgeon to the Alfred and St Vincent Hospitals in Melbourne and was an honorary member of surgical societies in Belgium, Norway, Greece, France and Germany, although his feelings for the last were antipathetic. A keen cricketer and member of the MCC, he was a regular attender at Lords, and it was one evening on leaving the ground that he was struck down by a motor car, sustaining injuries from which he died. A touch of irony, as he was an inveterate walker and detested motor cars, and never had any desire to drive one; having sold his Rolls at the outbreak of war in 1939, he never subsequently owned a car. It must be obvious to any reader of this tale of achievement that this was no ordinary man: indeed he was rightly regarded as the doyen of surgery of his generation. Few men, if indeed any others have inspired such universal respect, admiration and affection. Pre-eminent as a surgeon himself, he performed over one hundred hind-quarter amputations, his joy was to educate, instruct and help young surgeons from all over the world. In Australia his was a name to conjure with, and at the Middlesex out of his forty house surgeons twenty-five achieved consultant status, and of these, twelve at the Middlesex itself. He never forgot a face and, more important, the name that went with it. Christmas cards, penned in his own florid handwriting, were sent every year to surgeons all over the world. He lived for surgery and to keep himself fit always walked and became an expert ballroom dancer. He delighted to entertain visiting surgeons in the Oriental Club or his beloved Ritz, and, although abstemious himself, he was a connoisseur of food and wine. His dapper, trim figure in double-breasted jacket, hatless and with bowtie and wing collar, complete with the pink carnation in the button hole, brought a thrill of excitement to any surgeon lucky enough to encounter him and to be recognised immediately and addressed by name. He was indeed, as Sir Arthur Porritt, the President, described him in his funeral oration quoting Chaucer's words, “a very parfit gentil knight”. He married Florence Mary FRSA, FZS, eldest daughter of John Pegrume, who died in 1949. He died in the Middlesex Hospital following an accident on 3 September 1960. He was cremated at Golder's Green on 8 September, D H Patey reading the lesson. A memorial service was held in All Souls, Langham Place on Thursday 13 October 1960, conducted by the Vicar and by the Chaplain of the Middlesex Hospital. The oration was delivered by Sir Arthur Porritt, who was supported by the Council of the College. The lesson was read by T Holmes Sellors, and the church was filled by representatives of many learned societies and Sir Gordon's colleagues, friends and patients A bibliography of his publications, compiled by A M Shadrake, was appended to the memorial pamphlet published by the Middlesex Hospital, and his principal writings are listed at the end of Sir Eric Riches's Gordon-Taylor memorial lecture *Ann. Roy. Coll. Surg. Engl.* 1968, 42, 91-92; they included: Books 1930. *The Dramatic in Surgery*. Bristol, Wright. 1939. *The Abdominal Injuries of Warfare*. Bristol, Wright. 1958. *Sir Charles Bell, his life and times*, with E A Walls. Edinburgh, Livingstone. On Cancer Statistics and Prognosis 1904. *Arch. Middlesex Hosp.* 3, 128, with W S Lazarus-Barlow. 1959. *Brit. med. J.* 1, 455. Mitchell Banks Lecture. On Cancer of the Breast 1948. *Ann. Roy. Coll. Surg. Engl.* 2, 60. 1948. *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* 41, 118. On Malignant Disease of the Testis 1918. *Clin. J.* 47, 26. 1938. *Brit. J. Urol.* 10, 1, with A S Till. 1947. *Brit. J. Surg.* 35, 6, with N R Wyndham. On the Oro-pharynx 1933. *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* 26, 889. On Retroperitoneal and Mesenteric Tumours 1930. *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* 24, 782. 1930. *Brit. J. Surg.* 17, 551. 1948. *Roy. Melb. Hosp. clin. Rep.* Centenary Volume, p. 189. On the Hindquarter Amputation 1935. *Brit. J. Surg.* 22, 671, with Philip Wiles. 1940. *Brit. J. Surg.* 27, 643. 1949. *J. Bone Jt. Surg.* 31 B, 410, with Philip Wiles. 1952. *J. Bone Jt. Surg.* 34 B, 14, with Philip Wiles, D H Patey, W Turner-Warwick and R S Monro. 1952. *Brit. J. Surg.* 39, 3, with R S Monro. 1955. *British Surgical Progress,* p. 81. London, Butterworth. 1959. *J. Roy. Coll. Surg. Edin.* 5, 1, John Fraser Memorial Lecture. On War Surgery 1955. War injuries of the chest and abdomen. *Brit. J. Surg.,* Supplement 3. On Tradition Moynihan (1940) *Univ. Leeds med. Mag.* 10, 126. Rutherford Morison (1954) *Newcastle med. J.* 24, 248. Cavendish Lecture (1958) *Proc. W. Lond. Med.-Chir. Soc.* p. 12. Fergusson (1961) *Medical History,* 5, 1. The surgery of the "Forty-five" rebellion. (Vicary Lecture 1945). *Brit. J. Surg.* 33, 1.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000459
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tomes, Sir Charles Sissmore (1846 - 1928)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Walker-Brash, Robert Munro Thorburn (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-06-08
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/372549372549
Occupation General surgeon
Details Munro Walker-Brash was a consultant general surgeon at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals. He was born in London on 15 November 1920, the second son of John Walker-Brash, a general practitioner, and his wife Gloria Lilian née Parker. He was educated privately at Colet Court in Hammersmith and Cliveden Place School, Eaton Square, and then entered Westminster as a King’s scholar, remaining there from 1934 until 1939. He was a chorister for Royal events in Westminster Abbey, including the coronation of King George VI. From Westminster he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, and on to St Bartholomew’s for his clinical training in 1942, spending part of his time in Smithfield during the Blitz, and part at Hill End Hospital, a former mental hospital to which Bart’s students were evacuated. After qualifying, he was house surgeon to Sir James Paterson Ross and John Hosford, by whom he was greatly influenced. He did his National Service in the RAMC, rising to the rank of major, and returned to Bart’s to be junior registrar to Basil Hume. After six months at Great Ormond Street he returned to the surgical unit at Bart’s under Sir James Paterson Ross, and then went to Norwich as registrar to Charles Noon and Norman Townsley, and the Jenny Lind Hospital for Sick Children. He returned to Bart’s in 1954 as chief assistant to Rupert Corbett and Alec Badenoch, progressing after one year to senior registrar on the ‘Green’ firm. He was noted for his dexterity, clinical judgment and teaching ability. At this time senior registrars continued their training in Bart’s sector hospitals, in Munro’s case this was at Southend General Hospital, where he worked with Rodney Maingot, who was also at the Royal Free Hospital, and Donald Barlow, who also worked at the Luton and Dunstable and London Chest hospitals. In spite of spending so much time on the road, both were prolific writers and had thriving private practices. During this period Munro was much influenced by his namesake Andrew Munro, who later moved to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. Munro’s definitive consultant posts were at Orpington and Sevenoaks hospitals, from 1960 until his retirement in 1984. He used his extremely wide general surgical training and admitted that ‘he was overworked at two peripheral hospitals’. Surgical Tutor at these hospitals for five years from 1970, he said he wrote ‘nothing of importance’. Despite his sizeable frame, his main hobby was riding: he was a show-jumping judge and an early supporter and helper of Riding for the Disabled. He married Eva Frances Jacqueline Waite, a Bart’s nurse in 1945. They had two children, Angela, who became a personal assistant in the legal department at Scotland Yard, and Robert, who emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, to work as an insolvency accountant. Munro’s wife was diabetic and predeceased her husband, dying in 1985. Following her death, he was befriended by Pauline Smeed. Munro had a fall in May 2006 and died in hospital on 15 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000363
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Bell, David Millar (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Herdman, John Phipps (1921 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 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/372448372448
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Herdman was born on 15 December 1921. He studied medicine at Oxford, qualifying in 1945. He completed house jobs at the United Oxford Hospitals and at Ancoats, Manchester, from which he passed the FRCS. He then returned to the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research for two years, before undergoing further registrar posts in Oxford. In 1953 he went to Canada and worked as a general surgeon at the St Joseph's Hospitals, Sarnia, Ontario, until 1973. He then studied health services planning under D O Anderson in the University of British Columbia, where he wrote a graduate thesis on patterns in surgical performance in the Province of British Columbia, and revealed a natural aptitude for epidemiological research. In 1976 he joined the staff of Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, becoming surgical consultant in June 1976, where his duties were administrative. By 1978 he was the chief physician of North Lawn in charge of the entire medical and surgical service. By 1985 he was involved in a successful application for re-accreditation of Riverview Hospital and its mental health services. He was also involved with the care of patients who developed megacolon as a side effect of their medication. He retired in 1991. He died on 4 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000261
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Halvorsen, Jan Frederik (1935 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-08-09
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/372449372449
Occupation General surgeon
Details Jan Frederik Halvorsen was director of the department of surgery and professor of surgery at the University of Bergen, Norway. He graduated from the University of Bergen Medical School in 1960, becoming a general surgical specialist in 1968 with a special interest in intestinal surgery. He gained a PhD for his work on blood pressure within the liver. His first appointment was at Stavanger Hospital, followed by the Rikshopitalet in Oslo. He also worked at the United Nations Hospital in Gaza. In 1964 he was appointed to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, where he remained until illness forced his retirement in 2001. He moved through the department of pathology and the gynaecology clinic, but his main focus was surgery. He initially specialised in endocrine surgery, but eventually developed his interest in GI surgery, particularly the diagnosis and treatment of bowel disorders. He published over 100 papers on diseases of the GI tract. He took a sabbatical, spending time at St Mark’s Hospital, London. He became professor of surgery at Bergen University and, as a result of his involvement with the Norwegian Medical Association, he was responsible for the coordination of postgraduate studies. His door was always open to students and colleagues. The organisation of training and the decentralising of courses were a demanding project. He organised the coordination of 1,100 courses involving 25,000 participants. In 1992 he was chosen to coordinate university exchanges between the Hanseatic towns of Lubeck in Germany and Bergen. His enormous experience, knowledge, friendly amiability and dynamism helped him to establish important international contacts and successful exchanges. He was a generous man and established great and permanent friendships with both the students and the specialists in both these cities. He also organised many visits of groups of surgeons from other countries, including the UK. He was a great communicator and spoke impeccable English. He was extremely interested in English literature. He belonged to a British surgical travelling club and was one of its most enthusiastic members. Even when he was suffering from serious cardiac problems he determinedly joined the group on a visit to Spain. In 1988 he was made an honorary Fellow of the College. This particular honour he cherished more than the other many honours he received. Jan Frederik Halvorsen was an extremely skilled surgeon, with vast theoretical knowledge and practical experience. In addition to the qualities he showed as a surgeon, his organisational skills in health management were used to great effect in improving postgraduate education in Norway. Patients and doctors benefited from these attributes. He left a great legacy. He was a strong family man. He leaves his wife Sissel and four children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000262
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Addison, Norman Victor (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Copeland, Thomas (1781 - 1855)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2013-08-07
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/372576372576
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in May, 1781, the son of the Rev William Copeland, Curate of Byfield, Northants. He studied under Mr Denham at Chigwell in Essex, and under Edward Ford, his maternal uncle, and he attended medical classes at Great Windmill Street and at St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1804 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the 1st Foot Guards, with which regiment he embarked for Spain under Sir John Moore, and was present at the Battle of Corunna in 1809. He resigned 29th June, 1809, settled in his uncle's resident at 4 Golden Square, and was appointed Surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary. He attained distinction in his profession, particularly in the field of rectal surgery. He was elected FRS in 1834, Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843, and Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1837. He died of an attack of jaundice at Brighton on Nov 19th, 1855, and his wife died on Dec 5th of the same year. He left £180,000, bequeathing £5000 both to the Asylum for Poor Orphans of the Clergy and to the Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000392
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bonham, Dennis Geoffrey (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Keane, Brendan (1926 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-06-27
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/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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-11 2012-03-14
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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/372410372410
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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2012-03-22
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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/372411372411
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
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First Title value, for Searching Bland-Sutton, Sir John (1855 - 1936)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2012-03-22
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372412372412
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Born at Enfield Highway on 21 April 1855, eldest son and second of the nine children of Charles William Sutton, who had a farm where he fattened stock, killed it and sold it in Formosa Street, Maida Hill. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Wadsworth, a Northamptonshire farmer. Bland-Sutton says that he learnt from his father to stuff birds, beasts, and fishes, to charm warts and to pull teeth; from his mother an intimate knowledge of the Bible. Educated at the local school, he acted there for two years as pupil teacher with the intention of becoming a schoolmaster, but being a biologist at heart he determined to become a doctor as soon as he had the money necessary to pay the fees. He attached himself therefore to the private school of anatomy kept by Thomas Cooke, F.R.C.S., which then occupied a tin shed in a disused churchyard in Handel Street, just off Mecklenburgh Square. Here he learnt anatomy, and taught it to lazy and backward medical students until he had earned enough to pay the fees at the Middlesex Hospital. He entered there as a student in October 1878 and was immediately appointed prosector of anatomy, (Sir) Henry Morris being lecturer on the subject. In 1879 he was advanced to be junior demonstrator, became senior demonstrator in 1883 and lecturer 1886-96. In 1884 he was Murchison scholar at the Royal College of Physicians. Two years later he was elected assistant surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, with the proviso that he should remain in London during the months of August and September, when the senior surgeons were accustomed to take their annual holiday. He performed his duties thoroughly, and devoted himself especially to pelvic operations upon women. In 1886 he became assistant surgeon to the hospital for women, then a small institution in the Fulham Road, and was promoted surgeon six months later with charge of fifteen beds. Here he soon acquired fame as an operating surgeon, and disarmed criticism by welcoming professional men and women to the operating theatre and by publishing his results widely in the medical papers. In 1889 he changed his name by deed pool from J. B. Sutton to John Bland-Sutton. In 1905 he became surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital and filled the post until 1920, when he resigned and was made consulting surgeon. During his tenure of office he was a most liberal supporter of the hospital. In 1913 he presented to it the Institute of Pathology, which was built on the site of the museum, of which he had been curator from 1883 to 1886. To the hospital chapel he gave a beautiful ambry, a piscina, and a font, and made considerable contributions towards the cost of the mosaic pavement in the baptistry. He also assisted largely in the purchase of a playing field for the students of the medical school. At the Royal College of Surgeons he won the Jacksonian prize in 1892 with his essay on diseases of the ovaries and the uterine appendages, their pathology, diagnosis and treatment. In 1885, 1886, 1887 and 1889-91 he gave the Erasmus Wilson lectures on the evolution of pathology. He was elected a member of the Pathological Society in 1882, and served on the council of the society from 1887 to 1890 but held no other office. He was an examiner in anatomy for the Fellowship in 1895. He was a Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology for the years 1888-89 and gave a lecture again as Hunterian professor in 1916; was Bradshaw lecturer in 1917; and Hunterian orator in 1923. Elected to the Council in 1910, he was vice-president in 1918, 1919, and 1920, and was President for the years 1923, 1924, and 1925, being preceded by Sir Anthony Bowlby and succeeded by Lord Moynihan. In 1927 he was elected a trustee of the Hunterian collection. During the war he was gazetted major, R.A.M.C.(T.) on 16 September 1916 and was attached to the 3rd London General Hospital at Denmark Hill. The surroundings and discipline of a military hospital proved uncongenial, and in 1916 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, placed upon an appeal board, and directed to collect he specimens of gunshot wounds which formed a unique display in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, till they were destroyed by the bombing of 1941. Always interested in animals, their habits and diseases, Bland-Sutton became a prosector at the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park in 1881 whilst he was still a student at the Middlesex Hospital. He retained his interest in the gardens throughout his life, and in 1928 was made vice-president of the Zoological Society of London. In 1891-92 he lectured on comparative pathology at the Royal Veterinary College in Camden Town in succession to Prof. John Penberthy, F.R.C.V.S. He was president of the Medical Society of London 1914; president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland 1929; president of the Royal Society of Medicine 1929; president of the International Cancer Conference held in London in 1928. He was, too, a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem from 1924. He married: (1) in 1886 Agnes Hobbs of Didcot, who died in 1898; and (2) in 1899 Edith, the younger daughter of Henry Heather Bigg. She survived him but there were no children by either wife. Lady Bland-Sutton died in 1943 and was by her will a most generous benefactress to the College. She founded a research scholarship in memory of her husband, and also bequeathed a suite of Chippendale furniture for the president's room, and the silver table ornaments made for the dining hall at 47 Brook Street, mentioned below, as well as much other furniture. Bland-Sutton died after a short period of failing powers at 29 Hertford Street, Mayfair on Sunday, 20 December 1936. His body was cremated, and memorial services were held in the chapel at the Middlesex Hospital on the 23rd and in Westminster Abbey on 29 December. *Portraits*: Three-quarter length, sitting, in presidential robes, by the Hon. John Collier, R.A., hangs in the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It is a good likeness and is well reproduced in black and white in Sir A. E. Webb-Johnson's eulogy in the *Middlesex Hospital Journal*, 1937, 37, 4, and in the *Annals* of the College, 1950, 6, 362. An earlier portrait by Collier is at the Royal Society of Medicine. The Middlesex Hospital has a marble bust by Sir George Frampton, and a drawing by George Belcher. Bland-Sutton's professional life was typical of his generation. Born into a large middle-class family where money was not too abundant, he had to rely entirely upon himself. This he did, as was then usual amongst the younger men who aspired to the staff of a teaching hospital, by coaching. Some did this by taking a house, marrying, and securing as many resident pupils as possible, each of whom paid an inclusive fee of £126 a year. The less fortunate, like Bland-Sutton, had to content themselves with private classes at £8 to £10 a head, for a three months' course of tuition. The direct way to promotion was through the dissecting room, for as yet pathology was little more than morbid anatomy. Sutton was a first-rate teacher and soon made enough money to travel as far as Vienna. He climbed the ladder by the ordinary steps, slowly at first as a junior demonstrator of anatomy, then as curator of the hospital museum, next as assistant surgeon to a small special hospital, finally as assistant surgeon, surgeon, and consulting surgeon to his own hospital, the Middlesex. He had to fight every step of the way, for there was plenty of competition and continuous opposition, but he had good health, a constant fund of humour, was a loyal friend, and was generous in giving both publicly and in private. He had hobbies, too, which sustained him: a love of travel, a curiosity about animal life and a certain artistic sense. Throughout his life he was a general surgeon, more especially skilled in abdominal operations. Of slight physique and with very small and bright eyes, he had a curious bird-like habit of rapidly cocking his head sideways when he wished to emphasize a joke or a witty remark. A fluent writer and an entertaining after-dinner speaker, he retained and perhaps cultivated his native and marked cockney accent. He lived at 22 Gordon Street, Gordon Square, from 1883 to 1890; at 48 Queen Anne Street, 1890 to 1902, and thereafter at 47 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. Here he built in 1905, at the back of the house, a copy, reduced by one-third, of the Apodama or audience chamber at Susa or Shushan (in Persia) where it is recorded in the Book of Esther that Ahasuerus gave the great feast and afterwards invited Vashti to show her beauty to the assembled princes and people. In the reduced copy of this splendid hall Bland-Sutton and his gifted wife delighted to exercise a generous hospitality; Rudyard Kipling, and old and intimate friend, was a frequent guest. The house and the hall were pulled down for an extension of Claridge's Hotel, and Bland-Sutton moved finally to 29 Hertford Street, Mayfair. *Publications*: Comparative dental pathology, in J. Walker *Valedictory address*, Odontological Society, 1884. *A descriptive catalogue of the pathological museum of the Middlesex Hospital*, with J. K. Fowler. London, 1884. *An introduction to general pathology*, founded on lectures at R.C.S. London, 1886. *Ligaments, their nature and morphology*. London, 1887; 4th ed. 1920. *Dermoids*. London, 1889. *Surgical diseases of the ovaries and Fallopian tubes*. London, 1891. *Evolution and disease*. London, 1890. *Tumours innocent and malignant*. London, 1893; 7th ed. 1922. Osteology in H. Morris *Treatise of anatomy*, 1893. Tumours, and Diseases of the jaws in Sir F. Treves *System of surgery*, 1895, 1. *The diseases of women*, with A. E. Giles. London, 1897, 8th ed. 1926. Tumours in Warren and Gould *International textbook of surgery*, 1899, 1. *Essays on Hysterectomy*. London, 1904. *Gall-stones and diseases of the bile-ducts*. London, 1907; 2nd ed. 1910. Tumours in W. W. Keen *Surgery*, 1907, 1 and 1913, 6. *Cancer clinically considered*. London, 1909. *Essays on the position of abdominal hysterectomy in London*. London, 1909; 2nd ed. 1910. *Fibroids of the uterus*. London, 1913. *Misplaced and missing organs* (Bradshaw lecture R.C.S.). London, 1917. *Selected lectures and essays*. London, 1920. *John Hunter, his affairs, habits and opinions (the Hunterian Oration)*. London, 1923. *Orations and addresses*. London, 1924. *The story of a surgeon*. London, 1930. *On faith and science in surgery*. London, 1930. *Man and beast in eastern Ethiopia*. London, 1911. *Men and creatures in Uganda*. London, 1933.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000225
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Moynihan, Sir Berkeley George Andrew, Lord Moynihan of Leeds (1865 - 1936)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
Details Born at Malta on 2 October 1865 the only son of Captain Andrew Moynihan, *V.C*., and Ellen Anne, his wife, daughter of Thomas Parkin, a cabinet maker at Hurst, near Ashton-under-Lyne. His father was the son of Malachi Moynihan, originally from southern Ireland, who died at Sefton Park, Liverpool in 1837. As a sergeant in the 90th Light Infantry Andrew Moynihan was awarded the Victoria Cross on 24 February 1857 for his bravery during the Crimean War. On 8 September 1855, during an attack on the Redan, he personally encountered and killed five Russians and afterwards under heavy fire rescued Lieutenant Swift and Ensign Maude, who had fallen near the fortress. After serving in India, he died at the age of thirty-seven in Malta on 19 May 1866 of Malta fever, with the rank of captain in the 8th foot (the King’s Regiment). There is a portrait of him in *The History of the Victoria Cross* by Philip A. Wilkins. Mrs Moynihan came to Leeds in December 1867 with a pension of one pound a week on which to support two daughters and a son. She joined forces with her childless sister who was married to Alfred Ball, a police inspector, living at Millgarth Street. Moynihan’s education thus began in Leeds, and was continued at the Blue Coat School, then in its original quarters in Newgate Street, London. He entered the school in September 1875 with a presentation from H.R.H. Field-Marshal the Duke of Cambridge, and was placed in Ward 16. He left in April 1881 being then in no higher form than “Little Erasmus”. During his school career he was undistinguished, except that he did well in swimming and football. From the summer term of 1881 to 25 July 1883 he was at the Royal Naval School, Eltham, and from there proceeded to the Medical School at Leeds, where he lived with his maternal uncle, his mother and two sisters. He remained closely attached to Leeds for the rest of his life. The medical school was a part of the Yorkshire College which afterwards became one of the three constituents of the Victoria University. He graduated M.B. at the University of London in 1887 and became a Member of the College the same year. He passed the examination for the Fellowship in 1890 and for Master of Surgery in 1893, being awarded the gold medal. After serving as house surgeon to A. F. McGill at the Leeds General Infirmary in 1887, he acted as demonstrator of anatomy in the Medical School from 1893 to 1896. He was elected assistant surgeon to the infirmary in 1896, was surgeon from 1906, and consulting surgeon from 1927 until his death. He was lecturer in surgery from 1896 to 1909, and from 1909 to 1927 he was professor of clinical surgery in the University of Leeds. At the Royal College of Surgeons Moynihan was appointed an examiner in anatomy on the board of examiners in anatomy and physiology for the Fellowship in 1899. He gave three lectures as Arris and Gale lecturer in 1899 on *The anatomy and surgery of the peritoneal fossae*, and three lectures in 1900 on *The pathology of some of the rarer forms of hernia*. In 1920 he gave a single lecture as Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology on *The late surgery of gunshot wounds of the chest*, and in the same year delivered the Bradshaw lecture on *The surgery of diseases of the spleen*. He was Hunterian Orator in 1927, speaking on *Hunter’s ideals and Lister’s practice*. He served on the council of the college from 1912 to 1933 and was elected president for six years in succession, 1926-31. In this position he was the second provincial surgeon to fill the office, the first being Joseph Hodgson of Birmingham, who was president in 1864. The war found him with the rank of major *à la suite* attached to the 2nd Northern General Hospital of the Territorial R.A.M.C., with a commission dated 14 October 1908; on 28 November 1914 he was gazetted temporary colonel, A.M.S., and was serving in France. On demobilization in 1919 he was holding the rank of major-general, and had been chairman of the Army Advisory Board form 1916 and chairman of the council of consultants 1916-19. He made a marked impression on a tour in America, when speaking on behalf of the British cause. He was in his energy and frank ambition and his gift of oratory more like an American than the traditional reserved and self-depreciatory Englishman. He married on 17 April 1895 Isabella Wellesley, daughter of Thomas R. Jessop, F.R.C.S., of Leeds. Lady Moynihan died suddenly on 31 August 1936, leaving a son and two daughters. He felt the loss acutely, had a cerebral haemorrhage on 6 September 1936 and died on 7 September, without recovering consciousness, at his home Carr Manor, Meanwood, Leeds, formerly Sir Clifford Allbutt’s house. He was buried at Lawnswood cemetery, and memorial services were held in Leeds parish church and at St Martin’s-in-the-fields, London. An offer was made that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey, but it was declined for family reasons. Moynihan was fortunate in the accidents of his place, his period, and his personality. Leeds had long been a centre of good surgery. It had a teeming population, and was too far removed from London and Edinburgh to be greatly influenced by either. Surgery, which had been previously performed by general practitioners, was becoming specialized and Moynihan was private assistant in 1887-88 to Mayo-Robson, a pioneer in abdominal surgery in Leeds. Foreseeing the trend of surgery Moynihan trained himself deliberately to anticipate its arrival. He went to Berlin as a postgraduate student, and for many years spent his holidays in visiting the schools of surgery first in Europe and later in the United States. He was a brilliant and bold operator and early accepted the teachings of Lister. Gentle in his handling of tissues or, as he expressed it, “caressing” them, and a master of technique, his results were unusually satisfactory. He regarded every operation as a religious rite or sacrament, He felt the magnitude of the patient’s surrender of the whole future and even his life to the judgement and manual skill of a perhaps hitherto unknown surgeon. Himself a master of his craft, he taught that there must be the same high standard of achievement in every detail, and that at no stage of an operation should anything be left to chance. Operations on the liver and gall-bladder, upon the stomach, and “short-circuiting” for duodenal ulcer, more especially interested him, and he made his results widely known by means of articles, addresses, and communications to the medical press. He learnt from observation that the appearances in the living tissues differ widely from those in museum specimens. He was thus led to consider the whole subject of surgical pathology, popularized Allbutt’s phrase “the pathology of the living”, and was insistent that an institution should be founded where experimental surgery could be studied, to supplement the morbid surgical anatomy usually taught in the schools. In this he was successful during the latter years of his life when he was president of the College. Largely at his instigation and with the munificent assistance of Sir George Buckston Browne, an experimental surgical farm was founded at Downe in Kent. It was affiliated to the College and was placed under the mastership of Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S., who had been conservator of the Hunterian Museum. Moynihan realized early in life that English surgeons knew little about the work of their colleagues and less about the progress of surgery abroad. He therefore established in 1909 a small visiting club, the members of which travelled from surgical centre to surgical centre, watched and commented upon the methods of their colleagues and confrères, and cemented many friendships. This visiting surgical club changed its name in 1929 and became the Moynihan Chirurgical Club. He was an excellent expositor and even dramatic in his showmanship for visitors to his own clinic. He knew how to advertise his work, but it was of the very best. He was instrumental in calling into existence the Association of Surgeons to bring together the surgeons of Great Britain and the Dominions; in this he was much helped by H. S. Pendlebury. He took a leading part in founding the *British Journal of Surgery* in 1913, and held the important office of chairman of the editorial committee from its beginning until his death; Ernest Hey Groves and George Cask were his chief supporters in this work. Under this guidance the venture proved successful, and in July 1936 the subscribers presented him with a statuette, wrought by Omar Ramsden, in silver, and a cheque for one thousand guineas. The cheque he handed to the College for the benefit of its library, and presented a replica of the statuette to stand on the table at meetings of the editorial committee. As a man Moynihan was fairly tall, strong and well made, and in youth his hair was of a fiery red colour. He was always on the alert, with a pleasant smile, and a ready repartee for any friendly attack. He spoke well in a soft voice and liked speaking, for he had a fund of humour, an attractive delivery, and a real feeling for language. His pupils were devoted to him, and his lectures were always well attended. He was interested and well informed in painting, literature, and music. He had visited most of the European galleries, where his anatomical and surgical knowledge enabled him to detect many pathological facts unwittingly recorded by the great artists of the renaissance and later periods. He retained his love of swimming and practised it until his life’s end. Many honours came to Moynihan. He was a member or fellow of the chief medical societies throughout the world. The University of Leeds made him an honorary LL.D. on the occasion of its twenty-fifth jubilee in 1924. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1917, and he delivered the first Murphy memorial lecture at Chicago in 1920 and presented a great mace “from the consulting surgeons of the British Armies to the American College of Surgeons in memory of mutual work and good fellowship in the European War 1914-18”. He delivered the Romanes lecture at Oxford in 1932, and the Linacre lecture at Cambridge in 1936. He was created a baronet in 1922, and seven years later was called to the House of Lords with a patent as Baron Moynihan of Leeds. Amongst his other activities was his work in connexion with the Cancer Research Campaign fund at Leeds, when a sum of £150,000 was raised. As president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Legislation Society he had undertaken to introduce a Euthanasia Bill in the autumn session of 1936 in the House of Lords. Shortly before his death he had joined the Board of Directors of Droitwich Spa, and had intended to devote himself to its development as a centre for the cure of rheumatism. Moynihan’s name is inscribed in the Town Hall, Leeds among the Freeman of the City, and a ward has been named after him at the General Infirmary. His instruments are in the museum of the Leeds Medical School. His portrait, three-quarter length seated, was painted by Richard Jack, R.A., in 1927. The likeness is good but the hands do credit neither to sitter nor painter. The painting hands in the Board Room of the General Infirmary at Leeds; his own replica he presented to the Royal College of Surgeons shortly before his death. It hangs in the first hall, and beneath it is an inscribed silver tablet worked by Omar Ramsden. The same craftsman made the chain and badge of office, which Moynihan gave for the presidents of the Association of Surgeons. A bust by Sir William Reid Dick, R.A., in a setting designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, P.R.A., stands half-way up the main staircase facing the main entrance to the General Infirmary at Leeds; it was unveiled in the autumn of 1939. A bronze cast of his hands is in the library of the Leeds Medical School, with a replica in the City Art Gallery. The Medical School also possesses a bronze bust by F. J. Wilcoxson; the Royal College of Surgeons has a marble bust by Wilcoxson, presented by Lord Moynihan’s son. Starting as the son of a poor widow, Moynihan left a very large fortune due entirely to his own exertions; but he was no grasper after money, as was shown by the numbers of patients upon whom he operated in private either gratuitously or for a greatly reduced fee. He left bequests for eponymous lectures at Leeds University and the Royal College of Surgeons. The first Leeds biennial Moynihan lecture was delivered by Gordon Gordon-Taylor in October 1940; the first Moynihan lecture at the College by E. W. Hey Groves on 14 March 1940. Moynihan made time by early rising for much excellent writing during his busiest years of practice. His articles on clinical subjects were masterly, progressive, and clear. His later addresses on medico-political or historical subjects were full of knowledge and wisdom, and inspiring to his hearers. He had a natural gift for the short, memorable phrase, and cultivated his skill in selecting and arranging words. His surgical writings deal mainly with abdominal conditions and the appropriate treatment. Sir Arthur F. Hurst in his Harveian Oration for 1937, dealing with the physiology of the stomach, draws attention to the clinical picture of duodenal ulcer drawn by Moynihan; he says “It is as much a piece of original research as the discovery of a new element or a new star, and equally deserving of recognition”. *Principal publications*: Mesenteric cysts. *Ann. Surg*. 1897, 26, 1-30. On the anatomy and pathology of the rarer forms of hernia. Arris and Gale lectures. *Lancet*, 1900, 1, 513-521; *Brit. med. J*. 1900, 1, 435-441 and 503-508. The surgery of chronic ulcer of the stomach. *Brit. med. J.* 1900, 2,1631. Pancreatic cysts. *Med. Chron.* 1902, 2, 241-284. Tumours of the mesentery. *Ibid.* 1902, 3, 345-371. The operative treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers. *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1903, 86, 513-557. *Gallstones and their surgical treatment*. Philadelphia, 1904; 2nd edition, 1905. *Abdominal operations*. London, 1905; 4th edition, 2 vols. 1926. Surgery of the pancreas, in Keen’s *Surgery,* 1908, 3, 1035-1067. Surgery of the spleen. *Ibid.* pp.1068-1093. *Duodenal ulcer.* London, 1910; 2nd edition, 1912. *The pathology of the living and other essays.* London, 1910. On the treatment of gun-shot wounds. *Brit. med. J. *1916, 1, 333-337. *The spleen and some of its diseases,* Bradshaw lecture, R.C.S. 1920. London, 1921. Cancer of the stomach. *Practitioner*, 1928, 121, 137-148. *Addresses on surgical subjects*. London, 1928. A full bibliography by S. Wood is in the College library; it was published in *Univ. Leeds med. Soc. Mag*. 1937, 7, 111-116.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000226
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Thomas, John Llewellyn (1864 - 1957)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2014-07-18
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/372414372414
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in 1864 he was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he served as house surgeon. He was resident medical officer at Farringdon General Dispensary, and medical superintendent of the Mildmay Mission Hospital at Bethnal Green. He went to Colombo, Ceylon as a medical missionary about 1901, but returned to Barnet, Herts after the first world war. He was for a time medical superintendent of the Bristol Medical Missionary Society, living at Clifton; then practised for some twelve years at Foulsham, Norfolk; and finally retired to Barnet about 1938. He died there on 22 February 1957 aged 92, survived by his wife Mary McLeod and three daughters. Mrs Thomas died at Cheddar on 17 July 1962 aged 95, and was buried at Barnet.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000227
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hey, William II (1772 - 1844)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Bloxham, Robert ( - 1858)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372591372591
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at Newport, Isle of Wight. He is described as ‘retired’ in 1858, and he probably died in that year. He was associated in his practice with his son, Robert William Bloxham (qv). He reduced the dislocation of the shoulder sustained by Sir Benjamin Brodie (qv), which many years later was followed by the new growth of which he died. The story is told by Sir William White Cooper (qv), who says: “About 1834 whilst staying in an hotel in the Isle of Wight I saw a carriage drive up, from which was lifted out a gentleman covered with mud and evidently in some pain, who was no other than B Brodie. He had been thrown from a pony and was suffering from dislocation of the shoulder. Mr Bloxham, a well-known practitioner of that day and place, came in and together we reduced the dislocation. Sir Benjamin said that he used to think lightly of dislocation of the shoulder, but he never should do so again.” Bloxham’s name occurs in an old notebook in which Brodie has preserved short notices of cases in his private practice which struck him as interesting. In March, 1844, Bloxham consulted Sir Benjamin in consequence of having temporarily lost the power of moving the muscles of one side of his face from having been close to a cannon when it was fired. The accident was exceptional, but it seems not to have entailed any permanent consequence.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000407
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Cartwright, Richard ( - 1854)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Beckett, Thomas (1773 - 1856)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-28 2012-07-19
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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 Arnott, James Moncrieff (1794 - 1885)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2016-01-29
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372204372204
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Chapel, near Ladybank, Fife, March 15th, 1794; educated at the High School and at the University of Edinburgh. Began his medical studies in Edinburgh, and continued them in London, Vienna, and in Paris under Dupuytren. He attached himself to the Middlesex Hospital, where he was for many years Surgeon, and was one of the founders of the Medical School of the Middlesex Hospital. He afterwards occupied the chairs of Surgery at King's and University Colleges. [1] He was an active member of the Royal College of Surgeons, being made one of the original Fellows in 1843; he was a Member of Council in 1840, and a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1847-1865. Became four times Vice-President and twice President, in 1850 and 1859, and in 1843 he delivered the Hunterian Oration. This oration is remarkable in that the orator had to commemorate Sir Astley Cooper, Sir Charles Bell, and Baron Larrey, who had recently died. He was instrumental in obtaining a grant of £15,000 from the Government to rebuild the Museum. [2] In 1865 he retired from practice and lived for a long time in Fifeshire. He died in London, May 27th, 1885. [3] His bust by H. Weekes, R.A., ordered by the College, is in the College house. The [4] portrait in the Secretary's office [5] is by an unknown painter, and was bequeathed by Miss Moncrieff Arnott in May, 1907. There are several [6] other portraits (engravings) in the College Collections. [7] [8] PUBLICATIONS: - Eight papers in *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, the chief of which was on "Secondary Effects of Inflammation of the Veins" (1829, xv, 1). [9] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] Professor of Surgery, King's College 1836-40 (Lyle's *King's & some King's men*, p.19); at University College 1848-50 (information from Charles Marmoy, Thorne ? Library UCL, 1967); [2] in 1852; [3] aged 91; [4] oil; [5] 'Secretary's office' is deleted and 'College' added; [6] 'several' is underlined and a question mark added; [7] He bequeathed (subject to his daughter's life-interest) £1000 to found a demonstratorship on the contents of the Hunterian Museum; [8] watercolour by Daniel Maclise RA (see *Cat. Of Portraits*); [9] The rest are case-reports. He was President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1847; The annotations also include a family tree: James Moncrieff Arnott P.R.C.S. - - Arnott, Canon of Rochester - Scott Arnott, senior partner in Freshfields, solicitors - James Arnott MRCS (and) Phyllis m. John Kilmaine, Baron]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000017
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Green, Joseph Henry (1791 - 1863)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2012-07-19
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372205372205
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born at 11 London Wall on Nov. 1st, 1791, the only child of Joseph Green, a wealthy London merchant, head of the firm of Green & Ross, of Martin Lane, Cannon Street, E.C., and afterwards of London Wall, his mother being Frances, sister to Henry Cline, Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. A delicate boy, he was educated at Ramsgate and at Hammersmith until, at the age of 15, he accompanied his mother to Germany, where he spent three years, partly in Berlin and partly in Hanover. He was apprenticed to his uncle, Henry Cline, in 1809; and on May 25th, 1813 - the rule against the marriage of apprentices having just been rescinded - he married Anne Elizabeth Hammond, daughter of a surgeon at Southgate and the sister of one of Cline's dressers. Mrs. Green outlived her husband, but there were no children. For the next two years he lived at 6 Martin Lane, E.C., where his father was in business, and during this time he acted as Cline's anatomical prosector and gave a regular course of demonstrations on practical anatomy. He began to practise in 1816, first at 22 and afterwards at 46 Lincoln's Inn Fields, then the fashionable neighbourhood for surgeons. In the same year he was formally appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, and in this position was called upon to perform many of the duties which now devolve upon a Resident Medical Officer. The summer of 1817 was spent with his wife in Germany reading philosophy with Professor Solger at Berlin. He was elected Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology jointly with Astley Cooper in 1818, and on June 14th, 1820, he was chosen Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital in the place of his cousin, Henry Cline the younger, who had died of phthisis at the age of 39. Shortly after his appointment as Surgeon he undertook the Lectureship on Surgery and Pathology in the United Schools of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, again conjointly with Astley Cooper. From 1824-1828 Green gave a series of lectures on comparative anatomy as Hunterian Professor at the College of Surgeons, in which he dealt for the first time in England with the whole of the animal sub-kingdoms. Richard Owen wrote of these lectures that they "combined the totality with the unity of the higher philosophy of the science illustrated by such a series of enlarged and coloured diagrams as had never before been seen. The vast array of facts was linked by references to the underlying unity, as it had been advocated by Oken and Carus." In 1825 he was elected F.R.S., and in the same year he was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy, a position he held until 1852. In the same year, too, came the unfortunate episode which led to the separation of the United Borough Hospitals. Sir Astley Cooper on his retirement wished to assign his share of the lectureship he then held to his nephews, Aston C. Key (q.v.) and Bransby Cooper (q.v.). Green, who had paid £1000 for his own half-share, agreed, but the hospital authorities declined to sanction the arrangement. Sir Astley Cooper thereupon began to lecture at Guy's on his own account, and a quarrel ensued. Green, true to his principles, behaved as a gentleman, protested, left the way open for reconciliation, and finally accepted an apology from Cooper. When King's College was founded in 1830 Green was nominated Professor of Surgery and held the post until 1836. He continued in office as Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, resigning in 1853. He was co-opted to the Council of the College of Surgeons in 1835 to fill the place of William Lynn, Surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, and became a Member of the Court of Examiners in 1840 in the place of Sir Benjamin Brodie - both appointments being made for life. He was elected President in 1849 and again in 1858, having given the Hunterian Oration in 1840 and 1847. He succeeded Sir Benjamin Brodie as President of the General Medical Council in 1860. There is no means of knowing when or how Green became acquainted with S. T. Coleridge, the poet metaphysician, but they were on terms of intimacy as early as 1817, and from 1824 Green contrived to spend many hours every week with him at the Gillmans' house. Coleridge died in 1834, and Green made the post-mortem examination. He was left literary executor and trustee for the children, and spent the rest of his life in carrying out the duties thus imposed upon him. Green's father died in 1834, and left him so considerable a fortune that he retired to Hadley, near Barnet, keeping only a consulting-room in London. At Hadley he wrestled for thirty years with Coleridge's philosophy, teaching himself Greek, Hebrew, and Sanscrit in the process. He published as a result of his labours *The Literary Remains, The Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit* (1849), *Religio Laici*, and prepared two volumes of *Spiritual Philosophy*, an endeavour to systematize the teaching of Coleridge. They appeared posthumously in 1865 under the editorship of Sir John Simon (q.v.), his apprentice and friend. Coleridge's influence appears markedly in Green's two Hunterian Orations. The first deals with "Vital Dynamics", the second with "Mental Dynamics or Groundwork of a Professional Education". In "Vital Dynamics" Green discusses the mental faculties and processes concerned in scientific discovery, and especially insists upon the importance of pure reason as the light by which nature is to be understood. He continues the same line of argument in "Mental Dynamics", and in both eulogizes John Hunter. Green died at The Mount, Hadley, on Dec. 13th, 1863, and was buried at Highgate. Sir John Simon gives a wonderful account of his death in the following words: - "I would show that not even the last sudden agony of death ruffled his serenity of mind, or rendered him unthoughtful of others. No terrors, no selfish regrets, no reproachful memories, were there. The few tender parting words which he had yet to speak, he spoke. And to the servants who had gathered grieving round him, he said, 'While I have breath, let me thank you all for your kindness and attention to me'. Next, to his doctor, who quickly entered - his neighbour and old pupil, Mr. Carter - he significantly, and pointing to the region of his heart, said - 'congestion'. After which, he in silence set his finger to his wrist, and visibly noted to himself the successive feeble pulses which were but just between him and death. Presently he said - 'stopped'. And this was the very end. It was as if even to die were an act of his own grand self-government. For at once, with the warning word still scarce beyond his lips, suddenly the stately head drooped aside, passive and defunct for ever. And then, to the loving eyes that watched him, 'his face was again all young and beautiful'. The bodily heart, it is true, had become more pulseless clay; broken was the pitcher at the fountain, broken at the cistern the wheel; but, for yet a moment amid the nightfall, the pure spiritual life could be discerned, moulding for the last time into conformity with itself the features which thenceforth were for the tomb." Green's reputation as a surgeon stood very high, especially in lithotomy, in which he always used the gorget of his uncle, Henry Cline. In appearance he was tall with a languid air, but he impressed his patients by his polished and benignant manners. There is a bust by H. Weekes, R.A., in the College, and an oil-painting hangs in the Grand Committee Room at St. Thomas's Hospital. Of this portrait it was said by a critic when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy: "There is no face in the whole collection, whether in manly beauty or in its expression of intellectual superiority, to be compared with the portrait of Joseph Henry Green, although there be statesmen, great soldiers, and philosophers around." Emerson was introduced to Green by the late Dr. Garth Wilkinson, and remarked on his typical 'surgeon's mouth', with its close-shut lips and air of restraint and firmness. The bust illustrates both these observations.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000018
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Luke, James (1799 - 1881)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching South, John Flint (1797 - 1882)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2012-07-19
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372207372207
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 3rd, 1797, the eldest son by his second wife of James South, a druggist in Southwark. Sir James South (1785-1867), President of the Royal Astronomical Society, who also qualified as a medical man, was his half-brother. His father made money by prescribing for immense numbers of children with bowel complaints. John Flint South was put to school in October, 1805, with the Rev. Samuel Hemming, D.D., at Hampton, Middlesex, where he remained until June, 1813, making such good progress in Latin that in after-life he was selected to examine the articled pupils in that language before they were apprenticed at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He began to attend the practice of St. Thomas's Hospital a few weeks after leaving school, and on Feb. 18th, 1814, was apprenticed, for the usual sum of 500 guineas, as an articled pupil to Henry Cline the younger, then a Surgeon at the Hospital. He attended Sir Astley Cooper's lectures on anatomy, and made the acquaintance in 1813 of Joseph Henry Green (q.v.), a fellow-apprentice whose support proved afterwards of the greatest service to him. He was admitted M.R.C.S on Aug. 6th, 1819, six months before he had completed his indentures. He then acted for some months as prosector to the Lecturers on Anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, and on Dec. 14th, 1810, was appointed Conservator of the Museum and Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy for a term of three years at a salary of £100 a year. He was elected Demonstrator of Anatomy jointly with Bransby Cooper (q.v.) in February, 1823, and on the retirement of Sir Astley Cooper he was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy in 1825 in preference to Bransby Cooper, an event which put the culminating stroke to the disagreements between the two Borough Hospitals and led to the separation of the Medical Schools of Guy's and St. Thomas's. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to St.Thomas's Hospital - a post specifically made for him - on April 9th, 1834, and succeeded Benjamin Travers, senr. (q.v.), as full Surgeon on July 28th, 1841. This post he resigned in April, 1863, having retired from the lectureship of surgery in April, 1860. An attack of illness - largely of a neurotic character - led him to resign his lectureship on anatomy in 1841, and to move from London to Morden Road, Blackheath Park, where he lived for the rest of his life. At the Royal College of Surgeons, South was a Member of the Council from 1841-1873. In 1844 he delivered the Hunterian Oration, which was planned on so large a scale that he never arrived at Hunter's period in the history of medicine. From 1845-1847 he was Professor of Human Anatomy; a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1849-1868; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1859; and a Member of the Dental Board from 1864-1868. He served as Vice-President during the years 1849, 1850, 1858, and 1859, and was elected President in 1851 and 1860. As Vice-President in 1859 he signalized his year of office by getting the body of John Hunter re-buried in Westminster Abbey, and wrote the inscription for his monument. The last twenty years of his life were spent in gathering materials for a history of English surgery. The materials he accumulated became unmanageable, were afterwards edited by D'Archy Power at the request of his widow, and were published under the title The Craft of Surgery in 1886. The original manuscript volumes containing a transcript of the Court Minutes of the Barber-Surgeons' Company of London, 1540-1745, got scattered and some found their way to Canada. In 1852 he made a journey to Sweden for the purpose of introducing the vegetable marrow, and for this service the Swedish Horticultural Society at Stockholm awarded him its Linnean Medal in bronze at the instigation of his friend, Professor Retzius. South married: (1) in 1832 Mrs. John Wrench, the second daughter of Thomas Lett, of Dulwich House, and (2) in 1864 Emma, daughter of John Louis Lemme, of Antwerp and London, the niece of his life-long friend, J. H. Green. Children of both marriages survived him. He died at Blackheath Park on Jan. 8th, 1882, and was buried in Charlton Cemetery. There is an excellent bust by H. Weekes, R.A., which was executed in 1872. A steel engraving is prefixed to Feltoe's *Memorials*, and his portrait by T. H. Maguire (1840), lithographed by M. & N. Hanhart, is in the Young Collection at the Royal College of Surgeons. South was a man of varied attainments, who had many interests outside his professional work. As a surgeon his name is linked with an historical specimen preserved in the Museum at St. Thomas's Hospital. It is a case of ligature of the abdominal aorta for an aneurysm of the iliac artery. He tells of the operation in the diary which he kept from boyhood; - "June 21st, 1856. At eight this morning went with Sutton Sams to *Dreadnought*, to find Black and get body to take up aorta, which I did pretty well: back home: left by 12.21 North Kent to Hospital. There met Green in consultation about aneurysm case and settled with him about tying aorta. Mr. Simon and Busk afterwards saw it. Waited for Luke but he did not come. I was in a great state of anxiety during the hour; but I had prayed earnestly for help last night and constantly during the morning and was most graciously heard. We went into the theatre a little after two and though it took long to get the patient under chloroform, directly I sat down I was perfectly calm: went through the operation with great quiet and self-possession and not to the disadvantage of the patient. Green, Solly and Clark and also Croft, who had come up from the *Dreadnought*, were very able assistants and part of myself. I never operated with more self-command and steadiness: and He knows in whose help alone I relied: how thankful I am for an answer to my prayers." South was old-fashioned in dress, wearing a black cut-away coat with large pockets, and a high white stock round his neck. His face was close shaved, and his appearance generally somewhat puritanical. His manners were punctilious, but he was easily roused to wrath and did not then measure his language. He was deeply religious, and threw himself with zeal into church work, especially in connection with Sunday schools. From 1843 onwards he was Surgeon to the Female Orphan Asylum. It is characteristic of the leisurely times in which he lived that when an emergency case was admitted to the Hospital during his week on duty, the porter would be sent in a cab to Blackheath to fetch him, a distance of six or seven miles. In 1831 he was a prime mover in establishing the Surrey Zoological Gardens and Botanical Society. PUBLICATIONS: - As an author South is best known by his edition of Von Cheliu's *System of Surgery * (2 vols., 8vo, London, 1847), into which he wove so large a mass of his own experience that it is still of value as representing the surgery of his time. *A Short Description of the Bones*, 32mo, London, 1825; 3rd ed., 8vo, 1837. *South's Knochen-Lehre*, 16mo, Berlin, 1844. *Household Surgery*, 12mo, London, 1847, which had a large sale and of which a 5th edition appeared in 1880. He also assisted J. H. Green in preparing the second and third editions of *The Dissector's Manual*, 8vo, London, 1825.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000020
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Stanley, Edward (1793 - 1862)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-08-10 2012-07-19
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/372208372208
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 3rd, 1793, the son of Edward Stanley, who was in business in the City; his mother was sister to Thomas Blizard. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in April, 1802, and remained there until 1808, when he was apprenticed to Thomas Ramsden, Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who died in February, 1813; Stanley was then turned over to John Abernethy for the rest of his term. He was awarded the Jacksonian Prize for his essay "On Diseases of Bone", and was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on Jan. 29th, 1816, at the early age of 24. Even during his apprenticeship he had rendered important services to the Medical School, for his love of morbid anatomy led him, with Abernethy's assistance and approval, to enlarge the Museum so greatly that he practically created it. He subsequently compiled a valuable catalogue of the collection. He acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy until 1826, when he was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology in place of Abernethy and held the post without distinction until 1848, when he was succeeded by F. C. Skey (q.v.). He was elected full Surgeon in 1838, and then became famous as a clinical teacher. He was elected F.R.S. in 1830 for his pathological work, became President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1843, and was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1858. At the Royal College of Surgeons Stanley was a Member of Council from 1835-1862, Professor Human Anatomy from 1835-1838, and Hunterian Orator in 1839, the Oration being published in London as an octavo volume in 1839. He was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1844-1862, Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1856, Vice-President in 1846, 1847, 1855, and 1856, and President in 1848 and 1857. He resigned the post of Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1861, but continued to attend the weekly operations on Saturdays until May 24th, 1862. On that day, after witnessing the operations, being in his usual health and good spirits, he went with the other Surgeons, on the invitation of Sir William Lawrence, to see a patient in Henry Ward who was suffering from a swelling of the knee. Stanley bent over the patient for a short time, then drew himself up and said, "I think, Mr. Lawrence, this is a case of knee-joint disease, and that if all remedies have failed for many months in your hands the case would be one favourable for resection." He spoke clearly and evidently in full possession of all his faculties: a moment later he staggered against a bed and sank to the floor supported by those around him. He was at once raised and place on the 'state bed' in the front ward. Momentarily he seemed to regain consciousness, and when Mr. Wormald asked if he could do anything, Stanley replied: "I am quite well, Wormald; I never felt better in my life, it's only stomach." Tradition says that Lawrence, looking round, said to his House Surgeon, "Wrong again. Head." However this may be, Stanley quickly became unconscious, passing into a state of coma and died within an hour. He married a highly educated, talented and sympathetic lady by whom he had one son, the Rev. Rainey Stanley, and several daughters. He lived at first in Lincoln's Inn fields, afterwards at 66 Brook Street, the house afterwards occupied by Sir William Savory (q.v.). Stanley is described as being one of the most sagacious teachers and judicious practitioners of his day. He was vivacious in conversation, but solemn and impressive, and his language was clear and empathic when teaching in the wards, where the students knew him as 'the inspired butterman' because he was short and 'podgy'. His unattractive features were redeemed by large intellectual eyes, a genial smile and a face honest, earnest, and good-tempered. He was an eager inquirer after pathological knowledge, a patient, accurate, and intelligent investigator and collector, but was wanting in culture of the higher kind and was without any appreciation of the arts. He always took immense pains in studying his hospital cases, and as the result of this and his innate sagacity he was seldom wrong in the opinions he arrived at. He was never a brilliant operator, yet he shone in the operating theatre, because when grave or unexpected incidents arose he never lost his self-possession, and his courage rose with the emergency. His anatomical knowledge and quiet insistence carried him through all difficulties, and he was fortunate in having James Paget (q.v.) as his Assistant Surgeon. He was, too, a man of peace, and did much to compose the bitter quarrels in which the hospital staff engaged. To this end he was instrumental in arranging the Christmas Dinner which is still a feature in the life of the Hospital, where the members of the Staff and all teachers in the Medical School meet together and, if they are so disposed, play cards until a late hour. Stanley's writings and the specimens he added to the Museum show how extensive was his knowledge of diseases of bone. He had prepared specimens of the arthritis which occurs in locomotor ataxy and has since been called Charcot's disease. There are portraits of him in the College Collection. PUBLICATIONS: - *An Account of the Mode of Performing the Lateral Operation of Lithotomy*, 4to, London, 1829. *Illustrations of the Effects of Disease and Injury of the Bones with Descriptive and Explanatory Statements*, fol., 24 plates, London, 1849. The coloured plates are splendidly executed and are drawn from original preparations, many of which are still preserved in the Museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. *A Treatise on Diseases of the Bones*, 8vo, London and Philadelphia, 1849. These two books are classics. *A Manual of Practical Anatomy*, 12mo, London, 1818; 3rd ed., 1826.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000021
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Lett, Sir Hugh (1876 - 1964)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2012-03-14
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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/372416372416
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hugh Lett came of an Anglo-Irish family but was born on 17 April 1876 at Waddingham, Kirton, Lincolnshire, where his father Richard Alfred Lett (M.B. Dublin 1869) was in general practice; his grandfather had also been a doctor. He was educated at Marlborough College and kept a close connection with the school, becoming a life governor and chairman of the school club and helping to compile the Record of the Old Marlburians. His surgical career was spent at the London Hospital, where he came as a student from Leeds Medical School in 1896. He qualified from Leeds in 1899, took the Conjoint Diploma in February 1901, and the Fellowship in June 1902. He was appointed surgical registrar at the London in 1902, becoming assistant surgeon 1905, surgical tutor 1909-12, surgeon 1915, and consulting surgeon 1934 when he retired. In the first world war Lett served from its outbreak (1914) in France, and later in Belgium and Egypt, was promoted Major, R.A.M.C., and awarded the CBE in 1920. Though his main interest was urology, he was always a general surgeon and his writings, while not frequent, covered many topics. He was one of the first to advocate adequate operation for appendicitis, to prevent recurrence. Between the wars Lett began to find operating sessions wearisome, and it was noticed that in the theatre he lost his usual imperturbability. Fortunately he had great abilities as an administrator and medical statesman, which he became free to use for the benefit of his colleagues and the country by retiring relatively young. Lett's association with the College was long, close, and extremely valuable. He served on the Court of Examiners 1923-25 and on the Council 1927-43. He was elected President in 1938 and held office for the customary three years, which were sadly spoiled for him by the anxieties and disasters of the war. Already before war broke out he was taking a personal initiative in safeguarding the College's treasures. He travelled to Aberystwyth in the summer of 1939 and arranged the removal of the most valuable paintings, books and other treasures to the National Library of Wales, and during 1940 secured a generous grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to evacuate the library to the west country. In May 1941 the Museum was bombed and much of the collection destroyed, in spite of Lett's provision of a deep vault to protect thousands of the Hunterian specimens. After this disaster he actively supported his successor Sir Alfred Webb-Johnson (as he then was) in planning to restore the Museum. He became a Hunterian Trustee in 1942, was the first permanent Chairman of Trustees 1955-59, and lived to see the Museum successfully renewed. He had been Bradshaw Lecturer in 1936, speaking on "The early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculous disease of the kidney", and was Thomas Vicary Lecturer in 1942, when he described "Anatomy at Barbers' Hall", an address based on original research. Lett married in 1906 Nellie, only daughter of (Sir) Buckston Browne F.R.C.S., a leading London urologist and afterwards one of the College's most munificent benefactors. Lett took an active interest in his father-in-law's two foundations at Downe: the Darwin Museum and the Surgical Research Farm. Sir Buckston had also endowed a dinner at the College, and in the year of Lett's Presidency he gave each guest a silver box full of snuff. Lady Lett died before her husband, on 9 August 1963, and Sir Hugh was survived by their three daughters. Lett was created a Baronet in 1941 while President of the College, and KCVO in 1947 to recognise his work for King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, where he had been one of the honorary secretaries since 1941. He was particularly concerned with the King's Fund's work for nurses and was the first chairman of its Staff College of Ward Sisters. He had previously been President of the Hunterian Society in 1917, and its Orator in 1919, President of the Sections of Surgery and of Urology at the Royal Society of Medicine in 1932-33, and Master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1937-38. He was Chairman of the war-time Committee of Reference for allocation of medical man-power, and in 1946 succeeded his former surgical colleague Sir Henry Souttar as President of the British Medical Association. In this position his wise statesmanship proved invaluable to the profession and the nation in preparing for the start of the National Health Service. Lett was a tall man of serious demeanour, kindly and affable, utterly without affectation, and upright in all his ways. He was meticulous and regular in business, firm but courteous in personal contacts, and made an admirable chairman, with a wealth of experience and innate common sense. As a young man he enjoyed fencing and golf, but music was his favourite recreation, for he was an accomplished cellist. Lady Lett gave the College the portrait of her husband by Sir James Gunn R.A., which admirably catches his reserved, but slightly quizzical look, and gave a different portrait by the same artist to the Society of Apothecaries. Sir Hugh Lett died at his home at Walmer on 19 July 1964 at the age of 88. He had been so active and prominent in professional affairs that he was still widely known and held in affectionate regard by many colleagues much younger than himself, although he had retired from surgery thirty years earlier. Throughout his long life "he nothing common did or mean", but remained a pattern of unobtrusive and unselfish virtue.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000229
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bigelow, Wilfred Gordon (1913 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-07
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/372210372210
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Wilfred Gordon ‘Bill’ Bigelow, who helped develop the first electronic pacemaker, was a professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and a pioneering heart surgeon. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1913. His father, Wilfred Bigelow, had founded the first medical clinic in Canada. Bill trained in medicine at the University of Toronto and did his internship at the Toronto General Hospital, during which time he had to amputate a young man’s fingers because of frostbite, leading Bill to research the condition. During the second world war, he served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, in a field transfusion unit and then as a battle surgeon with the 6th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in England and Europe, where he saw many more soldiers with frostbitten limbs. After the war, he returned to a surgical residency in Toronto, followed by a graduate fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He returned to Toronto in 1947 as a staff general surgeon. In 1950 he became a research fellow in the university department of surgery. He was made an assistant professor in 1953 and a full professor in 1970. He researched into hypothermia in a cold-storage room in the basement of the Banting Institute. He theorised that cooling patients before an operation would reduce the amount of oxygen the body required and slow the circulation, allowing longer and safer access to the heart. This work led to the development of a cooling technique for use during heart operations. He also discovered that he could restart the heart by stimulating it with a probe at regular intervals, work which led him on to develop the first electronic pacemaker, in collaboration with John Callaghan and the electrical engineer John Hopps. He published extensively and received many awards, including the Order of Canada and the honorary Fellowship of our College. He was President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society for Vascular Surgery. He was predeceased by his wife, Margaret Ruth Jennings, and is survived by his daughter, three sons and three grandchildren. He died from congestive heart failure on 27 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000023
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bond, Alec Graeme (1926 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23 2010-01-27
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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
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First Title value, for Searching Doey, William David (1922 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2012-03-09
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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
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Savage, Christopher Roland (1915 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372338372338
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Christopher Savage was a consultant vascular surgeon at Leamington and Warwick Hospital. He was born in Kingston on Thames on 31 August 1915. His father, Arthur Livingstone Savage, was an architect, and his mother was the artist Agnes Kate Richardson. He was educated at Gate House School, Kingston, and Canford School, Dorset, from which he went to St Thomas’s Hospital. After house appointments he worked at the Royal Salop Infirmary before joining the RAF in 1940, where he reached the rank of acting Wing Commander. After the war, he continued his surgical training at the Royal Leicester Infirmary, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and St Thomas’s. At St Thomas’s he was much influenced by Sir Max Page and Sir Maurice Cassidy, at a time when vascular surgery was just being developed. He was appointed consultant at Leamington and Warwick Hospital in 1956, where he introduced vascular surgery, published extensively on aortic aneurysms, and wrote a textbook *Vascular surgery* (London, Pitman Medical, 1970). He introduced weekly teaching rounds for his registrars and housemen, as well as students from London teaching hospitals. He married in 1953, and had a daughter (Romilly) and two sons (Richard and Justin). He had a stroke in 2000, which impaired his hearing and vision. He died on 2 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000151
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Eddey, Howard Hadfield (1910 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Thackray, Alan Christopher (1914 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Vaughan-Jackson, Oliver James (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Witte, Jens (1941 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Allan, Walter Ramsay (1927 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Jagose, Rustom Jamshedji (1918 - 1991)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2014-07-23
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/372354372354
Occupation General practitioner
Details Rustom Jamshedji Jagose, known as 'Rusty', passed the fellowship in 1957 and emigrated to New Zealand, where he was a general practitioner in Cambridge, in the Waikato region of the North Island. Although he did not continue to practise surgery, he regularly attended grand rounds at Waikato Hospital. He died on 16 September 1991 and was survived by his wife Anne and their five children - Pheroze, Maki, Annamarie, Una and Fiona.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000167
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Sanderson, Christopher John (1947 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372368372368
Occupation General surgeon
Details ‘C J’ Sanderson was a gastro-enterologist on Merseyside. He was born in Blackpool on 2 December 1947. His father, Joseph Sanderson, was a schoolmaster. His mother was Patricia Mary née Caunt. From Blackpool Grammar School he went to Liverpool University Medical School, where he was county swimming champion. After qualifying in 1971 he did house jobs at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and went on to do registrar posts at Clatterbridge, Chester Royal Infirmary and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. He then spent a year as a research fellow in the department of surgery, Chicago University, before becoming consultant general surgeon at St Helen’s Knowsley. His main interest was in gastro-oesophageal cancer and laparoscopy. Outside surgery he was an enthusiastic follower of motor racing. He married Jane Seymour in 1971, and they had three sons. He died on 22 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000181
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sen, Adosh Kumar (1942 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19
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/372369372369
Occupation General surgeon
Details Adosh Sen was a surgeon based in New Delhi, India. He was born in Dalhousie, India, on 27 June 1942. His father, Santosh Kumar Sen, a surgeon, and his mother, Sita Sen, a gynaecologist, had founded the celebrated Dr Sen’s Nursing Home, in New Delhi. He was educated at the Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, where he excelled in sport, particularly swimming. He did his premedical studies at the Hindu College, before going on to study medicine at the Maulana Azad Medicel College, where he continued to swim, representing his state in the All India championship. After house jobs he went to England to specialise in surgery, and completed training posts at Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital, Pyrford, St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, and Barking General Hospital. He returned to India as a general surgeon in his father’s clinic in New Delhi. He married Rehana Tasadduq Hosain in 1969 in London, who had a masters degree in English and taught that subject in New Delhi. They had three sons, Ashish, Nikhil and Shirish, none of whom went into medicine. Sen continued to be a keen sportsman, his main sport being swimming, but he was also a keen follower of cricket. Among his many interests was education, and he was vice president of the Magic Years Educational Society, which promotes Montessori education, and served on the board of trustees of the Modern School and its many branches. He died on 18 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000182
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hodgson, Joseph (1788 - 1869)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-22
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/372377372377
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Penrith, Cumberland, the son of a Birmingham merchant. He was educated at King Edward VI's Grammar School and was apprenticed to George Freer, who was Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital from December, 1793, to the day of his death in December, 1823. Hodgson thus had much experience at the hospital, but, his father having fallen on evil days, owed the completion of his education to an uncle, who gave him £100. He entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in 1811 gained the Jacksonian Prize for his essay on "Wounds and Diseases of the Arteries and Veins". The essay was expanded and was published in 1815 with a quarto volume of illustrative engravings from drawings made by the author. It was well received and was translated into French by M. Breschet. The drawings show that Hodgson was no mean artist. He practised at King Street, Cheapside, and eked out his scanty resources by taking pupils and acting as editor of the *London Medical Review*. He also served at the York Military Hospital, Westminster, where he remained for some time in comparatively comfortable pecuniary circumstances, but insufficient practice and a desire to marry his future wife, who was a sister of J. F. Ledsam, took him back to Birmingham in 1818, where he was welcomed and elected Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital in December, 1821, on the death of Samuel Dickenson. He soon attained a good practice, and had amongst his patients Sir Robert Peel and many members of his family, who were living at Drayton Hall, near Tamworth. Many years later - in 1850 - he was in personal attendance when the Prime Minister, who had just resigned his office, fell from his horse in Constitution Hill and received the injury which proved fatal. Hodgson resigned his post of Surgeon to the Hospital in April, 1848, and the Governors presented him with the portrait which now hangs in the Committee Room. In the autumn of 1823 he started a movement to establish an Eye Infirmary in Birmingham. It was successful, and the Charity was opened for the reception of patients on April 13th, 1824. He acted as sole Surgeon until May, 1828, when at his request Richard Middlemore (q.v.) was elected as his colleague. He was asked in 1840 to become Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital and Professor of Surgery at King's College, but declined both offers. It was not until 1849, after having made a considerable fortune in Birmingham, chiefly by lithotomy, that he gave up his house in Hagley Road and returned to Westbourne Terrace, Hyde Park. He was elected a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1849 and held office until 1868, being elected to the Court of Examiners, 1856-65; Chairman of the Midwifery Board, 1863; Vice-President, 1862 and 1863; and President, 1864. He delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1855. He was admitted F.R.S. on April 14th, 1831, and was President of the Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1851. He died on February 7th, 1869, twenty-four hours after his wife, and left one daughter. With the exception of Joseph Swan, Joseph Hodgson was the first provincial surgeon to become a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, and he was the first surgeon from the provinces to be elected President. He was chosen because his reputation was not confined to the locality of a country town, but was great even in London. He was not brilliant as an operator, and, like most provincial and many London surgeons his contemporaries, he acted as a family practitioner. He was celebrated for the accuracy of his diagnosis, but his caution and his pessimistic prognosis did something to limit his practice. He was a good teacher and was fortunate in his pupils; in Birmingham he taught D. W. Crompton, S. H. Amphlett, Alfred Baker, and Oliver Pemberton; in London, William Bowman and Richard Partridge. Born a Conservatice, he had some lively passages at arms with his Radical fellow-citizens, but his benevolence and kindness of manner made him respected and beloved. He was consistently opposed to all reforms and steadfastly opposed the formation of a School of Medicine in Birmingham. The presentation portrait by John Partridge, painted in 1848, was engraved by Samuel Cousins in 1849. A proof, 'for subscribers only', is in the College Collection.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000190
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Horton, Robert Elmer (1917 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 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/372263372263
Occupation General surgeon
Details Bob Horton was a consultant surgeon at the United Bristol Hospitals. He was born in south London on 5 July 1917, the son of Arthur John Budd Horton, a schoolteacher, and Isabel Horton née Cotton, the daughter of a master mariner. He was educated at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, and studied medicine at Guy’s Hospital. He volunteered for the RAMC after completing his house posts. During the London Blitz he showed outstanding courage in rescuing casualties from a bombed building, which earned him the MBE. He was sent to India and Burma, to the Arakan campaign, where he initially commanded a frontline surgical unit, subsequently leading a surgical division at the General Hospital, Rangoon. He served for six years and was raised to the rank of colonel. He returned to Guy’s to complete his surgical training under Sir Russell Brock, and was then appointed senior lecturer and consultant at Bristol Royal Infirmary under Robert Milnes Walker. At Bristol he pioneered vascular surgery at a time when it was an uncertain specialty to pursue. He had a special interest in post-traumatic vascular injuries resulting from industrial and motorcycle accidents, publishing surgical articles and a textbook on the subject. On Milnes Walker’s retirement he joined Bill Capper to create a very popular firm. He also worked at the Bristol Homeopathic surgical unit. A pioneer of day case surgery, he was for a time clinical dean. His writings brought him international recognition. In 1977 he held a one-year appointment as foundation professor of surgery at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. He found the post challenging (the hospital building was not even completed when he arrived), but he did establish undergraduate teaching, regular conferences and a Primary FRCS course. In January 1980 he was asked by the Minister of Health in Libya to carry out a cholecystectomy on the wife of Colonel Gaddafi. He was encouraged to go by the British ambassador in Tripoli, who was concerned that the colonel would call in a surgeon from Eastern Europe if he declined. Horton carried out the operation in Benghazi and returned home in five days. Horton was a loyal member of the Surgical Travellers and travelled widely with them. He was an examiner for the Primary and Final FRCS and became chairman of the Court of Examiners in 1972. He was a Hunterian Professor in 1974, and was a valuable member of the Annals editorial team, in association with the then editors, his longstanding friend Tony Rains and R M (Jerry) Kirk. Apart from his surgical career, he studied painting in oils and frequently exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy. He was a member of the Bristol Shakespeare Club, the Hawk and Owl Trust, and was a member of council and later president of the Bristol Zoo. He married Pip Naylor in 1945 and they had two sons, John and Tim. His wife predeceased him in 1985. He died on 2 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000076
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching House, Howard Payne (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2013-10-11
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/372264372264
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Howard Payne House was a pioneering ear specialist. During his long career he treated thousands of patients, including Howard Hughes, Bob Hope and the former President, Ronald Reagan. A graduate of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, House perfected the wire loop technique to replace the stapes bone of the middle ear and developed procedures to reconstruct middle ear parts. In 1946 he established the House Ear Institute as a research facility dedicated to the advancement of hearing research and education. A year later, he was appointed Chairman of the subcommittee on noise and directed the national study on industrial noise that set the Occupational Safety and Health Administration hearing conservation standards in use today. House was head of the department of otolaryngology at University of Southern California School of Medicine from 1952 to 1961 and served on the faculty as clinical professor of otology. House received numerous awards and honorary degrees. He served as President of many professional associations in the US, including the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and the American Otological Society. He was awarded the University of Southern California's outstanding career service award, and was named a physician of the year by the California Governor's committee for employment of the handicapped. House died from heart failure on 1 August 2003 at St Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles. He is survived by his sons, Kenneth and John, and his daughter Carolyn, and nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000077
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Howkins, John (1907 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-28 2007-08-09
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/372265372265
Occupation Gynaecologist
Details John Howkins was a gynaecological surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born in Hartlepool, County Durham, on 17 December 1907, the son of John Drysdale Howkins, a civil engineer, and Helen Louise née Greenwood, the daughter of a bank manager. He was educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School and was then a scholar at Shrewsbury, where he was a prefect, and developed a lifelong interest in fast cars. This led to a temporary set-back: he was spotted driving a girl in his Frazer-Nash, reported to the headmaster, and expelled. This did not prevent him winning an arts entrance scholarship to the Middlesex Hospital, where he fell under the spell of Victor Bonney. After qualifying, he did junior jobs at the Middlesex and the Chelsea Hospital for Women, and then became resident assistant physician-accoucheur at Bart’s. He also gained his masters in surgery, his MD (with a gold medal) and his FRCS. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAF, rising to Wing-Commander and senior surgical specialist, eventually becoming deputy chief consultant to the WAAF. At the end of the war he returned to Bart’s, where a post was created for him. He was subsequently appointed to the Hampstead General and the Royal Masonic Hospitals. He was a prolific writer, talking over *Bonney’s Textbook of gynaecology* as well as Shaw’s textbooks of *Gynaecology* and *Operative gynaecology*. He was Hunterian Professor of the College in 1947 and was awarded the Meredith Fletcher Shaw memorial lectureship of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1975. Small in stature, he was an accomplished skier, and chairman of the Ski Club of Great Britain, and had a memorable sense of humour. He enjoyed salmon fishing and renovating old houses. In retirement he took up sheep farming in Wales. He married Lena Brown in 1940. They had one son and two daughters. He died on 6 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000078
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hudson, James Ralph (1916 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372266372266
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details James Hudson was an ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields in London. He was born on 15 February 1916 in New Britain, Connecticut, USA. His father, William Shand, was a mechanical engineer and farmer. His mother was Ethel Summerskill. He was educated in Massachusetts, at Winchester County Day School and then Belmont High School, before he went to England, where he attended the King’s School, Canterbury, and then Middlesex Hospital, where he was Edmund Davis exhibitioner. After qualifying, he joined the RAFVR, where he rose to the rank of Squadron Leader. In 1947, he went to Moorfields as a clinical assistant, trained in ophthalmology, and was appointed consultant in 1956 to Moorfields and to Guy’s Hospital. He also held posts at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, London, and ran a private practice in Wimpole Street. He retired in 1981. He was a most competent general eye surgeon. An expert in surgical technique rather than an innovator, he devoted much of his time to the diagnosis and management of retinal detachment in an era when subspecialisation within ophthalmology was still new. In this field he made his reputation. For 25 years he presided over the retinal unit at the High Holborn branch of Moorfields, setting new standards by his unique and thorough methods of retinal examination and his meticulous records. His patients included the Duke of Windsor. He taught by example, and juniors soon learned that the soft cough at the end of a case presentation meant that something was not to his liking. He wrote chapters in Matthew’s *Recent advances in the surgery of trauma* and contributed to Rob and Rodney Smith’s *Operative surgery.* He was President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom and the Faculty of Ophthalmologists, representing that faculty on the Council of the College. He was an examiner in ophthalmology to the Court of Examiners of the College. He was consultant adviser in ophthalmology to the DHSS and a civilian ophthalmic consultant to the RAF. His services were recognised by the award of the CBE in 1976. Abroad he was a respected member of the Société Française d’Ophtalmologie and represented the United Kingdom on several European committees. He was a member of the International Council of Ophthalmology and helped found the Jules Gonin Club, an worldwide association of retinal experts. He was interested in motoring, travel and cine-photography. He married Margaret May Oulpe, the daughter of a translator, in 1946. They had four children (Ann, Jamie, Sarah and Andrew) and five grandchildren (Matthew, Timothy, Mark, Jessica and Olivia). He died after a long illness on 30 December 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000079
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hulbert, Kenneth Frederick (1912 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Jayasekera, Kodituwakku Gnanapala ( - 2001)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Jonas, Ernest George Gustav (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Bruce Victor (1919 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
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/372271372271
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Surgeon captain Bruce Jones RN was born on 26 June 1919 at Ringwood, Hants, the first son of Ernest Victor Jones, a dental surgeon, and Gladys Maud Jones née Sloper. He was educated at Great Ballard School near Hilton, Hants. He then moved on the Sherborne School. Initially, he started dental training at the Royal Dental Hospital in 1938 and was awarded certificates of honour, but did not qualify as a dental surgeon. In 1939, because of the war, he transferred to Charing Cross Medical School which had been evacuated to Glasgow. After qualifying MRCS in 1943 and MB in 1944 he joined the Royal Navy, serving as a surgeon lieutenant at sea, on HMS Aberdeen. In 1947, after demobilisation, he did a good surgical rotation at Poole and Hertford General Hospitals and the old Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, passing his FRCS in 1949. Orthopaedics fascinated him: he had appointments at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London and Heatherwood Orthopaedic Hospital in Ascot. The Royal Navy called, so in 1954 he rejoined on a permanent commission as surgeon lieutenant commander, specialist in orthopaedics. There followed the normal service rotation of orthopaedic jobs in RN hospitals in Chatham, Kent, Hong Kong and HMS Ganges, the RN boys training establishment in Shotley, Suffolk. The Armed Services Consultant Approval Board at the RCS appointed him as a consultant in orthopaedic surgery in 1959. Bruce was then posted to Mauritius to establish joint services medical facilities. He returned to the UK in 1961, to the RN Hospital Stonehouse, Plymouth, Devon, then to RN Hospital Haslar as senior consultant in orthopaedics and later adviser to the medical director general of the Royal Navy. During this time he was delighted to be seconded on an operational posting to the aircraft carrier HMS Albion, the task to cover HM forces’ withdrawal from Aden. He was promoted to surgeon captain during this voyage whilst en route to Singapore. From 1968 to 1976 he was an honorary surgeon to HM the Queen. Later he was a brother of the Knights of Malta. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine for over 50 years and a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. Bruce was very keen on inter-service cooperation and initiated the Joint Services Orthopaedic Club. He was a keen and stimulating chairman who encouraged surgeons from the Army and RAF to take a full part in its activities. After retiring in 1976, he became a civil consultant to the RAF Hospital Wroughton, finally retiring in 1984. He was a keen sailor and photographer, and developed a productive interest in beekeeping. Fly fishing and entomology were other interests. Bruce married Sheila Ray Hogarth – a descendent of the painter – in May 1954 and they had two sons. James Victor Hogarth Jones was born in 1955 and is now head of farm business management at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Bruce Jonathon Hogarth Jones, born in 1959, is now a lawyer with Citibank London. Bruce was an excellent orthopaedic surgeon with a keen interest in the correction of recurrent shoulder dislocation, a common service problem, and hand surgery. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he stated: “conscientious and thorough and unsparing attention to patients’ needs”. That summed up his life as a naval surgeon. He died on 28 February 2005 after many years of infirmity, patiently borne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000084
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Rhys Tudor Brackley (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
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/372272372272
Occupation General surgeon
Details Air Vice Marshal Rhys Tudor Brackley Jones was born on 16 November 1925 in Middlesex, the son of the late Sir Edgar and Lady Jones. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, where he qualified MRCS LRCP in April 1950 and became a house surgeon there. His surgical training rotation continued at Harold Wood Hospital, becoming a junior surgical registrar, before call up for National Service by the Royal Air Force in September 1952. He married Irene Lilian Henderson in August 1953. He was rapidly promoted to squadron leader in 1954 whilst serving at the RAF Hospital Wroughton. Typical service annual moves to RAF Hospitals Nocton Hall, Weeton, Uxbridge, Ely and Wegberg happened until 1960, when he passed his FRCS and was posted on active service to the RAF Hospital in Aden. This was a period of terrorist activity and he rapidly gained extensive experience in battle surgery. After returning to the UK, he continued as a general surgeon, gaining the wide experience the service required, before being promoted to wing commander in 1963. He had a sabbatical year and was appointed as a consultant by the Armed Services Consultant Approval Board at the College in 1967. An overseas posting to RAF Hospital Changi soon followed, where a wide range of general surgery was undertaken. After returning to the UK he had a further period of external study before being promoted to group captain. He was soon posted to the RAF Hospital Wegberg as the senior consultant. This hospital was at the western end of British Forces Germany and he was responsible for the surgical treatment of the Army as well as the RAF. He was a very capable surgeon and this was soon recognised by the Army surgeons, with whom he established an excellent working relationship. In 1978 he went to the senior RAF Hospital the Princess Mary’s and was in charge of the Stanford Cade unit, where all the RAF cases of malignant disease were treated. In 1982 he was appointed as a consultant adviser in surgery and was soon promoted to air commodore. This was a busy and difficult period following the Falklands war, and included the dissolution of all military hospitals. In 1987 he was promoted to air vice marshal, with responsibility for all postgraduate training of RAF medical officers. He rapidly became the senior consultant of the RAF and honorary surgeon to the Queen. He retired in 1990 and died suddenly on 8 December 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000085
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kell, Robert Anthony (1939 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2006-12-07
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/372273372273
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Robert Anthony Kell, known as ‘Robin’, was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Victoria Infirmary and Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. He was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1939, the son of William Kell, a colliery manager and Lilian. His mother died from leukaemia when Robin was only seven, and he was brought up by his father and stepmother, Ann, in Acomb. He was educated at the Friends’ School, Brookfield, Wigton, a co-educational boarding school, where his report reads: “he will develop not only into a first class scientist but also a man of wide sympathies and a strong social conscience”. He had hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps, but failed the coal board medical due to his eyesight. After graduating from St Andrews in 1963, he trained at Dundee Royal and the department of anatomy, Dundee. He began his ENT training in Dundee, but then moved to the Liverpool ENT Hospital to develop this interest further. He was appointed to his consultant posts in Glasgow in 1972. He was the clinical director for ENT at the Victoria Infirmary and Southern General Hospital for many years. His main interests were in audiology, the middle ear, and head and neck oncology. Robin served on the council for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, was President of the Scottish ENT Society and was an examiner for the intercollegiate board. He married Babs Scorgie, whom he met while working in Dundee. An expert pianist, he enjoyed music, playing the fiddle, and played with the Strathspey and Reel Society. He was also a keen traveller, particularly enjoying visiting Italy, the Lake District and west Cork. He died from metastatic prostate cancer on 17 December 2003, leaving a daughter, Valerie, and two sons, Alistair and Malcolm Kell, a general surgeon and a Fellow of our College. There are two grandchildren, Ruby and Genevieve.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000086
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Siegler, Gerald Joseph (1921 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Glaser, Sholem (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Grimley, Ronald Patrick (1946 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-02-09
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/372439372439
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ron Grimley was born in Birmingham on 21 February 1946 and was educated at grammar school in Small Health and Birmingham University. After junior posts, mainly at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he was a lecturer on the surgical unit under Sir Geoffrey Slaney. He was appointed vascular and general surgeon to the Dudley Health Authority in 1983, where he developed a busy vascular and endocrine practice, as well as a special interest in melanoma of the lower limb. He published extensively and was a keen teacher of young surgeons. He was an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Intercollegiate Board, and a member of the Specialist Accreditation Committee in General Surgery and the first clinical sub-dean. He was a prime mover in the foundation of the undergraduate teaching centre which was opened and named after him on 14 March 2006. He died from a myocardial infarct on 26 September 2005. He was married to Penny and they had three children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000252
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Johnston, James Herbert (1920 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22
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/372440372440
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Herbert Johnston was a pioneer of paediatric urology, determined to make what had been a peripheral interest a specialty in its own right. Appointed first as a general surgeon to a leading children’s hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool, he soon saw that the urogenital problems required a much closer attention than had been accorded them, and by years of dedicated practice and research he built for himself an international reputation and inspired a succession of young disciples. James Herbert Johnston, known to his intimates as ‘Herbie’, was born on 26 February 1920 in Belfast. His father, Robert Johnston, was in the linen business, his mother, Mary née McCormack, a science teacher. He was always destined for a career in medicine and distinguished himself as an undergraduate by gaining several surgical prizes. He graduated from Queens University, Belfast, in 1943, and after a house job became assistant to the professor of surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital and at the Children’s Hospital. After military service, from 1946 to 1948, he returned to Belfast, taking the FRCS Ireland in 1949 and the English Fellowship in the following year. He then crossed the Irish Sea, theoretically for a short spell, but actually for the rest of his life, taking up senior registrar posts in Liverpool. There he came under the powerful influence of Charles Wells, who not only trained his registrars but directed them to their consultant posts. Thus it was that in 1956 Herbert was appointed surgeon to the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Although Charles Wells was much concerned with urology, Herbert had had no specialist training and, curiously, he was at first given responsibility for the management of burns. With this in mind he went to a famous burn unit in Baghdad, but this venture was abruptly ended by the Suez War. At Alder Hey Isabella Forshall and Peter Rickham were making great strides in neonatal surgery, but had no particular interest in urology and Herbert saw both the need and the opportunity to make that field his own. As Hunterian Professor in 1962 he lectured on vesico-ureteric reflux, the topic then exciting all paediatric urologists, and went on to produce a long series of papers illuminating important, or neglected, aspects of children’s disorders. He joined with Innes Williams in writing the standard British textbook on this subject and his published work soon brought him an international reputation, with invitations to deliver eponymous lectures in the USA and elsewhere. In 1980 he was awarded the St Peters medal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons in recognition of his many contributions. In spite of all this evidence of enthusiasm Herbert did not at first acquaintance give an impression of liveliness. Deliberate in speech, he could at times look positively lugubrious. However, he became a popular lecturer, making his points with logic and a clarity laced with dry wit and self deprecating humour. To those who knew him well he was a delightful companion who could make fun of all life’s problems. His hobbies were few, though he was a keen golfer if not an outstanding performer in this field. In 1945 he married Dorothy Dowling, who made a happy home for him and their son and daughter, who are now in the teaching profession. His retirement was marred by a stroke which left him with considerable disability, but he was lucky to have Dorothy to look after him so well. He died on 4 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000253
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Geoffrey Blundell (1915 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Fussey, Ivor ( - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-08-15
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/372442372442
Occupation General surgeon
Details After qualifying from St James’s Hospital, Leeds, Ivor Fussey studied neurophysiology for nine years, gaining his PhD in 1972, during which time he devised platinum microelectrodes that could be implanted in the brain and used to locate vagal afferent impulses. After this experience he decided to specialise in surgery and did registrar jobs with George Harrison in Derby and Duthie in Sheffield, where he met his future wife Kate, a medical student. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to Lincoln County Hospital in 1980, where he developed a special interest in surgery of the breast and, together with Jenny Eremin, established the breast unit in the 1990s. After he retired in 1996 he went to Leicester, where he was a mentor to preclinical staff and students, with whom he was very popular. He died suddenly on 30 November 2003, leaving his wife, Kate, and two daughters, Tamsin and Miekes.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000255
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cronin, Kevin (1925 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-02-01
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/372443372443
Occupation General surgeon
Details Kevin Cronin was born on 24 July 1925, the son of M J Cronin, a general practitioner. He was educated at the Beaumont School, Berkshire, and entered the London Hospital Medical College in 1942. After qualifying, he completed house jobs in neurosurgery under Douglas Northfield, chest medicine under Lloyd Rusby, and ear, nose and throat surgery. His later training in surgery was at the Radcliffe Infirmary. During this time he spent a research year at the University of Oregon, as a result of which he obtained his masters degree in surgery. He was appointed as consultant surgeon to Northampton General Hospital. He was an Arris and Gale lecturer of the College. He married Madeleine and they had a son (Philip) and daughter (Caroline). They had four grandchildren - Sam, Chloe, Christian and Rory. He died on 20 May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000256
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Galloway, James Brown Wallace (1930 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22
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/372444372444
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Galloway was a consultant general surgeon in Stranraer, Scotland. He was born on 26 March 1930 in Lanark, the son of William Galloway, a farmer, and Anne née Wallace, a secretary. He received his early education at Lanark Grammar, followed by McLaren High in Callendar when the family moved there after his father’s death. At an early stage he showed the academic bent that was to remain with him throughout his life. School was followed by Glasgow University, where he graduated MA before embarking on a medical degree. After gaining his MB Ch in 1956 he undertook his National Service as a captain in the RAMC, spending a large part of his time in Hong Kong. Returning to civilian life, he opted for surgery as a career, and received his training in Glasgow. In 1966 he moved to Ballochmyle Hospital in Ayrshire. Here he made an indelible impression. He was an outstanding doctor whose interest in his subject seemed insatiable, his knowledge of it being encyclopaedic. His practical skills were also of a very high order, and he gave of himself unstintingly. He could truly be said to be dedicated to his work, and he was held in the highest regard by his medical colleagues and nursing staff alike. Though a quiet man, even self-deprecating, he had a remarkable ability to get what he wanted; where his patient’s interests were concerned he could be tenacious, to say the least, and he provided a service second to none. His interest in new developments, and his enthusiasm for new devices, were infectious. He was a most likeable colleague and he was held in considerable affection by all. His time in Hong Kong had given him a taste for travel and during the 1970s, while working in Ayrshire, he answered an advertisement placed by the Kuwait Oil Company and spent three months there as a general surgeon. His work so impressed that he was invited back for two further tours of duty. In 1981 he was appointed consultant general surgeon at the Garrick Hospital in Stranraer. Ayrshire’s loss was Stranraer’s gain, and he quickly established himself there as he had at Ballochmyle, becoming a most valued member of the community. He believed firmly that medical services should be provided locally whenever possible, and fought hard to prevent the surgical service being transferred to Dumfries. James’s other great love was sailing, and he had a succession of boats, starting with a 14-foot dinghy and culminating in *Eliane*, a very capable traditional yacht which was his pride and joy. He happily related that all his boats had one thing in common – they were so full of his beloved gadgets and equipment that they all had to have their waterlines redrawn. He was a very relaxed skipper who, though a lifelong teetotaller himself, was not in the least put out by the occasional excesses of his crew members. There can be no part of the Clyde, and few parts of the Western Isles, that he had not sailed to, and he never ceased to be glad of his origins. After retirement in 1991 he remained as active as ever, embracing the computer age with typical enthusiasm. He was a very kindly, widely read and thoughtful man who made a most interesting companion. He took up scuba diving and continued to be a very active sailor, crossing the Minch to Eriskay in his last summer. Sadly this was to be his last cruise, and thereafter he became increasingly weak. Typically he preferred to discuss the differential diagnosis rather than to complain. He died in the Ayr Hospital on 11 December 2005. He was predeceased by Janet and Anne, his two older sisters. He is greatly missed by his many friends.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000257
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Grimshaw, Clement (1915 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Hounsfield, Sir Godfrey Newbold (1919 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2008-09-11
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/372446372446
Occupation Research engineer
Details Godfrey Hounsfield, the inventor of the CT scanner, was the epitome of the brilliant boffin – modest, retiring and shunning the limelight. He was born on 28 August 1919, the youngest of the five children of Thomas Hounsfield, a steel engineer who took up farming in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. There Godfrey grew up surrounded by farm machinery, with which he became fascinated. ‘In a village there are few distractions and no pressures to join in at a ball game or go to the cinema and I was free to follow the trail of any interesting idea that came my way. I constructed electrical recording machines; I made hazardous investigations of the principles of flight, launching myself from the tops of haystacks with a home-made glider; I almost blew myself up during exciting experiments using water-filled tar barrels and acetylene to see how high they could be waterjet propelled.’ At Magnus Grammar School he was interested only in physics and mathematics. At the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF as a volunteer reservist and was taken on as a radar mechanic instructor, occupying himself in building a large-screen oscilloscope. His work was noticed by Air Vice Marshall Cassidy, who got him a grant after the war to attend Faraday House Electrical Engineering College, where he received a diploma. He then joined the staff of EMI working on radar and guided weapons, working with primitive computers. In 1958 he led a team building the first all-transistor computer, speeding up the transistors by providing them with a magnetic core. In 1967 he began to study aspects of pattern recognition and worked in the Central Research Laboratories of EMI. Contrary to the public relations story, which has been repeated so often that it has come to be accepted as true, his idea did not occur to him when out walking, and it was not supported by the full resources of EMI. His colleague, W E Ingham, pointed out that EMI were not interested: they were not in the medical business, and it was only covertly that a deal was done with the Department of Health and Society Security to fund the development of what became the first CT scanner. The first brain to be scanned was that of a bullock. The prototype was soon shown to be successful in 1971, when it was used to diagnose a brain cyst at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital and before long Hounsfield’s work had been plagiarised and developed all over the world, mostly overseas. Hounsfield was unaware that Cormack, of Tufts, had published theoretical studies on the mathematics for such a device. A whole-body scanner was introduced in 1975. Honours came thick and fast: CBE, FRS, the Nobel prize (shared with Cormack), a knighthood and an honorary FRCS. He remained a modest, retiring bachelor. His advice to the young was: ‘Don’t worry if you can’t pass exams, so long as you feel you have understood the subject.’ In retirement he did voluntary work at the Royal Brompton and Heart Hospitals. He died from a chronic and progressive lung disease on 12 August 2004. He was unmarried.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000259
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hopper, Ian (1938 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2009-05-07
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/372447372447
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ian Hopper was an ENT consultant in Sunderland. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 19 May 1938, the son of John Frederick Hopper, an insurance manager, and Dora née Lambert. He was educated at Dame Allans School, Newcastle upon Tyne, and High Storrs Grammar School, Sheffield, where he played rugby in the first XV. At Sheffield University, although he boxed for a short while, he turned away from contact sports and played table tennis for the university and the United Sheffield Hospitals. He was much influenced by the skills of the professor of surgery, Sir Andrew Kay. He held house physician and house surgeon posts at Sheffield Royal Infirmary and Wharncliffe Hospitals. Having obtained his primary fellowship, he chose to specialise in ENT surgery. He became registrar and later senior registrar in ENT at the Sheffield Royal Infirmary. In 1969 he was appointed ENT consultant at Sunderland Royal Infirmary and General Hospital, where he stayed until his retirement in 1997. Ian Hopper was regional adviser in otolaryngology, a member of the Overseas Doctors Training Committee and the College Hospital Recognition Committee. He was on the council of the British Association of Otolaryngologists (from 1983 to 1997), honorary ENT consultant at the Duchess of Kent Military Hospital, president of the North of England Otolaryngological Society, a council member of the Section of Otology at the Royal Society of Medicine and chairman of the Regional Specialist Subcommittee in Otolaryngology. He married Christine Wadsworth, a schoolteacher, in 1961. Their son, Andrew James, was bursar at Collingwood College, Durham University, before entering the private student accommodation market and their daughter, Penelope Anne, teaches art at Poynton High School, Cheshire. In retirement Ian Hopper made bowls his main sport and subsequently became vice-chairman of Sunderland Bowls Club. He was also a keen snooker player. He died peacefully in hospital after a long illness on 4 March 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000260
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blumberg, Louis (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Brock, Bevis Henry (1922 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Evans, Ivan Tom Gwenogfryn (1938 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25 2009-01-16
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/372555372555
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Ivan Tom Gwenogfryn Evans, known to colleagues, friends and patients as ‘Og’, was a consultant surgeon in Newport, Gwent. He was born in London on 11 November 1938, in a house between Battersea Power Station and the Dogs Home. His parents Evan Evans and Margaret née Jones were Welsh and kept a family general store. Like many other children living in the heart of the capital at the time of the Blitz, the infant Og was evacuated to an aunt in west Wales and when time and circumstances permitted after the war he was joined by his parents, who returned permanently to Wales to live near Newcastle Emlyn in Cardiganshire. He was educated at the local Aberbanc Primary School and Llandysul Grammar School, and then won a place at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff in 1957, where for a time he trained with Cardiff City Football Club. He did house officer posts in Cardiff, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Marion, who was a teacher in Cardiff. He trained in general surgery before selection for a training post in ENT in Cardiff. His mentors in ENT were Hector and Alun Thomas, and he especially enjoyed the variety of surgical skills in this specialty, whether it was the exacting microsurgery of the middle ear or the use of the knife in the head and neck. Also in Cardiff was Stephen Richards who had worked with Hal Schucknecht in Boston. He persuaded Og to take up a fellowship in Detroit in 1974 with Ted McGee, one of the doyens of ear surgery at that time. His appointment was to the Providence Hospital, Southfield, Michigan. This proved to be a very fulfilling professional experience for Og and a happy year for Og, Marion and their young son, Andrew. After a year they returned to Cardiff and Og was appointed consultant surgeon in Gwent with appointments at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, Nevill Hall in Abergavenny, and Pontypool and District Hospital. At the Royal Gwent he established a first class otological service for the county of Gwent in collaboration with audiology colleagues Gavin Davies and Ann Thomas. Due to his wide training he was an all-round surgeon in his specialty and was as comfortable with delicate ear surgery as with the demands of major head and neck work. He was widely read and meticulously conscientious in his standards and care for patients, and he enjoyed teaching, so that he attracted trainees. He was appointed College surgical tutor for ENT in south Wales. His colleagues elected him chairman of the Gwent Medical Society and he served for several years with distinction as secretary to the Welsh Otolaryngological Society. He enjoyed family life with Marion, and especially their grandson Dylan, in their favourite location, Newport Pembrokeshire, where they had a second home. Og was passionately proud of his Welsh language and heritage. A practical man, he did all the do-it-yourself jobs around the house and, until the advent of electronics, serviced his cars himself. He had been a keen cricketer and continued to follow soccer. Og had a remarkable gift of communication with people and could speak as easily and kindly to a child as to an old person. He died in September 2006 from metastatic cancer of the pancreas that only revealed itself two months before his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000369
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Freebody, Douglas Francis (1911 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372556372556
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Douglas Freebody was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Kingston Hospital. He was born in Woolwich, London, on 19 April 1911, the son of a successful tailor, and attended the City of London School, before entering Guy’s Hospital Medical School, which he represented at hockey and boxing. After qualifying he filled a number of junior surgical posts around London, and in the early part of the war worked for Burns and Young at the major casualty hospital at Botley’s Park, so beginning an orthopaedic career. In 1946 service with the RAMC took him to Egypt and Palestine, where he ran the orthopaedic services at Fayid and Bir Yaacov respectively. On his release from the Army in 1948 Douglas was mentioned in despatches for distinguished service, and was soon appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Croydon General Hospital, East Surrey Hospital Redhill, and later the Kingston and Richmond Area Health Authority. There he concentrated his activities and made a major contribution to orthopaedic surgery, devising an anterior transperitoneal approach for fusion of the lower lumbar spine. This he demonstrated widely at home and abroad and was the subject of his contribution to the third edition of *Contemporary operative surgery* in 1979 and of an educational film awarded a silver medal by the BMA. He was a founder member of the International Society of the Lumbar Spine. Douglas Freebody was a dignified man with a great sense of humour, devoted to his family, his dogs and his garden, where he was an expert on orchids. He died from heart failure on 12 October 2005 at the age of 94, and is survived by his wife, Yvonne, a former physiotherapist at Middlesex Hospital whom he met in Egypt during the war, and their children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000370
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jonasson, Olga (1934 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25
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/372557372557
Occupation General surgeon
Details Olga Jonasson was professor of surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a pioneer in organ transplantation. Born in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of a Swedish Lutheran pastor and a nurse, she was first attracted to medicine by following her father round on his hospital visits. After Lyman Trumbull Elementary School and North Park Academy, she attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate, and won honours for her MD from the University of Illinois, a tough medical school whose practice included the notorious Cook County Hospital. She did her residency under Warren Cole at the Illinois Research and Education Hospital at a time when the department was devoted to the hunt for cancer cells in the venous blood draining cancers, many of those being actually monocytes. Exceptionally tall and blonde, she stood out from her fellow residents for her fearless and outspoken criticism of her peers and her seniors. After her residency Olga did a fellowship in immunochemistry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which was followed by a second fellowship in transplantation immunology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1969 she did the first renal transplant in Illinois. She was one of the first to realise the importance of HLA (human leukocyte antigen) matching, setting up a nationwide matching scheme. In 1967 she became chairman of the department of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine, the first woman in the United States to become head of a department of surgery. She served as director of education and surgical services at the American College of Surgery from 1993 to 2004. Her interests were not limited to transplantation: she studied inguinal hernia, pointed out that watchful waiting was appropriate in many cases, and carried out clinical trials comparing open versus laparoscopic repair. She was also a determined advocate of helmets for motorcycle riders. Despite having a formidable reputation as an ‘ice queen’, she was highly regarded by her peers, and went out of her way to encourage young women to take up careers in surgery, although she warned them not to marry or, if married, to get divorced. However, this did not stop her from being a sympathetic friend to them and their spouses. She was involved in the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Chicago, raising huge sums of money to repair its fabric, and was an expert cook and a lover of opera. She was made an honorary FRCS in 1988. She died on 30 August 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000371
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Belcher, John Rashleigh (1917 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372558372558
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details John Rashleigh Belcher was a thoracic surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London. Born in Liverpool on 11 January 1917, he was the ninth in a long line of doctors who originally hailed from Bandon in Cork. He was educated at Epsom and St Thomas’ Hospital, where he graduated at the age of 21, having asked for an early viva. At the outbreak of war St Thomas’ was evacuated to Farnham and there he met his wife, Jacqueline Phillips. It was a watershed time in medicine: on one side of the ward leeches were being applied and on the other an early sulphonamide drug (M&B 693) was being prescribed. He joined the RAFVR as soon as possible and was posted to Cottesmore. He became FRCS in 1942 and was posted to Canada. On his return he went to RAF Wroughton, where he gained huge experience from D-day casualties. After demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas’ as resident assistant surgeon, before becoming interested in thoracic surgery. He worked at the Brompton in 1947 and became senior registrar at the London Chest and Middlesex hospitals. In 1951 he was appointed to the North West Thames region as a thoracic surgeon, a post which included the London Chest Hospital and places as far afield as Arlesey, Pinewood and Harefield. He was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital in 1955. He promoted lobectomy for lung cancer at a time when the conventional wisdom, endorsed by Tudor Edwards, was that nothing short of pneumonectomy was of any use, and he published on the treatment of emphysematous cysts. He performed over 1,000 closed mitral valvotomies, even as fourth operations, and reported on these. He was Hunterian lecturer in 1979. Unfortunately his reputation in this field was less widely acknowledged than his expertise in ‘lung volume reduction surgery’. He was a kind, supportive and tolerant boss who was always ready to praise. He was president of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1980. He travelled extensively with the British Council and set up cardiothoracic units abroad. A devoted family man, he had wide musical tastes, was a compulsive gardener and an accomplished artist and photographer. Jacqueline died in 2006 and he died on 12 January 2006, leaving a daughter and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000372
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Peter Ernest Heaton (1932 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372559372559
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Peter Wilson was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital. He was born in Deptford, London, on 16 October 1932, the son of Joseph Henry Wilson, a housing administrative officer for Bermondsey Borough Council, and Sarah Heaton, a teacher of physical training whose father had owned a brewery. The first of his family to go into medicine, his younger sister also eventually became a doctor. He was educated at several schools, including Upholland Grammar School and Newcastle-under-Lyme High School, where he gained colours in hockey, cricket and rugby, before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital in 1950. After junior posts he did his National Service in the Royal Navy and then specialised in orthopaedics, becoming a registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry and then a senior registrar at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham under Peter London and J H Hicks. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in 1970. Peter was particularly interested in the treatment of multiple and major injuries and was a pioneer in the operative fixation of fractures. Having been chairman of the regional junior hospital staff committee from 1968 to 1970 and a member of the BMA junior group council (from 1969 to 1970), he went on to chair the regional senior hospital staff committee from 1970 onwards, and was medical director of the trust board. He was active in the St John Ambulance Brigade. He retired in 1994, and continued to play golf, cricket and cultivate his garden. He was married twice. In 1951 he married Sheila Patricia Hansen, who predeceased him. They had three children, a daughter (Sallie Anne) and two sons, Michael John, a solicitor, and David Ian, a plastic surgeon. In 2002 he married Anne Elizabeth Mary Stott née Binnie. Peter Wilson died on 19 November 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000373
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hamerton, George Albert ( - 1920)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-28
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/372387372387
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hamerton, George Albert (d.1920). MRCS July 23rd 1874; FRCS June 14th 1894; LSA 1873; LM 1875; LRCP Lond 1880; MD (Hons) Brussels 1878; DPH RCPS 1892. Studied at St Thomas's Hospital; was Resident Medical Officer at the Lambeth Infirmary; Medical Officer of the Inland Revenue Office, Somerset House; to the Bow Street and to the Thames Divisions of the Metropolitan Police; Examiner for the Civil Service Widows' and Orphans' Fund; Medical Officer of the General Post Office Life Insurance, and of other insurance companies. His addresses were 57 Russell Square, and 26 Southampton Street, Strand. He died of pneumonia on Jan 11th, 1920. Publication:- "Cases of Sternoclavicular Disease with Operation for Removal of the Sternal End of Clavicle."- *Lancet*, 1876, ii, 748.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000200
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Paget, Sir James (1814 - 1899)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-13 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/372388372388
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Great Yarmouth on Jan. 11th, 1814, the eighth of seventeen children of Samuel Paget by Sarah Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of Thomas Tolver, of Chester. Sir George Edward Paget (1809-1892), Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge, was a brother. The father was a brewer and a shipowner who served the office of Mayor of Great Yarmouth in 1817. He got into financial difficulties when shipping fell away after the Napoleonic Wars, and incurred debts which were afterwards honourably discharged by the self-denying efforts of George and James Paget. James Paget went to a private school in Yarmouth, and subsequently extended his education, which included a knowledge of German, by private study. He was apprenticed in 1830 to Charles Costerton, who had been educated at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was admitted a Member of the College of Surgeons in 1810, and was Surgeon to the Yarmouth Hospital and Dispensary. During his apprenticeship James Paget found time to write, with his brother Charles, *A Sketch of the Natural History of Yarmouth and its Neighbourhood, containing Catalogues of the Species of Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Fish, Insects and Plants at present known,* printed by F. Skill at Yarmouth in 1834 and sold at the price of half a crown. It was written in the hope of making a little money for current expenses, but it had the good fortune of bringing the authors under the notice of Sir William Hooker, the Regius Professor of Botany in Glasgow, who had been educated in Norfolk. Paget came to London and entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a medical student on Oct. 1st, 1834. Whilst dissecting on Jan. 2nd, 1835, his attention was drawn to numerous gritty specks in the muscles of the subject. He took some of the tissue to John George Children, principal Keeper of the Zoological Department at the British Museum, who sent him on to Robert Brown, Keeper of the Botanical Collection, as Children did not own a microscope. Paget made a careful study of the parasite, and his original sketches are preserved in the Library of the Royal College of Suregons. The preparation was examined by Richard Owen (q.v.), who determined the nematoid nature of the worm, named it *Trichina spiralis*, and took the credit. In 1835-1836 Paget acted as Clinical Clerk to Dr. Peter Mere Latham (1789-1875), because he could not afford the 'dressing fee' payable to the Surgeons of the Hospital, and he therefore never became a house surgeon. He was admitted a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in the spring of 1836, and after a short visit to Paris settled in London and supported himself by teaching and writing. He was sub-editor of *The Medical Gazette* from 1837-1842, and in 1841 he was elected Surgeon to the Finsbury Dispensary. At St. Bartholomew's Hospital Paget was appointed Curator of the Museum in succession to W. J. Bayntin in 1837, and in 1839 he was chosen Demonstrator of Morbid Anatomy. He proved himself so good a teacher that on May 30th, 1843, he was promoted to be Lecturer on General Anatomy and Physiology. On Aug. 10th, 1843, he was elected Warden of the College for Resident Students, then newly established at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, a post he resigned in October, 1851. In 1846 he drew up a catalogue of the anatomical and pathological museum of the Hospital, which showed evidence of the careful descriptions and literary excellence which marked his later work at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital on Feb. 24th, 1847, after a severe contest. The opposition was based on the ground that he had never filled the office of dresser or house surgeon, posts which had always been considered essential qualifications in every candidate for the surgical staff. Paget, however, came out at the top of the poll with 142 votes - Andrew Melville Mcwhinnie (q.v.), who was Demonstrator of Anatomy and Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, receiving 78, and Robert Rainey Pennington, nephew of a well-known and fashionable apothecary, 22 votes. He lectured on physiology in the medical school from 1859-1861; became full Surgeon in 1861; held the Lectureship on Surgery from 1865-1869, and resigned the office of Surgeon in May, 1871, although he gave an occasional lecture as Consulting Surgeon. He was Surgeon to the Bluecoat School (Christ's Hospital), then situated in Newgate Street, from 1862-1871. At the Royal College of Surgeons he prepared the descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Hunterian Museum, which appeared at intervals between 1846 and 1849. He was Arris and Gale Professor of Anatomy and Surgery from 1847-1852; a Member of the Council from 1865-1889; a Vice-President in 1873 and 1874; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1874; and President in 1875. He was also the representative of the College at the General Medical Council from 1876-1881; Hunterian Orator in 1877; the first Bradshaw Lecturer in 1882, when he took as his subject "Some New and Rare Diseases"; and the first Morton Lecturer on cancer and cancerous diseases in 1887. Paget was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1858, when he was only Assistant Surgeon at his Hospital. He attended Queen Alexandra, when Princess of Wales, during a long surgical illness, and was gazetted Surgeon to King Edward VII, whom as Prince of Wales he attended during the attack of typhoid fever in 1871. From 1867-1877 he held the office of Sergeant-Surgeon Extraordinary, and in 1877 he became Sergeant-Surgeon on the death of Sir William Fergusson (q.v.). He was created a baronet in August, 1871. He was President of the three chief medical societies of his time in London. He filled the chair of the Clinical Society in 1869, of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1875, and of the Pathological Society in 1887. He acted as President of the International Medical Congress of Medicine held in London in 1881 with conspicuous success. In 1860 he became a member of the Senate of the University of London, and in 1883 he acted as Vice-Chancellor on the death of Sir George Jessel. He was elected F.R.S. in 1851, and held honorary degrees at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Dublin, Bonn and Würzburg. He married in 1844 Lydia, daughter of the Rev. Henry North, domestic chaplain to the Duke of Kent and master of a private school at 1 Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, which was affiliated to King's College, London. She died in 1895, having made his home ideally happy. The family consisted of four sons and two daughters. The eldest son, John, was a barrister and inherited the title; the second son, Francis, was successively Dean of Christ Church and Bishop of Oxford; the third, Henry Luke, became Bishop of Chester; Stephen (q.v.) inherited much of the talent of his father as a very skilful writer and an excellent speaker. The elder daughter married the Rev. H. L. Thompson, Warden of Radley College and afterwards Vicar of St. Mary's (the University) Church, Oxford; the younger daughter, Mary Maude, remained unmarried. Paget after leaving the Warden's house at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where his children were born, moved to 24 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, in 1851, and in 1858 to 3 Harewood Place, Hanover Square, then shut off from Oxford Street by locked gates. Here he spent all his professional life, the accommodation for patients consisting of a single waiting-room which served as the dining-room, and a small consulting-room looking out on to a tiny garden; yet through these two rooms passed nearly all the interesting cases and many of the nobility of England. After he retired from practice he lived at 5 Park Square West, Regent's Park, and here he died peacefully of old age on Dec. 30th, 1899. He was buried in the Finchley Cemetery after the funeral service in Westminster Abbey. There is a tablet to his memory on the west wall of the church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less. A bust of Paget by Sir V. Edgar Boehm, Bart., R.A., is on the College staircase. It is a good likeness and there is a replica in the Museum at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. A three-quarter-length in oils by Sir John Everett Millais, R.A., of which there is an engraving, represents Paget lecturing at the age of 57, and hangs in the Great Hall at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The portrait is a telling likeness, but shows signs of his recent recovery from a severe attack of blood poisoning caused by a post-mortem wound. It represents him with a sad expression, which was not usual with him. An admirable caricature by 'Spy' appeared in *Vanity Fair*; the likeness is poor, but the attitude is characteristic and perfect. It is reproduced in the *St. Bartholomew's Hospital Journal* (1925, xxxiii, frontispiece). He also appears in Jamyn Brooke's portrait group of the Council, 1884. Paget occupied a prominent position in the surgery of his day. He founded a school which would have been larger and more influential had it not been almost immediately eclipsed by the birth of bacteriology and the teaching of Lister. It is the peculiar merit of Paget that he made use of the microscope to elucidate the true nature of morbid growths. He was a good and efficient but not a great operating surgeon; his strength lay in diagnosis, which was perfected by his robust common sense, and in later life by his unrivalled experience. His sound knowledge of morbid anatomy, gained partly in museums and partly in the more perilous field of the post-mortem room, where he twice nearly lost his life, made him a link connecting the surgery of John Hunter with that of the present day. His perfect tact, his courtesy, and his real eloquence gave him ready access to the best circles in the Victorian era. The position he occupied as a teacher at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and the classical English of his writings, enabled him to exercise a much wider influence than would have been expected from his modest demeanour and somewhat retiring disposition. He was a great teacher because he was able to grasp principles and clothe them briefly and clearly in exquisite language. Those who will read aloud his Hunterian oration can still hear the cadences but not the actual tones of the orator. The influence of heredity was well shown in each of his distinguished sons, who reproduced quite unconsciously his attitude, his facial appearance, and many of his traits of character. Scrupulously honest and fair-minded, he acquired the chief surgical practice in London. During the busiest period of his life he was never outwardly in a hurry nor was he ever unpunctual in keeping an appointment. He had strong religious convictions and was always careful in the religious observances of the Church of England. In person he was slightly built and a little above medium height, his face rather long, his cheeks somewhat flushed, and his eyes bright. His voice was soft and musical; he spoke quietly, fluently, and apparently extemporaneously. His public utterances were carefully prepared beforehand, and were given an air of spontaneity by slight pauses, as though hesitating for an instant in the flow of thought. They were in reality flawless and were delivered without gesture of any sort. W. E. Gladstone thought so highly of his public speaking that he said he divided people into two classes, those who had and those who had not heard Sir James Paget. It was his habit to write in his carriage short paragraphs on torn pieces of paper, which, being placed together, formed a lucid and continuous statement. The names of Sir James Paget is associated with a chronic eczematous condition of the nipple associated with cancer of the breast, and with a chronic inflammation of the bones to which the name osteitis deformans has been given. A bibliography is given in the *Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General's Library* (series I and ii). The most interesting, and perhaps the most lasting, of his writings are *Studies of Old Case Books*, published in 1891.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000201
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hewett, Sir Prescott Gardner (1812 - 1891)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-01 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/372389372389
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born on July 3rd, 1812, the son of William N. W. Hewett, of Bilham House, near Doncaster, by his second wife. His father was a country gentleman whose fortune suffered from his love of horse-racing. Prescott Hewett received a good education and passed some years in Paris, where he acquired a perfect mastery of French, and learnt to paint in the studios, having at first intended to become a professional artist - a notion which he relinquished on becoming intimate with the son of an eminent French surgeon. He thus became inspired with a love for the surgical profession, and remained always an admirer of the French school of surgery. He never abandoned the practice of art, and his "delightful and exquisitely elaborate drawings" were exhibited, shortly before his death, in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital, "where one of these charming pictures now hangs near Ouless's portrait of its painter". He learned anatomy in Paris and became thoroughly grounded in the principles of French surgery. On his return to England he entered at St. George's, where he had family influence, his half-brother, Dr. Cornwallis Hewett, having been Physician to the hospital from 1825-1833. The excellence of his dissections recommended him to Sir Benjamin Brodie, and he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy and Curator of the St. George's Hospital Museum when he was on the point of accepting a commission in the service of the H.E.I.C. He became Curator of the Museum about 1840, the first record in his handwriting being dated Jan. 1st, 1841. Here he began in 1844 the series of post-mortem records which have been continued on the same pattern ever since, and constitute a series of valuable pathological material which for duration and completedness is perhaps unmatched. Many of Brodie's preparations in the Museum of St. George's were put up by Hewett. He was appointed Lecturer on Anatomy in 1845 and Assistant Surgeon on Feb. 4th, 1848, becoming full surgeon on June 21st, 1861, in succession to Caesar H. Hawkins (q.v.), and Consulting Surgeon on Feb. 12th, 1875. He was elected President of the Pathological Society of London in 1863, and ten years later occupied the Presidential Chair of the Clinical Society. He was admitted F.R.S. on June 4th, 1874. He was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria in 1867, Sergeant-Surgeon Extraordinary in 1877 on the death of Sir William Fergusson (q.v.)., and Sergeant-Surgeon in 1884 in succession to Caesar Hawkins (q.v.). He also held from 1867 the appointment of Surgeon to the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, and on Aug. 6th, 1883, he was created a baronet. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was Arris and Gale Professor of Human Anatomy and Physiology from 1854-1859, a Member of the Council from 1867-1883, Chairman of the Board of Examiners in Midwifery in 1875, Vice-President in 1874 and 1875, and President in 1876. Prescott Hewett married on Sept. 13th, 1849, Sarah, eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Cowell, of Todmorden, Lancashire, by whom he had one son, who only survived his father a few weeks, and two daughters. He died on June 19th, 1891, at Horsham, to which place he had retired on being created a baronet. As a teacher Hewett was admirable, for he could make his pencil explain his work. Gradually - for he was of a shy and retiring disposition - he became known first in professional circles as a first-rate anatomist and one of the best lecturers in London, then as an organizer of rare energy and power; lastly, as a most accomplished surgeon and an admirable operator. He was equally skilful in diagnosis, and his stores of experience could furnish cases in point in all medical discussions. Hewett, when Professor at the College of Surgeons, delivered a course of lectures on "Surgical Affections of the Head" which attracted the universal admiration of all surgeons; their author could never be persuaded to publish them, though when his friend and pupil Timothy Holmes (q.v.), afterwards edited a *System of Surgery*, Hewett embodied their contents in the exhaustive treatise on "Injuries of the Head" which forms part of that work. His fastidious taste made him shrink form authorship, as indeed he shrank from all forms of personal display, for he had much professional learning which was always ready at command, and an easy lucid style. Lecturing he loved, and few lectured better. "He was," said one who knew him, "one of the fittest men in the world to instruct students, for he had all the clearness of expression which is required to impart knowledge of subjects teeming with difficulties of detail, his ready pencil would illustrate the most complicated anatomical descriptions, and his stores of experience could furnish cases in point in all discussions; the clinical instruction which he was wont to give in the wards was equally admirable. He was one of the most trustworthy of consultants, never failing to point out any error in diagnosis, yet with such perfect courtesy and delicacy that it was a pleasure to be corrected by him." He presided over the Clinical and Pathological Societies, but his increasing engagements prevented him from allowing himself to be nominated for the Presidency of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, though he was deeply interested in its work, and had enriched its *Transactions* with some papers which became standard authorities on their respective subjects. Hewett started life as a poor man, and had every reason to feel the truth of the line, "Slow rises worth by poverty opprest". But he did rise gradually to eminence and distinction among the surgeons of London, and few men were more beloved by those who were connected with him in practice, whether as pupils or patients. "The reason", as one of his old pupils said, "was that he was emphatically a gentleman - a man who would not merely scorn a base action, but with whom anything base would be inconceivable." Hewett's collection of water-colour sketches was presented to the nation after his death, and were exhibited at the South Kensington Museum at the beginning of 1891. A half-length subscription portrait painted by W.W. Ouless, R.A., hangs in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital, and there is a photograph in the Council Album.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000202
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Birkett, John (1815 - 1904)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-01 2012-03-22
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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/372390372390
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born April 14th, 1815, at 10 The Terrace, Upper Clapton, Middlesex, the only child of John and Mary Birkett. Educated at various private schools; at one the master was a Frenchman, at another a mathematician and astronomer, and at a third a Greek scholar. Birkett thereby gained a wide general knowledge. In September, 1831, he was bound apprentice to Bransby Cooper, then Surgeon to Guy's Hospital, being, as is thought, the last pupil to pay the customary fee of £500 which gave the apprenticeship some claim to consideration when a vacancy occurred on the hospital staff. Birkett did not begin his medical studies at Guy's Hospital until October, 1832. He was admitted M.R.C.S. on Oct. 6th, 1837, and was immediately appointed a Demonstrator of Anatomy. He held the post until 1847, and had in succession as his colleagues James P. Babington, Thomas Moody, and Alfred Poland. He was elected F.R.C.S. without examination in 1844 and signalized the session 1845-1846 by giving demonstrations on microscopic anatomy on certain evenings in each week, and in this way beginning the teaching of histology in the medical school. In 1847 he was appointed to make the post-mortem examinations in the hospital, and in May, 1849, he was elected Assistant Surgeon in consequence of the death of John Morgan and the promotion of Edward Cock (q.v.). In the same year he gained the Jacksonian Prize for his Essay on "Diseases of the Mammary Gland". In this year, too, making a bid for practice he moved from 2 Broad Street Buildings, where he had lived since 1840, to Wellington Street, Southwark. He lectured on anatomy jointly with John Hilton (q.v.) in 1851, and two years later he was elected Surgeon to Guy's Hospital on the resignation of Bransby Cooper, his former master, and this post he held until 1875, when he retired on reaching the age of 60. As full Surgeon he lectured on surgery conjointly with John Poland, and in 1856 he moved to Green Street, Grosvenor Square, where he spent the rest of his active life until he retired to Sussex Gardens in 1896, where he died after a prolonged illness on July 6th, 1904. At the Royal College of Surgeons he served on the Council from 1867-1883, and was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology from 1869-1871, lecturing on the nature and treatment of new growths. He was an Examiner in Anatomy and Physiology (1875-1877), a Member of the Court of Examiners (1872-1882), of the Examining Board in Dental Surgery (1875-1882), Vice-President (1875 and 1876), and President (1877). He was one of the Founders of the Pathological Society of London and served as a Vice-President (1860-1862), doing good work by insisting upon the use of the microscope in the investigation of tumours at a time when such a method was unusual. He served for some years as Inspector for the Home Office of the Anatomical schools of Anatomy in the Provinces. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers in 1871 and 1892. In 1842 he married Lucy Matilda, daughter of Halsey Jansen; five sons and a daughter survived him out of a family of seven boys and three girls; two of his sons were distinguished football players. John Birkett was essentially a surgeon of the old school, a reliable operator, a good anatomist, and very careful in the after-treatment of his patients. He obtained good results because he was clean in himself, was not engaged in anatomy, and was accustomed to have the patient washed before he was brought into the operating theatre. The diagnosis and treatment of tumours of the breast, hernia operations, and the surgery of the arteries interested him most; abdominal operations and surgical interference with joints and veins were abhorrent to him. As a teacher he was slow and uninspiring; as an individual he was a cultured gentleman of wide knowledge, an excellent field botanist, and a great walker. In these walks he carried into private life the characteristics which had made him successful as a surgeon. Few men knew better than he how to use a map. To form one that could be serviceable and easily consulted even if the walk were no longer than from Sevenoaks to Maidstone or across the Yorkshire Moors from Danby to Goathland he would make the starting-point the centre by joining two or more of the ordnance survey plans. Then after bevelling the edges that the junction might be almost invisible, colouring the areas of equal height, describing concentric circles increasing by two or more miles, mounting on linen and constructing a case no whit inferior to that sold in the map-sellers' shops, he was secure from losing his way in his peregrinations, come fog, come snow, or blinding rain. Publications: - A. Von Behr's *Handbook of Human Anatomy, General, Special and Topographical.* Translated from the original German and adapted to the use of English students by John Birkett. 8vo, London, 1846. *Description of Some of the Tumours Removed from the Breast and Preserved in the Museum of Guy's Hospital,* 8vo, with 6 plates, London, 1848. *Diseases of the Breast and their Treatment* [Jacksonian Prize Essay], 8vo, plates, 1850. *Adenocele of the Mammary Gland, *8vo, London, 1855. *Contributions to the Practical Surgery of New Growths or Tumours. Series iii. Cysts* 12mo, plates, London, 1859. Articles on "Injuries of the Pelvis", "Hernia", and "Diseases of the Breast" in Holmes's *System of Surgery,* 1870, and again in Holmes and Hulke's *System of Surgery,* 1883.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000203
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Simon, Sir John (1816 - 1904)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-01 2012-03-09
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372391372391
Occupation Chief Medical Officer General surgeon Pathologist
Details Born in London on Oct. 10th, 1816, the sixth of the fourteen children of Louis Michael Simon (1782-1879) by his second wife, Mathilde Nonnet (1787-1882). His father, who had been a shipbroker and served on the Committee of the Stock Exchange from 1837-1868, was the son of an Englishman who had married a French wife, whilst his mother was the daughter of a Frenchman who had married an English wife. John Simon was christened at St. Olave's, Hart Street, E.C. - Pepys' church - and began his education at Pentonville, after which he was for seven and a half years at Greenwich under the Rev. Dr. Charles Parr Burney, son of Dr. Charles Burney and grandson of Johnson's friend, where he had John Birkett (q.v.) as a schoolfellow. He then lived with Leonard Molly, a pastor, for a year at Hohensolms, near Wetzler, in Rhenish Prussia, and acquired a good knowledge of German. He was apprenticed, on his return to England in the autumn of 1833, to Joseph Henry Green (q.v.) for the usual fee of 500 guineas. Green was Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital and Professor of Surgery at the newly founded King's College, and his pupil attended both institutions. In 1838, a year before the end of his apprenticeship, Green allowed Simon to obtain the M.R.C.S. that he might be appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at King's College, having Francis Thomas MacDougall (q.v.) as his colleague, and in 1840 he was elected the senior of two Assistant Surgeons appointed on the opening of the Hospital founded in connection with King's College. The junior Assistant Surgeon was William Bowman (q.v.), with whom Simon formed an intimate friendship and from whom he learnt to work on scientific lines. The outcome was a paper read before the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society on June 8th, 1847, on "Subacute Inflammation of the Kidney" (*Trans. Roy. Med-Chir. Soc.*, 1847, xxx, 141) which is illustrated with a plate showing the microscopic appearances described. In 1844 Simon gained the Astley Cooper Prize with a "Physiological Essay on the Thymus Gland" (4to, London, 1845), and contributed to the Royal Society "The Comparative Anatomy of the Thyroid Gland" (*Phil. Trans.*, 1844, cxxxiv, 295). He was elected F.R.S. on Jan. 9th, 1845, and was afterwards a Vice-President. Simon was invited in 1847 to accept the newly created Lectureship on Anatomical Pathology at St. Thomas's Hospital with charge of beds, and he thereupon resigned his demonstratorship of King's College, but retained the Assistant Surgeoncy. Green resigned his office of Surgeon, and on July 20th, 1853, Le Gros Clark (q.v.) and John Simon were elected "to do out-patients". Simon then severed all connection with King's College, and on July 6th, 1863, became full Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital in succession to G.W. Macmurdo (q.v.). He resigned his lectureship in 1871 and the office of Surgeon in 1876. As a surgeon Simon was not brilliant, for he was neither rapid nor graceful, but every operation he performed was carefully planned and prepared for. He was in the habit of going frequently to the dead-house and there performing every kind of operation, endeavouring to make improvements on old methods and to learn the exact landmarks and lines of section to be made in novel or unusual operations, particularly where bones were concerned. He repeated Syme's amputation in this manner many times before he performed it on the living patient, and he was the first surgeon in this country to undertake Pirogoff's method of removing the foot. He was particularly apt in the diagnosis of abscesses within bones, which he located with great accuracy. He was equally good in the treatment of difficult strictures of the urethra, and in passing a catheter he almost seemed to confer intelligence on the instrument. He was the first to open the membranous part of the urethra by the same route as was afterwards followed by Edward Cock (q.v.). Simon devised and practised the operation before Cock published his results and substantiated his claim to priority in the *St. Thomas's Hospital Reports* (1879, x, 139). A proof of the paper with Simon's corrections is in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons. As a pupil of Joseph Henry Green he was an expert lithotomist, using a pointed and extremely stout knife, and a grooved staff. Simon was a great power in the Medical School at St. Thomas's, and it was in some measure due to his incisive and satirical pen that St. Thomas's Hospital was not converted into a country convalescent hospital at the time it was compelled to move from its old site at the foot of London Bridge. Without respect of persons he was active in removing abuses, in introducing reforms, and in extending the area and efficiency of instruction. In particular he was especially active in securing suitable accommodation for the treatment of diseases of the eye when Richard Liebreich (1829-1916) was appointed Ophthalmic Surgeon. At the Royal College of Surgeons Simon was a Member of the Council from 1868-1880, a Vice-President in 1876 and 1877, and President in 1878. Throughout his life Simon was interested in pathology. He was an original member of the Pathological Society in 1846, contributed several papers to its *Transactions*, and was elected President in 1867. The best exposition of his aims and methods in pathological teaching is to be found in his Inaugural Address delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital in 1847, which was afterwards published in his *General Pathology as Conducive to the Establishment of Rational Principles for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Disease,* 1850. Simon said of the latter work that as a result of its publication he woke up to find himself famous - not as a surgeon, but as a sanitary reformer. The judgement proved true; few now think of Simon as a surgeon, all know him as the maker of modern sanitary science in England. Simon was one of the illustrious figures in Victorian medicine. When he began his labours in the field of public health it was not thought to be the duty of the State to seek out and prevent the causes of disease and death in its citizens. There was no administrative authority in the country, central or local, that had any medical officer or medical adviser for sanitary purposes: the development of a science and practice of preventive medicine was quite unknown. In 1848 Simon was appointed the first Medical Officer of Health of the City of London. He was the first and for many years the only Medical Officer of Health in London. He was the head of the Medical Department of the Government from the years of its creation in 1855 to his retirement in 1876, and must be considered the founder and in some directions its creator. Simon's record of ability and industry was marvellous, whilst his imaginative faculty was of a very high quality. Cultivated as a linguist, as a student of Oriental literature, and as the friend of artists, poets, and philosophers, he was able to think grandly, to project his mind into the future, to discern the real meaning of social evils as well as their probable developments, and so to devise schemes of prevention and amelioration which could never have occurred to move plodding, if equally industrious, minds. One can scarcely estimate the importance to civilization and humanity of Simon's work. It may be briefly stated that he drained the city and rendered it healthy, abolished the pernicious system of central cesspools under houses, intramural slaughter-houses, and other malodorous trade establishments, and conducted an active crusade against smoke, intramural graveyards, Thames pollution, impure water, and overcrowded dwellings. To enumerate the full details of Sir John Simon's official career would be to write a history of hygienic reform. For many years after the close of his official life in 1876 as Chief Medical Officer to the Privy Council and afterwards to the Local Government Board, Simon occupied himself with public work and was a Crown Representative on the General Medical Council. In the latter part of his life he gradually and completely lost his sight. He married on July 22nd, 1848, Jane O'Meara, daughter of Matthew Delaval O'Meara, who had been Commissary-General in the Peninsular War. They had no children and she died on Aug. 19th, 1901. Lady Simon was a close friend of Ruskin, who used to call her "dear P.R.S." (Pre-Raphaelite sister and Sibyl). Simon died at his house, 40 Kensington Square, where he lived since 1867, on July 23rd, 1904, and was buried at Lewisham Cemetery, Ladywell. A bust by his friend Thomas Woolner, R.A., was presented to the College by the subscribers to the Simon Testimonial Frund on Dec. 14th, 1876. It is a remarkable presentation of a remarkable head. A photograph in late middle life faces pages 187 in MacCormac's *Address of Welcome*. An excellent likeness in extreme old age is appended to the obituary notice in the *Lancet* (1904, ii, 308) and is reproduced in the *St. Thomas's Hospital Reports* (1905, xxxiii, facing page 393). Sir John Simon was remarkable for the extent of his knowledge. The influence of Joseph Henry Green, to whom he had been articled, coupled perhaps with his early education in Germany, gave a philosophical basis to his thoughts and actions through life. In 1865 he edited the *Spiritual Philosophy* of his old master. He was widely read in the classics and in English literature and became an excellent writer of English prose. In youth he pursued a course of reading in metaphysics and in Oriental languages, and his general culture allowed him to value and to appreciate the friendship of such literary and artistic friends as Thackeray, Tennyson, Rossetti, Alfred Elmore, R.A., Sir George Bowyer, George Henry Lewis, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Tom Taylor, Ruskin, Sir Arthur Helps, Thomas Woolner, R.A., and Robert Lowe, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke. He was mainly responsible with J. A. Kingdon (q.v.) for the establishment by the Grocer's Company of scholarships for the promotion of sanitary science. Considering his eminence Sir John Simon received little public recognition during his lifetime. He was decorated C.B., the ordinary reward of a faithful public servant, on his retirement in 1876, but it was not till Queen Victoria's Jubilee that he was promoted K.C.B. The Harben Medal of the Royal Institute of Public Health was awarded him in 1896, and the Buchanan Medal of the Royal Society in November, 1897. Publications: Simon's chief reports and writings on sanitary objects were issued collectively by subscription by the Sanitary Institution of Great Britain in two volumes in 1875. *English Sanitary Institutions Reviewed in their Course of Development and in Some of their Political and Social Relations,* 8vo, London, 1890. A charmingly written and fair-minded account of the development of public health in England from the earliest times. It appears now to be somewhat difficult to obtain. *Personal Recollections of Sir John Simon, K.C.B.* This was privately printed in 1898. It consists of 34 pages printed by Wiltons Ltd., 21 & 22 Garlick Hill, E.C., and is dated Oct. 4th, 1894. It was revised on Dec. 2nd, 1903, "in blindness and infirmity". The Library of the Royal College of Surgeons possesses a copy enriched by the author's corrections. Bibliography in the *Catalogues of the Surgeon General's Library,* series i and ii.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000204
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-08 2012-03-22
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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/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 Kindersley, Hugh Kenyon Molesworth, Second Baron Kindersley of West Hoathly (1899 - 1976)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Al-Sheikhli, Abdul Raazak Jasim (1936 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-07-25 2008-11-28
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372561372561
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Abdul Razaak Jasim Al-Sheikhli was an ENT consultant at the Mayday Hospital, Croydon. He was born on 20 November 1936 in Baghdad, the son of Jasim Al-Sheikhli, an Imam, and his wife, Sabria. He was educated at the Al-Risafa Intermediate School and Adhamiya Secondary School, in Baghdad, before going on to Baghdad Medical College. During his residency period at the Republic Teaching Hospital of Baghdad he witnessed and treated the victims of revolutions, and saw the body of the recently murdered president, General Kasim, and his body guards, lying in the mortuary. After doing his National Service as a lieutenant in the Iraqi Air Force, where he served in Basra, he went to England with a scholarship from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, to train in surgery. He was a senior house officer at Ipswich and Clare Hall, and was subsequently a registrar at Southampton Chest Hospital. In 1970 he returned to Iraq, as a general and thoracic surgeon in the Hilla district and Mirjan, Al-Shaab, Al-Tuwithw and Labourers hospitals. He returned to England in 1973 to specialise in ENT, becoming a senior house officer at Farnborough Hospital and registrar at Ipswich and the Royal Ear Hospital, where he was greatly helped by Bill Gibson. He was then a senior registrar at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for nearly two and a half years. In 1981 he was appointed ENT consultant at the Mayday Hospital. He published on talc granuloma of the vocal cords following intubation, pain in the ear, and the microbiology of the adenoids. He married Sheila née Page, a nurse, in 1968. They had two sons, Peter, an artist, and Stephen, a musician. He died on 4 February 2007 of acute myeloid leukaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000375
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Buck, John Edward (1915 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-09
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/372562372562
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Buck was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in the Woolwich and Greenwich area. He was born in Hove, Sussex, on 30 October 1915, the son of Arthur Herbert Buck, a general surgeon, and Lilian Maude Bligh, a theatre sister who was a direct descendant of the captain of the Bounty. John was brought up in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and was educated at St Michael’s School and Brentwood College. He then went to Edinburgh University to read medicine. There he won a blue for rowing, and swam and sailed for the university. He was springboard diving champion for Scotland in 1937 and 1938, and remained a keen sportsman for the rest of his life. After qualifying, he became house surgeon to the surgical outpatients at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, house physician to the Deaconess Hospital and then house surgeon to the orthopaedic department at the Royal Infirmary. He listed David Wilkie, John Fraser, Walter Mercer, Ian Smellie and Ritchie Russell among his memorable teachers. At the outbreak of the second world war he was house surgeon at the Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. On completion of this appointment, he was commissioned into the RAMC, serving first in 180 Field Ambulance. In 1941 he was promoted to Captain and posted to the Military Hospital in Delhi. He then joined the 151/156 Parachute Regiment as its regimental medical officer, accompanying them to Egypt and later to Europe, where he was taken prisoner at Arnhem. Released in 1944, he returned to the UK, as a trainee surgeon at the Royal Herbert Hospital at Woolwich. Following demobilisation, he returned to the Royal Sussex Country Hospital, as a resident surgical officer, acquiring the Edinburgh FRCS in 1946. He later trained in orthopaedic surgery, at the Royal National Orthopaedic and Charing Cross hospitals. In 1951 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Woolwich, Greenwich and Deptford hospital group. He retired in 1984. John was a member of the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Association of Sports Medicine, and was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. He had a special interest in sports injuries and in the lumbar spine, developing an original operation (Buck’s fusion) for spondylolysis and published several papers on these topics. He was surgical adviser to Charlton Athletic Football Club for many years. He was a life member of the United Hospitals Sailing Club and a member of the Bexley Sailing Club, only giving up at the age of 83. He remained a parachutist and skydiver until the age of 64. He married his former ward sister, Dorothy Maud Kench, in 1995. He died on 30 March 2006, aged 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000376
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Duthie, Robert Buchan (1925 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-15 2007-08-29
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/372563372563
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Robert Duthie was Nuffield professor of orthopaedic surgery at Oxford University. He was born in Detroit, USA, on 4 May 1925, the second son of James Andrew Duthie, an engineer with the Ford Motor Company, and Elizabeth Jean née Hunter. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and King Edward VI Grammar School Chelmsford, Essex, before reading medicine at Edinburgh University, where he won the Robert Jones prize. After qualifying in 1948, he spent a year as orthopaedic house surgeon to Sir Walter Mercer, which determined his decision to follow an orthopaedic career. Following National Service as a captain in the RAMC in Malaya he returned to Edinburgh as an orthopaedic registrar at the Royal Infirmary, before becoming a senior registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London. Then followed two years as the Crichton research scholar in Edinburgh, researching the histochemistry of osteogenesis, for which he was awarded the ChM with gold medal. Duthie was appointed chairman of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Rochester, New York, and surgeon in chief at the Strong Memorial Hospital. In 1966 he returned to the UK on his appointment to the Nuffield chair of orthopaedics in Oxford, with a professorial fellowship at Worcester College. There he developed structural undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training programmes, and encouraged active participation in research, establishing collaborative clinical and research units in the management of haemophilia, arthritis, metabolic bone disease and bioengineering. His textbook on haemophilia was widely recognised and *Mercer’s Orthopaedic surgery* under his editorship retained its place as a leading orthopaedic textbook. In addition he published many papers in collaboration with his juniors and served on the editorial boards of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery* and the *British Journal of Surgery*. In 1971 he was appointed adviser in orthopaedics and trauma surgery to the Department of Health and Social Security, and in 1973 chairman of the advisory committee for research into artificial limbs and was appointed a member of the Royal Commission on Civil Liability and Personal Injury. Duthie believed that the English College had undue influence when compared with its counterpart in Edinburgh, to which he devoted lifelong loyalty, encouraging Oxford trainees to take the Edinburgh rather than the English fellowship. When he became president of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1984 he promoted a fundraising campaign, which afterwards became the Wishbone Trust, to raise money for the funding of a separate College of Othopaedic Surgery, an aspiration with recurs from time to time in some quarters. In 1956 Robert Duthie married Alison Ann Macpherson Kittemaster, a nurse to whom he remained devoted, both occupying the same old people’s home towards the end of their lives. They had two sons and two daughters. He included tennis, gardening and sailing among his recreations. He died on Christmas Day 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000377
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roaf, Robert (1913 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-16 2007-12-12
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372564372564
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Robert Roaf was a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon and one of the few remaining pre-war Himalayan climbers. He was born into a Canadian academic family in Golders Green, London, on 25 April 1913, the second son of Herbert Eldon Roaf, professor of physiology at Liverpool, and Beatrice Sophia, the daughter of Sir William Herdman, foundation professor of zoology at Liverpool University. The Roaf family hailed from Kent, and one had been a ships’ carpenter at Trafalgar. Pneumonia in childhood left Robert with asthma, but this did not stop him from winning a scholarship to Winchester, or later on the Frazer scholarship and domus exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford. There he gained a first in the final honour school of physiology and biochemistry, though in later years he confessed to finding the lectures boring. He spent his vacations climbing in the Alps. In 1933 a chance encounter with the mountaineer and writer Marco Pallis was to have a lasting influence on Roaf’s life. Two years later Roaf was delegated to a conference in the Soviet Union and, just before his departure, Pallis invited him to join his next climbing expedition in Sikkim and Tibet. The Himalayan expedition, which included the explorer Freddie Spencer Chapman, was modest, but Roaf, as medical officer, had to learn Tibetan in order to cope with the patients he was invited to treat, many of whom suffered from disorders long since extinct in England. He returned to Liverpool to complete his training. Although he was by now a Quaker and a pacifist, the air raids on Liverpool made him decide that he could not eat food that had been brought to England at the expense of so many sailors’ lives. He joined the Merchant Navy as a ship’s surgeon, but undulant fever invalided him out in 1943 and he moved to the emergency hospital in Winwick, Cheshire. In 1946 he was appointed as an assistant surgeon at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. The following year he moved to the Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry. There he developed new methods for treating scoliosis. In 1952 he set up a training programme in Delhi, as part of the Colombo Plan, and on his return, in 1955, was appointed director of clinical studies and research at Oswestry. In 1963 he became professor of orthopaedics in Liverpool. There he encouraged his students to do something adventurous and imaginative during their electives. He continued to make overseas trips, especially to the Himalayas, long after he retired. He published extensively, including *Scoliosis* (Edinburgh/London, E & S Livingstone, 1966), *Spinal deformities* (Tunbridge wells, Pitman Medical, 1977), *Textbook of orthopaedic nursing* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1971) and *The paralysed patient* (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1977). He married Ceinwen Roberts in 1939, who predeceased him by one week. They had two sons and two daughters. Roaf died aged 93 on 16 February 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000380
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Milton, Catherine Maureen (1951 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2007-08-16 2009-05-07
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372565372565
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Catherine Milton was a consultant otolaryngologist at Kent and Sussex Hospital, Tunbridge Wells. She was born in Bristol on 6 April 1951, the middle of three children. Her brothers were Kevin and Richard. Her parents, Maureen and Robert, were both primary school teachers. The family moved in Catherine’s early teens to Littlehampton in West Sussex, her parents pursuing new opportunities at the local primary school. Catherine attended Worthing High School for Girls from 1962 to 1969 and subsequently read zoology at King’s College, London, graduating with a BSc honours degree in 1972. From there Catherine transferred to medicine, to the Middlesex Hospital, where she qualified in 1977. As part of her student training at the Middlesex she was attached to the Ear, Nose and Throat department under Sir Douglas Ranger, Dick Williams and Garfield-Davies, kindling her interest in ENT. Catherine then secured a training post at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road, where Sir Donald Harrison was the patriarchal head of department. Catherine was one of three mercurial female senior surgical trainees at Gray’s Inn Road at this time. Of the others, Vicky Moore-Gillon was later appointed to St George’s, London, and Valerie Lund became chair of ENT at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. Catherine was subsequently a senior registrar at St George’s Hospital, where in addition to advancing her surgical training, Brian Pickard, the senior surgeon in the department, enthused Catherine with his love of flying. She embarked on, but never completed, her private pilots licence. Following a six month sabbatical in Hillbrow Hospital, South Africa, with Theo Gregor, she returned to the UK and was appointed to her consultant point at the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, joining Robert Sergeant. Catherine’s main interests lay within her paediatric practice, particularly otology. Outside medicine, Catherine maintained her earlier interest in zoology and kept a keen interest in animal husbandry, accumulating copious dogs, Jacob sheep, Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, New Forest ponies and a number of chipmunks, the latter she had inherited from Donald and Audrey Harrison. Catherine married a medical school classmate, Graham Venn, later a cardiothoracic surgeon at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, in 1979 and the couple had two children. James, the elder, followed his mother’s leanings, studying zoology at University College London before converting to law and being called to the Bar in 2006. Jonathan, following a music exhibition at Tonbridge School, studied commercial music at Leeds and Cambridge. The marriage ultimately ended in 2002. Catherine retired prematurely from practice at 50 with progressive ill health, finding the stresses of a changing and pressing surgical practice increasingly arduous. Following her retirement her health deteriorated and, following a short illness, Catherine died of hepatic failure with concomitant breast carcinoma on 18 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000381
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jefferiss, Christopher David (1940 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-16
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/372566372566
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Christopher Jefferiss was a consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon in Devon. He was the son of Derek Jefferiss, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Exeter. Like his father, he was an undergraduate at the Middlesex Hospital, where he qualified in 1964. He held a variety of junior posts at the Middlesex, Weymouth and District, and the Royal Devon and Exeter hospitals, before becoming a senior house officer at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital in Exeter in 1970, gaining the FRCS in the same year. He then abandoned his intention of becoming an obstetrician and gynaecologist in favour of orthopaedics, becoming successively registrar, senior registrar and finally consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the Princess Elizabeth and Royal Devon and Exeter hospitals, eventually specialising in the surgery of the hand and the foot. He was an active member of the Hand Society and also the British Society for the Surgery of the Foot, and published 14 papers as author and co-author, mostly to do with the hand. Christopher played a leading part in the postgraduate orthopaedic training programme in Exeter. He became lead clinician in orthopaedics in 1996, and in 1997 clinical director for trauma, orthopaedics and rheumatology. In 2001 he was awarded a certificate of commendation by the BMA and the chairman’s award from the Devon and Exeter NHS Trust in recognition of his outstanding service. He was much sought after as a medico-legal specialist and was regarded by all as a man of great integrity and wisdom. He died on 26 November 2004 from a cerebellar tumour, and is survived by his wife Madlen, a former Bart’s theatre sister and by their three children, Fred, Lizzie and Emily.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000382
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davis, John Marshall (1920 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Hadfield, Geoffrey John (1923 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-29
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/372570372570
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Hadfield was an outstanding teacher and ambassador for British surgery. He was born in Long Ashton near Bristol on 19 April 1923. His family hailed from Plymouth. His father, Geoffrey Hadfield, was professor of pathology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and later became the Sir William Collins professor of pathology and dean of the Institute of Basic Science in our College, for which he became FRCS ad eundem, after his three children had already passed the FRCS in the usual way. John’s mother was Sarah Victoria Eileen D’Arcy Irvine of Irvinstown, Northern Ireland. His elder sister Esmé was an ENT surgeon and his younger brother, James Irvine Havelock Hadfield, a general surgeon. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School, where he won a prize for recitation of the 19th psalm, was coached in rugby football by K R J Saxton, the All Black, and developed the habit of wearing a bowler hat, which provided an effective means of identification when travelling abroad. He completed his preclinical studies at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and went to London, to Bart’s, for his clinical work, where he was a dresser to Sir James Paterson Ross and Sir Geoffrey Keynes. After qualifying he became house surgeon to J B Hume, Harold Rogers and Alec Badenoch, was RMO at St Andrew’s Hospital, Dollis Hill, and demonstrator of anatomy at Bart’s. He passed the primary with ease in 1948 and the final a few weeks later, a feat which is said to have left Cave bereft of speech - a notable achievement. He did his National Service in the RAMC in Malaya, ending up commanding the 21 Field Surgical Unit in North Malaya. He returned to Bart’s as research assistant on the surgical unit under John Kinmonth and then did a registrar post in Colchester under Ronald Reid, before going to Bristol Royal Infirmary as senior registrar to Milnes Walker, from which he gained the British Empire Cancer Campaign travelling fellowship to the New York Memorial Hospital. He returned to Bart’s as a senior lecturer in surgery under Paterson Ross, taking time to be a clinical assistant to Naunton Morgan and Henry Thompson at St Marks, until he was appointed consultant in general surgery at Stoke Mandeville. From 1960 to 1988 he was honorary surgical tutor at University College, London, where he built up an international reputation as a teacher of generations of house staff, registrars, and men and women attending the Penrose May course at our College. He published extensively on a wide range of surgical topics, ranging from endocrinology through to urology, to cancer of the breast. In collaboration with Michael Hobsley he edited five volumes of *Current surgical practice* (London, Arnold), the royalties from which were used to set up a scholarship awarded on the basis of an MD or MS thesis. Together with Hobsley and Basil Morson, he wrote *Pathology in surgical practice* (London, Edward Arnold, 1985). He was on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Surgery*, and a member of many surgical associations both in England and Pakistan, which he visited regularly, and was honoured with the Sitara award. When Rodney Smith became the first Penrose May tutor at the College, John Hadfield, Alan Parks and Felix Eastcott were course tutors, teaching in the College and arranging for young surgeons to visit their hospitals. John continued with this work long after the others had moved on, and in this way came to know a large number of surgeons, many of whom became distinguished in their own countries. Among these, Adibul Rizvi went on to become a world-famous urologist and transplant surgeon in Karachi. As a result of this John was invited to teach and examine all over the world and became the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards. In the College he was Arris and Gale Lecturer in 1954, Hunterian Professor in 1959, Erasmus Wilson Demonstrator in 1969, a member of Council from 1971 to 1983, Arnott Demonstrator in 1972, Stanford Cade Memorial Lecturer in 1978 and vice president from 1982 to 1983. He served on the Court of Examiners from 1972 to 1978 and was its chairman from 1977 to 1978. He was a keen Territorial, serving with the 17 London General Hospital then based on the Duke of York’s HQ, Chelsea, and later 219 Wessex City of Bath General Hospital as officer in charge of the surgical division and later as their honorary colonel. A keen sailor until arthritis prevented him from climbing the mast, he taught his daughters to sail. After retirement he served as a sidesman in Exeter Cathedral for 17 years. In 1960 he married Beryl Sleigh, a Bart’s physiotherapist, by whom he had three daughters (Catherine Marian Elizabeth, Frances Margaret Rosemary and Patricia Mary). Frances is a staff nurse at St George’s. When he retired he moved to Devon, where he continued to sail and walk, and it was when he and Beryl were in the process of returning to London to live near one of their three daughters that he unexpectedly died on 26 December 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000386
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morrison, Andrew William (1925 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-29
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/372572372572
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Andrew Morrison was born on 3 December 1925 in Huelva, southern Spain, where his father, William Andrew Morrison, was a mining engineer. His mother was Violet Mary née Common, the daughter of a dentist. The family returned to Scotland and Andrew attended Stirling High School, where he excelled both academically and in athletics, being victor ludorum several years running. He went on to study medicine at the University of Glasgow. After qualifying in 1948 he was a house surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, living in on the surgical ward for six months with only two weekends off, but he could watch the ships leaving port from the hospital window. He joined the Merchant Navy as a ship’s medical officer and sailed to South Africa and the Far East. On one occasion he performed an emergency lower-limb amputation on the deck of the ship when a member of the crew had been crushed by heavy equipment, not only operating but giving his anaesthetic. He did his National Service in the RAMC and was posted to Lubbecke, where he met Maureen Rawlings who was serving in the Control Commission, and they married in December 1950. On demobilisation he specialised in otolaryngology, and did a series of registrar posts in Carlisle and at the London Hospital, becoming senior registrar in 1956. He was appointed as a consultant to Whipps Cross in 1959 and to the London in 1964. Later he became a consultant at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, where he worked from 1965 to 1979 as a lecturer at the University of London. It was a time when the surgery of the ear was evolving exponentially, thanks to precise high-speed drills and the operating microscope. Andrew became one of the exponents of this, thanks to his precise surgical skill. He was a pioneer and refiner of surgical technique for stapedectomy, publishing his series of 1,000 operations with outstanding results, and later made a study of its genetic basis. In the early 1960s, he visited the House Otologic Institute in California, where he learned the trans-labyrinthine surgical approach to the inner ear, developing this, in collaboration with T T King, the neurosurgeon, into their own technique for removing acoustic nerve tumours. Its superior results soon led it to be adopted throughout Europe and America. Over the next four decades he became pre-eminent in the surgery of the inner ear, leading on to the earliest multi-channel cochlear implantation. He headed Project Ear in the late 1970s and 1980s, developing purpose-built hardware for speech-processing, and was amongst the first to undertake multi-channel intra-cochlear electrodes. His trainees included many of today’s leading otologists and skull base surgeons. He travelled extensively, forging links with the leading otologists in the Western world, and was one of the few British surgeons to have been made an honorary member of the American Otologic Society. In his retirement and until his death, he continued his research into Ménière’s disease, determined to locate the gene responsible for this distressing condition, research which is being continued today by his co-workers, Mark Bailey in Glasgow, and his son, Gavin Morrison. Andrew was one of the first directors and a trustee of the British Academic Conferences in Otolaryngology, being its master in 1995. In the College he was a Hunterian Professor in 1966, on the Court of Examiners for the DLO and the FRCS, and on the SAC for otolaryngology. His interest in medico-legal work took him onto the council of the Medical Defence Union between 1971 and 1996. He was president of the section of otology at the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of many prestigious organisations, including the Barany and Politzer Societies, the South African ORL, the Prosper Ménière’s Society of the USA. Ambitious, competitive and successful at work and sport, he was modest about the things he did best and was always a most jovial companion. Outside surgery, golf was his passion. His first hole in one was achieved as a schoolboy in Stirling; his second came some 50 years later. He was well known at St Andrews, Rye and Chigwell golf clubs, and was a member of the R & A for many years, supporting their meetings and enjoying many friendships there. He died on 6 January 2006, leaving his widow, Maureen, his daughter Claire and son Gavin, who followed him into ENT surgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000388
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brooks, Donal Meredith (1917 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-29 2016-09-29
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/372573372573
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Donal Brooks was an eminent orthopaedic surgeon in London who specialised in hand surgery. He was born in Dublin on 10 April 1917, the third son of Edward Clive Brooks, the chairman and managing director of Brooks Thomas and governor of the Royal Bank of Dublin, and Kathleen née Pollock, the daughter of a doctor and one of the first women in Ireland to be awarded a degree. His grandfather, Maurice Brooks, was a Lord Mayor of Dublin. Whilst at preparatory school in Wales Donal contracted poliomyelitis, which left him with almost complete paralysis of the left leg. He was treated by several renowned orthopaedic surgeons, including Sir Robert Jones, who inspired him to follow a career in medicine and ultimately in orthopaedics. At Repton School he was the only pupil allowed to ride a bicycle. Donal undertook his medical education at Trinity College, Dublin, qualifying in 1942 and then filled various junior posts at Dr Steevens' Hospital, Dublin, before moving to Oxford, to the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital, to specialise in orthopaedics as house surgeon and research assistant to H J Seddon. When Seddon was appointed director of the newly-formed Institute of Orthopaedics at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in 1948, Brooks accompanied him from Oxford. He had by now become Seddon's first assistant and was soon made consultant in charge of rehabilitation, and specialised in hand surgery. In 1957 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to Barnet General Hospital and consultant hand surgeon at the RNOH, having worked exclusively for Seddon for 15 years: he often referred to himself as 'the last of the apprentices'. He left Barnet in 1963 on his appointment to University College Hospital and in addition held honorary appointments at King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, Chailey Heritage and St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy. He was also honorary civilian consultant to the Royal Navy and the RAF. Brooks had an extensive private practice, which included three Prime Ministers and three Kings. His international reputation resulted in many overseas honorary professorships and he published extensively on poliomyelitis and hand surgery. He served on the Court of Examiners of the College, becoming chairman, and was president of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of the council and of the editorial board of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA). Early in his career he was a BOA travelling fellow to North America and worked as an exchange fellow at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. Outside medicine his many interests included music and the ballet, but particularly motor cars, including five vintage Bentleys, one of which was a frequent sight in Harley Street. He finally retired to the house and farm he had bought in Galway, where he and his wife Stephanie née Mackworth Praed (Seddon's secretary), whom he had married in 1947, developed an extensive and beautiful garden, open to the public. Donal, an engaging and charming character, died on 24 March 2004 after a short illness, leaving Stephanie, three sons (Christopher, Rory and Seamus), three daughters (Roisin, Doon and Siobhan) and 14 grandchildren. 'I'm not a Catholic, just a careless Protestant,' was another of his memorable remarks.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000389
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Maclean, Andrew Bruce (1918 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-09-13
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/372575372575
Occupation General surgeon
Details Andrew Maclean was a consultant surgeon in Cumbria. He was born in Glasgow on 29 April 1918, the son of Andrew Bruce Maclean, a consultant radiologist, and Harriet Thomson, the daughter of a woollen manufacturer. From Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh he went to Glasgow University, where he won the Hunter medal in clinical surgery. After qualifying in 1942 he completed house jobs in Glasgow Western Infirmary, where he was much influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth. He then joined the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. On demobilisation he continued his surgical training at Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, and in Newcastle as lecturer in surgery, before being appointed consultant surgeon in Carlisle. There he was surgical tutor and regional adviser to the College. Andrew married a Miss Lancaster in 1949. They had three sons, a doctor, lawyer and land agent. He counted sailing, shooting and fishing among his hobbies. He died on 28 May 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000391
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Briggs, James ( - 1848)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Swan, Joseph (1791 - 1874)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372578372578
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Henry Swan, Surgeon to the County Hospital at Lincoln, where his ancestors had been doctors for several generations. He was apprenticed to his father, and was sent to the United Borough Hospitals in 1810. He became a pupil of Henry Cline the younger, and gained the warm friendship of Astley Cooper, who sent him annually a Christmas present of a subject in a hamper labelled 'Glass with care', to enable him to continue his anatomical dissections of the nerves. Sir Astley's example was imitated by John Abernethy. He studied abroad for a short time after qualifying, and then settled at Lincoln, where he was elected Surgeon to the County Hospital on Jan 8th, 1814. He won the Jacksonian Prize at the College of Surgeons in 1817 with his essay, "On Deafness and Diseases and Injuries of the Organ of Hearing", and in 1819 he gained the prize a second time with a dissertation, "On the Treatment of Morbid Local Affections of Nerves". He was awarded in 1822-1824 the first College Triennial Prize for "A Minute Dissection of the Nerves of the Medulla Spinalis from their Origin to their Terminations and to their Conjunctions with the Cerebral and Visceral Nerves; authenticated by Preparations of the Dissected Parts”. The Triennial Prize was again awarded to him in 1825-1827 for "A Minute Dissection of the Cerebral Nerves from their Origin to their Termination and to the Conjunction with the Nerves of the Medulla Spinalis and Viscera, authenticated by Preparations of the Dissected Parts". Swan's success is the more remarkable when it is borne in mind that the Triennial Prize has only been given twelve times since it was first offered for competition in 1822. The College had so high an opinion of his merits that he was voted its honorary Gold Medal in 1825. Swan resigned his office of Surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital on Feb 26th, 1827, moved to London and took a house at 6 Tavistock Square, where he converted the billiard-room into a dissecting-room. Here he continued his labours at leisure until the end of his life, never attaining any practice as a surgeon, but doing much for naked-eye anatomy. He was elected a life member of the Council of the College of Surgeons in 1831, but resigned after a severe attack of illness in 1870. He then retired to Filey, in Yorkshire, where he died on Oct 4th, 1874, and was buried in Filey Churchyard. He never married. Swan was a born anthropotomist, for there is but little to show that he was greatly interested in the anatomy of birds, beasts, or fish. He had a native genius for dissection, and the kindness of his friends kept him supplied with the necessary material. Of a retiring and modest disposition, he remained personally almost unknown, and the value of his work long remained unappreciated. Publications:- *A Demonstration of the Nerves of the Human Body* in twenty-five plates with explanations. Imperial fol., London, 1830; republished 1865. It is a clear exposition of the course and distribution of the cerebral, spinal, and sympathetic nerves of the human body. The plates are admirably drawn by E West and engraved by the Stewarts. The original copperplates and engravings on steel are in the possession of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, presented in 1865 by Mrs Machin, of Gateford Hill, Worksop, widow of the nephew and residuary legatee of Joseph Swan. A cheaper edition of this work was issued in 1884, with plates engraved by Finden. It was translated into French, Paris, 4to, 1838. *An Account of a New Method of Making Dried Anatomical Preparations*, 8vo, London, N.D.; 2nd ed., 1820; 3rd ed., 1833. *A Dissertation on the Treatment of Morbid Local Affections of the Nerves* (Jacksonian Prize Essay for 1819), 8vo, London, 1820; translated into German, 8vo, Leipzig, 1824. *Observations on Some Points relating to the Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System*, 8vo, London, 1822. *A Treatise on Diseases and Injuries of the Nerves* (a new edition), 8vo, London, 1834; This seems to be a re-issue of the two previous works. *An Enquiry into the Action of Mercury on the Living Body*, 8vo, London, 1822; 3rd ed., 1847. *An Essay on Tetanus*, 8vo, London, 1825. *An Essay on the Connection between . . . the Heart . . . and . . . the Nervous System . . . particularly its Influence . . . on Respiration*, 8vo, London, 1822; reprinted, 1829. *Illustrations of the Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System*, 4to, plates, London, 1835. *The Principal Offices of the Brain and other Centres*, 8vo, London, 1844. *The Physiology of the Nerves of the Uterus and its Appendages*, 8vo, London, 1844. *The Nature and Faculties of the Sympathetic Nerve*, 8vo, London, 1847. *Plates of the Brain in Explanation of its Physical Faculties*, etc., 4to, London, 1853. *The Brain in its Relation to Mind*, 8vo, London, 1854. *On the Origin of the Visual Powers of the Optic Nerve*, 4to, London, 1856. *Papers on the Brain*, 8vo, London, 1862. *Delineation of the Brain in Relation to Voluntary Motion*, 4to, London, 1864.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000394
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Callaway, Thomas (1791 - 1848)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Babington, George Gisborne (1795 - 1856)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-01-29
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/372580372580
Occupation General surgeon
Details Fourth son of T Babington, MP, of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, who was brother-in-law of Zachary Macaulay, father of the historian, Thomas Babington Macaulay. Babington was attached to St George's Hospital, where he was Assistant Surgeon in 1829-1830, and Surgeon from 1830-1843. He was also at one time Surgeon to the London Lock Hospital. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of the Council from 1836-1845, and in 1842 delivered the Hunterian Oration. In 1817 [1] he married Sarah Anne, daughter of John Pearson, of Golden Square. He died at his house, 13 Queen's Gardens, Hyde Park, on Jan 1st, 1856. Babington was eminent as a surgeon, and made some important contributions to medical literature on the subject of syphilitic diseases. Publications:- "Cases Illustrative of the Different Forms of Phagedenic Ulcer." - London Med. and Physical Jour., 1826, lvi, 204. "Observations on Sloughing Sores." - Ibid., 1827, Iviii, 285. Hunterian Oration, 8vo, London, 1842. Several contributions in the Lancet and Med.-Chir. Rev. Was one of the editors of John Hunter, more especially the Treatise on Venereal Disease in Palmer's edition of the works, 1837, ii. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] '1817' is deleted and '18.9.1816' added]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000396
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Liston, Robert (1794 - 1847)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372581372581
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Oct 28th, 1794, in the Manse of Ecclesmachan, Linlithgowshire, the eldest child of Henry Liston (1771-1836) by his wife Margaret, daughter of David Ireland, Town Clerk of Culross. Henry Liston was the inventor of the ‘Euharmonic’ organ designed to give the diatonic scales in perfect order, and had a natural bias for mechanics; his younger son, David, became Professor of Oriental Languages at Edinburgh. Robert Liston spent a short time at a school in Abercorn, but was chiefly educated by his father. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1808 and gained a prize for Latin prose composition in his second session: in 1810 he became assistant to Dr John Barclay (1758-1826), the Extra-academic Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology, and continued as his prosector and assistant until 1815. In 1814 he became ‘Surgeon's Clerk’ or House Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, first to George Bell, afterwards to Dr Gillespie, holding office for two years. He came to London in 1816, putting himself under Sir William Blizard and Thomas Blizard at the London Hospital, and attending the lectures of John Abernethy at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He then returned to Edinburgh and taught anatomy in conjunction with James Syme. In 1818 he was admitted a Fellow of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons on his thesis – “Strictures of the Urethra and Some of their Consequences”. He worked in Edinburgh from 1818-1828, gaining a great reputation as a teacher of anatomy and as an operating surgeon. During some years of this period he was constantly engaged in quarrels on professional subjects with the authorities of the Royal Infirmary, which culminated in 1822 in his expulsion from the institution. He was, however, appointed one of the Surgeons in 1827, apparently by the exercise of private influence, and in 1828 he was made the Operating Surgeon. He failed in his application for the Professorship of Clinical Surgery in 1833, when James Syme (qv), his younger rival and former colleague, was preferred before him. In 1834 Liston accepted an invitation to become Surgeon to the newly founded hospital attached to the University of London (now University College). He accordingly left Edinburgh and settled in London, where in 1835 he was elected Lecturer on Clinical Surgery in the University of London. On the death of Sir Anthony Carlisle in 1840 Liston became a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1846 he was chosen a Member of the Court of Examiners. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the Hospital for Diseases of the Chest. He died on Dec 7th, 1847, of aneurysm of the arch of the aorta, at his house, 5 Clifford Street – subsequently occupied by Sir William Bowman (qv). Liston was not a scientific surgeon, neither was he a good speaker nor a clear writer. His claim to remembrance is based upon the marvellous dexterity with which he used the surgeon's knife, upon his profound knowledge of anatomy, and upon the boldness which enabled him to operate successfully on cases from which other surgeons shrank. Living at a time immediately antecedent to the introduction of anaesthetics, he appears to have attained to a dexterity in the use of cutting instruments which had probably never been equalled and which is unlikely to be surpassed. When chloroform was unknown it was of the utmost importance that surgical operations should be performed as rapidly as possible. Of Liston it is told that when he amputated, the gleam of his knife was followed so instantaneously by the sound of the bone being sawn as to make the two actions appear almost simultaneous, and yet he perfected the method of amputating by flaps. At the same time his physical strength was so great – and he stood over six feet in height – that he could amputate through the thigh with only the single assistant who held the limb. He excelled, too, in cutting for stone, but his name is best known by ‘Liston's straight splint’, which has now been replaced by better methods of treating fractured thighs. The first successful operation under ether by a surgeon in a London hospital was performed by him at University College on Dec 21st, 1846. Liston, like many contemporary surgeons, was rough and outspoken to rudeness, but he had many sterling qualities and was devoted to outdoor sports, especially to yachting. A bust by Thomas Campbell (1790-1858) was presented to the Royal College of Surgeons of England on Dec 23rd, 1851, by a ‘Committee of Gentlemen’. An oil painting by A Bagg was engraved by W O Geller and published on Jan 25th, 1847. Publications:- *The Elements of Surgery*, in three parts, Edinburgh and London, 1831 and 1832; 2nd ed. in one volume, 1840. *Practical Surgery*, London, 1837; 2nd ed., 1838; 3rd ed., 1840; 4th ed., 1846.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000397
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morgan, John (1797 - 1847)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372582372582
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Stamford Hill on Jan 10th, 1797, the second son of William Morgan, the noted Actuary to the Equitable Life Assurance Office and a native of Glamorganshire, where the family had been landowners for centuries. His father began life as a medical student and is said to have come from Glamorganshire to London “with sixpence in his pocket and a club foot”. After education at home, John Morgan became an articled pupil of Sir Astley Cooper at the School of St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, having as a fellow-pupil Aston Key. He showed an intense interest in natural history, and began to stuff birds and small animals almost as soon as he could use a knife and his fingers. After his pupilage he became Demonstrator of Anatomy at the private school near to the Hospital. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1821, and in 1824, at the early age of 27, he was elected (together with Aston Key) Surgeon to Guy's Hospital on the retirement of Forster and Lucas. He thus became a colleague of Sir Astley Cooper, who on his retirement was succeeded by his nephew, Bransby Cooper. For many years Morgan was joint Lecturer on Surgery; latterly he only gave a course of ophthalmic lectures in the Eye Infirmary attached to the Hospital. He suffered himself from iritis, and was instrumental in establishing a ward at Guy's Hospital for the treatment of diseases of the eye. On the death of Frederick Tyrell, Morgan was elected a Member of the College Council on June 9th, 1843. Much interested in comparative anatomy, he dissected ‘Chum’ the elephant, whose skeleton is in the College Museum. Many of his anatomical preparations are there, others are in Guy's Hospital Museum. His remarkable collection of stuffed British birds is preserved at Cambridge. As a surgeon Morgan was distinguished by the attention he paid to the medical state of his patient previous to operating, whilst he became one of the best operators in London. On two or three occasions he removed considerable portions of the lower jaw. He tied the external iliac artery successfully on a very stout patient who was suffering from a large inguinal hernia on the same side as the aneurysm. For a highly vascular naevus – an aneurysm by anastomosis – occupying one entire side of the face which had been previously treated by the crucial ligature under crossed pins and by the actual cautery, he followed the similar case operated upon successfully by F Travers, and ligatured the common carotid artery. The patient recovered, but was not benefited. Morgan was one of the first, and certainly one of the most energetic, originators of the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park. He practised early at Broad Street Buildings, later in Finsbury Square, and for seven or eight years before his death he lived at Tottenham. After suffering with albuminuria, he died at Tottenham on Oct 14th, 1847. He married in 1831 Miss Anne Gosse, of Poole, sister of William Gosse (qv); he left two sons: the eldest succeeded his grandfather and uncle in the Equitable Life Assurance Company, the younger entered the medical profession. In person Morgan was of middle height and a thick-set heavy man, very different from his colleagues Key and Bransby Cooper, the one striding in the hospital with head erect waiting for everyone to do him reverence, the other in a jaunty manner greeting those around him in familiar and pleasant tones; whilst Morgan walked straight in with a white impassive face, went to work without a word of gossip, taking heed of nothing or nobody, gave his opinion of the case in a few words, and then went on to the next bed. His work was done well and in a business-like manner, his colleagues highly respecting his opinion and his pupils being much attached to him. As it was the habit of surgeons to take snuff, so did Morgan to excess; it was often possible to mark his traces in the wards by the snuff he let fall. He practised in Finsbury Square and had a country house at Tottenham. Publications:- *Lectures on Diseases of the Eye*, 8vo, London, 1839; 2nd ed., 1848, by JOHN F. FRANCE; this contains a life of Morgan. *Essay on the Operation of Poisonous Agents upon the Living Body* (with THOMAS ADDISON), London, 1829. Contributions to *Guy's Hosp. Rep.* and *Trans. Linnean Soc*. He communicated to the *Transactions of the Linnean Society* (1833, xvi, 455) an interesting paper on the mammary organs of the kangaroo, and the Museum of Guy's Hospital contains two preparations made by him, one “the pouch of a young and virgin kangaroo showing the teats in an undeveloped state, one of them artificially drawn out: the second, the mammary gland of an adult kangaroo, showing the marsupial teat in an undeveloped state, the ducts filled with mercury.” The specimens were perhaps prepared from animals sent to him by his brother-in-law, William Gosse (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000398
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Chakrabarti, Ramakanta (1945 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2012-03-22
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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/372459372459
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ramakanta Chakrabarti was a respected surgeon in Calcutta. He was born in Calcutta on 1 October 1945, the son of Rajchandra and Kadambini Chakrabarti. He studied medicine at Calcutta National Medical College, where he subsequently held intern and house surgeon posts. In 1973 he was appointed as a senior house surgeon in general surgery and urology at the Rama Krishna Mission, Seva Prathishthan. He then became a senior surgical resident and postgraduate student at the Willingdon Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, where he was awarded a masters degree in surgery with a thesis on emergency prostatectomy in clinically benign enlargement of the prostate. He was subsequently surgeon to the Lalbag Hospital in Murshidabad. He then went to the UK for further surgical training. He was a senior house officer in the trauma and accident department at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, and then senior house officer in orthopaedics at Oldham Royal Infirmary. He then held appointments at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, in urology and transplantation, and at Hull Royal Infirmary in orthopaedics. During this period he passed his FRCS from the London and Glasgow Colleges. He was then a registrar at Withybush General Hospital, Haverfordwest, under David Bird, where he further developed his interest in vascular and urological surgery. In 1986 he returned to Calcutta as a visiting general surgeon to the Dum Dum Municipal Hospital, where he became an outstanding figure, keeping up-to-date with the latest developments in endoscopic surgery by attending seminars and meetings, and becoming a popular member of the Dum Dum branch of the Indian Medical Association. He was married to Maitreyee, a teacher, and they had one daughter, Madhumanti, who is studying at Queen Mary College, London. He died on 3 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000272
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Anderson, John Douglas Chalmers (1924 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26
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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/372460372460
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details John Douglas Chalmers Anderson, known as ‘Jock’, was an ophthalmologist who spent much of his career working in Afghanistan. He was born in Redbourne, Lincolnshire, on 21 August 1924, the second of three sons of William Larmour Anderson, a general practitioner, and Eileen Pearl née Chambers. He was educated at Bedford School, where he won the Tanner prize in science, and then went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, on a state bursary. After a year his studies were interrupted by the war and he joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, where he was a technical assistant, working on magnetrons. During the war he also served in the Home Guard and found time to obtain a BSc and a certificate of proficiency in radiophysics from London University. He returned to Cambridge in 1947 to complete his preclinical studies, and then went on to Middlesex Hospital, where he won the Mrs Charles Davis prize in surgery. After qualifying he completed house jobs at Bedford General Hospital and, after a year as a trainee assistant in general practice, returned as a demonstrator in anatomy at Cambridge. He was then an orthopaedic registrar at Bedford General Hospital. Influenced by his deeply held Christian beliefs, he accepted an invitation to work as a general surgeon at the Church Mission Society in Quetta, Pakistan. He was later an ophthalmic registrar at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. In 1959 he returned to the UK, as an ophthalmic registrar at Northampton General Hospital and completed a course in London for the diploma in ophthalmology. He also raised funds for Afghanistan, returning there in 1961 to set up a moveable ‘caravan hospital’, taking general medical, surgical and ophthalmic services to remote desert communities. He returned to the UK as a clinical assistant in ophthalmology at Southampton Eye Hospital to study for the final FRCS. In 1967, having gained his FRCS, he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist with the National Organisation for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation in Kabul, establishing a 100 bed eye hospital and teaching centre there, from which subsidiary outpost treatment camps were organised. His centre survived the invasion by the Russians and the enmity of the Taliban, with only occasional interruptions. In 1973 he was appointed associate director (West Asia) of the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship, which involved two tours of three months every year in west Asia, taking him to Kunri, on the edge of the Sind Desert. In 1978 he returned to Southampton as a lecturer in ophthalmology, where he remained until 1980, when he returned to Kabul. Civil unrest meant he had to return to the UK earlier than expected. By now a world expert on trachoma, he joined the newly formed department of preventive ophthalmology at Moorfields and was appointed OBE in 1981. He carried out studies on the prevention of blindness in Zanzibar and the Sudan, and in 1984 was made an honorary consultant at Moorfields. He retired in 1988 after developing a tumour of the spinal cord. After several operations he became paraplegic. He married Gwendoline Freda Smith (‘Gwendy’), a Middlesex Hospital nurse, on 25 July 1953. They had two daughters (Ruth and Jean) and a son (Christopher). He died on 16 June 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000273
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bradbury, Sir Eric Blackburn (1911 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2009-01-09
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/372461372461
Occupation General surgeon
Details Surgeon Vice Admiral Eric Blackburn Bradbury RN was the medical director general of the Royal Naval Medical Service from 1969 to 1972, a period when many changes were being made in the services. He was born on 2 March 1911, the son of A B Bradbury of Maze, County Antrim. His education was at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute and Queen’s University, Belfast. After qualifying in 1934, he decided on a career with the Royal Navy and was commissioned as a Surgeon Lieutenant. After basic training, he was soon at sea and from 1935 to 1936 served in HMS *Barham*, *Endeavour* and *Cumberland*. Essential hospital service was spent at the RN hospitals in Haslar, Chatham, Plymouth and Malta. His wartime sea service was spent in HMS *Charybdis* and HM Hospital Ship *Oxfordshire*. Promotion to flag rank arrived in 1966 when he became a Surgeon Rear Admiral and was appointed medical officer in charge of Haslar Hospital, the senior teaching hospital of the Royal Navy. He also became the command medical officer of Portsmouth and an honorary physician to HM the Queen. In 1968 he became a Companion of the Bath. He was soon selected as the medical director of the Royal Naval Medical Services and was appointed in 1969, serving until 1972. He was promoted Surgeon Vice Admiral in 1971 and appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire. In 1972 our College conferred the fellowship on him. In 1939 he married Elizabeth Constance Austin, daughter of J G Austin of Armagh. They had three daughters – Ann, Elizabeth and Valerie. After retirement he was chairman of the Tunbridge Wells DHA from 1981 to 1984, during which time advances were made in the accident and emergency services. He died on 6 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000274
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Guthrie, Charles W Gardiner (1817 - 1859)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-07 2012-07-19
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/372193372193
Occupation General surgeon
Details The younger son of George James Guthrie (q.v.) by his first wife Margaret Paterson, daughter of the Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward's Island. He was educated at the Westminster Hospital, where he was elected Assistant Surgeon in 1843 on the resignation of his father in his favour. He became Surgeon and Lecturer on Surgery, and resigned on the ground of ill health shortly before his death. He was also Assistant Surgeon to the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, where his father was Surgeon, and succeeded him as Surgeon. He practised at 18 Pall Mall East, but retiring to Clifton died there of ascites due to a liver complaint in August, 1859. He never married, his elder brother left no children, and his sister died unmarried, so that the family of Guthrie ended. Charles Guthrie was a capable surgeon and a dextrous operator, both in the large operations of general surgery and the more delicate ones on the eye. He was kindly, generous, and very sociable; a cause of much anxiety to his father, who on more than one occasion had to pay for cattle shot on the Thames marshes under the impression that they were big game. He might have done well. PUBLICATIONS: - *On the Cure of Squinting by the Division of one of the Straight Muscles of the Eye*, 8vo, London, 2nd ed., 1840. *Report on the Result of the Operations for the Cure of Squinting performed at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital between 18 April and 30 October,* 1840, 8vo, Westminster, 1840. *On Cataract and its Appropriate Treatment by the Operation Adapted for each Peculiar Case*, 8vo, plate, London, 1845.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000006
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hames, George Henry ( - 1909)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 2012-03-28
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/372194372194
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Lincolnshire; entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1871 and distinguished himself there, gaining the Foster Prize in 1872, being Brackenbury Medical Scholar in 1875, and Kirkes' Scholar and Gold Medallist. He was House Surgeon to G W Callender (qv) in 1875 and House Physician to Reginald Southey in 1876-1877. Meanwhile in 1873-1874 he was Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons and for some years Hon Secretary of the Abernethian Society. After leaving St Bartholomew's he studied at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, was Chloroformist at the Cheyne Hospital for Children, and Surgeon to the Western General Dispensary. He became a well-known practitioner in Mayfair at 29 Hertford Street, 125 Piccadilly, 113 Sloane Street, and died at 11 Park Lane on May 28th, 1909. Publication:- Hames was a contributor to the *Saturday Review*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000007
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Keate, Robert (1777 - 1857)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 2012-07-19
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/372195372195
Occupation General surgeon
Details The fourth son of William Keate, D.D., rector of Laverton, Somerset; was born at Laverton on March 14th, 1777. John Keate, his elder brother (1773-1852), was the well-known and ferocious head master of Eton. Robert Keate was educated at Bath Grammar School until 1792, when he was apprenticed to his uncle, Thomas Keate, who in 1798 was elected Surgeon to St. George's Hospital in succession to Charles Hawkins, and was also appointed in the same year Surgeon General to the Army in succession to John Hunter. Robert Keate entered St. George's Hospital in 1793, and was made Hospital Mate in 1794 and Deputy Purveyor to the Forces on Sept. 26th, 1795. In 1798 he became a member of the Surgeons' Corporation and was appointed Staff Surgeon in the Army, from which he retired on half pay on March 25th, 1810, with the rank of Inspector-General of Hospitals. In 1800 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to his uncle at St. George's Hospital, where he succeeded him as full Surgeon in 1813, and held the post until 1853, outstaying his powers. He was early introduced to practice among the royal family. In 1798 he attended the Princess Amelia at Worthing, who was suffering from a "white swelling of the knee". The Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, always showed great confidence in him, and made him Serjeant-Surgeon Extraordinary, and in 1841 Queen Victoria continued him as Serjeant-Surgeon. Keate used to say, "I have attended four sovereigns and have been badly paid for my services. One of them, now deceased, owed me nine thousand guineas"; but William IV always paid, though there is no doubt that Keate's frequent visits to Windsor led to some loss of practice. It is told of him that he one day received an urgent summons to Windsor to see Queen Adelaide, and he arrived there about the breakfast hour. The Queen, who was suffering from a pain in the knee, gave Keate a hint that the presence of the King might be dispensed with. Keate accordingly said to the King, "Will your Majesty be kind enough to leave the room?" "Keate," replied the King, "I'm damned if I go." Keate looked at the King for a moment and quietly said, "Then, your Majesty, I'm damned if I stay." When Keate got as far as the door the King called him back and said, "I believe you are right, and that you doctors can do anything; but had a Prime Minister or the Lord Chancellor ventured to do as you have done, the next day I should have addressed his successor." Keate contributed little to the literature of his profession, yet he rose to the highest eminence in it. He was anxious to avoid operations, yet he was a good operator, accurate in diagnosis, and a sound practitioner. Timothy Holmes (q.v.) remembered Keate as a very old man when he but seldom visited the hospital. He once saw him operate and his hand shook terribly. Holmes, too, recollected his saving the limb of a lad from amputation after the Assistant Surgeon had actually ordered the boy into the operating theatre. He was a terror to his house surgeons and dressers from the violence of his temper and language. He clung to office at the hospital - there was no rule as to retirement then - until he was bullied into giving up by certain of the governors, who persisted in inquiring at every meeting how often the senior surgeon had visited the hospital, and for how long, and who did the work there which he did not do. Keate was sensible of the value of the scientific advancement of surgery, and deserves our recollection as a good surgeon and an honest man. Sir Benjamin Brodie spoke highly of Keate, who was slightly his senior; and he joined with Brodie in the effort, which the latter began, to raise the surgical practice of the hospital to a higher level, by more careful and systematic visits to the patients, and by more constant and regular instruction of the students. He won the warm friendship of his great contemporary, who speaks of him in his autobiography in the following terms: "He was a perfect gentleman in every sense of the word; kind in his feelings, open, honest and upright in his conduct. His professional knowledge and his general character made him a most useful officer of the Hospital; and now that our *game has been played*, it is with great satisfaction that I look back to the long and disinterested friendship that existed between us." With his death was ended the direct connection of the Serjeant-Surgeoncy with the Army. At the College of Surgeons he was co-opted to the Court of Assistants in 1822, being the last person to be so chosen, and continued as a life member of the Council until 1857. He was President in the years 1831 and 1839, and he served and acted as Examiner from 1827-1855. He married the youngest daughter of H. Ramus, an Indian Civil Servant, by whom he had two sons and four daughters. [One daughter married W E Page FRCP and was the mother of H M Page (1860-1942) FRCS 1886, qv in Supplement.] One of his sons, Robert William Keate (1814-1873), was successively Governor of Trinidad, of Natal, and of the Gold Coast. Keate is described as being a square, compact little man, with a rough complaining voice. He was unmistakably a gentleman, but there was something of the 'Scotch terrier roughness' in all that he said and did. He was always a favourite with the pupils, who never turned him into ridicule in spite of his trying ways. Keate was perfect in minor surgery, the placing of limbs, and bandaging, and was reputed to be the only man who could make a linseed-meal poultice to perfection. He did marvels, too, with red precipitate ointment, saying, "My uncle used it for many years. I have used it all my life, that's why I use it." In standard operations, such as amputation of the thigh by the circular method, he excelled even Robert Liston (q.v.). In chronic and painful diseases of joints he used the cautery freely, and his judgement of tumours was good but wholly empirical. He did not care for anatomy, and he had no other tastes but surgery. He died in Hertford Street, Mayfair, on Oct. 2nd, 1857. A portrait of him hangs in the Board Room at St. George's Hospital. PUBLICATIONS: - Keate wrote only two papers: - "History of a Case of Bony Tumour containing Hydatids Successfully Removed from the Head of a Femur." - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1819, x, 278. "Case of Exfoliation from the Basilar Process of the Occipital Bone and from the Atlas after Excessive Use of Mercury." - *Lond. Med. Gaz*., 1834-5, xvi, 13 (with drawing): Le Gros Clark referred to the specimen and reproduced the drawing in the Med.-Chir. Trans., 1849, xxxii, 68.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000008
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Lynn, William Bewicke (1786 - 1878)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 2012-07-19
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372196372196
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon
Details Was gazetted Assistant Surgeon in the 5th Foot on July 13th, 1809, and retired on half pay on Sept 25th, 1817, commuting his half pay on June 22nd, 1830. He saw active service in Walcheren in 1809 and served in the Peninsula War from 1810-1814. He also served in Canada during the years 1814-1815. After he had retired he settled in practice in Westminster, and by 1847 had removed to Claygate in Surrey, and later to Aldenham Grove, Elstree, Herts, whence he returned to Claygate, where he died on July 27th, 1878. His son was W T Lynn, the Cambridge astronomer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000009
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First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Honoratus Leigh (1769 - 1846)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Vincent, John Painter (1776 - 1852)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 2012-07-19
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/372198372198
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Newbury, Berkshire, where his father, Osman Vincent, was a silk merchant and banker, living at Donnington. Captain Richard Budd Vincent, CB (1770?-1831), was John's elder brother. Vincent was apprenticed to William Long (d 1829), Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Bluecoat School, and as an apprentice he had occasion to attend Leigh Hunt, then a schoolboy. Hunt says of Long, "he was dark like a West Indian and I used to think him handsome, but the sight of Mr Long's probe was not so pleasant, I preferred to see it in the hands of Vincent". He was one of the last Members admitted by the Company of Surgeons on March 20th, 1800. Two days later, on March 22nd, 1800, the College Charter was granted and Vincent was again examined. There were thirty-nine candidates for the diploma, many of whom were 'referred'. John Smith Soden (qv) and Richard Spencer (qv) were amongst those who satisfied the examiners. Vincent was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on August 13th, 1807, on the resignation of his master, William Long, whose house he took in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the election he received 154 votes and his opponent, William Wadd, obtained 56. He became Surgeon on Jan 29th, 1816, and resigned on January 21st, 1847, when he was elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons Vincent was co-opted a Member of the Council in 1822 and held office till his death. He was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1828-1851, Hunterian Orator in 1829, Vice-President in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839; and President in 1832 and 1840. He was not in favour of establishing an order of Fellows of the College. He married: (1) On May 28th, 1812, Maria, daughter of Samuel Parke, of Kensington and Lysonby Lodge, near Melton Mowbray, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons survived him. She died in October, 1824, and he then married (2) Elizabeth Mary Williams, who outlived him. He died of paralysis after several years of ill health at Woodlands Manor, near Sevenoaks, Kent, on July 17th, 1852, and was buried in the church he had built at Woodlands. A three-quarter-length portrait in oils, sitting, by E U Eddis hangs in the Great Hall at St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted by subscription for his pupils and represents Vincent as a frail-looking man. The likeness was said to be good. It was presented to the Hospital on Sept 10th, 1850, and an autographed engraving from it by Henry Cousins was issued to the subscribers. Sir James Paget, writing from personal knowledge, said that he remembered him, "as a very practical surgeon, shrewd in diagnosis and always prudent and watchful, but apparently shy and reserved and not at all given to teaching even in the wards. He never taught in the school - never even, I think, gave a clinical lecture." Luther Holden (qv), writing in greater detail on January 11th, 1897, tells of his recollections in the following words: "At last, after much delay, which I regret, here are a few items which I have gathered from the mouldy memories of my respected friend and teacher, John Painter Vincent. All that I tell you is limited to the estimation in which we students held him. "We used to call him 'Old Vinco'. He was very popular with us - always kind, always ready to help a fellow in distress, a man of few, but always gentle, words. He lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and always walked to the Hospital. His walk bespoke a character about which there was no mistake. He came shuffling along with short steps, his hands never in his pockets, never behind him, but always clasped in front, as if ready to do handy work. He was very careful of his hands, and well he might be, for they were his best instruments, not that we thought him a good operator in the usual sense of the word. He 'operated' best without instruments. He had a natural dexterity and fine surgical touch. This was best seen when he 'set' a fracture or reduced a dislocation or when he was examining the nature of a tumour, but best of all when he was reducing a hernia. Many a time I have seen him reduce a hernia which had baffled his house surgeon and dressers. 'Old Vinco' would come down, grasp the hernia with his magic hands, give it a bit of a shake, and tuck it up, much to the disappointment of the 'boys', who wanted an operation. In this matter of 'legerdemain' we all agreed that he was far more dexterous than his colleagues. Unfortunately for us, Vincent did not explain to us how to do the trick, for he was a man of very few words, and never, so far as I know, gave a clinical lecture. He was certainly a conservative surgeon, disposed to avoid operations, unless obviously necessary. His highly educated surgical teaching was probably appreciated by his colleagues. In doubtful cases it was their wont to instruct their respective house surgeons to request Mr Vincent to give his opinion. In his time there were no special days, as now, for surgical consultations. "As regards Vincent's personality, there is an admirable likeness of him in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was exceedingly modest, quiet, unobtrusive. I am not aware that he ever published much, if anything, but I believe there is a very good memoir of him by his son in our library. He wore a brown wig, which never altered in colour as he grew older. Eventually he died paralytic, after a very long confinement to bed, [still] Senior Surgeon to St Bartholomew's. "The above is all that I can fairly remember of 'old Vinco'. Even this little has given me pleasure to recall. Do what you like with it." "Always sincerely yours, "Luther Holden." PUBLICATIONS: - *The Hunterian Oration*, 8vo, London, 1829. *Observations on Some of the Parts of Surgical Practice*, 8vo, London, 1847. *An Address to the Council of the College of Surgeons,* 1841.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000011
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching White, Anthony (1782 - 1849)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Samuel (1781 - 1848)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Lawrence, Sir William (1783 - 1867)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Travers, Benjamin (1783 - 1858)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Woolriche, Stephen (1770 - 1856)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372594372594
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on June 3rd, 1770, became Surgeon's Mate, and on May 30th, 1794, was gazetted Surgeon to the 111th Foot. From March, 1798, to May 22nd, 1806, he was on half pay, when he exchanged into the 4th Foot. On June 18th, 1807, he was appointed Surgeon to the Staff. He was on active service in Holland in 1799, at Copenhagen in 1807, in the Peninsula 1812-1814, and was present at the Battle of Waterloo. He was promoted to Deputy Inspector of Hospitals on May 26th, 1814, and Brevet Inspector of Hospitals on Dec 9th, 1823. He retired on half pay on May 25th, 1828, and on July 22nd, 1830, was promoted to be Inspector-General of Hospitals. He was one of the seven officers of the Army Medical Department upon whom the CB (mil) was conferred for the first time in 1850. He lived in retirement at Qwatford Lodge, Bridgnorth, and died on Feb 29th, 1856.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000410
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Annesley, Sir James H [1] (1774 - 1847)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-01-29
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/372595372595
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Honourable Marcus Annesley, born in County Down, Ireland, about 1774, and educated at Trinity College and the College of Surgeons in Dublin, also at the Windmill Street School in London. On April 29th, 1799, he received a nomination in the medical service of the HEIC on the Madras side from Sir Walter Farquhar, and arrived in India in December, 1800. He was at once appointed to the Trichinopoly Corps and saw hard fighting with the field force in Southern India during the whole of the year 1801. He served with a battalion of native infantry at various stations from 1802-1805, when he was invalided home. Two years later he returned from England and was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Masulipatam, where he made himself well acquainted with native diseases and their treatment. He took careful notes of every case which came under his care, recording the symptoms, the remedies used, and the results. Annesley was placed in medical charge of the 78th British Regiment during the Java expedition in 1811. He had the satisfaction of landing 1070 men fit for duty out of a strength of 1100, and the field hospital at Cornalis being in an unsatisfactory condition, Annesley, although the junior officer, was ordered to take command, and it is on record that in ten days he had the hospital in proper order, with its 1400 or 1500 patients clothed, victualled, and treated. He was soon ordered back to Madras to superintend a field hospital established by Government for the native troops who had lost their health in the expedition to the Isle of France and Java. His administration proved so successful that he was publicly thanked by the Commander-in-Chief for "the ability, exertion and humane attention displayed by Surgeon Annesley, equally honourable to his professional talents and public zeal, which His Excellency trusts will entitle him to the good opinion and favourable notice of government". Native troops had been employed upon foreign service, and as a result of Annesley's treatment the Madras Sepoys were said to be willing to volunteer for any service in any part of the world. In 1812 Annesley joined the Madras European Regiment, with which he remained until 1817, when the last Mahratta and Pindaree War began. Annesley was appointed Superintending Surgeon to the advanced divisions of the Army and served in the field until the end of 1818, being repeatedly mentioned in general orders for his zeal and ability. He was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Fort St George on his return to Madras, and placed in charge of the General Hospital, where he remained until he was invalided home in 1824. On leaving India on furlough the Admiralty presented him with a piece of plate of the value of one hundred guineas "as a mark of the sense their Lordships entertained of his gratuitous medical attendance on the officers and men of His Majesty's ships in Madras Roads, 1823". Annesley returned to India in 1829, and was immediately appointed to examine the Medical Reports of former years with the view to selecting such cases as might tend to throw light upon the diseases of India. He made a digest of the Reports from 1786 to 1829, and also reported upon the climate, healthiness, and production of the hills in the Madras presidency. The digest occupied twelve volumes and was accompanied by four volumes of medical observations, all of the highest value. The digest had been made without cost to the Government, but on its completion the Court of Directors of the HEIC voted Annesley an honorarium of 5000 rupees. He was appointed a member of the Medical Board in 1833, and in 1838 was permitted to retire from the Honourable Company's service on the pension of his rank, having served in India for the long period of thirty-seven years. On his return to England he received the honour of knighthood in [2] 1844; he was also elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. During his later years he lived at 6 Albany, Piccadilly. He died at Florence on Dec 14th, 1847. Annesley did good service to the medical profession by his zeal, tact, and administrative ability, for he founded the tradition upon which was built the high reputation afterwards gained by the Indian Medical Service both amongst the Europeans and the native population of India. Publications:- Sketches of the Most Prevalent Diseases of India, Comprising a Treatise on Epidemic Cholera of the East, London, 1825, 2nd ed., 1828 [3]. Annesley discusses cholera with extensive first-hand information and makes some inquiries on the historical side in regard to the disease. The sketches include "Topographical, and Statistical Reports of the Diseases most prevalent in the different stations and divisions of the Army under the Madras Presidency", and "Practical Observations on the Effects of Calomel on the Mucous Surface and Secretions of the Alimentary Canal; and on the Use of this Remedy in Disease, more Particularly in the Diseases of India". For these sketches he received the Monthyon Prize, and the section on cholera was translated into German by Gustav Himly, Hannover, in 1831. Researches into the Causes, Nature and Treatment of the more Prevalent Diseases of India, and of Warm Climates Generally, 4to, 2 vols., with 40 coloured engravings, London, 1828. The work is rendered unwieldy by its wealth of detail. [4] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] The 'H' is deleted and the following added - *Crawford's Roll of I.M.S;* Madras list no 435; [2] Crawford says knighted 13 May 1844 'F.R.S. 1840'; [3] 3rd edition 1841; [4] *Digest of Madras Medical Reports* 1788-1829 (Crawford) & ? above p.29; Portrait in College Collection]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000411
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Albert, George Frederick (1771 - 1853)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-01-15
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/372596372596
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Dec 18th 1771, and became an army surgeon. He was gazetted Staff Surgeon on Aug 30th, 1799, was placed on half pay in 1802, and restored to full pay on March 17th, 1803, when he exchanged to the cavalry depot at Maidstone. He was promoted Deputy Inspector of Hospitals on Nov 4th, 1813, and was put on half pay on Nov 25th, 1815. Practised at Cheltenham and at various times at St George's Terrace, Hyde Park, and in the Isle of Wight. He died on April 5th, 1853. Albert's thesis for the Edinburgh MD may have been [1] *Quœdam de Morbis Ætatum* (8vo, Edinburgh, 1823), but he is not given credit for it as a thesis in the Index Catalogue, USA Army. [Amendment from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] 'may have been' deleted and 'was' added]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000412
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Parkin, Henry (1779 - 1849)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Kidd, Thomas (1777 - 1849)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
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/372598372598
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Aug 25th, 1777. He was Regimental Mate in the 49th Foot from June 17th, 1796, to Jan 23rd, 1797, and Surgeon's Mate on the Hospital Staff, not attached to a regiment, from Jan 24th to April 5th, 1797. He was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 13th Regiment of Foot on April 6th, 1797, was transferred to the 14th Dragoons on March 15th, 1799, and became Surgeon to the 4th Battalion of the 60th Foot on April 25th, being transferred to the 63rd Foot on July 25th. He became Staff Surgeon on Aug 27th, 1803, and Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, afterwards Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals (Brevet), on July 17th, 1817. The last-mentioned grade was abolished from 1804-1830, but the rank Deputy Inspector-General (Brevet) seems to have been conferred during that period. Kidd was again gazetted Deputy Inspector-General on Jan 27th, 1837, and became Inspector-General of Hospitals on Dec 16th, 1845, on which date he retired on half pay. He had served in the Peninsular War in 1810-1813, and had devoted his life to the service of his country in various parts of the globe, being stationed at one time at Corfu. He was held in high esteem by his brother officers. He died from bronchitis after a few hours’ illness on Dec 24th, 1849.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000414
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Park, William Douglas (1912 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Pearce, Roger Malcolm (1943 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Eley, Arnold Amos ( - 1998)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2015-10-28
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/372298372298
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arnold Eley qualified at Charing Cross and after junior posts did his National Service in the RAMC as a junior surgical specialist. On leaving the Army he was registrar at the Connaught Hospital under J Thompson Fathi and surgical first assistant at St George's before being appointed to the Surrey Hospital Group. He published on perfusion of the liver and jaundice in severe infections. He retired to Yelverton in Devon where he died on 15 December 1998.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000111
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pichlmayr, Rudolf (1932 - 1997)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2012-03-13
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/372299372299
Occupation Transplant surgeon
Details Rudolf Pichlmayr was a pioneering German transplant surgeon. He was born on 16 May 1932 in Munich, Germany. He graduated from the University of Munich Medical School in 1956, and in 1959 started his career in medicine at the same university. He qualified as a surgeon in 1964. In 1967, he presented his postdoctoral thesis to the medical faculty of the University of Munich for qualification as a privatdozent, and in the same year became an assistant professor. In 1968 he and Hans George Borst moved to the Medizinische Hochschule in Hanover to develop the new department of surgery. A year later, Pichlmayr was appointed as professor of transplantation and special surgery, and in 1973 he was endowed with the first chair of abdominal and transplantation surgery. He served his faculty as dean for education from 1974 to 1978, as deputy head for research from 1989 to 1991, and as chairman of the ethical committee from 1984. Pichlmayr carried out the first kidney transplantation in Hanover in 1968, and the first liver transplantation in 1972. He subsequently initiated and supervised a large number of experimental and clinical research programmes in the field of transplantation surgery and biology. Together with his wife Ina Pichlmayr he established the Foundation for Rehabilitation following Organtransplantation in Dolsach, Austria. Aside from transplantation, Rudolf Pichlmayr was an internationally recognised expert on abdominal surgery, particularly liver surgery and surgical oncology. He was President of numerous national and international scientific societies and organisations, including the German Medical Association and the department of health of the federal government in Bonn. As President of the German Association for Surgery, Rudolf Pichalmyr organised the 113th annual congress in Berlin in 1996. He was a member of many surgical societies, including the European Society for Surgical Research and received prestigious awards and honours, including honorary Fellowships of the College and of American College of Surgeons. He published a number of books and was also on the editorial boards of several surgical and transplantation journals. Pichlmayr died on 29 August 1997, during the 37th World Congress of Surgery in Acapulco, Mexico, while taking a morning swim. He had five children with his wife Ina.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000112
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rang, Mercer Charles (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372300372300
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Mercer Rang was an eminent paediatric orthopaedic surgeon. He was born in London in 1933 and studied medicine at University College London. He was a house officer in London and then a resident at Rochester. He went on to complete two years National Service, as a command surgical specialist in Northern Ireland. He then undertook postgraduate orthopaedic training, and was inspired by Lipmann Kessel to pursue an academic career. He enrolled in the programme of the Royal Northern Orthopaedic Hospital. In 1965 he was seconded to Jamaica, where he served for two years as a senior lecturer in orthopaedic surgery at the University of West Indies under Sir John Golding. In 1967 he went to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto as a basic research fellow and, with R B Salter, undertook research on the pathogenesis of deformity of the femoral head in an animal model of Legg-Perthes’ disease. He was appointed to the staff of the division of orthopaedic surgery at the end of the year, where he continued undertaking research until his retirement from the hospital in 1999. He then practised and taught orthopaedics in Saudi Arabia for one year, until he became ill and returned to Canada. Mercer had many clinical interests in paediatric orthopaedic surgery, but his most important contributions were in the fields of children’s fractures and neuromuscular disorders, especially in cerebral palsy, as well as the history of orthopaedics. He wrote 12 book chapters, and published 61 articles and six books, including *The growth plate and its disorders* (1969, Edinburgh/London, E & S Livingstone), *Children’s fractures* (c1983, Philadelphia, Lippincott) and *The story of orthopaedics* (2000, Philadelphia/London, W B Saunders). He received many honours and awards, including an honorary fellowship of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in 1990, honorary fellowship of the British Orthopaedic Association in 1996 and the Alan Graham Apley gold medal of that Association in 1999. He was married to Helen and they had three daughters (Caroline, Sarah and Louise) and six grandchildren. He died on 6 October 2003 after a long illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000113
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rees, Neville Clark (1922 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Raffle, Philip Andrew Banks (1918 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 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/372302372302
Occupation Occupational physician
Details Andrew Raffle, former chief medical officer of London Transport Executive, was an expert on medical standards for driving. He was born on 3 September 1918 in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his father, Andrew Banks Raffle, a barrister and a doctor, was medical officer for health for South Shields (he was later divisional medical officer to the London County Council). His mother was Daisy née Jarvis, the daughter of a farmer. His two uncles were both doctors. He studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1941, and was subsequently a house surgeon at Cheltenham. He then spent five years with the RAMC, becoming a specialist in venereology in Egypt during the North African campaign with the rank of Major. After demobilisation, he was a medical registrar in Bristol and then took the diploma in public health at the London School of Hygiene. In 1948 he joined London Transport under the aegis of Leslie Norman, whom he succeeded in 1969 as chief medical officer. There he carried out research to find evidence of the relationship between exercise and heart disease, by comparing the health of drivers and conductors. He also worked on the medical aspects of fitness to drive, becoming an acknowledged expert in this field. He advised the Department of Transport and other organisations on safe levels of alcohol in the blood, and the effects of diabetes and various medications on the ability to drive. He edited *Medical aspects of fitness to drive: a guide for medical practitioners* (London, Medical Commission on Accident Prevention, 1976), which became a key text for doctors to use when assessing patients. He was a member of the Blennerhasset committee on drinking and driving legislation. He continued to write papers on health standards for drivers up to 1992. He gave the BMA McKenzie industrial health lecture in 1974 and the Joseph Henry lecture at the College in 1988. He wrote many chapters in textbooks and was co-editor of *Hunter's diseases of occupations* (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1987). He taught occupational medicine to postgraduates and was an examiner, and later convenor, for the diploma in industrial health at the Society of Apothecaries. He became chief medical officer of the St John Association and masterminded the Save-a-Life campaign, to teach resuscitation to a wider public. He was a fellow of the BMA and deputy Chairman of the occupational health committee. He was President of the Society of Occupational Medicine in 1967, and treasurer and subsequently vice-president of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a member of the standing committee which led to the establishment of the new Faculty of Occupational Medicine in 1978. He was a founder fellow and served on the first board of the new faculty. He married Jill, the daughter of Major V H Sharp of the Royal Horse Artillery, in 1941. They had no children. In 1982 they retired to an isolated Oxfordshire village, where he took up gardening. He died of heart failure on 23 January 2004 and is survived by his widow.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000115
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rees, Richard Lestrem (1916 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Richards, Brian (1934 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Rickham, Peter Paul (1917 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372305372305
Occupation Paediatric surgeon
Details Peter Rickham was one of a small group of pioneering surgeons who helped to establish the specialty of paediatric surgery in the UK. He was born in Berlin on 21 June 1917, where his father, Otto Louis Reichenheim, was professor of physics at Berlin University. His mother was Susanne née Huldschinsky. Peter was educated at the Kanton School and the Institute Rosenberg, St Galen, Switzerland. He then went to Queen’s College, Cambridge, and on to St Bartholomew’s for his clinical training, where he won the Butterworth prize for surgery. After junior posts, he joined the RAMC, where he had a distinguished career, taking part in the Normandy invasion and the war in the Far East, reaching the rank of Major. On demobilisation, he trained in paediatric surgery under Sir Denis Browne at Great Ormond Street and Isobella Forshall at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool. After a year as Harkness travelling fellow, spent in Boston and Philadelphia, he was appointed consultant paediatric surgeon at Alder Hey in 1952. He became director of paediatric surgical studies in 1965 and in 1971 was appointed professor of paediatric surgery at the University Children’s Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. He was intensely involved with research. His MS thesis concerned the metabolic response of the newborn to surgery. Later he devised the Rickham reservoir, an integral part of the Holter ventricular drainage system for hydrocephalus. His textbook, *Neonatal surgery* (London, Butterworths, 1969), remained the standard text for many years. At Alder Hey, he set up the first neonatal surgical unit in the world. It became a benchmark for similar units around the world, and resulted in an improvement in the survival of newborn infants undergoing surgery from 22 per cent to 74 per cent. He was Hunterian Professor at the College in 1964 and 1967, was honoured with the Denis Browne gold medal of the British Asosciation of Paediatic Surgeons, the medal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Chevalier Legion d’Honneur in 1979 and the Commander’s Cross (Germany) in 1988. Peter was a founder member of the Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, the European Union of Paediatric Surgeons and of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, serving as its President from 1967 to 1968. He was a cofounder and editor for Europe of the *Journal of Pediatric Surgery*. Innovative, forceful and outspoken, he was passionately involved with his specialty. Shortly after his appointment in Liverpool he became so exasperated by the local paediatricians’ use of barium to diagnose oesophageal atresia that at Christmas 1954 he sent each one a card enclosing a radio-opaque catheter with which to make the diagnosis safely. He took great pride in the achievements of his many pupils who went on to become leaders in their specialty. He married Elizabeth Hartley in 1938 and they had a son, David, and two daughters, Susan and Mary-Anne. Elizabeth died in 1998 and he married for a second time, to Lynn, who nursed him through his final long illness. He had five grandchildren. He died on 17 November 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000118
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roddie, Robert Kenneth (1923 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Sir James Keith (1927 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-09-13
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/372307372307
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details James Keith Ross was a leading cardiac surgeon, and one of the team that performed the first cardiac transplant in Britain. He was born in London on 9 May 1927. His father, Sir James Paterson Ross, was later to become professor of surgery at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Surgeon to the Royal Household and President of the College. His mother, Marjorie Burton Townsend, had been a surgical ward sister at Bart’s. Keith was profoundly influenced by his maternal grandfather, Frederick William Townsend, who taught him to work in wood, a practical education in hand-eye coordination, which laid the foundation of his exceptional surgical skill. Another influence was his godfather, Sir Thomas Dunhill, who, whilst recuperating from a hernia repair, gave Keith a trout rod and insisted on demonstrating it whilst in his pyjamas in the middle of Harley Street. Keith attended the Hall School, Hampstead, and then St Paul’s, where he was the senior scholar. He went on to Middlesex Hospital medical school, where he won the Asher scholarship in anatomy and the Lyell medal in surgery. Qualifying in 1950, he became house surgeon to Thomas Holmes Sellors, won the Hallet prize in the primary FRCS and then did his National Service in the Royal Naval Reserve, mostly at sea. On returning to the Middlesex, he passed the FRCS in 1956 and began a training in cardiothoracic surgery at the Brompton Hospital and as a Fulbright scholar with Frank Gerbode in San Francisco, where his research into the fate of grafts in the heart led to a thesis for his masters in surgery and a Hunterian professorship. He was promoted to senior registrar in 1961 at the Middlesex and Harefield hospitals, and to part-time consultant at Harefield in 1964, and later at the Central Middlesex and Middlesex hospitals. In 1967, he gave up these posts, which involved a good deal of stressful travelling, to join Donald Ross at the National Heart Hospital. He was by now at the top of the tree, recognised both in Britain and abroad. His personal series of 100 consecutive homograft aortic valve replacements with only two hospital deaths was, at the time, unrivalled. It was with surprise that his contemporaries learned that he had moved to Southampton, though those who knew him better understood that he felt he was needed there, and it was his duty to go. Arriving in Southampton in 1972, he was joined the following year by James Monro, who had just returned from a year with Barrett-Boyes in New Zealand, and brought expertise in paediatric cardiac surgery. Together they built up a first rate team, accepting only the highest standards and insisting on a strict audit, both of the short-term results and of quality of life after cardiac surgery. The reputation of the department attracted young surgeons from abroad, in particular from Boston, to work in his unit and to support this he organised a cardiac surgical fellowship. Once the unit was well established, he started a second open heart programme at King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst. He was postgraduate dean and then President of the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons. He was elected to the Council of the College in 1986. He was awarded a fellowship in 1989 and the Bruce medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1980. Keith was a man of great personal charm, with a high sense of duty, fortified by a solid faith. He was perhaps at his happiest whilst fishing, be it on a Highland salmon river or on the Test. He was also a keen sailor and woodworker, and a talented artist – painting took up much of his time once he had retired. Twice he had pictures accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition and, to his glee, sold them both. In 1956, he married Jacqueline Annella Clarke, a Middlesex Hospital nurse. They had four children – a son, Andrew Charles Paterson, an officer in the Royal Marines who succeeds him as third baronet, and three daughters (Susan Wendy, Janet Mary and Anne Townsend). There are eight grandchildren. In 2000, he underwent an operation by his old team to replace his aortic valve. Ironically, it was a procedure he had pioneered. He made an excellent recovery, but nearly a year later developed a dissecting aneursym of the aortic arch: this too was treated with initial success, but he died suddenly on 18 February 2003 in his old hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000120
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Roy, Arthur Douglas (1925 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372308372308
Occupation General surgeon
Details In the course of his career, Douglas Roy held appointments as a professor of surgery on three continents. He was born on 10 April 1925, the son of Arthur Roy and Edith Mary (née Brown). Educated at Paisley Grammar School, he went to Glasgow University to study medicine. After house appointments, he was joined the RAMC in 1948 for his National Service. From 1950 to 1954 he distinguished himself in registrar posts in Glasgow and Inverness. He then went south of the border, to become senior surgical registrar in Oxford and Aylesbury. Returning to Scotland in 1957, he became consultant surgeon, honorary lecturer and first assistant to Sir Charles Illingworth and subsequently to Sir Andrew Watt Kay in the department of surgery at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. In 1968, he was appointed foundation professor at the newly opened faculty of medicine at the University of Nairobi. As well as running a busy department, promoting both undergraduate and postgraduate education, he flew with the flying doctor service, visiting remote areas of the country. In 1973, he became head of Queen’s University department of surgery in Belfast, where he remained for 12 years. Here he stimulated, encouraged and wisely delegated responsibilities in administrative, clinical and research fields. A fine technical surgeon and a dedicated trainer, he was widely respected for his work in gastro-intestinal, breast and endocrine surgery, as well as the management of trauma. He was Chairman of the surgical training committee of the Northern Ireland Council for Postgraduate Medical Education for 11 years. He was on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1979 to 1985, as well as serving on many other committees and advisory bodies. In 1985, he moved to the Sultanate of Oman, where he was chief of surgical services to the Ministry of Health and professor of surgery at the Sultan Qaboos University for three years. In Oman Roy was instrumental in planning a surgical training programme in the newly opened university medical school. Roy published papers on gastro-enterology, endocrine surgery and also wrote a supplement on tropical medicine in *Lecture notes in surgery*. He retired to Honiton, Devon, where he was a non-executive director of a community health trust and President of the Devon and Exeter Medical Society from 1994 to 1995. He was able to enjoy sailing and gardening. He also took up gliding, sharing a glider with a local general practitioner. He went solo on his 65th birthday. He was married twice, first in 1954 to Monica Cecilia Mary Bowley, by whom he had three daughters, and secondly, in 1973, to Patricia Irene McColl. There are three grandchildren. He died from Parkinson’s disease on 21 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000121
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ruddick, Donald William Hugh (1916 - 1997)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Wallace, Sir Cuthbert Sidney (1867 - 1944)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-18 2023-01-13
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/372415372415
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Surbiton, Surrey, on 20 June 1867, the fourth and youngest son of the Rev John Wallace, of Weysprings, Haselmere, and his wife Marion Kezia Jane Agnes Greenway, the daughter of Francis Howard Greenway, a convicted forger and later a prominent architect in Australia. He was educated at Haileybury, 1881-86, and at St Thomas's Hospital. After taking the Fellowship in 1893 he went on, the following year, to the London M.B., B.S. examination, at which he won the gold medal in obstetric medicine and qualified for the gold medal in surgery. At St Thomas's Wallace served as house surgeon, senior obstetric house physician, and surgical registrar 1894-96, and in 1897 was appointed resident assistant surgeon. In this post he began the introduction of the strictest asepsis into the Hospital's practice, and by his enthusiasm and practical ability persuaded the senior staff and the governors to carry through the necessary re-equipment of the operating theatres and the modernizing and electrifying of the wards. The material needs of this pioneer policy were supplied by the Gassiot bequest. As a result of this modernization, hospital authorities and surgeons of many countries came to look to St Thomas's and to Wallace for inspiration and advice in similar problems. In the middle of this work Wallace volunteered for active war service in South Africa. He served 1899-1900 as surgeon to the Portland Hospital under his friend Anthony Bowlby of Bart's, won the medal, and recorded his experiences jointly with Bowlby in *A civilian war hospital*, published in 1901. His experience of the surgery of war-wounds came to stand him in good stead for later, greater campaigns. Returning to London he developed a brilliant career. Wallace's hands were particularly in demand in cases of enlarged prostate and of acute appendicitis; his surgery was marked by skilled economy of time and perspicacious common-sense. At St Thomas's he passed through the offices of assistant surgeon 1900, surgeon 1913, and lecturer on surgery. He was also surgeon to the East London Hospital for Children. He was dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1907, a post to which he returned more than ten years later. On the outbreak of the war he went to France as consulting surgeon to the First Army, British Expeditionary Force, with the temporary rank of colonel, Army Medical Service, dated 29 April 1915; he was promoted major-general on 19 December 1917. Bowlby as consultant to the Second Army at St Omer had oversight of the First as well. Authority disapproved of surgical interference in gunshot wounds of the belly; but Wallace was sympathetic to the urgent appeals of his juniors, and "smuggled" the necessary instruments to the front when inspecting casualty clearing stations; thanks to his encouragement the field surgery of abdominal wounds quickly vindicated itself in practice. John Campbell made the first successful operation for gunshot wound of the stomach, Owen Richards, F.R.C.S. the first successful small-intestine resection, and Claude Frankau, F.R.C.S the first successful resection of the colon for gunshot injury. Wallace's survey of these and further results in his *War surgery of the abdomen*, 1918, became a classic textbook, in demand on the renewal of war in the next generation. He also published jointly with Sir John Fraser, K.C.V.O., *Surgery at a casualty clearing station*, illustrated by Lady Fraser, 1918. While in France, Wallace took a major share in the disposition and administration of the base hospitals. On 28 October 1915 he was called to attend King George V, who had been thrown from his horse while inspecting the R.F.C. aerodrome at Hesdigneul; the King was seriously injured, but resumed full activity in the following February. Wallace was nearly captured at St Venant, when his driver took a wrong turn during the German spring offensive of 1918. For his war service Wallace was created C.M.G in 1916 and C.B. in 1918, and promoted K.C.M.G. in 1919; he had been several times mentioned in despatches, and was also awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal. It was in these years that Wallace found scope for the fullest exercise of his great abilities both surgical and administrative. On his return to St Thomas's he served as senior surgeon and director of the surgical unit for several years, being then elected consulting surgeon, and was dean of the medical school for a record period. He was also dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of London. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was elected both to Court and Council in 1919, and served on the Court for ten years and on the Council for twenty-four years till within a few months of his death. In 1923 and 1929 he was appointed an examiner in surgery on the Dental Board; he gave the Bradshaw lecture in 1927, and the Hunterian oration in 1934. He was a vice-president in 1926-27, and president 1935-38. In 1937 he was created a Baronet. Wallace was elected a trustee of the Hunterian collection in 1942. In February 1943 he put before the Council an informal memorandum on the Fellowship. He gave the College library a specially typed copy of the unpublished autobiography of Sir George Makins, under whom he had long served at St Thomas's, at the College, and in France; he had it finely bound by Mrs Loosely, sister of Sir D'Arcy Power, one of the best bookbinders in the country. Wallace's counsel was much in demand. He served on the Radium Commission and the Medical Research Council, and was chairman of the M.R.C. radiology committee; from 1930 he was director of medical services and research at the Mount Vernon Hospital, Hampstead, under the M.R.C. and the Radium Commission. From 1920 he was a hospital visitor under King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, and later a member of its general council and distribution committee. He was also chairman of several committees of the British Empire Cancer Campaign; and for nine years (1935-44) chairman of the London and Counties Medical Protection Society. During the official visit of British surgeons on 5 and 6 July 1937 to the newly reconstituted Académie de Chirurgie in Paris he was decorated an Officer of the Legion of Honour by the President of the Republic. In 1929 he was gazetted honorary colonel of the 47th (2nd London) Unit of the R.A.M.C. (T.F.). On the outbreak of the second world-war Wallace was appointed chairman of the consultant advisers to the Ministry of Health's emergency medical service; he was also a member of the Army Medical Advisory Board, and in June 1940 was appointed chairman of the Medical Research Council's committee on the application of the results of research to the treatment of war wounds. He received honorary degrees from Oxford, Durham, and Birmingham Universities, and was an honorary Fellow of the American Surgical Association. He took an active interest in the welfare of his old school, Haileybury. Wallace married on 6 July 1912 Florence Mildred, youngest daughter of Herbert Jackson of Sussex Place, Regent's Park, who survived him but without children. He had lived at 5 Cambridge Terrace, Regent's Park N.W., and died in Mount Vernon Hospital on 24 May 1944, less than a month before his seventy-seventh birthday. He was privately buried and a memorial service, arranged by the Royal College, St Thomas's, and Mount Vernon, was held in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn on 8 June 1944. His country house was at Whipsnade, near Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Wallace was a brilliant surgeon whose *obiter dicta*, such as "the surgeon who does not trust the peritoneum if not fit to do abdominals", or "the key to gastrectomy is the mobilisation of the lesser curvature", were treasured by those who heard them. He made his way to a unique place among his fellow surgeons by sheer ability and honest practical shrewdness, coupled with a warm-hearted wish to help, whether as surgeon, teacher, or counsellor. He was of middle height and upright carriage, and in later years with his bright complexion and white hair had the air of a distinguished solider, accentuated by his pepper-and-salt suit and blue-and-white spotted bow-tie. He was an excellent chairman, as economic of time here as he had been in the operating theatre. His somewhat brusque manner and speech were belied by his humour and his ability to win the affection of all with whom he worked. *Publications*: Wallace contributed in early years to *St Thomas's Hospital Reports* and to the *Transactions* of the Clinical and Pathological Societies. His writings include: *A civilian war hospital, being an account of the work of the Portland Hospital and of experience of wounds and sickness in South Africa* [issued anonymously, with A. Bowlby]. London, 1901. *Prostatic enlargement*, with section on *Bacteriology* by Leonard S. Dudgeon. London, 1907. A study of 1200 cases of gunshot wounds of the abdomen. *Brit. J. Surg.* 1917, 4, 679-743. *War surgery of the abdomen*. London, 1918. *Surgery at a casualty clearing station*, with Sir John Fraser; illustrated by Lady Fraser. London, 1918. *Surgery of the war*, edited jointly with Sir Wm. Grant Macpherson, Sir A. A. Bowlby, and Sir T. Crisp English, in the official War Office *History of the Medical Services in the Great War of 1914-18*. H.M.S.O., 1922, 2 vols. A review of prostatic enlargement, Bradshaw lecture, R.C.S. *Lancet*, 1927, 2, 1059-1064. *Medical education 1760-1934*, Hunterian oration, R.C.S., 1934. Not published, the author's transcript is in the College library. *Thoughts on the Fellowship*, 1943. Unpublished memorandum laid before the College Council, February 1943. **This is an amended version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 2 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk**
Resource Identifier RCS: E000228
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Boustany, Wa'el Seifeddin (1931 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Radley Smith, Eric John (1910 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372317372317
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric John Smith was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born on 31 March 1910 in Norwood, Surrey, the second son of Robert Percy and Edith Smith. His early life was overshadowed by the death from Hodgkin’s disease of his elder brother who had been a child prodigy, and Eric spent his schooldays trying to fulfill the promise of his brother. In this he was far from unsuccessful, winning prizes and commendations at all his schools – Paston’s in Norfolk, Haverford West Grammar and Sutton County Grammar (the moves being occasioned by his father’s work as a construction engineer). He went up to King’s College Hospital at the age of 17 and again distinguished himself, being rewarded with the Jelf medal and Huxley prize, as well as gaining four distinctions in his finals. A keen sportsman, he represented the college at cricket and rugby. He was proud of being the last house surgeon of Lord Lister’s last house surgeon (Arthur Edmunds) and was appointed as a surgical registrar at King’s, and later house surgeon at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. At the age of 29 he was appointed to consultant sessions at Brentford Hospital, thereby beginning an association with Brentford Football Club, one that lasted for the rest of his life, as he became in turn medical adviser, director and President. At the outbreak of the second world war he was appointed consultant general surgeon in the Emergency Medical Service at Horton Hospital, Epsom, in which over 60,000 patients were treated during the war. His special contribution was to act as triage officer at Epsom station when trainloads of casualties arrived, and with his quick assessment and remarkable memory he directed each one to the appropriate ward in the hospital. At the same time he was working at Hurstwood Park Neurological Hospital. When in 1946 he joined the Royal Air Force as a surgical specialist, he undertook further neurosurgical specialist duties. In 1948 he spent a year with Olivecrona in his neurosurgical unit in Sweden, one of the world’s pre-eminent centres. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, continuing his interest in neurosurgery by undertaking some of the earliest prefrontal leucotomies in the UK. He also pioneered hypophysectomy in the treatment of breast cancer. It is curious that this most conservative of men should have made his special contribution in two of its most radical fields. He was also surgeon to the Royal Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, and much valued the work he was called upon to undertake in close association with his colleagues there, especially in the area of intracranial sepsis. During his active years, and indeed long into retirement, his expert opinion was much sought in legal cases, due to his clarity of thought and expression. In 1937 he married a King’s sister, Eileen Radley, not only incorporating her name with his as ‘Radley Smith’, but being called ‘Radley’ thereafter by all his colleagues and acquaintances. They had a son, Nigel, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Rosemary, qualified in medicine and had a distinguished career as a paediatric cardiologist. Sadly his son predeceased him as a result of lung cancer. Despite the time he gave to football, almost never missing a Brentford match, Radley took a great interest in farming, specialising in raising dairy cattle. He died on 19 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000130
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bradfield, William John Dickson (1924 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Brand, Paul Wilson (1914 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
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/372215372215
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Paul Brand, a celebrated orthopaedic surgeon, devoted his life to the care of patients with leprosy. He was born in a remote mountain district in south east India, 150 miles from Mysore, on 17 July 1914, the son of Jesse Brand and his wife, Evelyn, both Baptist missionaries. Paul was sent away to England at the age of nine to attend the University College School, Hampstead, and for the next six years did not see his parents. After leaving school, he first decided on a career in building and construction, and in 1930 began a five-year building apprenticeship. In 1936 he began training to become a missionary at Norwood, Surrey. The following year he changed direction, and entered University College Medical School in London. There he met his future wife, Margaret Berry (they were married in 1943). During the second world war, he and his fellow students were on constant call during the Blitz. It was while treating these patients that Brand first began to develop an interest in hand surgery. The medical school was later evacuated to Watford, where he became interested in physiology and the control of pain. In 1944 he was appointed as a surgical officer at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, and then became assistant in the surgical unit at University College Hospital. In 1946 Brand and his wife were invited by Robert Cochrane, the foremost authority on leprosy, to join him at the Christian Medical College Hospital at Vellore, Tamil Nadu, southern India. Cochrane challenged Brand to use his skills as an orthopaedic surgeon to research and treat the disabilities associated with leprosy. Through his subsequent research Brand changed the world’s perceptions and treatments of leprosy-affected people. Firstly, he pioneered the idea that the loss of fingers and toes in leprosy was due to the patient losing the feeling of pain, and was not due to inherent decay brought on by the disease. Secondly, as a skilled and inventive hand surgeon, he pioneered tendon transfer techniques with leprosy patients, opening up a new world of disability prevention and rehabilitation. His original tendon transplantation, using a good muscle from the patient’s forearm, became known as the ‘Brand operation’. In 1953 the Brands joined the staff of the Leprosy Mission International and continued to develop their research and training work at Vellore and the newly founded Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Centre, Karigiri. In 1964 Brand was appointed as the International Leprosy Mission’s director of surgery and rehabilitation. Two years later, the Brands were seconded to the US Public Health Service Hospital in Carville, Louisiana, a renowned centre for leprosy research. He became chief of rehabilitation and for more than 20 years taught surgery and orthopaedics at the Medical College at Louisiana State University. He served on the expert panel for leprosy of the World Health Organization. He was medical consultant and then international president of the Leprosy Mission, from 1992 to 1999, co-founded the All-Africa Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Centre (ALERT) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and served on the board of the American Leprosy Missions. After retiring in the mid-1980s, Brand moved to Seattle to become emeritus clinical professor of orthopaedics at the University of Washington. He authored more than 100 clinical papers, as well as the textbook *Clinical mechanics of the hand* (St Louis, Missouri, Mosby, 1985), and two books on religion and medicine (*Fearfully and wonderfully made* [Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, c.1980] and *The forever feast: letting God satisfy your deepest hunger* [Crowborough, Monarch, 1994]). He was appointed CBE in 1961, and was awarded the Damian Dutton award in 1977. He was Hunterian Professor at the College in 1952 and received the Albert Lasker award in 1960. He died on 8 July 2003 from complications related to a subdural haematoma. He is survived by his wife, an expert on the ophthalmic effects of leprosy, his children (Estelle, Chris, Jean, Mary, Patricia and Pauline) and 12 grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000028
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brough, Michael David (1942 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Calvert, Paul Thornton (1949 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2012-07-19
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/372219372219
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Paul Calvert was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St George's Hospital, London, and at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. He was born on 17 March 1949, the son of John Calvert, a civil engineer, and Barbara, a barrister. He was educated at the Dragon School and Rugby, where he excelled in all court games, especially rackets. He later went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read natural sciences. After his first year, when he played hockey, rackets and real tennis (for which he was later awarded a blue), he changed courses to read medicine. He later went on to Guy's to do his clinical studies. After qualification and house jobs, he and Deborah, whom he married as a student, went to Vancouver, Canada, where he spent a year on rotation as a surgical resident. On his return to the UK, he worked for a while as a general surgical registrar, before specialising in orthopaedics. He was then a senior house officer at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, subsequently becoming a registrar and then senior registrar. He became interested in the shoulder after working with Lipman Kessel and later with Ian Bayley. After serving as senior surgical officer at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and as lecturer to the professorial unit, he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Hinchingbooke Hospital in 1985. But, finding he missed the excitement of a teaching department, he transferred to a consultant post at St George's Hospital in 1986. The shoulder firm at St George's rapidly expanded under his leadership, with the development of arthroscopic surgery and shoulder replacement. Reluctantly, he dropped his paediatric orthopaedic commitment, but he continued to be involved with trauma and covered general orthopaedic emergencies. He was the lead surgeon at St George's dealing with the aftermath of the Clapham rail crash in 1988. In 1993, he took on sessions at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital to work with Ian Bayley. He published a number of important papers, particularly on shoulder topics, including papers on habitual instability and on the consequences of the Clapham rail crash. He maintained his interest in teaching and was Chairman of the regional specialist training committee. He was appointed trainer of the year by the British Orthopaedic Trainees' Association. He negotiated with the Department of Health on behalf of the British Orthopaedic Association to increase the number of orthopaedic surgeons in training. In 1999, he was found to have an ocular melanoma. Despite the effect it had on his eyesight, he continued to work to enlarge the orthopaedic department at St George's. He also built up a successful private practice, both in Wimbledon and at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John's Wood, to whose hospice ward he asked to be admitted shortly before he died. He took early retirement at Christmas 2003, and died on 7 May 2004 of secondary melanoma. He left his wife, Deborah, and two children. His sister, Sandra Calvert, is also a consultant at St George's. The new orthopaedic operating theatres at St George's have been named after him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000032
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cameron, Alexander (1933 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14 2006-12-21
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/372220372220
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alexander Cameron, known as ‘Alistair’, was a consultant surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born in Tranent, East Lothian, on 1 August 1933, the son of Alexander Cameron, a miner who became vice-president of the National Union of Mineworkers for the Scottish area, and Margaret née Hogg, a shop assistant. He was educated at Tranent Public Primary School and then Preston Lodge School, where he gained a distinction in literature and was *dux* of his class. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and then did house jobs at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. From 1957 to 1959, he served as a surgeon lieutenant, first in Portsmouth, and then as a medical officer aboard HMS *Torquay* and then HMS *Scarborough*, part of the Fifth Frigate Squadron of the Mediterranean fleet, visiting Malta and Syracuse. In July 1958, he was present at the nuclear test explosions on Christmas Island. His meticulous medical records of this and his formal instructions for decontamination and cleansing remain intact for safe keeping with his wife. He then sailed back to the UK via Samoa, Auckland, Sydney, Perth, Sri Lanka and the Suez Canal. Returning to civilian life south of the border as senior house officer at the North Middlesex Hospital, he gained his FRCS in 1962. An appointment as research assistant to Leslie Le Quesne and Michael Hobsley from 1964 to 1967 was followed by a rotating registrar post to the Middlesex and Central Middlesex hospitals, where he fell under the influence of Sir Rodney Sweetman, P Newman, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors and Peter Gummer. He became senior registrar to O V Lloyd Davies from 1967 to 1970, followed by his appointment as senior lecturer with honorary consultant status in 1970. Gaining his masters degree in 1973, he went to Sweden and Germany to learn the techniques of the Koch continent ileostomy, which he went on to popularise in the UK. Appointed consultant surgeon to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1973, he was the first person with a specialist colo-proctological interest: the unit is now much expanded. It was usual in those days for the ‘junior’ surgeon in Norwich to have a paediatric interest, so Alistair spent some time at Great Ormond Street to help him in his new venture. He was surgical tutor from 1976 to 1979, and was a popular and outstanding teacher at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. A series of myocardial infarcts obliged him to retire early in 1988. He was operated on at Papworth in 1981 and 1989 by J Wallwork, using a procedure pioneered by his own boss, Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors. Distancing himself from medicine, he was able to continue his interests in astronomy, botany, microscopy, modern languages (French, German, Spanish and Italian), together with his passion for philosophy, poetry, history and politics. It was in these areas he was a formidable opponent in debate. An earlier interest in classical Greek and Latin was rekindled and, with an outstanding knowledge of computer technology, he managed to fill his life restricted by cardiac disability. An article on his experiences as a cardiac patient ‘Reflections in a glass box’, showed true and amusingly thoughtful insight into the NHS, its staff and his own condition. He met Elizabeth (‘Widdy’) neé Padfield when she was a surgical ward sister at the Middlesex. They married in 1970 and had four sons, Duncan, Angus, Hamish and Dougal. Alistair died on 20 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000033
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Campbell, Sir Donald (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
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/372221372221
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Sir Donald Campbell was a former professor of anaesthesia at the University of Glasgow and President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow from 1992 to 1994. He was born on 8 March 1930 at Rutherglen, near Glasgow, the son of Archibald Peter and Mary Campbell. He attended Hutcheson’s Boys’ Grammar School and then went on to the University of Glasgow, where he studied medicine. After completing resident posts, he left for Canada to begin his training in anaesthesia, working in Edmonton and in Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1956 he returned to Glasgow to complete his training at the Royal Infirmary and Stobhill. From 1959 to 1960, he was a lecturer in anaesthetics at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In 1960 he transferred to the health service department as a consultant anaesthetist, a post he held for the next 16 years. While training in Canada he had developed an interest in anaesthesia for heart surgery and also noted the early development of intensive care units. Using his diplomatic skills, he succeeded in persuading his colleagues that this was the way forward for their patients. The respiratory intensive care unit was opened in 1966, with Campbell as its first director. His research interests covered the development of ventilators, the pharmacology of new analgesic drugs, and the effects of smoke inhalation on the lungs. His published works included over 100 papers on anaesthesia, intensive care, and related subjects in peer-reviewed journals. He was the author of two textbooks. In 1976 he was appointed to the chair of anaesthesia in Glasgow. In this post he was able to develop his interest in medical education. For a period of four years from 1987 he was dean of the medical school. From 1985 to 1990 he was Chairman of the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical Education. As a member of the medical advisory committee of the British Council he was involved in arranging attachments to UK departments for many young trainee anaesthetists from overseas and also from the Royal Navy. On the national stage, he was vice-president of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland in 1977, and President of the Scottish Society of Anaesthetists in 1979. He was an examiner and board member of the Faculty of Anaesthetists (the forerunner of the Royal College of Anaesthetists), and was elected dean of the faculty for three years from 1982. He went on to become vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1985 to 1987. Before he retired, he was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the first anaesthetist to hold this post. He was awarded the CBE in 1987 and he received his knighthood in 1994, in recognition of his contribution to medicine. He suffered a stroke soon after his retirement, and this limited his ability to enjoy his favourite sports of fishing, curling and shooting. It did not, however, suppress his enjoyment of people and his skill as a raconteur. He married twice. His first wife was Nancy Rebecca McKintosh, ‘Nan’. They married in 1954 and had a son and a daughter. After her death in 1974 he married Catherine Conway Braeburn. They had two daughters. He died on 14 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000034
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brock, Russell Claude, Lord Brock of Wimbledon (1903 - 1980)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-01 2007-03-21
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/372422372422
Details Born on 24 October, 1903, the son of Elvina and Herbert Brock. Educated at Christ’s Hospital he entered Guy’s Medical School, with an arts scholarship, at the age of 17. As a medical student he early showed the brilliance and force of character which were to mark his whole career. He won the Treasurer’s Gold Medal both in medicine and in surgery, and the Golding Bird Medal in pathology. He also won the BMA Prize Essay in 1926. After qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma he sat the London MB BS examination a year later and obtained honours in medicine, surgery and anatomy. He became Hunterian Professor in 1928 and in 1929 he was awarded a Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship and joined the department of Evarts Graham in St Louis, from which time he developed his interest in thoracic surgery. On his return he became surgical registrar and tutor at Guy’s and in 1932 a research fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain. In 1935 he won the Jacksonian Prize, and in the same year was appointed consultant thoracic surgeon to the LCC. In 1936 he was appointed to the staff of Guy’s and the Brompton Hospital and Surgeon to the Ministry of Pensions at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton. During the second world war he was thoracic surgeon and regional advisor in thoracic surgery to the EMS. After the war he was elected to the Council of the College to the work of which he had devoted so much time despite his heavy clinical and teaching commitments. He served from 1949 to 1966 successively as a member of Council, Vice-President and finally President from 1963 to 1966. During this period he delivered an outstanding Bradshaw Lecture in 1957 and Hunterian Oration in 1960. After relinquishing the Presidency he became a member of the Court of Patrons and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hunterian Collection. On retirement from his hospital posts in 1968 he continued to devote himself to his private patients and to his researches as director of the College’s department of surgical sciences which he had promoted while President. He maintained that private practice and hospital care were complementary to the NHS. He was active in promoting the Private Pensions Plan, of which he was Chairman from 1967 to 1977 and President in 1978. As well as being himself a pioneer in numerous cardio-thoracic techniques Brock was always interested in the work of others, from Sir Astley Cooper – a predecessor at Guy’s – to contemporary surgeons such as Alfred Blalock, who came to Guy’s as a visiting professor. One of the numerous honours which he particularly cherished was that of honorary visiting physician to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In all he received twenty or more honorary Fellowships and Doctorates from the British Isles, Europe and North and South America, as well as numerous prizes and gold medals. He was President of the Thoracic Society in 1951, President of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland in 1958 and President of the Medical School of London in 1968. He wrote extensively on surgical subjects: from his first paper as a student in the *Guy’s Hospital gazette*, written at the age of 20, to one of his last, before he retired at 65. Apart from his own publications he contributed many chapters to other volumes and one hundred and twenty individual papers with the same number in collaboration. His best known publications were: *The anatomy of the bronchial tree*, *The anatomy of congenital pulmonary stenosis*, *The life and work of Astley Cooper*, and *Lung abscess*. He wrote succinctly and would not tolerate misuse of the English language – to the patient who asked ‘Do I need surgery, Sir?’ he replied, ‘Everyone needs surgery, Madam, what you need is an operation!’ In teaching and training students and young surgeons he expected the same dedication which he displayed himself, and would not tolerate laziness nor suffer fools gladly. Those who passed successfully through the fire could be sure of his continued interest and encouragement. Brock’s literary interests were early appreciated at Guy’s where he was chosen as assistant editor of the *Guy’s Hospital reports* in 1935, before he was appointed to the staff, and editor in 1939. He remained in office till 1960. His others interests were historical and antiquarian. He had an extensive knowledge of old furniture and prints, a special interest London Bridge and its environs. He was closely involved in identifying, restoring and preserving the operating theatre at old St Thomas’s Hospital. In 1927 he married a Frenchwoman, Germaine Louise Ladezere and they had three daughters. Brock was not an easy man to know nor, on occasion, to work with. His shyness had a determined character, and his brusque manner was both in compensation for his shyness and cloak which concealed his essential kindness and generosity. His last years were saddened by the death of one of his three daughters, who had married Colin Howe FRCS, followed by that of his wife and also by the modifications which circumstances made necessary to his beloved department of surgical sciences. In 1979 he married Christine Palmer Jones who survives him. He died at Guy’s Hospital on September 3, 1980.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000235
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Atkins, Sir Hedley John Barnard (1904 - 1983)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-01 2014-04-30
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/372423372423
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Hedley Atkins was the son of a distinguished Guy's general practitioner, Sir John Atkins KCMG, KCVO, FRCS, and Elizabeth May (née Smith) Hedley, by which name he was always known, was educated at Rugby, Trinity College, Oxford and Guy's. He was a man of commanding presence and excellent physique, playing rugby football for his school, Middlesex, The Harlequins and Guy's. He seldom missed attending Guy's matches for the rest of his life. He was a keen sailor and latterly a dedicated gardener. Having obtained first class honours in his physiology degree at Oxford and the Hallett Prize in the primary FRCS examination he went to Guy's with an entrance scholarship where he won the Treasurer's gold medal in clinical surgery qualifying in 1932. All his resident appointments were at Guy's and he became an FRCS in 1934 and Master of Chirurgery at Oxford in 1935. Two years later, in 1937, at the early age of 31 he was appointed to the staff of Guy's as assistant surgeon and spent all his professional life in that institution. At one stage of the war, during the Blitz, the hospital was completely surrounded by fire and he had to direct the evacuation. In 1942 he went to North Africa with the RAMC and subsequently served in Italy and the UK, was mentioned in despatches and was demobilised with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Hedley returned to Guy's after the war determined to bring a scientist's approach to what was then very much the art of surgery. He was appointed Director of the department of surgery and pursued his own special interest in breast diseases. He was a pioneer in using controlled trials to evaluate different modes of treatment of breast cancer and meticulous in his observance of ethical principles which was no easy task with such an emotive subject. Distinguished visitors from both home and abroad were regularly invited to take the Saturday morning rounds at Guy's and he also hosted outstanding courses of lectures on modern methods of measurement in science which were published in three volumes as *Tools of biological research*. Hedley's contribution to the field of breast cancer was twofold; first an appreciation of the importance of controlled clinical trials and second, a study of the hormonal factors influencing the prognosis. This work has a fitting memorial in the Hedley Atkins Breast Unit at New Cross Hospital. At the Royal College of Surgeons Hedley joined the Court of Examiners in 1949, was elected to Council in 1952, Vice-President 1964-66 and was President from 1966 to 1969. His natural gifts made him the ideal choice for such a position and these were probably the happiest and proudest years of his life. He was Bradshaw Lecturer in 1965, Hunterian Orator in 1971 and joined the Court of Patrons in 1972. Hedley was a fluent speaker and enjoyed the opportunity which the College's monthly dinner gave him to address informally the Fellows and their guests. He had an excellent command of the English language due to his grounding in the classics and his lifelong habit of reading. He seldom used notes when lecturing. His opinions were sought by many bodies and he served on the General Medical Council and on the clinical research board of the Medical Research Council. He presided over the Surgical Research Society in 1960. At this period many honours were conferred on him and he became honorary fellow of most of the colleges of surgeons. He enjoyed visiting surgical centres abroad and was Sims Travelling Commonwealth Professor in 1961, acting as visiting professor in a number of American universities. He gave many eponymous lectures and was visiting examiner at the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, London, Birmingham and the West Indies. As an author he contributed widely to surgical and medical journals, mainly on breast disease, and his most recent publication in 1977 was autobiographical, *Memoirs of a surgeon*. In 1953 the Royal College of Surgeons of England acquired Down House, the former home of Charles Darwin in the village of Downe in Kent and adjoining the College's Buckston Browne Research Farm. The ground floor of the house became a museum dedicated to Darwin, and Hedley and his wife moved into the upper floor which became their home. He was the honorary, and indeed enthusiastic, curator of the museum and tended it was reverent care. His love of gardening was given full rein on retirement and many generations of surgeons have enjoyed his gracious hospitality in Down House and its gardens. Hedley married Gladys Gwendoline Jones, the daughter of a civil engineer, in 1933 and his family gave him great happiness. Hedley will be rememberd as a kind, scholarly surgeon who enjoyed helping the younger member of his profession. He died on 26 November 1983, survived by his wife and his two sons David, and Christopher, a physician in Canada.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000236
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Carr, George Raymond (1922 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Cheng, Koon-Sung (1966 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, Samuel Henry Creighton (1912 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372224372224
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Henry Clarke was a consultant urological surgeon in Brighton and mid Sussex until his retirement in December 1976. He was born in Derby on 1 January 1912, the son of Samuel Creighton Clarke, a general practitioner in Derby and the son of a gentleman farmer from Newtownbutler, Ireland, and Florence Margaret Caroline née Montgomery, a descendent of the Montgomery who accidentally killed Henry II of France in a jousting match in 1559. Clarke was educated at Monkton Combe junior and senior schools, and then went on to St Bartholomew’s medical school, where he was a medical clerk to Lord Horder and a surgical dresser to Sir James Paterson Ross. From 1937 to 1938 he was a casualty officer, house surgeon and senior resident at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He enlisted in July 1939, joining the 4th Field Hospital, as part of the British Expeditionary Force. In 1940, at Dunkirk, he organised the evacuation of men on to the boats, under aerial attack. He left Dunkirk on one of the last boats out. In 1942 he was sent out to North Africa, and was present at the Battle of El Alamein. At the end of the North African campaign, as part of the 8th Army, he took part in the invasion of Italy. He ended the war as a Major in the RAMC. After the war, he returned to Bart’s, where he was much inspired by A W Badenoch. After appointments at Bart’s, as a chief assistant (senior registrar) and at St Peter’s Hospital for Stone (as a senior registrar), he became a consultant in general surgery at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital in 1950. In 1956 he was appointed as a consultant urological surgeon to the Brighton and Lewes, and mid Sussex Hospital groups. He was a member of the council of the British Association of Urological Surgeons from 1961 to 1964, and a former Chairman of the Brighton branch of the BMA. He married Elizabeth Bradney Pershouse in 1947 and they had a daughter, Caroline Julia Creighton. There are three grandchildren – Rachel, Brittany and Alexander. He was interested in rugby, tennis and golf, and collected liqueurs and whiskies. He retired to St Mary Bourne, and became an active member of his parish. He died from heart failure on 15 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000037
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Botting, Terence David John (1934 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-06-21 2012-03-22
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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/372428372428
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Terry Botting was an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon. He was born on 3 January 1934 in Birmingham. His father, Royston Eric Jack Botting, was a machine tool setter, and his mother was Jessica Sarah née Tidmarsh. He was educated at Bablake School, Coventry, and Birmingham University. He became consultant and senior lecturer in orthopaedic and trauma surgery at Selly Oak and Birmingham Accident Hospitals. He was somewhat unconventional in appearance, with a penchant for wearing jazzy ties and white shoes: his patients would often place bets as to what he would be wearing on his ward rounds. He married Diane Kathleen née Walsgrove in 1956, by whom he had three sons (Adrian Royston, Trevor George and Stephen David St John). She predeceased him in May 1986 and in 1987 he married for a second time, to Eunice Ann née Burrows. He retired in 1992, spent six months in France and then a year on a philosophy course at Warwick University. He also made frequent visits to Australia to visit his grandsons. He was a keen watercolourist and enjoyed golf and fly-fishing. He died suddenly at home on 28 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000241
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pinker, Sir George Douglas (1924 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08
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/372608372608
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details George Pinker, Surgeon-Gynaecologist to the Queen from 1973 to 1990, was born in Calcutta on 6 December 1924, the son of Ronald Douglas Pinker and Queenie Elizabeth née Dix. Like so many English children in those days, he went to England at the age of four, and was educated at Reading School. He went on to St Mary’s Hospital in 1942 to study medicine. He had a fine baritone voice and, having played Pish-Tush in a school production of *The Mikado*, he was offered a contract with the D’Oyly Carte Company, but decided to continue in medicine. After junior posts he did National Service in the RAMC, serving in Singapore, and returned to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary’s and the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. He was appointed consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician at St Mary’s in 1958, and this was followed by appointments at King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, the Middlesex Hospital, and Queen Charlotte’s and Bolingbroke hospitals. He succeeded Sir John Peel as Surgeon-Gynaecologist to the Queen and attended nine royal births, insisting on each occasion that the deliveries would take place in St Mary’s Hospital rather than at home, on grounds of safety. He received many honours, was president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from 1987 to 1990, and president of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1992 to 1995. His many publications included contributions to Gynaecology by ten teachers, *Obstetrics by ten teachers* (both London, Edward Arnold, 1980 and 1985) and *A short textbook of gynaecology and obstetrics* (London, English Universities Press, 1967). George Pinker was a man of unusual charm. He had many interests, most notably music (he was vice-president of the London Choral Society in 1988), skiing, gardening and sailing. He married Dorothy Emma Russell, who predeceased him after a long illness, when he cared for her. They had three sons and one daughter. His last days were marred by the development of Parkinsonism, which he suffered with great stoicism. He died on 29 April 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000424
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Charles Graham (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
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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/372471372471
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Wilson was a surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was born in Adelaide on 3 April 1924. His father, Sir George Wilson, was a founding fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and a foundation fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. His mother, Elsa May Cuzens, had been a nurse. He was educated at St Peter’s College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he won a blue for golf. After qualifying in 1947 he was an intern at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 15 months before joining the RAMC, serving with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan for a year. He returned to Australia to spend a year as a resident at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He then went to England to study for the FRCS, working at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, and Kingston General Hospital. After passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships he returned to Australia in 1954. He was first a registrar and then a senior registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 1959 he became an honorary assistant surgeon, becoming a full surgeon in 1969 and a senior visiting surgeon in 1970. He remained at the Royal Adelaide Hospital until 1988. In 1967 he led the South Australian Civilian Surgical Team to South Vietnam, and in 1969 was lieutenant colonel surgeon at the First Australian Field Hospital for three months, remaining as consulting general surgeon to Central Command from 1969 to 1979. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons he was chairman of the South Australia state committee, coordinator of surgical training from 1975 to 1980, and served on the Court of Examiners. He was a keen golfer, serving as captain and later president of the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. He married Lois Penelope Fox: they had two daughters, Susan and Philippa, and one son, Thomas Graham Wilson, who is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Charles Wilson died on 15 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000284
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Perrins, David John Dyson (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Thompson, Heath Thurlow (1920 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Trevor-Roper, Patrick Dacre (1916 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372325372325
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Patrick Dacre Trevor-Roper, known as ‘T R’, was an acclaimed eye surgeon and a successful campaigner. He was born in Alnwick, Northumberland, on 7 June 1916, where his father, Bertie William Edward Trevor-Roper, was in general practice. His mother was Kathleen Elizabeth née Davison. He was educated at Charterhouse, where he was a senior classical scholar, and won an exhibition to Clare College, Cambridge. He went on to the Westminster Hospital for his clinical training. There he was introduced to the delights of ophthalmology by the leading eye surgeon E F King, who occupied a neighbouring mattress in the hospital air raid shelter and introduced him to Moorfields. He served with the New Zealand Medical Corps from 1943 to 1945 and then specialised in ophthalmology, becoming consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Westminster and Moorfields Eye Hospitals in 1947. There he established the Moorfields eye bank. He also set up the Haile Selassie Eye Hospital in Addis Ababa and organised the opening of an ophthalmic unit in Lagos and a mobile eye unit in Sierra Leone for the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind. He was vice-president of the Ophthamological Society of the UK, section President of the Royal Society of Medicine and a founder member of the International Academy of Ophthalmology. He was Doyne medallist of the Oxford Ophthalmogical Society. The Patrick Trevor-Roper undergraduate award at the Royal College of Ophthalmogists was established in 1997. For 38 years he was editor of the *Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of the UK* (which became *Eye* when the Society became the Royal College of Ophthalmologists). He wrote several key textbooks on ophthalmology, including *Ophthalmology: a textbook for diploma students* (1955), which later became *Lecture notes in ophthalmology* and then *The eye and its disorders*. But it was as the author of *The world through blunted sight* (London, Thames and Hudson, 1971) that he became known to the wider public. In this amusingly written book, he argued that the proportions, perspectives and palette of many celebrated painters was the result of ophthamological problems such as short sight, astigmatism, glaucoma and cataract. A gentle, dithery, sometimes impatient, boffin-like man, he had an endless sense of fun and was popular with students, who invited him to be president or chairman of many of their societies. His large circle of friends, who would meet at weekends at Long Crichel House in Dorset, a former rectory and a centre for like-minded writers, included music and literary critics, composers, poets, artists and actors. In 1955 he was one of a handful of establishment figures to give evidence to the Wolfenden Committee, which ultimately decriminalised homosexual activity between consenting adults. In those days, this was a brave thing to do. Trevor-Roper told the committee that gay men posed no threat to heterosexual youth, and provided evidence of the extent of blackmail of homosexuals, which had led to many suicides. Later, in the 1960s, he campaigned against the “venal manipulations of drug companies”, particularly the bogus conferences where speakers would puff the companies’ new products. He also campaigned successfully against the opticians’ monopoly of the sale of reading glasses. A trustee of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, he helped found the HIV/AIDS charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, which was run from his house until it expanded into larger premises. He travelled widely, visiting, among other places, Borneo, Nigeria, Malawi and the Falklands. In 2003 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and a year later was found to have a cancer in the neck, from an unknown primary. He died on 22 April 2004 and is survived by his partner of many years, Herman Chan. His brother Hugh, the historian Lord Dacre of Glanton, and his sister, Sheila, predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000138
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372482372482
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Timothy Walter Scannell was an orthopaedic surgeon in the north-east. He was born in Cork on 9 July 1940, the fourth son of Frederick Joseph Scannell, an accountant, and Esther Katherine née Harley, the daughter of a merchant tailor. He was educated at the Christian Brothers’ College, Cork, and University College, Cork. After qualifying he held junior posts in Cork, at the South Infirmary, Bantry Hospital and St Stephen’s Hospital, and at Birmingham Accident Hospital. He trained in orthopaedic surgery at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He was appointed as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the North East Health Board. He married Maureen Daly, a nurse, in 1968. They had two daughters and a son. He died after a long illness on 9 March 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000295
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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 Kmiot, Witold Andrzej Wladyslaw (1959 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2007-11-22 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/372611372611
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Wit Kmiot was a consultant in general and colorectal surgery at St Thomas' Hospital, London. He was born in London on 15 August 1959, to Polish parents. He was an undergraduate at King's College, London, and Westminster Medical School, qualifying in 1983. House officer appointments in Poole and King's Lynn were followed by an accident and emergency post at Charing Cross Hospital. He then moved to the Midlands and spent his registrar and senior registrar years in different hospitals in Birmingham. During this time he developed an interest in colorectal surgery and was awarded a travelling fellowship to the Cleveland Clinic in Florida, where he gained special coloproctological experience. He spent time as a research fellow in the academic department of surgery in Birmingham, where he studied the aetiology of acute reservoir ileitis after restorative proctocolectomy. In 1991 the resulting thesis was accepted for the degree of master of surgery, and in the same year he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the college for this work. In 1994 he returned to London as senior lecturer and honorary consultant in colorectal surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, working with Robin Williamson. He remained in this post for two years, before moving to an NHS consultant appointment at the Central Middlesex Hospital. A year later, in 1998, he was appointed consultant in general and colorectal surgery to St Thomas' Hospital, where he worked until his untimely death at the age of 47. By the time of his death he had already established himself at the forefront of academic coloproctology, with a stream of published papers in peer reviewed journals, chapters in textbooks and oral presentations at meetings at home and overseas. His early research interests were in molecular biology and clinical immunology, but he later became particularly involved with anorectal physiology and 3-D endoanal ultrasound. He supervised the research of several trainees, all of whom gained a higher degree. He was a co-editor of the *International Journal of Colorectal Disease*. Married to a nurse, he had two sons to whom he was devoted. He was a gourmet and every year entertained his firm at St Thomas' to Christmas lunch at an exclusive private dining establishment. As an undergraduate he had been a first class rugby player, playing in the Wasps first 15 and representing Middlesex as well as the United Hospitals. Perhaps, therefore, it is no surprise that he was a large man physically. He also had a big personality and could at times be somewhat outspoken, a trait which did not always endear him. Very sadly, he was found to have a malignant brain tumour after being involved in a minor road traffic accident caused by impaired vision which he had not recognised. Despite surgery and chemotherapy he died within a few months of diagnosis on 17 November 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000427
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Renton, Charles James Crawford (1930 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372612372612
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Renton was a consultant general surgeon in Hereford, specialising in vascular and breast surgery. He was born on 22 September 1930 in Glasgow, where his father and grandfather had been surgeons. He father was James Mill Renton, who worked at the Western Infirmary. His mother died three days after he was born and he was brought up by his grandmother, aunt and a governess, who became his stepmother. Charles was educated at Glenalmond College and Glasgow University. After house physician and house surgeon posts at the Western Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, Charles completed his National Service, as RMO to the 4/7th Dragoon Guards in Germany, being briefly recalled for the Suez crisis. Following his National Service, he held posts at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. He was a surgical registrar in Glasgow and Dumfries, and then senior surgical registrar at the Southern General Hospital, Nottingham General Hospital and at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield, where he was also a clinical tutor in surgery at Sheffield University. In 1969 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Hereford, with a special interest in vascular and breast surgery. Following his retirement, the oncology unit at Hereford County Hospital was named after him. He was president of the Herefordshire Medical Society and the local branch of the BMA. Always active, he played golf, fished and sailed, and in his retirement wrote and researched two books, *The story of Herefordshire’s hospitals* (Almeley, Logaston, 1999) and *The story of Hampton Park Church* (Wooton Almeley, Logaston Press, 2004). He married Margaret, also a Glasgow graduate, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, in 1959 and they had four daughters. He died on 9 February 2007 from complications following an atypical pneumonia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000428
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Robson, Sir James Gordon (1921 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22
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/372613372613
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Gordon Robson was a former director and professor of anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, and the first anaesthetist to be elected vice-president of the college. He was born in Stirling on 18 March 1921, the son of James Cyril Robson and Freda Elizabeth Howard. He was educated at the high school in Stirling, and then Glasgow University. After a six-month house job in obstetrics he joined the RAMC and served in East Africa, where he began his career in anaesthetics. Following demobilisation in 1948, he returned to Glasgow as senior registrar in anaesthetics. Four years later, he went to Newcastle, as first assistant in the department of anaesthetics, under Edgar Pask, where he wrote his first scientific papers. In 1954 he was appointed as a consultant anaesthetist at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and in 1956 went to McGill University, Montreal, as the Wellcome research professor of anaesthetics. There he carried out research on halothane and the neurophysiology of anaesthetic drugs. In 1964 he was appointed professor of anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith in 1964, remaining there until he retired in 1986. During this time his department attracted anaesthetists from all over the world, both as trainees and visitors. He was active in the college, as a member of the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, serving as dean from 1973 to 1976. He was elected vice-president of the college in 1977, the first anaesthetist to be appointed to that office. He was chairman of the committee of management of the Institute of Basic Sciences and later master of the Hunterian Institute. When the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges and their Faculties was established he became honorary secretary, serving from 1976 to 1982. During this period he published two reports, establishing the criteria for the diagnosis of brain death, which eliminated the requirement for electro-encephalography or neuroradiological investigations. These proved to be of great value to critical care and organ transplantation units. For a decade, from 1984 to 1994, he was chairman of the Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards. He held many other appointments, including that of consultant adviser in anaesthetics to the DHSS and honorary consultant to the Army. Among his many honours were the Joseph Clover medal and prize of the Faculty of Anaesthetists and the John Snow medal of the Association of Anaesthetists. He was president of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1986 to 1988. Gordon Robson married twice. His first wife was Martha Graham Kennedy, by whom he had one son. She died in 1975. He married Jenny Kilpatrick in 1984. He died on 23 February 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000429
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Whytehead, Lawrence Layard (1914 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22 2008-03-07
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/372614372614
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Lawrence Whytehead was a thoracic surgeon in Manitoba, Canada. He was born in Easty, Kent, on 7 February 1914 and educated at St Edmund’s and Charterhouse. He went on to study medicine at Oriel College, Oxford, and then Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1938. During the Second World War he served in the RAF in North Africa, specialising in thoracic surgery when he returned to the UK. He was a senior registrar in thoracic surgery at Guy’s Hospital and then first assistant at Brompton Hospital. At Guy’s he published, with Brock, an influential paper on radical pneumonectomy for carcinoma of the lung. He was the first recipient of the Evarts Graham memorial travelling fellowship, which took him to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he met and married Nancy, a nurse, who came back to England with him. In the early 1950s he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Brook and Grove Park hospitals. In 1955 he emigrated to Canada, where he set up in practice in thoracic surgery at the Manitoba Clinic. He retired in 1979. He was very active in church affairs. He taught in Sunday school, was a delegate to the General Synod of the Anglican Church and wrote a book on religious issues (Dying: considerations concerning the passage from life to death, Toronto, Anglican Book Centre, 1980). He was on the board of Agape Table, the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council and the Interfaith Pastoral Institute, which became the Aurora Family Therapy Centre. Many doctors from overseas were helped by Lawrence to qualify for practice in Canada. He had many other interests, and in retirement at his cottage in Minaki he enjoyed the company of his grandchildren. He died on 10 July 2005 in Winnipeg, leaving his widow Nancy (née Anderson) and four daughters, Mary Holmen, Louise Hunter, Jennifer Copeland and Catherine Whytehead.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000430
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Witt, Margaret June (1930 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22 2009-03-13
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372615372615
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Margaret Witt was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the North Middlesex Hospital, London. She was born on 14 June 1930 in Leyton, London, the oldest daughter of Henry Witt, a chauffeur, and Bertha, a lady’s companion until she married. Margaret won a state scholarship to Walthamstow County High School for Girls and went on to St Bartholomew’s to study medicine, the only woman applicant out of 80 men. There she won the treasurer’s prize in practical anatomy, the Harvey prize in practical physiology, the university scholarship in science (physiology), and the Mathew Duncan gold medal and prize in obstetric medicine. She then held junior house officer posts in the gynaecological and obstetric department at Bart’s, and was house surgeon to Sir Clifford Naunton Morgan and Ellison Nash, and house physician to A W Spence and Neville Oswald. After taking the primary from a job as demonstrator in anatomy, she was locum registrar in Croydon and the North Middlesex hospitals. She then specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, completing a series of registrar posts at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Queen Charlotte’s and Charing Cross hospitals. She was the first female registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at St Bartholomew’s, specially chosen by John Howkins, who was not known for favouring women applicants. She was appointed as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to the North Middlesex Hospital, becoming head of the department in 1991. She was honorary senior lecturer and honorary consultant endocrinologist at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal Free hospitals. She had a thriving private practice, with many patients from the Middle East, and she was often invited to see them in the Gulf states. She represented her consultant colleagues on various regional committees. She examined for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Many of her colleagues referred to her their major cancer cases. Margaret Witt never married. She had a zest for life, enjoying cooking, entertaining, fashion and travel, as well as music and the theatre. A colleague once said teasingly that:“Margaret was the only person who would take two fur coats, enough jewels to rival the Queen, and half a dozen pairs of Salvatore Ferragamo shoes for a weekend conference in Paris.” She was a member of the Harveian and Hunterian societies and the Medical Society of London. She sat on the committee of the Charitable Trust of the Royal Society of St George in the City of London, and was president of the Farringdon Ward Club and a governor of the Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone, where a silver cup was dedicated to her memory for the girl who has achieved the highest all round points in the year, and a bench placed in the playground. She died on 30 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000431
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Robson Christie (1898 - 1971)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-03 2014-07-18
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/372616372616
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Christie Brown was born on 1 July 1898 and was educated at the Royal Kepier Grammar School and Durham University, where he gained numerous prizes and scholarships. While an undergraduate he served for a few years of the first world war in a destroyer based on Scapa Flow, but returned to the University after the war and graduated in 1920. He specialised early in gynaecology and became obstetric tutor at Leeds University and later at the London Hospital. After a time he was appointed to the staff of the Samaritan Hospital for Women, the Metropolitan Hospital, the City of London Maternity Hospital and many others in and around London. He became in due course an examiner to the Central Midwives Board and to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, of which he had been a founder member. Christie Brown's outstanding ability as an obstetrician was widely recognised, especially by his married colleagues, and he made a special study of the treatment of infertility in women; he was also the inventor of an unspillable hour-glass chloroform-inhaler for use by the patient when in labour. Christie Brown was an excellent lecturer and an able after-dinner speaker, much sought after at medical and other gatherings where eloquence and wit were in demand. He was a good organiser and took an active part in the work of the Samaritan Hospital. When there was talk of the Samaritan being completely merged in St Mary's Hospital, Christie Brown took up the defence of the Samaritan whose name was retained when the two hospitals were united. He contributed many papers on his specialty and his text book on midwifery was reprinted many times, running into its third edition by 1950. In addition to his other work Brown took an active interest in the problems of cancer and was one of the first to prescribe cytotoxic drugs to his patients. First in London and later at Loughton in Essex, he kept open house to his friends and colleagues; for outside interests he became a keen photographer and a first-class mechanic. For many years he was dogged by ill health (a nephrotic syndrome), which led to his early retirement in 1959. Robin Christie Brown's wife died in 1970; and their only son Jeremy Robin Warrington Christie Brown took up medicine; he himself died after a brief illness on 13 December 1971 at his home at Highcliffe-on-Sea.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000432
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sheikh, Sardar Ali ( - )

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2008-01-17 2014-06-30
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/372617372617
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sardar Ali Sheikh was professor of surgery at King Edward Medical College (now University), Lahore, the second oldest medical school on the Indian subcontinent. He joined the college in April 1947 as a demonstrator in the department of anatomy, went on to become a clinical assistant, and finally professor of surgery. He published a thesis in 1950 on hyperplastic ileocaecal tuberculosis. He was principal of King Edward Medical College from 1971 to 1973, when he retired. A student hostel has been named after him. He died prematurely from a heart attack at the age of 63.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000433
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Blacklock, Sir Norman James (1928 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-17
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372618372618
Occupation Urologist
Details Sir Norman Blacklock combined several careers; as a distinguished surgeon in the Navy, later as professor of urology at the University of Manchester, and as medical adviser to the Queen on her official trips abroad. He was born in Glasgow on 5 February 1928, the son of John William Stewart Blacklock, professor of pathology at Glasgow University and subsequently St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, and Isabella née Roger, a nursing sister. After the High School in Glasgow was bombed, Norman moved to the McLaren High School in Perthshire. He trained in Glasgow and was awarded the Rankine memorial prize and the Asher Asher gold medal. He graduated MB ChB in 1950. At the Western Infirmary he was influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth in surgery and William Snodgrass in medicine. At the Royal Infirmary professor of surgery, J A G Burton, and Arthur Jacobs awakened a lifetime interest in urology. National Service called and he volunteered for the Royal Navy, serving on HMS aircraft carriers *Theseus* and *Warrior*, where he dealt with injuries from flying training and crash landings. Back in civilian life, he became a surgical registrar and lecturer in surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He then moved to Ipswich, and subsequently the Royal Masonic and St Bartholomew’s hospitals in London. He was asked to rejoin the Royal Navy and was posted to the Royal Naval Hospital Chatham and then, in the true service pattern, to Royal Naval hospitals Plymouth, Malta and Haslar (the principal Navy teaching hospital). There he developed a department of urology with a keen interest in urinary tract stone disease. He was always happy to advise patients from the other services. In 1972 he was appointed the Royal Navy director of surgical research and was appointed OBE two years later. In 1976 the Queen’s honorary surgeon was unable to accompany her to Luxembourg, so Norman was nominated in his place. For the next 17 years he accompanied the Royal party on their trips overseas, duties which had to be fitted into his busy clinical and academic career. Norman carried his ‘black bag’, which contained a range of urgent remedies, pills and potions, first aid instruments and equipment, including a miniature resuscitator/defibrillator. Fortunately these were not required and, apart from mild gastric problems in the Far East, the Queen did not require medical advice, though her staff often did. The Duke of Edinburgh christened him ‘Dr Hemlock’, but never reported sick. Norman was knighted after his last trip with the Queen, to Hungary in 1993. In September 1978 he retired from the Royal Navy as a surgeon captain. Unusually for a service surgeon, he was appointed to an academic post, as professor of urology at the University of Manchester, working at the University Hospital of South Manchester. He developed lithotripsy in the north, obtaining the machine and training a team to use it. This pioneering enterprise reflected his long interest and experience of renal stone formation. Microanatomy of the prostate and causes of hyperplasia formed other research interests in his department. He published extensively in refereed journals from 1965 until his retirement. Outside medicine, he was interested in gardening, bread-making and cooking, and travelling in a motor caravan. He married Marjorie Reid in 1956. They had a son, Neil, and a daughter, Fiona. Both are medical graduates. Sir Norman died on his 50th wedding anniversary, after falling and hitting his head.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000434
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Helal, Basil (1927 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372619372619
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Basil Helal was an orthopaedic surgeon at Enfield, as well as at the London and Royal National Orthopaedic hospitals. He was born in Cairo on 28 October 1927, the son of Ibrahim Helal, director general of the state railways, and Helena née Sommerville. He was educated at the English School in Cairo, where he won prizes for literature, science and mathematics, and then entered the London Hospital, where he swam for the hospital and the university. After house appointments at the London, he became orthopaedic registrar to the United Liverpool Hospitals and then at the London, where he came under the influence of Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke. He completed his orthopaedic training as a senior registrar at St George’s Hospital and the Woking and Chertsey Group of Hospitals, before his appointment as consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Enfield Group of Hospitals in 1965. He remained at Enfield until 1988, in the meantime becoming an honorary consultant to the London Hospital and, towards the end of his career, consultant hand surgeon to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Basil Helal’s orthopaedic interests were wide, but he was particularly interested in the surgery of the hand and foot, and the surgical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He also had a long standing interest in sports injuries and was orthopaedic adviser to the British Olympic Association over five Olympics. He was a member of innumerable medical societies at home and abroad, and a regular attendee at their meetings, holding high office in many of them, including the presidency of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Society for the Surgery of the Hand, and the Hunterian Society. He published extensively and contributed to several orthopaedic text books, and in retirement wrote a biography of the German surgeon Richard von Volkmann. Basil was a good all-round sportsman with a charming personality which made him a popular life member of the Savage Club. He married Stella Feldman, a fellow junior doctor in 1952, with whom he had two daughters (Dina and Amanda) and a son (Adam). They divorced shortly before her death in 1977 and he married Susan Livett, a theatre sister, whom he had known for many years, with whom he had two sons (Matthew and Simon). He died at his retirement home in Dornoch, Scotland, on 17 July 2007, after several years of declining health.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000435
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Welch, George Somerville (1935 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Taffinder, Nicholas James (1965 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2008-01-24 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/372621372621
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Nick Taffinder was widely considered to be one of the brightest and most able young consultants when, at the age of 39, he was diagnosed with metastatic malignancy, from which he died two years later. He showed academic talent as a schoolboy, being a scholar at King's College, Taunton, from where he won an exhibition to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His clinical training was undertaken at St Thomas' Hospital, London, where he won the Sutton Sams prize in obstetrics and gynaecology. Graduating in 1990, his first surgical house officer post was on the rectal firm and he retained this early interest in coloproctology throughout his career. Subsequent SHO jobs were in Southampton and Portsmouth, where he spent six months on the intensive care unit, before being appointed a specialist registrar to the training rotation of St Mary's Hospital, London. After a year on the academic surgical unit, he was seconded to Paris for a year, where he worked as a registrar in a world-renowned laparoscopic centre with Gérard Georges Champault and where he learned advanced laparoscopic skills. Returning to St Mary's he became a research fellow to Ara Darzi (later Lord Darzi), where he studied the quantification of manual dexterity in laparoscopic surgery, the effects of sleep deprivation on surgical dexterity and the impact of virtual reality on surgical training. His thesis on this subject was accepted for the MS degree and the work gained him two international prizes, one in the UK and one in the USA, as well as many publications. In the year 2000 he was awarded two travelling scholarships, both to European centres, to further enhance his laparoscopic skills and the following year he completed his colorectal training with an appointment as RSO at St Mark's and Northwick Park hospitals. He was then appointed consultant colorectal surgeon to William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, where he practiced and taught advanced laparoscopic surgery until his untimely death. Nick Taffinder contributed widely to surgery outside of clinical activity. He continued to publish regularly after his consultant appointment, his last paper appearing in print after his death. At the College, he taught on the care of the critically ill surgical patient course (CCRISP) and also trained the faculty for this course, a reflection of his own early experience in intensive care medicine. He was a faculty member on numerous laparoscopic courses, both basic and advanced. He was a council member of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Association of Endoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He was in constant demand as a lecturer at home and abroad. In private life he was equally talented. His first love was his family, Jane his wife and four children, Jacques, Louis, Max and Jessica. But outside of family life he was an enthusiastic pilot, a good games player (tennis and squash), a snowboarder, paraglider and oarsman, to say nothing of his ability as a conjurer. He was universally popular. In early 2004 he was diagnosed with malignant fibrohistiocytoma of the pelvis with lung metastases. He underwent multiple operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Throughout, he showed truly remarkable fortitude and wrote a moving personal view in the *British Medical Journal* (2005, 331, 463) of how he diagnosed a rectal cancer in a male nurse of his own age at four o'clock in the morning while he himself was an in-patient awaiting his third operation. Despite returning to work between operations and treatments his disease pursued a relentless course and deprived the profession of a much loved and greatly talented colleague before his full potential could be realised.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000437
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taylor, John Gibson (1918 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-30
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/372492372492
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details John Gibson Taylor, known as ‘Ian’, was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was born on 8 June 1918, three months before the end of the First World War, the only child of Scottish parents Kate and William Taylor. Ian’s father was an engineer employed at the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Hampshire. Brought up in Fleet, Ian went to the local grammar school. Deciding on a medical career, he entered St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Much of his time was spent at Amersham, where the medical school was evacuated during the Second World War. After a year on the house, during which time he was house physician to Sir George Pickering, he joined the RNVR. His first posting was to the destroyer HMS Zetland, which hunted U-boats. After a year he served on HMS Vindex, an escort carrier. Through many hard winters over the next four years on the treacherous North Sea, the ship escorted convoys to Russia. He was discharged as a surgeon lieutenant commander in June 1946. On demobilisation he returned to St Mary’s as a registrar to V H Ellis, the orthopaedic surgeon, who was soon joined by John Crawford Adams, with whom Ian retained a lifelong friendship. After passing the FRCS Ian became first assistant to the accident service at the John Radcliffe Hospital, being greatly influenced by Edgar Somerville, Robert Taylor and Joe Pennybacker, who taught Ian spinal surgery. In 1954 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Norwich, joining Ken McKee and Richard Howard. The unit served not only Norwich but was also responsible for most of the orthopaedic and trauma services in Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Ian embraced the introduction of new methods of joint replacement, holding clinics with Neil Cardoe and Gilson Wenley for rheumatoid and other arthritic problems, at first in an old workhouse, St Michael’s Hospital in Aylsham. Later a stable block was converted into an operating theatre – much of the money raised by voluntary donations from the Norfolk community. In this unlikely setting Ian performed knee and metacarpo-phalangeal joint replacements. Much sought-after as a teacher, he was involved with the rotation between Bart’s, Norwich and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and encouraged many of his trainees to publish their first papers. In 1965 Sir Herbert Seddon asked him to help out in Nigera, where he spent several months. In 1956 he met Fodhla Burnell, an anaesthetist. They were married a year later in Norwich Cathedral. They had many shared interests – sailing in the North Sea was one, a cottage in the Perthshire hills another. He was an accomplished skier, using this method of transport to get him to hospital during the hard winter of 1979. He was a keen member of the Percivall Pott Club and regularly attended meetings of the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA). One of his last major trips abroad was to Murmansk in 2001. This commemorated the arrival of the first Russian convoy sent from the UK during the Second World War. Ian and others who had survived were welcomed by the Russians and given a medal of honour for the enormous risks taken 60 years previously. Over his last few years he developed progressive muscle disease, and died on 24 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000305
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gun-Munro, Sir Sydney Douglas (1916 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24 2009-02-26
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/372623372623
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Sydney Gun-Munro was a former Governor General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He was born on 29 November 1916, the eighth child of an extensive family of Scottish descent on the island of Grenada in the Windward Isles. His father, Barclay Justin Gun-Munro, died when Sydney was only seven. Sydney attended the Anglican Primary School in Grenada, from which he won a scholarship to the Grenada Boys’ Secondary School. On leaving, he gained the Grenada Island scholarship, which took him to London and King’s College Hospital, in the footsteps of his brother Cecil. Always an adaptable soul, Sydney fitted in well with life in London, as he did with his fellow students, despite being some four years their senior, showing one of the characteristics typical of him all throughout his life – his ability to mix comfortably with folk from the most varied backgrounds. As an accomplished raconteur, guitar player and competitive tennis player, he became a popular figure in the social life of his contemporaries. When the anatomy and physiology departments moved to Glasgow at the outbreak of the Second World War, he showed his adaptability by facing a harsh northern winter, always charming his Scottish landladies. When he eventually moved into a flat with three other students they rapidly learned another lifelong characteristic, his ability to organise those around him, in this case acting as kitchen hands and washers-up whilst Sydney presided over the cooking with the accomplishment of a professional chef. On returning to London to start clinical work, his group moved to Horton Emergency Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, with visits to King’s College Hospital for outpatients and special studies. He qualified MB BS with honours in medicine and a distinction in surgery. After qualifying he was house surgeon to the EMS Hospital in Horton throughout the Blitz, and was at his brother’s house when it was struck by a bomb. For four hours he lay buried in the debris and was almost given up for dead. Perhaps realising that the clinical material available at that time in the medical school was somewhat limited, he gained an appointment as medical officer to Lewisham Hospital, where he enjoyed the wide variety of clinical work, under the aegis of his medical director, Humphrey Nockolds, who became a lifelong friend. When Sydney returned to Grenada in 1946 he worked as a district medical officer until 1949, when he was appointed surgeon at the Colonial Hospital, Kingstown, Saint Vincent, continuing there until 1971, apart from a secondment to England to study for the diploma in ophthalmology. In 1963, he was joined by a second surgeon. Many of his contemporaries were surprised when he returned to the West Indies because, with his record, he could undoubtedly have gained prestigious appointments in this country. To those who had the good fortune to visit him there however the wisdom of his decision was soon explained. Apart from the charm of the Windward Islands, it was clear that Sydney had groomed himself for this task throughout his medical training. His wide knowledge of medicine and his skill as a surgeon made him completely fitted for his life on the island of Saint Vincent. The only surgeon to a population of about 90,000 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, he was able to give outstanding service in all branches of surgery and many of medicine. He dealt with general surgery, trauma, obstetrics and gynaecology, ear nose and throat surgery and ophthalmology, in which he was particularly interested, and continued to provide a clinic for many years after his retirement. After 20 years he had become known to virtually everybody on Saint Vincent and the neighbouring islands. He was respected for his own qualities and integrity, as well as for the work he had done as a surgeon, work which was recognised by our College, which granted him a fellowship *ad eundem*. It was not surprising therefore that he was appointed the first Governor of Saint Vincent in 1977, for which he was knighted. He became Governor General of the State of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines when independence came in 1979, becoming GCMG. As Governor General he always sought the welfare of the islands, established a successful arrowroot mill with Canadian assistance, a library, and a children’s charity for the welfare of the island’s young people. He married an English nurse, Joan Estelle Benjamin, and they became partners in a very happy marriage that lasted 60 years. Joan herself demonstrated remarkable adaptability in exchanging her life in the home counties for one in the West Indies, as the mother of a growing family, looking after a surgeon who was busy all hours of the day or night, and subsequently as wife of the Governor General, acting as hostess to members of the Royal Family and a broad spectrum of public figures from church and political life, as well as developing interests of her own, including distinguished service to the Red Cross. Apart from Sydney’s professional activities, his interests were in boating and tennis: he and Joan regularly won the mixed doubles at the island tennis club. He died on 1 March 2007, leaving his wife Joan, daughter Sandra and two sons, Rodney and Michael.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000439
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching MacFaul, Peter Alexander James Marsh (1935 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching McGhee, John James (1931 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
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/372625372625
Occupation General surgeon
Details John James McGhee, known as ‘Jack’, was a surgeon in the Canadian town of Prince Georgia, British Columbia (BC). He was born in Princeton, BC, on 6 December 1931 and raised in Trail. His parents, Thomas Doyle McGhee, a miner, and Agnes Wilson McGhee, both originally from Glasgow, agreed that Jack and his younger brother, Gordon, should try to avoid life in the mines. Jack subsequently enrolled in the University of British Columbia. Having played for the Trail Smoke Eaters as a junior, Jack was on the university hockey team, but quickly realised he wasn’t cut out for life as a professional sportsman. He concentrated on medicine and was in the third graduating class of the faculty of medicine, being licensed to practise in 1957. With a group of classmates he went to the UK, and gained much experience in orthopaedic and general surgery. When off duty he enjoyed all the cultural and sport opportunities offered in Europe. There were certain consultants who strongly influenced Jack’s decision to pursue general surgery. The first was Michael Reilly in Plymouth, who noted Jack’s ‘good hands’ and encouraged him by teaching him many skills. A strong negative influence was a position at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital where, in spite of encounters with many famous specialists, such as Seddon, and free tickets to the opera etc, he realised that the esoterica he was dealing with were not what he was really interested in. However, he continued with orthopaedics by taking a position at Nottingham General Hospital, before proceeding to Edinburgh to tackle the primary. He passed the Edinburgh FRCS exam in 1962, and returned to the Nottingham General to take a surgical registrar position. His chiefs were Tommy Field and John Swan, and the senior registrar was Ted Oliver. The experience of working with these three skilled surgeons was inspiring. It was an extremely busy hospital, and the call schedule involved each surgical firm being on call for a continuous week every month. Cold surgery was not set aside during this week, so the work was intense. Ted Oliver died on the golf course, much too young – he was 45. Jack completed the London fellowship during this period, in 1964. In November 1964 he married Carolyn Meetham, also a doctor, whom he had met in Nottingham. He had applied for one senior registrar position in Sheffield, but realised that it would be a very long haul before he achieved this promotion, and it was decided to return to British Columbia in 1965, after seven years in Britain. On returning to Canada, while Carolyn kept bread on the table with an assistant resident position in paediatrics in Vancouver, Jack studied for the Canadian Certification in General Surgery, which he achieved in 1965. On weekends off they travelled around the province looking for a town which wanted a specialist surgeon. Prince George was the only city where they were welcomed with open arms, so they settled there. Jack formed a dynamic and legendary partnership with Bob Ewert, who had earlier come back to his home town as the city’s first specialist general surgeon. Jack was a very skilled surgeon, much loved for his humour and courtesy, humanity towards patients, and scrupulous professionalism. He was an inspiring and enthusiastic mentor for a generation of medical students and surgical residents. Wanderlust led him to travel widely with his family. They volunteered their professional services in Belize, Dominica, Papua New Guinea and Somalia. Jack retired from active practice in 1996 after 30 years. He was honoured to be made an honorary member of the department of surgery of the University of British Columbia in 1995, and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia in 2000. During his working life, his many hobbies included mountaineering. He was a member of the Alpine Club of Canada for 25 years and an active member of the Prince George section, where another of his interests was indulged: he would enter the photographic competition with success. He was a wonderful skier, and undertook many traverses and climbs with and without guides in winter and summer. He loved fly fishing for trout and steelhead. He was also interested in beekeeping, at which he became an expert. With his family, he travelled to all the continents, for exploration, natural history and especially bird watching. He gave many beautiful slide shows based on these travels. He carried on with these pursuits after retirement, and added more, including cooking. His final remarkable trek, around Manaslu in central Nepal in April 2005, was undertaken in great pain from bone secondaries, before the diagnosis of lung cancer was made in August 2005. Nobody was surprised that he bore his illness with extraordinary courage. He died on 18 April 2006, at home, surrounded by his family. Posthumously he was inducted into the Northern Medical Hall of Fame in January 2007. He is survived by his wife Carolyn, three adult children (Alex Jane, a nurse, Rachel, a physician, and Dougal, a carpenter, whose wife is Kirsten) and two grandchildren, all of whom he was extremely proud.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000441
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nachemson, Alf (1931 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
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/372626372626
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Alf Nachemson was one of the giants of his generation in the now recognised and developing specialty of orthopaedic spinal surgery. He spent a year or more in the USA, involved in editorial work and research, particularly at Boston, and remained a popular figure at American spinal conferences, where he drove home his strong views. Despite this, he remained scathing of what he considered to be the American tendency of resorting to surgery prematurely in situations where the outcome was still in question, citing particularly spinal fusion. Born on 1 June 1931, Alf Nachemson graduated in medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1956 and, after his internships, studied for his PhD at Uppsala University. He then joined the staff of the Sahlgrenska Hospital, Göteborg, in 1961. Here he was appointed orthopaedic specialist and associate professor. He was promoted to professor and chairman of orthopaedic surgery at Göteborg University in 1971 and remained in this position until his retirement in 1996. He built up the research faculty of his department and developed a large research budget. His major involvement was in basic science research and clinical trials related to spinal orthopaedics. When he was first at Uppsala University, under the direction of Carl Hirsch, he became involved in the in-vitro and then in-vivo studies on lumbar disc mechanics. Initially this work involved intra-discal pressure measurements on post mortem specimens, but he developed his techniques to provide a safe method of measuring in-vivo intra-discal pressures in the lumbar spines of volunteers in different postures of flexion, extension and whilst lifting. This classic study, published in the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery* in 1964, and since corroborated in other centres, has become the scientific basis of our understanding of what is and what is not the correct use of the back in sitting, bending, lifting and carrying, according to the avoidance of disruptive internal disc pressures. From the late 1960s onwards, he set up a number of controlled prospective trials and random studies into the results of different spinal surgical procedures, correlating these with the outcomes of conservative treatment for the management of back pain arising in the workplace and in industry. Perhaps the main conclusions, which he derived from these controlled studies, was that bed rest for acute low back pain should be limited to no more than a few days and that lumbosacral fusion was rarely a useful treatment for chronic back pain, except where there is a clear mechanical cause, for example in cases of spondylolisthesis. He travelled the world and banged the table with this message (often literally), particularly in the USA, where there is a much higher prevalence of spinal fusion compared with Europe. Nachemson also made significant contributions to the field of spinal deformities and published on the poor longevity of severe infantile scoliosis, as well as the prevalence and pattern of back pain in different types of adult scoliosis. In the late 1980s he initiated an international multi-centre prospective control study into the effects of bracing in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis funded by the Scoliosis Research Society of the USA. This extended over some five years and its eventual publication concluded that bracing made a significant difference to the natural history of mild cases. Although the trial was at that time unique in its ambitious attempt to coordinate a study across several continents, unfortunately it did not extend the follow-up time long enough to answer the question as to whether bracing significantly altered the likelihood of a braced adolescent with scoliosis avoiding the need for eventual surgical correction. Alf Nachemson published over 500 scientific papers as first author or co-author and gave more than 1,500 lectures worldwide. Not only did he publish in Swedish and international journals, but was the co-founder of the journal Spine and remained their senior editor for 20 years. He was also one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration Back Review Group, established in 1993, which promoted a more scientific approach and the need for a higher standard of papers published in the spinal specialty journals. Among his many initiatives, he helped to found the European Spinal Deformities Society and the European Spine Society. Nachemson was appointed an honorary fellow of our College in 1987 and an honorary fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association the following year. In the last decade he had taken up the baton of promoting evidence based medicine, using this as a yardstick against which he felt that all treatments and methods of management must be judged. Undoubtedly his drive in this area has helped to make evidence based medicine not only a priority in spinal management, but also an everyday medical term. It could be said that Alf Nachemson’s greatest contribution was the establishment of a very successful university department of orthopaedics at Göteborg. Among his postgraduate students, 81 PhD theses were successfully defended, and 16 of his PhD students became notable professors in centres around the world. His department attracted many grants and achieved many awards. He worked in close collaboration with the Volvo car company based in Göteborg, which promoted research into back pain. There is good evidence that his team designed the anthropometrics for Volvo car seats. As with most distinguished medical Swedes, his English was impeccable and in addition he was an anglophile. As a result he enjoyed his frequent visits to friends and colleagues in the UK. These included not only to those in his own spinal specialty, but to general orthopaedic surgeons, of whom one stands out. Alf always enjoyed a good debate in the controversial areas of orthopaedics and it was Michael Freeman of the London Hospital who often provided this intellectual stimulus for him. Overall, Alf Nachemson was indeed highly gifted; not only as a lateral thinker with a research mind, but also as a good clinician, and one able to communicate with the patient over the options of treatment and their likely outcomes. One thing he despised was the ‘trigger happy’ surgeon. More than that, he was a charismatic team leader providing inspiration for a generation of spinal surgeons, not only in Sweden but worldwide and in this direction his energies were seemingly limitless. In one extended itinerary as a visiting professor he visited 50 universities in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South Africa, North and South America and Europe. Outside medicine his interests largely revolved around his close family circle. He died on 4 December 2006 and is survived by his wife Ann and his children Louise, Mikael, Lotta, Sophie and their families.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000442
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sheldon, Donald Mervyn (1937 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24 2012-03-09
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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/372627372627
Occupation General surgeon
Details Don Sheldon was a surgeon at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, specialising in gastro-intestinal surgery. He was born on 5 January 1937 in Sydney, the third of the four children of Margret and Mervyn Sheldon. His mother Margret had been a schoolteacher, while his father Mervyn was head of the biology department and vice principal at Sydney Teachers' College. Don was educated at Earlwood Primary School and Canterbury Boys' High School, where he was *dux* and vice captain in 1953, becoming an accomplished pianist, and playing cricket and tennis for the school. He then studied medicine at the University of Sydney, where he joined the 13th NSW National Service Battalion as a private soldier. He was a prosector in 1955, preparing a dissection of the lateral aspect of the knee joint which remains in the museum today. After qualifying, Don completed junior posts at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, where he became senior resident medical officer and demonstrator in anatomy. It was at this time he won the Gordon-Taylor memorial prize for the best candidate in the basic sciences part of the FRACS. He went on to become surgical registrar in 1963. While he was surgical registrar in thoracic surgery he was in charge of the Australian thoracic surgical team at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, under Rowan Nicks and was a locum for the Royal Flying Doctor Service at Broken Hill. He would fly out to remote districts in an old Drover aeroplane, which would squirt oil over the windscreen. He was appointed superintendent at the Royal Prince Alfred in 1966, and continued to provide a locum service while the only surgeon in Darwin was on six weeks leave. While doing this job he set up a surgical registrar post to which many trainees from the Prince Alfred rotated. He also harvested the cadaver kidneys for the first renal transplant done at the Prince Alfred with Shiel and James May. In 1967 he became surgeon in charge of the 3rd Australian Surgical Aid Team which was invited by the Commonwealth Government to provide surgical services in Vung Tau, South Vietnam. His team, all of whom were volunteers, comprised two surgeons, an anaesthetist, a physician, an intern (on this occasion D K Baird), six nurses, a pathology technician and a radiographer. There he carried out much emergency surgery and also successfully delivered Siamese twins. In 1968 he returned, having lost much weight, to Sydney as honorary surgeon to the Marrickville Hospital, and the following year was appointed to the staff of the Royal Prince Alfred. But in the same year Rodney Smith, who had met him as the McIlnath guest professor at the Royal Prince Alfred, invited Don to be his registrar at St George's as a British Commonwealth scholar. At St George's he worked on the management of complicated hepatobiliary conditions, especially surgical injuries to the bile duct, and took the opportunity to pass the FRCS. Back at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he specialised in upper gastro-intestinal surgery, becoming head of the department in 1986 where, together with George Ramsay-Stewart, he set up a total parenteral nutrition service and published many papers, including one which won a prize in Athens on liver resection for secondary bowel cancer. He was a pioneer in the use of mucosal grafts and balloon dilatation for stenosis of the common bile duct, and was an early advocate of removal of the sloughed pancreatic tissue in acute necrotising pancreatitis, which until then had nearly always been fatal. In 1990 he acquired the instruments and introduced laparascopic methods for cholecystectomy. For his publications he was awarded the Justin Fleming gold medal of the Australian Association of Surgeons. Other appointments and awards followed. He was awarded the Vietnam Logistics and Support medal in 1995, the Graham Coupland lecture and medal of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1996, and the Active Service medal of 1997. In his College he was on the council and chairman of the board of continuing professional development, a tutor in surgery and an examiner for the University of Sydney. A keen freemason, he was provincial grand district master of the Grand United Lodge of New South Wales and chairman of the division of surgery of the New South Wales Masonic Hospital, later the New South Wales Private Hospital. He was active in medico-legal matters, a member of the review committee of the law of negligence and the Abbot committee into medical indemnity. He was sought after as a visiting lecturer in Indonesia and the Philippines. He bought his first farm in Tarago in 1973, moving on to others in 1976 and 1977, where in Robertson he established a Polled Hereford stud, and then began share farming in wheat and sorghum in Quirindi in 1997, devoting himself to growing his own fruit and vegetables. He died of cancer in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on 16 March 2007, leaving his widow Pam, whom he had met while playing tennis at school and married in 1961, 4 children and 13 grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000443
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wilkes, Frank Roger (1934 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
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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/372628372628
Occupation General surgeon
Details Roger Wilkes had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy as an officer and surgeon serving at home and at sea in aircraft carriers. In 1982 he was the senior surgeon at sea on SS *Canberra* during the Falklands War. Later he was surgeon commodore and dean of naval medicine. Roger was born in Smethwick on 3 August 1934, the son of Frank Arthur and Gwendoline Alice Wilkes, who were both pharmacists. He attended Alexandra House School and King Edward IV School, Stourbridge, Worcestershire, from which he entered Birmingham University Medical School in 1952. There he played regularly for the second rugby XV, and as a student did nightshifts at Cadbury’s chocolate factory and worked as a ward orderly at Wordsley Hospiral, where he was inspired by Maurice Hershman and Sister Jarvis and her ward. After house jobs, he joined the Navy as a surgeon lieutenant and served at sea in HMS *Ark Royal* in the Mediterranean and North America. Two years surgical training took place at Royal Naval Hospital (RNH) Haslar, with further service at sea to follow on HMS *Victorious* in the Far East, Japan, East Africa with the Fleet Air Arm. It was during this tour that he was to operate on an unusual accident which took place at sea when a naval air mechanic was trapped in a closing mechanical canopy on a fighter aircraft, and sustained a severe crush injury with a stove-in chest, which required urgent resuscitation and surgery, followed by intermittent positive pressure respiration. Nylon traction sutures gave stabilisation. The patient was then evacuated by air to Singapore. After further stabilisation the patient made a full recovery and returned to duty. Roger was awarded the MBE for his initiative and skill at sea. His next posting was to the RNH Haslar for further surgical training, from where he passed the FRCS in 1966. He was soon at sea again on the aircraft carrier HMS *Eagle*, serving in South Africa and Singapore. After a short tour at RNH Plymouth, he joined HMS *Albion* as surgeon commander. In 1970 the Armed Services Consultant Advisory Board at our College appointed him a consultant in surgery. He was given a sabbatical year at the professorial unit in Aberdeen, returning to be head of the surgical unit at RNH Plymouth as surgeon captain. In 1982 the Falklands War saw him at sea again as the senior surgeon on SS *Canberra* ‘the great white whale’, for which he was awarded the Falklands medal. After hostilities ceased he returned to the UK and was appointed director of naval surgery, and in 1984 became chairman of the Defence Surgical Board, the senior surgeon of the three armed services. In 1988 he was promoted to surgeon commodore and appointed dean of naval medicine. In 1989 he became the Queen’s honorary surgeon. Retiring from the Royal Navy in 1992, he joined the National Blood Transfusion Service, and then worked for a while in general practice. He was the guest of honour at his old school and was written up in a local journal as a ‘Black County personality’. After a very good life, he retired finally in 1996, but developed dementia with Lewy bodies and was admitted to Bickleigh Down Nursing Home in Plymouth, where he died on 18 November 2006. He was survived by his second wife Marion, a former Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service theatre sister, whom he had met over the operating table, and their daughter, Helen. There are also three children from his first marriage - Stephanie, Nicholas and Fiona.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000444
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Raine, John Wellesley Evan (1919 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19 2014-12-16
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372507372507
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Raine, one of New Zealand's most distinguished surgeons, was born on 12 March 1919 in Wellington. His father John was an importer of china and glassware. His mother was Harriet Eva née Cox. John was educated at Scots College, Wellington, where he was *dux* in 1933, winnng the Pattie cup for the best all-rounder in the school. He went on to Victoria University, Wellington, where he won his hockey blue, and then to Otago University to study medicine, qualifying in 1941. He was house surgeon at the Wellington Hospital, before joining the RNZAF in 1943, serving as a flight lieutenant in Guadalcanal and Bougainville. After the war he returned to Wellington, where he was assistant to E H M Luke, before going to Guy's Hospital as a Dominion student registrar under Sammy Wass, Hedley Atkins, Grant Massie and Lord Brock, during which time he attended St Mark's under Gabriel and Naunton Morgan. After passing the FRCS he was resident surgeon at Barnet General Hospital in 1949. In 1950 he returned to Wellington as visiting surgeon and clinical lecturer in surgery, a post he held until he retired in 1980. After retirement he continued as an honorary postgraduate tutor in surgery and director of medical services for the Justice Department for another ten years. His main interests were abdominal and head and neck surgery. At the Royal Australasian College he was elected to council in 1963, served for 12 years on the court of examiners, was vice president for two years from 1972 and president from 1974 to 1975. As president he conferred an honorary FRCS on his friend, Rodney, Lord Smith of Marlow. In the New Zealand branch of the BMA he was honorary general secretary from 1958 to 1963. He married Eleanor Luke in 1943, by whom he had a daughter, Rosalind Frances, who became a doctor in Christchurch, and three sons, one of whom, John Kenneth, became professor of mechanical engineering, the second, Anthony Evan Gerald, a Rhodes scholar, became professor of renal medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, but died in 1996. His third son, Christopher Taylor, became a paramedic in St John, Southland. His first wife died in 1978 and he married Patricia Mary Cryer, in 1980. A keen sportsman he achieved two holes in one at golf, continued to ski until he required a knee replacement, played fiercely competitive bridge and was a keen gardener. He died on 12 July 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000320
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Murthy, Subbayan Keshava (1931 - 2003)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19 2007-08-02
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372508372508
Occupation General Practitioner
Details Subbayan Keshava Murthy was a general practitioner in Swindon. He was born on 9 April 1931 at Channaraya Patna, in Mysore (now called Karnataka). His father, Venkatajubbiah Murthy, was a government state doctor. His mother was Subbalakhamma Murthy. He was educated at various government schools, finishing at Maharaja’s High School, Mysore. In 1946 he went on to Mysore Medical College, graduating in 1953. He then worked in various hospital posts in Karnataka State. In 1956 he went to the UK to specialise in surgery. His first post was at Swansea Hospital, from which he successfully took the Edinburgh and English fellowships. He then went on to a series of registrar jobs in general and thoracic surgery, including St John’s Hospital, London, and Sully Hospital, Glamorgan. He spent a year in Chicago, and was offered a permanent job in a surgical clinic, but declined, having found the mercenary aspects difficult to accept after his experience of the NHS. He returned to India to work in various positions, including a post at the Missionary Hospital in Karnataka, where he carried out reparative surgery on patients with leprosy. Finally, he was appointed as a pool officer in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, where he was joined by his colleague from Swansea, Helen Parker. They married on 4 April 1963 in New Delhi. In 1964 they returned to the UK, when he found it necessary to pass the conjoint to obtain full registration. His next posts were in cardiothoracic surgery at Sully and Broad Green hospitals. In 1971 he decided to enter general practice in Swindon, where he worked until he was obliged to take early retirement after cardiac by-pass surgery in 1987. He continued to work part-time until November 1991. He had many outside interests. He was passionately interested in cricket and loved cooking, at which he excelled. He enjoyed classical music, both Western and Indian, and also travelling, especially motoring in Europe, particularly Spain and France. On his retirement he and his wife joined the University of the Third Age, and, before his health failed, he had completed the first year of an Open University Spanish course. He died on 13 May 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000321
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fonseka, Merrennage Neil Thomas (1940 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-21
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/372509372509
Occupation General surgeon
Details Neil Fonseka was foundation professor of surgery at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. A twin, he was born in Colombo on 19 July 1940, the son of Merrennage Gilbert Thomas Fonseka, a clerical officer, and Eugene Wilta Fonseka a school teacher. He was educated at St Matthew’s College, Dematagoda, and Ananda College, where he was an excellent student and also won prizes for sports. He qualified with second class honours from the University of Colombo and won distinctions in microbiology, pathology and obstetrics and gynaecology, as well as the Loos gold medal for pathology. After junior posts he went to England, where he worked at St Peter’s, St Mark’s and St Bartholomew’s hospitals in London and was senior registrar at Charing Cross and King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. In 1976 he was appointed surgeon to the prosthetic and vascular centre at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, and, in 1978, surgeon-in-charge at the prosthetic and vascular centre at Brighton Hospital. In 1980 he returned to Sri Lanka to become the foundation professor in surgery at the new University of Ruhuna. There he threw himself into the life of the university, taking a keen interest in student welfare, becoming a member of the senate and council of the university and dean of the faculty of medicine from 1988 to 1989, during horrifying days of terrorism. He founded the Ruhuna University Medical Students Alumni Association, the Galle branches of the Jaipur Foot Project and the Cancer Society, and was president of the Galle Medical Association in 1985. He was interested in cricket, tennis, chess, bridge, poker, singing, watching films, reading classics and fiction, and jokes. He owned an estate where he cultivated coconuts. He married Pushpa, a professor of community medicine at the University of Ruhuna, who cared for him devotedly during his long and disabling last illness. He died on 15 May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000322
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Joseph, Laji (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2006-12-21 2013-02-14
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/372510372510
Occupation General surgeon
Details Laji Joseph became a professor in Bangalore. He passed the fellowship of the College in 1961 and returned to India where he practised in Bangalore. In June 2004 the College was informed of his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000323
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clarke, David Glyn (1950 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Ward, Michael Phelps (1925 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01
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/372512372512
Occupation General surgeon Mountaineer
Details Mike Ward, a pioneering climber and expert on altitude medicine and physiology, and a member of the 1953 expedition team which made the first ascent of Everest, was a consultant surgeon in London’s East End. He was born in London on 26 March 1925, the son of Wilfred Arthur Ward, a civil servant in Malaya, and Norah Anne Phelps, a former nurse. He was educated at Marlborough, where his housemaster was a veteran of two Everest expeditions, and went on to win the Ironmonger’s Company exhibition to read medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge. There he climbed with the university club in France and sustained a fractured skull. He completed his clinical training at the London Hospital and, after house jobs, did his National Service in the RAMC, during which time he was able to study aerial photographs taken by the RAF of the south face of Mount Everest and plan a new route to the summit through the treacherous ice cliffs of the Khumbu glacier. He took his ideas to the Himalayan committee of the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society, who backed his scheme, and so launched the 1951 expedition, which paved the way for the successful 1953 ascent. After the Everest expedition, Ward joined in the ensuing lecture tour, but did not care for its razzmatazz, and returned to train as a surgeon, as a registrar at the London, passed the FRCS, experienced the misery of thoracic surgery under Vernon Thompson, and the exhilaration of Hal Morton’s exchange residency at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, and was finally appointed consultant surgeon to two East London hospitals, Poplar and St Andrew’s, Bow. There he gave a first rate service to his poor patients, eschewed private practice, and carried on a mostly successful campaign against the administrators who got in the way of his work. Whenever he could he went off to take part in mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas and Pamirs, carried out important research into high altitude physiology, and wrote many papers and the classic textbook *High altitude medicine and physiology* (London, Chapman and Hall Medical, 1989), which ran to three editions. For this work he was widely honoured, receiving the Cuthbert Peek award and the Founder’s gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Cullum medal of the American Geographical Society. He was president of the Cambridge Alpine Club, vice-president of the Alpine Club and master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. Superbly fit and lean, Mike Ward was not always easy to get to know: seemingly aloof, if not sardonic, he was always gentle and kind to his patients, continuing as his own locum after he retired. He married Felicity Jane Ewbank in 1957, by whom he had one son, Mark William. In 2002 he suffered a dislocation of the neck in a collision, which was successfully operated upon. Then, to much surprise, this superb athlete was found to have a cardiac valvular defect. He died as the result of an aortic aneurysm on 7 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000325
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Richardson, William Worsley (1915 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01 2007-03-08
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/372513372513
Occupation General surgeon
Details ‘Bill’ Richardson, who ultimately became one of only two consultant general surgeons at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, had an interesting and varied career before studying medicine. Although he was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1915, his early childhood was spent in Fiji, where his father, Pud, grew bananas for export, and his mother, Margaret, was a schoolteacher and governess. At the age of nine, Bill was sent to board at Barker College in Hornsby, then to Suva Grammar School in Fiji, and finally at Knox Grammar School at Wahroonga, New South Wales. Whilst boarding at Knox, his father moved to Innisfail, North Queensland, to the South Johnston Sugar Mill. Bill left school at 16 to work in the laboratory of the Colonial Sugar Refinery. During the Depression years he lived in a boarding house, but later rented a flat in Kirribilli, with views over Sydney harbour and the new bridge. He lived a ‘bohemian’ life, mixing with a group of young people, including his future wife, Margaret. He then moved to Auckland, to work in a New Zealand sugar refinery. He and Margaret married in 1936, although it was unheard of for an employee to marry so young. A son, Marcus Worsley, was born in 1940, and the following year Bill joined the Navy, where he served on motor gun-boats escorting larger vessels through the Mediterranean. He returned to New Zealand in 1945. The Repatriation Board supported his studies at Otago University in Dunedin, which Bill supplemented by back-breaking work during vacations in a brewery. His wife was the first medical artist at Otago Medical School. Graduating at the age of 36, he became house surgeon at Dunedin Hospital under Michael Woodruff who, though a fiery and unpredictable chief, supported Bill Richardson in his application for a Nuffield fellowship to study in England. Arriving in London with his wife and son in 1954, he worked for two years at the Bland-Sutton Institute of the Middlesex Hospital. A daughter, Patricia Margaret ('Patsy'), was born in 1956. During this time he worked on breast cancer, as an assistant pathologist, and produced the Scarff-Bloom-Richardson classification of the disease in 1957. He published (jointly with Bloom) ‘The natural history of untreated breast cancer (1805-1933)’, based on the records of the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Charity. Having passed the FRCS in 1955, he became registrar to Oswald Lloyd-Davies, who became his mentor and long-time friend, and, working with R Vaughan Hudson, developed an interest in thyroid diseases. He was appointed consultant at Chase Farm Hospital in 1960. He was an excellent mentor to staff at all levels, retaining links with overseas trainees and teaching them with enthusiasm In addition to his heavy workload for the NHS in general and vascular surgery and urology, he also developed a substantial private practice. In the seventies, when private practice was under threat, he helped set up the private North London Nuffield Hospital, which opened in 1976. He loved to travel and spoke fluent Italian. When his wife developed encephalitis, he nursed her back to health. After she died in 1989, he returned to Adelaide, where he enjoyed a quiet independent life in his own home, near his family, reading, listening to music and continuing to travel. He died on 27 July 2005, after a short illness. He is survived by Marcus and Patsy. He also had a grandson, Thomas.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000326
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kemp, Hubert Bond Stafford (1925 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01
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/372514372514
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Hubert Bond Stafford Kemp, known as ‘Hugh’, was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore. Born on 25 March 1925, the son of John Stafford Kemp and Cecilia Isabel née Bond, he was educated at Cardiff High School, the University of South Wales and St Thomas’ Hospital. After various junior appointments, he received his orthopaedic training at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital in Oxford and was appointed senior lecturer at the Institute of Orthopaedics at the RNOH in 1965 with honorary consultant status. In 1974 he relinquished the senior lectureship to become a full consultant at the RNOH, a post he held until his retirement in 1992. With the incorporation of the RNOH into the Bloomsbury Health Authority in 1984, he became a consultant at the Middlesex Hospital. He was honorary consultant orthopaedic surgeon to St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy between 1975 and 1990. His main surgical interest lay in the treatment of musculo-skeletal tumours and, between 1985 and 1991, he was a member of the MRC working party on osteosarcoma. He was chairman of the London Bone Tumour Unit from 1985 to 1991. He contributed to *Orthopaedic diagnosis* (Berlin/New York, Springer Verlag, 1984), *Postgraduate textbook of clinical orthopaedics* (Bristol, Wright, 1983, second edition Oxford, Blackwell Science, 1995), *Ballière’s clinical oncology* (London, Ballière Tindall, 1987-8) and *Essential surgical practice* (third edition, Oxford/Boston, Butterworth-Heinemann,1995). Hugh Kemp was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and was awarded the Robert Jones prize and gold medal in 1969 for a dissertation on Perthes disease, winning a Hunterian professorship in the same year. He was also a member of the British Orthopaedic Research Society and the International Skeletal Society. He was an accomplished artist and enjoyed fishing. He died from heart failure on 25 November 2004, leaving a wife, Moyra (née Odgers), whom he married in 1967, and three daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000327
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Shah, Feroz (1927 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01
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/372515372515
Occupation General surgeon
Details Feroz Shah was a consultant general surgeon in Pakistan. He was born in Peshawar in 1927 and studied medicine at King Edward’s Medical College, Lahore. He went to England to specialise in surgery, working as a house surgeon in Croydon and a registrar at the Lambeth Hospital while he studied for the FRCS. On returning to Pakistan he became assistant professor at the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, and, with the establishment of the Khyber Teaching Hospital, he became head of its surgery department for the next 15 years. An influential teacher, he published research on club foot, tetanus and oesophageal stricture. A devout Muslim, he was nevertheless untiring in his efforts to secure education for women in Pakistan and before his death was able to see the government establish its first medical college for women. He was also a staunch opponent of British intervention in Pakistan’s political affairs. His wife, Musarrat Shah, was an anaesthetist. They had a son and daughter. Feroz Shah died on 27 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000328
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Beatrice Gwendoline (1903 - 1990)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Schiess, Frank Alfred (1940 - 2004)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-02-01
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/372517372517
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Frank Schiess was an orthopaedic surgeon in Macclesfield. He was born in Singapore on 24 July 1940. His parents were Swiss: his father, Edward, was a businessman, his mother was Elsa (née Pfister). The family escaped to Perth, Western Australia, just before the arrival of the Japanese. After the war he and his mother moved back to Switzerland and then to London, where his mother worked in Harley Street for Professor Kekwick. Frank attended St George’s School, Tunbridge Wells, and, from the age of 13, the Skinners’ School, from where he proceeded to the Middlesex Hospital. After qualifying he became house surgeon to Mr Handley, when he met Diana Kerswell, a staff nurse, whom he married in 1965. After further junior appointments in casualty at St George’s and general surgery in Ashford in Kent, he became an orthopaedic registrar in Cambridge, and was later lecturer in orthopaedic surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Macclesfield hospitals in 1984, where he worked for almost 20 years, providing a full orthopaedic and trauma service, with a special interest in spinal surgery. His opinion was much sought after in medico-legal circles, and it was while waiting to give evidence that he suffered a fatal myocardial infarction on 9 December 2004. He is survived by his wife, two sons (Guy and Simon) and a daughter (Fiona), who also qualified at the Middlesex Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000330
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Andrew A. ( - 1852)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-05-01 2013-08-07
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/372687372687
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised in Paris. He died on or before May 7th, 1852.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000503
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Blaker, Harry ( - 1846)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-05-01
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/372688372688
Occupation General surgeon
Details One of the first surgeons appointed to the Sussex County Hospital at Brighton, his colleagues being Robert Taylor (q.v.) and John Lawrence (q.v.). He was Surgeon to the Royal Family, and received £300 a year for attending the household at the Pavilion. He vaccinated King Edward VII and the Princess Royal, afterwards the German Empress, and from them inoculated two of his own grandchildren. He also attended Mrs Fitzherbert and was one of the witnesses to a codicil of her will. The first three Surgeons to the Sussex County Hospital resigned on the same day and were succeeded by the first three House Surgeons – Benjamin Vallance (q.v.), E J Turner (q.v.), and John Lawrence, junr. Harry Blaker died on or before April 27th, 1846.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000504
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Murley, Sir Reginald Sydney (1916 - 1997)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-08 2007-03-21
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/372520372520
Occupation General surgeon
Details Reginald Murley, known universally to friend and foe alike as ‘Reggie’, was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Northern Hospital and a former President of the College. He was born on 2 August 1916. His father, Sydney Herbert, was a fur trader and a general manager of the Hudson Bay Company. His mother, Beatrice, was a cousin of Lillian Bayliss, founder of the Old Vic theatre. Reggie was educated at Dulwich College, where some of the features of his rugged extrovert personality rapidly became apparent. In 1934 he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital, then at its zenith as one of the leading teaching hospitals, where he won several prizes in anatomy and physiology. Anticipating that war was inevitable, he joined the Territorial Army early in 1939 and a week before the second world war began found himself in the No 168 City of London Cavalry Field Ambulance, and as a consequence had to wear breeches, spurs, and learn to ride a horse. He travelled widely in the Army, seeing service in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, gaining invaluable experience, mainly in plastic surgery. He returned to England in 1944 and was posted as a surgeon to No 53 Field Surgical Unit in France, Holland and Germany, and gained extensive experience of the surgical aspects of modern warfare prior to his demobilisation as a Major. Following his return to civilian life, he was appointed as an anatomy demonstrator at Bart’s. From 1946 to 1949 together he was surgical chief assistant there, with clinical assistantships at St Mark’s and St Peter’s Hospitals. He passed the final FRCS examination in 1946. In the same year, he was appointed consultant surgeon to St Alban’s City Hospital, and in 1952 as consultant surgeon to the Royal Northern Hospital in London. He continued to serve both these institutions with distinction for the remainder of his professional life. He did some excellent research on Geoffrey Keynes’ conservative approach to breast cancer and demonstrated that it had advantages in survival rate over the then widely practised radical mastectomy. He also worked on the detection and prevention of venous thrombosis, was awarded an Hunterian Professorship on this subject, and became an early advocate of emergency pulmonary embolectomy. Although he always saw himself first and foremost as a practising surgeon, by the mid 1940s Reggie became increasingly apprehensive about the introduction of a National Health Service and his interest in, or rather his disillusionment with, medical politics dates from this time. As a senior surgical registrar at a special meeting of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons just before the NHS began he had the courage and temerity to criticise the College and the President for “*a tactical blunder which had confused and divided the profession, weakened the position of the BMA and strengthened the hand of the minister*”. Though he and his fellow rebels lost the ensuing vote, Reggie remained opposed to ‘nationalised medicine’ and he firmly believed that the profession had been sold out by the machinations of a few senior members. He was a founder member of the Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine and was its President in 1974. As one of the College’s first surgical tutors and a regional adviser, he was elected to the Council in 1970, and as President on Bastille Day (14 July) in 1977. He devoted himself with his customary vigour to that office: he was frequently controversial, loyally adherent to his principles, acerbic but amusing, argumentative but endearing, and, above all, devoted to the College and its history. He was an accomplished public speaker and punctiliously disciplined in keeping to his allotted time span, which was remarkable given that he was an inveterate chatterer who attempted to dominate every conversation. Much as he enjoyed his three years as President, he came to feel in his latter years that his most important contribution to the College was his eight years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hunterian collection. John Hunter, the founder of scientific surgery, was Murley’s hero and his devotion to the collection of Hunter’s specimens knew no limits. Ever alert to the slightest whiff of a threat, he fiercely opposed any attempt to diminish the importance of Hunter in the College’s scheme of priorities. During a particularly difficult period, when his health was already in decline, he earned the unfailing support of the elected trustees during a long period of arduous meetings and only relinquished the chair when he felt that the ship was in calmer waters once more. Reggie’s appointment to the 1st Cavalry Division in 1939 was apposite, for this ambience suited his attributes well, and he remained a cavalryman at heart throughout his life. With his booming, resonant voice, accompanied by a hearty guffaw, staff and patients alike became aware of his arrival long before he appeared in person. Not for him the constraints of devious Machiavellian diplomacy which he generally termed ‘pussy-footing around’. He remained firmly wedded to the Cardigan principle of a full-blooded frontal assault, sabre drawn, no matter how great the odds. It was these very qualities which made him such a steadfast ally and stalwart opponent: no one was left long to linger in anguished doubt as to the respective camp to which they had been assigned. Reggie was without question a member of that rapidly dwindling band of men known as ‘characters’: a quality composed of a judicious mixture of intelligence, ability and individuality; difficult to define but instantly recognisable features common to many men who made our country great and now in very short supply. In 1947, he married Daphne Butler née Garrod who had been twice widowed in the war; he inherited a step daughter, Susan, and they had a further two daughters, Jennifer and Hilary, and three sons, David, Gavin and Anthony. There are nine grandchildren. Sadly his final years were clouded by steadily progressive disability and he died on 2 October 1997.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000334
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Alpar, Emin Kaya (1943 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2007-08-02
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/372521372521
Occupation Trauma surgeon
Details A trauma surgeon, Emin Alpar was a former medical director of the Birmingham Accident Hospital. He was born on 30 August 1943, in Istanbul, Turkey, the son of Mithat Alpar, an industrialist, and Nevin Alpar, a housewife. He was educated at Ankara College, where he gained a baccalaureate in 17 subjects, and went on to study medicine at Ankara University. In 1966 he graduated with first class honours. He trained in surgery at Bristol, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, Liverpool and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York. He was particularly influenced by Donal Brooks, Robert Owen and Sir Reginald Watson-Jones. In 1973 he returned to Turkey to complete his National Service, working as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Sarikamis Military Hospital. In 1975 he was appointed associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Hacettepe University. Five years later, in 1980, he transferred to Birmingham, as a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham department of surgery. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Birmingham Accident Hospital (1981), Birmingham General Hospital (1993) and University Hospital Birmingham (1995). From 1990 to 1993 he was medical director of the Birmingham Accident Hospital. In 1994 he set up a MMedSci course in surgery of trauma at the University of Birmingham, and was course director until 2000. He was chairman of the Institute of Accident Surgery from 1993 to 2002. Essentially a trauma surgeon, he felt that the trauma surgeon must be a generalist because trauma does not observe anatomical boundaries. He was particularly interested in the treatment of whiplash injury and the association with atypical carpal tunnel syndrome. A committed teacher and trainer, he was supportive of all staff. As a result of his experience he was much in demand as an expert witness in medico-legal disputes. Alpar played basketball as a young man and enjoyed swimming and walking later in life. He was interested in history and specifically the history of medicine. In 1966 he married Oya, now professor and head of the centre for drug delivery research at the School of Pharmacy, University of London. They divorced in 2003. They had two sons – Bora and Burak, both of whom work in the finance sector. Alpar died early in November 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000335
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bendall, Robin (1933 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2007-05-24
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/372522372522
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Robin Bendall was an orthopaedic surgeon in London. He was born on 1 April 1933 in Notthingham, where his father, Oliver Francis Bendall, was a wholesale grocer. His mother was Winnie May née Barrett. He attended West Bridgford Grammar School, Nottingham, and then went on to Guy’s Hospital Medical School, where he qualified in 1956. After serving as house surgeon to J S Batchelor at Guy’s he did his National Service in the RAF, with postings to Christmas Island and Nocton Hall Hospital. Following demobilisation he became a general surgical registrar at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup, gaining his FRCS in 1964. He was then an orthopaedic registrar at St George’s Hospital, London, and subsequently held a senior orthopaedic post at Charing Cross Hospital, where he was influenced by David Trevor. He was appointed as a consultant to St George’s Hospital, St James’s Hospital, Balham, and Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children at Carshalton. Influenced by Douglas Freebody, he developed an interest in the treatment of low back pain and published on the subject. At Carshalton he treated children with scoliosis. He set up the St George’s orthopaedic training scheme, and was secretary of the south west metropolitan orthopaedic advisory committee and a member of the clinical and orthopaedic sections of the Royal Society of Medicine, serving as secretary of the latter in 1980. He was a fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association. In 1958 Robin Bendall married June Mary Nicholls, a nursing sister, by whom he had two sons, Stephen (a consultant orthopaedic surgeon) and Timothy, and a daughter, Claire. He later divorced and married Tricia. Sadly, Tricia died and he brought up their son, Olly, on his own. His grandchildren were Emma, Gabby, Georgie and Max. Robin Bendall died quite suddenly from a heart attack on 5 October 2006 whilst removing his luggage from an airport conveyor belt.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000336
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Godwin, Richard Bennett ( - 1871)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Ranger, Ian (1925 - 2008)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-05-01 2014-06-30
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/372693372693
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ian Ranger was a true general surgeon who worked in the United Norwich Hospitals from 1967 to 1988. He was the son of William Ranger and Hatton Thomasina née Grigg. His father had been a schoolmaster, army officer and businessman, who emigrated to Australia in 1920, where Ian and his brother (Sir) Douglas were born. He was educated at Scott's College, Warwick, Queensland, and the Church of England Grammar School, Brisbane, returning to England before the Second World War to finish his schooling. He followed his elder brother Douglas to the Middlesex Hospital. After qualifying he worked for a year at the Bland Sutton Institute of Pathology under Leslie Le Quesne. In 1958 he spent a year at the Boston City Hospital under J Englebert Dunphy, with whom he retained strong links and whilst there gave practical classes in surgical technique to medical students. Carl Walter, inventor of the Fenwal bag used in blood transfusion, made students smear their forearms with lamp black and scrub it all off before operating. This may have altered Ian's views on his own scrub up technique, as at times he used a special cream to smear his hands and arms, declaring that it was better after a gentle soap and water wash to trap any residual germs in! On returning to the UK, Ian completed his thesis on oesophageal reflux. In 1964 he began a long locum in Cambridge during the illness of Brian Truscott and was appointed to his definitive post in Norwich in 1967. He worked with one surgical firm at the West Norwich Hospital with his equally enthusiastic senior colleague, Alan Birt. Other commitments were to the Jenny Lind Hospital for Children. But he displayed even more energy in his enthusiastic efforts at Cromer and District Hospital. Here he performed some major and heroic surgery, much to the consternation of the anaesthetists, and certainly the pathology department and perhaps some of the registrars working in Norwich. He recommenced emergency surgery there to the benefit of so many patients in north Norfolk, and liaised with a voluntary organisation, the Cromer Allies, to raise funds for an extra ward and new operating theatre. He published papers on sialography, the dissemination of micro-organisms by a suction pump, superior mesenteric artery occlusion, and was a Hunterian Professor in 1961. Naturally left-handed, he was completely ambidextrous, working rapidly with never a wasted movement. Many residents went to Norwich from overseas to rotate through the surgical firms. Ian was surgical tutor for East Anglia for three years. In retirement he divorced himself from medical activities, but is remembered by his colleagues for his enthusiasm and forceful character. He married Janet, who predeceased him. They had two sons, Alistair and Piers. Alistair became a GP in Scotland. Ian Ranger died quite suddenly in Cringleford, Norwich, on 14 February 2008, after a period of ill health with heart problems.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000509
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Harding-Jones, David (1936 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2014-04-09
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/372526372526
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details David Harding-Jones was an orthopaedic surgeon in Carmarthen, Wales. He was born in Stratford, East London, on 3 August 1936, one of a pair of identical twins. His father, William, was a Presbyterian minister. His mother was Gertrude Alice née Roberts. He was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, and Charing Cross Hospital. After junior posts, he specialised in orthopaedics, becoming a registrar at the Westminster Hospital, rotating registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and Hereford General Hospital, and senior registrar at the United Cardiff Hospitals. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen. At the College he was regional adviser in orthopaedics for south Wales. He died on 27 March 2005 after a short and sudden illness and is survived by his wife June née Hitchens, whom he married in 1960, and by his three sons (Andrew, Ian and Neil), two daughters (Alison and Fiona) and five grandchildren (Bethan, Thomas, Iestyn, Ella and Angus).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000340
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Charles William (1923 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-05-08 2009-05-07
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/372695372695
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Charles William Smith was a consultant ENT surgeon in York. He was born in Kenton, London, on 24 October 1923, the first son of Cecil Smith and Mabel née Gibb. His father, who had served in the First World War with the Royal West Kent Regiment (known as ‘the Dirty Half Hundred’), was badly wounded in the face at the Battle of the Somme, and remained disfigured and partially incapacitated for the rest of his life. Charles Smith and his brother were both educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School in Northwood and were brought up in a happy Christian household. He always maintained that his acceptance at St Thomas’ Medical School was more due to the fact that the Dean recognised his father from the war than his own academic prowess. At medical school he was a keen athlete and rugby player. His first house job was with the ENT department, which no doubt shaped his future career. He continued his training at the Royal Waterloo, the Charing Cross and the Royal Marsden hospitals, and then fitted in his National Service (spent in the Royal Army Medical Corps serving in Chester and Klagenfurt, Austria), before becoming chief assistant to the ENT department at St Thomas’ in 1956. He was appointed, initially as the sole ENT consultant, to the York hospitals in 1959 and served there until 1988. During this time he not only developed his own department, but was also the lead clinician in the planning of the new York District Hospital. Charles Smith became a member of the Court of Examiners at the RCS in 1962. He served as chairman of the York division of the BMA and was president of the North of England Society of Otolaryngology, the section of otology at the RSM and the Visiting Association of Throat and Ear Surgeons of Great Britain. He was honorary treasurer of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, and served as honorary treasurer and then president (from 1984 to 1987) of the British Association of Otolaryngologists. During the time of his presidency he did much to represent the specialty’s interests in Europe and was founder president of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS). At the end of his term of office he was awarded a gold award by the International Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (IFOS). His appointment to the Archbishop’s council reflected his longstanding friendship with Donald Coggan who, ahead of him at school, had been a curate to the Rev Marshall Hewitt (Charles’s future father-in-law). He persuaded his superior that Charles was a suitable match for his only daughter, and was given the privilege of marrying them at All Soul’s Langham Place. When Charles Smith eventually arrived in York he found Donald Coggan was Archbishop. Charles Smith married Moyra (née Hewitt) in 1955. They had five children, Penn, Basil, Johanna, Rupert and Jeremy. His wide range of other interests included his local church, motor caravanning, gardening, photography, golf, natural history and fly fishing. He was master of the Merchant Taylors’ Company of York. He died on 2 October 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000511
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ryan, Rowena Marion (1958 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-05-08 2022-03-17
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/372696372696
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Rowena Ryan was an ENT consultant at Northwick Park Hospital, London. She was born in East London, South Africa, on 4 February 1958, where her father, Cecil Crawford Lindsay Ryan, was serving as a diplomat. Her mother, Dorothy Hazel née Lampkin, had been a secretary. Her paternal grandfather had qualified at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a general practitioner in Bath. She was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin, where she won the Governors Association scholarship, and went on to read medicine at Trinity. After qualifying she held junior posts at the West Middlesex, Stoke Mandeville, Hammersmith and Addenbrooke’s hospitals, before becoming an ENT registrar at the Royal Ear Hospital and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. She was appointed as a consultant ENT surgeon to Northwick Park and the Central Middlesex hospitals in 1996, where her principal interest was in paediatric audiology. She was an examiner for the intercollegiate FRCS (otol) and was chair elect of the ENT comparative audit group of the British Association of Otorhinolaryngologists - Head and Neck Surgeons. In 1989 she married Audoen Healy, a dentist, with whom she had a daughter, Greta, and a son, Duncan. Outside work and family, her passions were music, literature, foreign languages, squash and tennis. She died of cancer of the pancreas on 9 December 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000512
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Young, Austen (1914 - 2005)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Goodlad, William ( - 1844)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12 2012-02-15
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/372698372698
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised as a surgeon in Bolsover, then in Bury, and finally in Mosley Street, Manchester, where he was Surgeon to the Union Hospital. He died at his residence at Cheetham Hill on Feb 14th, 1844. He became known as a medical author by winning the Jacksonian Prize in 1812 with his Essay entitled "Diseases of the Vessels and Glands of the Absorbent System", republished as *A Practical Essay on the Diseases of the Vessels and Glands of the Absorbent System. To which are added Surgical Cases with Practical Remarks,* 8vo, London, 1814. On his title-page it appears that this republication is the Jacksonian Essay in substance, and we also infer from the dedication that he received his professional training at the Manchester Infirmary as pupil of its Surgeon, Robert Wagstaffe Killer, to whom he dedicates his book "as a token of respect for his abilities, and of gratitude for his friendship". The book was published by Goodlad in German in conjunction with Carmichael and Henning under the title *Ueber die Skrofelkrankheit*, the translator being J L Choulant (Leipzig, 1818). His Jacksonian Essay in MS (4to) is in the College Library. PUBLICATIONS: In addition to the work mentioned, Goodlad further published:- "Observations on Mr Barlow's Theory on the Origin of Urinary Calculi." - *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1809, v, 438. "Observations on Purulent Ophthalmia." - *Ibid.,* 1810, vi, 15. "Case of Inguinal Aneurysm, Cured by Tying the External Iliac Artery." - *Ibid.*, 1812, viii, 32. "Additional Observations on the Treatment of Scrofula." - *Ibid.*, 1815, xi, 204. "Observations on Diseases which are produced by Irritation in the Urethra." - *Lond. Med. Repos.*, 1814, ii, 449. "History of a Tumour Successfully Removed from the Face and Neck, by previously Tying the Carotid Artery." -* Lond. Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 112. *A Letter to Sir B. C. Brodie containing a Critical Inquiry into his Lectures illustrative of Certain Local Nervous Affections*, 8vo, London, 1840.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000514
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Sheppard, James Pook (1787 - 1854)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching North, John (1790 - 1873)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Thorpe, Robert ( - 1851)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Wingfield, Charles (1787 - 1846)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Lawrence, John ( - 1863)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Martin, Thomas (1779 - 1867)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Richard Willson ( - 1860)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Blagden, Richard (1789 - 1861)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Mayo, Charles (1788 - 1876)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12
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/372707372707
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Dec 29th, 1788, the third son of the Rev James Mayo, MA, Head Master of Queen Elizabeth’s Free Grammar School, Wimborne, and Rector of Avebury in succession to his father and grandfather. The Mayos may be described as a Wiltshire family, members of it having flourished there as clergymen and schoolmasters. To this Wiltshire family also belonged Thomas Mayo, MD, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Herbert Mayo, the distinguished physiologist, and others well known in literature. Charles Mayo received a sound education at the Grammar School under his own father. He became a good Latinist and Grecian and was taught French carefully by a French *émigré*, M Leprince, a man of good family compelled by the exigencies of the French Revolution, which had ruined him, to earn his living as a schoolmaster in England. The *émigré* lived nine miles from Wimborne at Ringwood, and was lent a horse by the head master in order to ride home half-way. “Young Mayo was sent to some appointed spot, whence he had to ride the horse back whilst Monsieur dismounted and finished his journey on foot. But it so happened that, some short time before, a frightful murder had been committed at Parley, a desolate village a mile or two to the south of the road between Wimborne and Ringwood, and the bodies of the two murderers were hung in chains from a gibbet on a heath within a very short distance from Parley, where, although the gibbet has vanished, the memory of the affairs surives to the present day (1876). On one occasion young Charles Mayo, when he was sent as usual to take the horse from the Frenchman, was tempted to leave the high road and go and inspect the remains of the murderers, whose bones and rags swung and creaked horribly in the wind, but when he returned to the high road, the Frenchman, not seeing him at the accustomed spot, had gone on towards Ringwood, and the truant did not return to Wimborne with the horse till long after the appointed time, and with no small fear of the consequences, for his father, amongst other accomplishments, was thought to excel in the use of the birch. Whether or not, however, this anatomical pilgrimage was considered to mark out his future destiny, the profession of medicine was chosen for him, and he began, at the age of fifteen, by being apprenticed to Mr Brown, a city apothecary, who flourished and kept a shop at the corner of Raven Row, Bethnal Green, just on the east of Bishopsgate Street. Mr Brown was a Member of the Society of Apothecaries - a body of men at that time of good culture and social position, amongst whom were many good botanists. The Society kept up the ancient and decent custom of examining the pupils of all its members in Latin at the beginning of their apprenticeship and gave them the opportunity, by means of herborising excursions, of cultivating a practical acquaintance with botany, a taste for which was preserved by the subject of this sketch up to a late period in life. In truth, the change from the life of the Wimborne schoolboy to that of the apprentice in Bishopsgate required some compensation. The business of an apothecary was a kind of compound between a trade and a profession, in which the professional skill supplied dignity, but the trading element supplied the means of living. Remuneration was obtained by supplying draughts, mixtures, and other forms of drugs, which were supplied profusely, and formed the items in a long bill of charges sent in at Christmas. That a medical practitioner shall supply his patients with medicine is reasonable and convenient, but that he shall make the medicine supplied the basis of remuneration, instead of his time and skill, is derogatory to himself and injurious to his patients. We have heard Mr Mayo describe the weak parts of this system, which were - the multiplicity of bad debts which crowded the ledger of the Bishopsgate apothecary, and the heavy cost of drugs, and particularly of bottles, which were taxed, in proportion to the receipts. “Meanwhile, the young apprentice’s life was not a cheerful one. The errand-boy slept under the counter, the apprentice had a bed in an adjoining closet, and the family lived in a dingy back-parlour; whilst a drawing-room upstairs, where the carpet and furniture were covered with brown holland, was used only about twice a year. “The apprentice had the recreation, if he chose, of accompanying the mistress once a week in a hackney-coach to hear a Calvinistic preacher at Clerkenwell. He had a book called ‘Tyrocinium Medicum; or, the Duties of Apothecaries’ Apprentices’, which will give some idea of the trade element amongst the general practitioners of the time (by William Chamberlaine, 1812, in the College Library). The dusting of shelves and bottles was held to be the chiefest of duties, and the writer enforces it on the medical apprentice in the terms in which Ovid excites the young men of his day to brush away the dust of the amphitheatre from off the clothes of the young ladies ‘Et si nullus erit pulvis tamen excute nullum’.” After some three years of this melancholy life young Mayo joyfully became a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where, by contrast, the medical atmosphere was ‘elevated and dignified’ in a high degree. He studied anatomy with great ardour, and was for long dresser to Sir Charles Blicke, the founder of our College Library and at that time a leading London surgeon. He also came under the favourable notice of Abernethy, Lawrence, Stanley, and Wormald, as well as others on the high road to repute. After qualifying he went down to Winchester and was elected Surgeon to the County Hospital in 1811, and here till 1870 he gained a high professional reputation both in general surgery and as a lithotomist. Quite at first he met with some opposition at the hospital, and appealed to Abernethy to support him on the eve of his first operation for stone. The great Surgeon wrote as follows: “MY DEAR SIR, - If the Governors of any hospital entrusted me with the care of the patients, I would take care to do my duty to the best of my ability. I would not bleed and purge a patient repeatedly prior to an operation for lithotomy, to the extent you describe, at the suggestion of any man, if it did not appear to me proper. There is but one general rule for a man’s conduct: Do as you would be done unto. I would not defer the operation beyond that time when it seemed most conducive to the patient’s welfare to perform it. You know I use a gorget, which cuts as well as any knife that ever I tried, and has the advantage of being a conductor for the forceps. If I used a knife it should be such a one as Mr Cooper uses. I know not what to advise you to do. You represent your patient as much reduced, and if the subject were unfavourable for an operation, I would rather send him to a London Hospital than run the risk of his dying after an operation, however well you might perform it. This is the beginning of lectures; I have scarcely time to write. Had it happened at any other season I would have gone to Winchester. “Yours most sincerely, J ABERNETHY. *August*, 1812.” The operation was successful, and Mayo thereupon began a remarkable career. His success as a lithotomist reached a climax when he extracted without mishap, in December, 1818, one of the largest stones so far recorded, which weighed over 14 oz. In 1848 he performed two lithotomies in one day, but both proved fatal. His last was on a man of his own age (74) in 1861, which was successful. His procedure and implements, in imitation of Cheselden, were bold and simple. When he came to Winchester he found the best practice in the hands of long-established surgeons, who debarred him from ‘the Close’ and the ‘County’, but among lesser patients his vogue was very extensive. He exhibited in the strongest possible degree that incongruous combination of professional work which linked together Raven Row and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. At one time of the day he would be tying the subclavian artery or diagnosing an obscure fracture, whilst at another he would be busily superintending the dispensing of medicines for sick paupers or club patients, for he took all the practice that offered itself. He performed a number of capital operations for axillary and other aneurysms (some of which were published in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*), cases of complete transposition of the viscera, deep encysted tumours of the neck (*Lancet*), and epispadias. At the age of 84 we find him entering his last case, one of obturator hernia, with a youth’s carefulness and clearness. The practice of the Winchester County Hospital was ‘homely but effective’ under Mayo. He set fractures with rough wooden splints in a manner which it would have been hard to outrival. A contributor to the *Medical Times and Gazette* (1876, ii, 638) wrote: “There was one thing which comes to the remembrance of the writer pretty vividly - the air of the Hospital: a compound of bad breath, unwashed skin, and ulcerated legs, which could be tasted as well as smelt the moment anyone entered the hospital door. Thirty or forty years ago people lamented the frequent deaths after operations from pleurisy or other apparently eccentric causes; but it is easy to see now (1876) that, in a purer air, Mr Mayo would have had a much larger percentage of successful lithotomy cases, whilst many a life might have been spared which was sacrificed to puerperal fever and erysipelas in the hospital and town.” Mayo loved his work, though much of it was beneath his talent. Winchester in his day became a centre of professional education and Mayo’s many pupils were deeply attached to him. In manner he outdid the great Abernethy, whom he is supposed to have copied: he was blunt, outspoken, and testy to the greatest degree, and when made angry, as he often was, he relieved himself and amused his hearers by a stream of half-humorous vituperative epithets of the quaintest and most original description. He was a man of exuberant health and activity, up early and late, and never seeming to feel hunger or fatigue - so, at least, some of his pupils used to think when he summoned them to make post-mortem examinations, dress compound fractures, and to do other unsavoury work at the hospital before breakfast. In 1870 this grand old lion of the ancient school resented the honour done him at his hospital when he was removed from the active to the consulting staff: in 1874 he grew blind, but fully believed himself fit to continue in practice. Latterly he grew less restless and consoled his dark hours by listening to the music of the daily cathedral services. In 1851 his fellow-citizens gave him a grand entertainment in honour of the fortieth anniversary of his hospital appointment. He was elected Mayor of Winchester. His memory remained vigorous almost to the last, and he delighted in telling of his early days. At the, very end of his life he talked of ‘going home’, and died painlessly in great old age at his residence in St Peter Street, Winchester, on Nov 27th, 1876. He married in 1835 Miss Dennis, the daughter of a clergyman, and of his two sons one was Dr Charles Mayo of Fiji, Fellow of New College, Oxford, the other the Rev James Mayo. There were two daughters of the marriage. Mayo was one of the last of those who had been “in practice prior to 1815”. PUBLICATIONS: “Successful Case of Lithotomy.” - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1820, xi, 54. “Case of Aneurism in which a Ligature was placed on the Subclavian Artery.” - *Ibid.*, 1823, xii, 12. “Case of Axillary Aneurism Successfully Treated by Tying the Subclavian Artery.” - *Ibid.*, 1830, xvi, 359. “A Report on Lithotomy.” - *Prov. Med. Jour.*, 1846, 439. “Case of Strangulated Femoral Hernia Successfully Treated by Opium.” - *Ibid.*, 1847, 319. “Lithotomy and Hernia.” - *Prov. Med. Jour*., 1846-7. “Cervical Encysted Tumour.” - *Lancet*, 1847, i, 667.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000523
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hollis, David George Hanbury (1924 - 2006)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2008-06-19
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/372708372708
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details David Hollis was an ENT surgeon in south London. He was born in Northwood, Middlesex, on 16 June 1924, the elder son of Frederick James Hollis, a priest and university lecturer, and Christina Mary née Hanbury. Educated at Ovingdean Preparatory School, Brighton, and Lancing College, David Hollis read medicine at King’s College, London, and King’s College Medical School. Here he was influenced by those two ENT giants, Sir Victor Negus and Sir Terence Cawthorne, which, coupled with his own childhood experience of otitis media, led him to choose ENT as his specialty. He was a house surgeon and later a registrar in ENT at King’s College Hospital and senior registrar at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. He was subsequently appointed consultant ENT surgeon to the Lewisham, North Southwark and Greenwich Health Authorities. He married Barbara Moore, a radiotherapist, later to become a consultant, in 1947. They had two sons, one of whom became a child psychiatrist, and two daughters (the eldest of whom became a state registered nurse and later a chiropractor). His principal interests outside his work were campanology, horticulture and cycling. He died on 28 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000524
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Jenkins, Terence Percy Norman (1913 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-19 2008-11-14
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/372709372709
Occupation General surgeon
Details Terry Jenkins was a general surgeon to St Luke’s and the Royal Surrey County hospitals in Guildford. He was born in Shoreditch, London, on 21 April 1913, the second son of Harold and Louise Jenkins, who had a chemists’ shop. They moved to Harrow a few years later. He was educated at the John Lyon and Harrow county schools, from which he won a scholarship to University College Medical School. On qualification in 1936 he won the Magrath scholarship, and went on to be house surgeon to William Trotter. At the outbreak of war he joined the RAMC and served in France, Belgium and North Africa, mostly doing orthopaedics, and reaching the rank of major. On demobilisation, he was appointed to the Guildford hospitals as a general surgeon. There he built up St Luke’s from a Poor Law institution to a respected hospital. An experienced general surgeon, his particular contribution was to the prevention of burst abdomen by the use of a continuous looped nylon suture, placed with centimetre bites, without tension. The method had been introduced by Gordon Gill, his colleague, and the results were published in 1976. Terry married twice. His first wife was Kathleen Creegan, by whom he had two sons, Tony (an engineer) and Edward (an architect). He then married Rosemary Dockray, by whom he had a son Andrew (a senior retail manager) and a daughter, Philippa (a management accountant). He died on 16 July 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000525
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Selsnick, Frances (1917 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-19
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/372710372710
Occupation General surgeon
Details Frances Selsnick, one of the most remarkable women of her generation, was the first female general surgeon in the United States and the first female American Fellow of our College. Frances was born in New York on 23 December, 1917, the daughter of Harry Selznick and Florence née Greenfield. Having been a child prodigy on the piano, performing ‘the Dance of the Hours’ at Carnegie Hall, Frances was educated at New York University and then went to the Anderson College of Medicine, Glasgow, to study medicine. She returned to New York to do a residency at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1948 and then on to Sea View Hospital, Staten Island, and the Knickerbocker Hospital, New York, in 1953. After completing a fellowship at the New York Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York, she returned to the United Kingdom in 1955, where she was a house surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital. This was followed by posts as a senior house officer in Stoke-on-Trent and registrar posts at the Royal Infirmary, Gloucester, St Luke’s and the Royal Infirmary, Bradford. She returned to the USA to work in the Veterans Administration Service, first at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1965, and then in Reno, where she became successively senior surgical coordinator for surgical services, and then assistant and associate chief of the surgical service. For these services she was awarded the John D Chase and Mark Wolcott awards for leadership skills and clinical care delivery. She continued to be an active surgeon right up until the week before she was admitted to hospital. Frances never married, but was an ever-popular member of an extended family, who nicknamed her ‘the General’ because of her fiesty manner: nobody enjoyed the joke more than she. She died of heart failure on 10 June 2007. Howard Amster
Resource Identifier RCS: E000526
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First Title value, for Searching Bowen, David Ivor (1937 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Nigel Henry (1924 - 2007)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-26
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372712372712
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Nigel Harris was respected in the orthopaedic world, particularly for his participation in British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) conferences, where his pertinent questions often brought meetings to life. He had outspoken views on medico-social and medico-political issues and wrote many letters to *The Times* in defence of the interests of patients and the freedom of the NHS from political interference. Nigel Harris was born in Grimsby on 24 November 1924, the eldest son of Archibald Harris, a general practitioner. His mother was Lily Nove. He was educated at the Perse School, where he shone at athletics and cricket, and on one occasion when the school entertained a visiting Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team, he stumped the mighty Jack Hobbs. From Perse he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, and then to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical training. He qualified in 1948 and completed house jobs in the orthopaedic department at the Middlesex and the North Middlesex Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by Philip Wiles and Philip Newman. He then served in the RAF, reaching the rank of squadron leader, and was involved in the Berlin Air Lift of 1949, during which on one occasion he wandered by mistake into the Russian sector and narrowly escaped capture. On completing his training in orthopaedics he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital in 1964. He published on osteomyelitis, congenital dislocation of the hip and osteoarthritis, and was one of the first to replace hips and knees. He contributed chapters to *Clinical surgery* and edited the *Postgraduate textbook of clinical orthopaedics* (Bristol, Wright, 1983, second edition: Oxford, Blackwell Science, 1995). Having had experience as a house surgeon in the athletes’ clinic which had been set up at the Middlesex Hospital for the Wembley Olympic Games of 1948, he set up a sports clinic at St Charles Hospital, where he became interested in the symphysis pubis strain – the ‘groin strain’ of athletes. He became orthopaedic surgeon to Arsenal Football Club and consultant to the Football Association, where he was highly respected as ‘Nigel the knife’. Nigel was a friendly extrovert; quick in thought and action and never slow to speak his mind. He campaigned for the rights of patients and for freeing medicine from political constraints. He campaigned to set up the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Wing at St Mary’s and was secretary to the Fellowship of Freedom in Medicine. Among his many outside interests, he was interested in medico-legal work, joined the Academy of Experts, where he was respected for his impartiality and, together with Michael Powers QC, wrote *Medical negligence* (London, Butterworths, 1990, second edition: 1994). He was concerned at the increased numbers of injuries to policemen and was instrumental in setting up Flint House in Goring for their rehabilitation. In 1949 he married Elizabeth Burr. They had two sons, Andrew and Mark, who became an anaesthetist. He continued to play cricket and golf for many years, and was a keen hill walker. Unknown to many of his colleagues he owned a racehorse ‘My Learned Friend’. Frank, friendly and open, he never bore a grudge and was always the patient’s friend. He died on 8 July 2007. M Edgar
Resource Identifier RCS: E000528
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Clark, Charles Denley (1908 - 2001)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-07-10
Unknown
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372713372713
Occupation Accident and emergency surgeon General surgeon
Details Denley Clark was a consultant surgeon at Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary. He was born in Thailand (then Siam) on 12 August 1908. His father, Percy Leonard Archibald Clark, was a missionary, as was his mother, Mary Lenore née Denley. He was educated in Thailand until the age of ten, when he was sent to boarding school in Devon, and thence to Leeds Central High School. He qualified from Leeds Medical School in 1933, and spent three years in junior posts at Leeds General Infirmary and at St James’s and passed the Edinburgh Fellowship, before going to Labrador, Canada, for two years to serve with the International Grenfell Association. He published an account of these experiences, in which he told of the difficulties of managing ten huskies, the high prevalence of tuberculosis, and the widespread lack of food. On returning to the UK, he became resident surgical officer at the Woolwich Memorial Hospital, and completed his surgical training at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, St Peter’s and St Mark’s. In 1943 he joined the RAMC as surgical specialist, serving in Chester before being posted to the Far East, where he served with 33 Field Surgical Unit, 13 CCS in Burma, and 14 Mobile Surgical Unit and 53 Indian General Hospital. In 1946 he was appointed officer in command of 72 Indian General Hospital, in Malaya, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After demobilisation, he was senior registrar in Woolwich and at the Brook Hospital, and became consultant surgeon to the Royal Herbert Military Hospital in 1949. In 1950 he was appointed consultant surgeon to Pinderfields Hospital and Pontefract General Infirmary. After retiring at 65, he returned full-time for the next five years to set up the first consultant-led accident and emergency department at Pinderfields. He married Margaret Eileen Canneva (née Goulden) in 1954. There were no children of the marriage, which ended in divorce in 1965. He married for the second time, to June Elizabeth Nichols, in 1976. There were no children. He was a keen skier and gardener. He died from Alzheimer’s disease on 27 January 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000529
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Power, Sir D'Arcy (1855 - 1941)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-07
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372714372714
Occupation General surgeon
Details D’Arcy Power was born on 11 November 1855 at 3 Grosvenor Terrace, afterwards 56 Belgrave road, Pimlico, SW, the eldest of the six sons and five daughters of Henry Power, then assistant surgeon at the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital and Ann, his wife and first cousin, youngest daughter of Thomas Simpson, banker and shipowner of Whitby. He was educated at St Marylebone and All Souls Grammar School, 1 Cornwall Terrace, Regent’s Park, 1866-70. The school was set up by the Rev Henry North, father-in-law of Sir James Paget, and drew its pupils from the sons of neighbouring doctors. He was at Merchant Taylors School, then in Suffolk Lane under Cannon Street Station, from 1870 to ’74, having been admitted on the presentation of Mr Foster White, Treasurer of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and he won the Pigeon and Pugh prize for “the best boy fitted for a merchant’s office”. He matriculated at Oxford in 1874 as one of the earliest non-Wykehamists at New College, and came under the influence of George Rolleston and E Ray Lankester, and of Huxley in London. As biology was not taught at New College he migrated to Exeter College with an open exhibition in 1877. In this year he was demonstrator to C J Yule of Magdalen, the University lecturer in physiology. He graduated BA 1878 with a first in natural science, MA in 1881, and BM in 1882. He entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School with a perpetual student’s ticket in 1878. His father sent a cheque for 100 guineas, but by return of post the school treasurer, G W Callender, sent back the cheque, saying “Dog does not eat dog”. From Christmas 1878 until 1881 he was assistant demonstrator of physiology to Dr V D Harris. In November 1883, when James Shuter, the assistant surgeon, died from an accidental overdose of morphia, Power became curator of the anatomical and pathological museum, a post he held for six years. He was demonstrator of practical surgery from 1889 and of operative surgery from 1889 to 1901, except in 1896-97 when he was not re-elected as a warning from the Medical Council that he must contest the next vacancy for an assistant surgeon. He was demonstrator of surgical pathology 1901-4, and lecturer on surgery 1906-12 with W Bruce Clarke and from 1912 to ’20 as one of the surgeons to the Hospital. In the Hospital itself he was ophthalmic house surgeon to his father and to Bowater Vernon, 1882, house surgeon to W S Savory, 1882-83, and won the house-surgeons’ prize. On 28 April 1898 he was elected assistant surgeon, after a contest like a Parliamentary election against his friend James Berry, the votes being 71 and 60, in a vacancy caused by the resignation of Sir Thomas Smith and promotion of W J Walsham. He had charge of the throat and nose department 1902-04, as it was still the custom for an assistant surgeon to act as a specialist. Speaking of this period at a lunch given by the President of the College in honour of his eighty-fifth birthday, Power said: “When I wanted advice I went to Sir James Paget; I went to him at breakfast-time, 7.30, that was the only time you could catch him. Or I went to Sir William Savory, my master; when his son Borradaile was away I took the head or at least the vice-chair at his dinner parties, which were very formal and very long. We went to Mr Hulke at tea-time, just as tea was coming in; we were always great friends with Mr and Mrs Hulke. We were friends too with Lord Lister; his testimonial helped me greatly when I stood for assistant surgeon at St Bartholomew’s, it impressed the Governors and I was elected.” In 1904 he was appointed surgeon to succeed John Langton, and resigned in 1920 when he was elected consulting surgeon and a governor of the Hospital. He was chairman of the visiting governors’ sub-committee in 1927-32. From 1906 to 1920 he had been surgical instructor of probationary nurses. In 1934 he was appointed archivist and honorary keeper of the muniments, and began with Gweneth Hutchings, DPh (Mrs Whitteridge) a systematic survey of the Hospital’s archives, one of the longest and most complete collections in Europe. He was amused to find that the muniment room had been so long untouched that the dust on the documents was sterile. He printed some of the earliest documents in a contribution to the issue of the *Bulletin of the History of Medicine* dedicated to Arnold Klebs on his seventieth birthday, 17 March 1940. At the Royal College of Surgeons Power was examiner in physiology for the Fellowship 1889-92 and 1897-1902 and for the Membership 1892-97, Hunterian professor 1896-97, Bradshaw lecturer 1919, Vicary lecturer 1920, and Hunterian orator 1925. He was a member of Council 1912-28, and vice-president in 1921 and 1922. In 1929 he became Honorary Librarian, a post created for him on the death of the librarian, Victor Plarr; and he was elected a trustee of the Hunterian Museum in the room of Lord Rosebery in 1930. In 1878-79 he had been demonstrator of biology to Ray Lankester at University College; and he was professor of histology 1890-1903 and assistant professor of physiology 1893-1903, with Bland Sutton as his colleague in anatomy, at the Royal Veterinary College, where as he wrote: “the cockney wit of Sutton and the sarcasm of Power reduced the disorderly classes to order.” Power held many hospital appointments in and round London, and took an active part in many professional and other societies. He was consulting surgeon to the Metropolitan Dispensary, the Victoria Hospital for Children and the Bolingbroke Hospital, Wandsworth. He was on the court of the Royal Sea-bathing Hospital, Margate, and on the board of management of the Royal Masonic Hospital, in the rebuilding of which he took an active interest. He was president of the Harveian Society in 1908 and of the Medical Society of London in 1916. At the British Medical Association he was president of the section of surgery for the Nottingham meeting in 1926, but an attack of pleurisy prevented his attendance. At the Royal Society of Medicine he was president of the section of the history of medicine in 1918-20 and of the section of comparative medicine in 1926-28. He was président d’honneur of the Société internationale de l’Histoire de Médecine at Geneva in 1925. He was a member of the Physiological Society from 1879, and served various offices in the Pathological Society, the British Orthopaedic Society, the Medical Research Club, and the Society for the Study of Disease in Children, among others. He took an active part in the International Medical Congresses and in the Société internationale de Chirurgie. He was for many years chairman of the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund, in whose work he took a deep interest, the president being Sir T Barlow. Outside the profession he was eminent as a freemason and achieved high rank in the Grand Lodge of England. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1897, and was president of the Bibliographical Society in 1926-28. He was a founder of the Samuel Pepys Club in 1903 and its president in 1924, and a founder of the Anglo-Batavian Society in 1920, his great-grandmother having been a Dutchwoman. He was a corresponding member or honorary fellow of many learned societies at home and abroad, including the Académie de Médecine de Paris, the American Surgical Association and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He joined the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps in 1888 and was commissioned major *à la suite* on the formation of the RAMC territorial force in 1908. During the war of 1914-18 he was lieutenant-colonel in command of the 1st London General Hospital at Camberwell. He represented the RCS on the Statutory Committee of Reference and was a member of the appeal board. In the peace *Gazette* of June 1919 he was created KBE. He had been ambulance lecturer to the Birkbeck Institute in 1890-98. He served on the Metropolitan Asylums Board and on the Advisory Committee on the administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act. He was in 1912 a member of the Royal College of Physicians committee on the nomenclature of disease, and from 1908 to 1929 a visitor for King Edward’s Hospital Fund for London. He was for many years on the councils of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the British Empire Cancer Campaign. He examined in surgery for several universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, for the RCS, the RAMC and the IMS, and was a member of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of London 1902-20. Power was a good all-round surgeon, who showed at his best in an emergency operation. But while eminent as a surgeon and as a writer on surgery, and taking an active part in the administrative and social life of the profession, he made his real mark as a scholar and historian. On his seventy-fifth birthday his many friends joined with the Osler Club to give him a volume of his *Selected* writings. The book contains sixteen of his articles and a bibliography of 609 items, and during the remaining ten years of his life books and articles continued to come from his pen almost as prolifically as before. Besides making so many contributions to medicine and scholarship Sir D’Arcy was throughout life a journalist, reviewing regularly for the *British Medical Journal* and frequently for *The Lancet*, *The Times Literary Supplement* and other papers. It is an open secret that he contributed the obituary notices of surgeons to *The Times* for many years. His first published writing appeared when he was twenty-two: “On the albuminous substances which occur in the urine in albuminuria”, written with Lauder Brunton for *St Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports* in 1877, and his first clinical paper appeared in the same *Reports* in 1882: “A case of hereditary locomotor ataxy.” In the meantime he had joined Dr Vincent Harris in writing a *Manual for the Physiological Laboratory* 1880, which ran to five editions in twelve years. In 1886 he edited the *Memorials of the Craft of Surgery in England* from materials collected by J F South, a book of some 400 pages; this work first turned him to historical writing. He then began his long series of unsigned historical articles in the *BMJ*, under the editorship of Ernest Hart, and later contributed an historical article to almost every number of the *British Journal of Surgery* from its beginning in 1913. From 1893 he contributed some 200 “lives” to the *Dictionary of National Biography*, and thence acquired the method of precision and compactness which he used in revising the material collected by V G Plarr for the *Lives of the Fellows of the College*, published in 1930. Between 1930 and 1940 he wrote, largely from personal knowledge, the lives of the Fellows (nearly 400) who died in those years. He had the pleasure of presenting these lives in typescript to the College Council on his eighty-fifth birthday. This was his last public appearance. These lives of 1930-40 are printed in the present volume. Power’s professional interests were wide and he wrote on many subjects. He made a thorough study of intussusception and his Hunterian lectures were enlarged to form a book on this subject in 1898. He also wrote several papers on “wiring” for aneurysm. But his life-long interests were in the surgical diseases of children on which he published a manual in 1895, in cancer (Bradshaw lecture 1919 on cancer of the tongue), and in syphilis: with J Keogh Murphy he edited the *System of Syphilis* issued by the Oxford Press in 1908-10. He was an editor of *St Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports* from 1898 to 1902 and treasurer of the *British Journal of Surgery* for many years. During the war of 1914-18 he wrote on *War wounds* for the Oxford medical war primers, of which he was an editor. He first became known to the general reader by his *William Harvey*, 1897, written to order in a few weeks; it remains after fifty-five years the best short study of its great subject. Sixteen years later he broke new ground with his *Portraits of Dr William Harvey*, compiled at Sir William Osler’s suggestion and published anonymously, and partly at Power’s expense, for the Royal Society of Medicine in 1913, with many illustrations. His most scholarly work was his edition of the *Treatises* of John Arderne, the xiv century surgeon “edited from an early xv century translation with introduction, notes, etc.” for the Early English Text Society in 1910; and followed in 1922 by Arderne’s *De arte phisicali et de cirurgia*, which he translated from the Latin. Power stated the he had seen over sixty manuscripts of Arderne’s and later gave the transcripts, which he had used for his editions, to the College library. In pure bibliography he published a masterly study of *The Birth of Mankind*, in which he cleared up the difficulties of distinguishing the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century issues of Raynalde’s book by means of elaborate “tables of comparison of the initial letters”. In 1924 he was visiting surgeon at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital at Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1930 he paid a second visit to America, when he renewed his old friendships with Fielding Garrison, Harvey Cushing, and other surgeons and scholars. He gave a course of lectures at the W H Welch Institute of the History of Medicine in the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, subsequently published as *The Foundations of medical history*, 1931. In this he explains that his method as bibliographer and historian was to seek the man behind the book; he was in full agreement with Garrison in approaching medical history from the biographical aspect, and had no use for philosophical generalizations. In 1935 he gave the inaugural address at the opening of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons at Melbourne. On the voyage to Australia he dictated his autobiography; he later wrote a family history; both remained unpublished at his death. Among his later writings were *A Mirror for surgeons*, a collection of outstanding case-reports by surgeons of many dates and countries ; a complete genealogy of the family of Percivall Pott; and a paper on Thomas Johnson, the xvi century translator of Paré, in which he cleared up the biographical puzzles which had defeated earlier writers. Like his father, of whom he wrote that “he neither affirmed nor denied”, Power was an agnostic. The age of the Reformation made a special appeal to him and he wrote much about the surgeons of Elizabeth’s reign, whose books he collected. His lively interest in human types was shown in his studies of Pepys, including the paper “Why Pepys discontinued his diary”, with its prescription for spectacles for Pepys which attracted much attention. He transcribed the xvii century diary of John Ward, which was long in the possession of the Medical Society of London and was later sold and published. He wrote on Benvenuto Cellini, in whom he was interested as a connoisseur of silversmith’s work. While always open to new ideas and new methods Sir D’Arcy was a man of genuine *pietas*. He loved Oxford, the College of Surgeons, and Bart’s, and was an authority on their great men, particularly Bodley, Hunter, and Harvey. Though simple in his way of life he was fond of good food and an excellent judge of wine, and was for many years chairman of the International Exhibition [of 1851] Co-operative Wine Society. He formed a remarkable collection of editions of the *Regimen of Salerno*, the dietetic classic of the middle ages, and wrote several papers on the history of fashions in food. He believed in dining clubs as the best dissipators of professional jealousies, and particularly valued his membership of the Confrères Club, which met regularly for dinner and debate, being himself a good informal speaker. As a man Sir D’Arcy endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. Modest and unselfseeking, he carried his learning most lightly and always brought forward his assistants. Having been a poor man in early life, “we married on £60” he used to say, he remained always simple and approachable, and made no parade of his achievements. He was a very shrewd judge of men, absolutely straightforward and upright himself, with a puckish amusement at the foibles of others. He attributed to his Yorkshire Quaker ancestry the dogged determination with which he overcame the bitterness of bereavements which clouded a happy married life, ignored his physical disabilities, and set himself to carry through to completion the many tasks which he voluntarily undertook. Power married on 6 December 1883 Eleanor, youngest daughter of George Haynes Fosbroke, MRCS 1835, of Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Lady Power died on 26 June 1923. They had three children: a daughter who died in childhood; one surviving son, Air Vice-Marshal D’Arcy Power, CBE, MC, MRCS, RA Medical Service, and a second son who was missing and presumed killed at the battle of Ypres in 1915. For the second half of his life Power lived in the little old-fashioned house, 10a Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, next door to the Medical Society of London; it became almost a museum, and he knew the associations of every book and piece of furniture in it. His heart failed soon after his eighty-fifth birthday, and when his house was damaged in the air-raids of the autumn of 1940 he moved to his son’s house, 53 Murray Road, Northwood, Middlesex, where he died on 18 May 1941. He was buried at Bidford-on-Avon; a memorial service was held at St Bartholomew-the-Less on 28 May, at which G E Gask gave the funeral oration. His library was sold at Sotheby’s on 9 and 10 June 1941. A portrait in oils, by Sir Matthew Williams Thompson, Bt, Fellow of the Society of Portrait Painters, who presented it to the College, shows Sir D’Arcy, three-quarter length, seated, in his Fellow’s gown and wearing the insignia of his knighthood, aged 79, 1934. There is a photograph, aged 56, in Henry Power’s *Brief sketch of my life*, 1912, page 31; another, aged about 70, in D’Arcy Power’s *Selected writings*, 1931, frontispiece; and a third, aged 75, in *Brit J Surg*. 1930, 18, 184. Power appears in the group-portrait of the College Council of 1927-28; this painting has been engraved. There are other photographs in the College collections. *Bibliography*: Power’s typescripts were presented to the College by his son; they include a number of unpublished lectures and speeches, and are bound in 23 volumes covering the years 1895 to 1933. *Selected writings 1877-1930*. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931, with a bibliography of 609 items compiled by A H T Robb-Smith and Alfred Franklin. Power’s chief subsequent publications were : Some bygone operations of surgery, 1-11 *Brit. J. Surg.* 1930-33, vols. 18-20. Some early surgical cases, 1-2: The Edwin Smith papyrus. *Ibid.* 1933-34, 21, 1 and 385. Ipsissima verba, 1-13. *Ibid.* 1934-37, vols. 21-24. Hyman Maurice Cohen. *Brit. J. Anaesth.* 1930, 7, 49. John Abernethy. *Brit. med. J.* 1931, 1, 719. *The foundations of medical history*. Baltimore, 1931. Touchpieces and the cure of the King’s evil. *Ann. med. Hist.* 1931, 3, 127. Roubilliac, Cheselden, and Belchier. *Brit. med. J.* 1931, 2, 820. Century of British surgery. *Brit. med. J.* 1932, 2, 134. St Bartholomew’s Hospital 1880-1930. 7th Finlayson memorial lecture. *Glasg. med. J.* 1932, 118, 73-102. Natural science and medicine, in *Johnson’s England*, Oxford, 1933, vol. 2. *A short history of surgery.* London, 1933. Medical history of Mr and Mrs Samuel Pepys. *Brit. med. J.* 1933, 1, 325. Richard Gill. *St Bart’s Hosp. Rep.* 1933, 66, 1. The idea of the new Freemasons’ Hospital in Ravenscourt Park. *Architect. Rev.* August 1933, p. 53. Films in surgery. *Sight and sound,* 1933, 2, 43. Some great English surgeons: what they did and what they looked like; the Bolingbroke lecture, abstract only. *S. W. London med. Soc. Ann. Rept*. 40, 1933-34. Merchant Taylors School, the Charterhouse, and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. *St Bart’s Hosp. J.* 1933, 40, 5. Compulsory consultations. *Lancet,* 1934, 1, 746. The history of the amputation of the breast to 1904. 16th Wm. Mitchell Banks memorial lecture, 13 Nov. 1933. *Lpool med.-chir. J.* 1934, 42, 29. History of venereal diseases, in W. R. Bett *A short history of some common diseases*, Oxford, 1934. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. *Brit. med. J.* 1935, 1, 930. How surgery came to Australia. *Aust. N. Z. J. Surg.* 1935, 4, 368-383. Some early English doctors and their descendants [Harman, Banester, Harvey, Browne, Sloane, Pott, Hunter, Baillie, Abernethy]. *Genealogists Mag*. 1935, 7, 55 and 97. Questions and answers. *St Bart’s Hosp. J.* 1936, 43, 221. Speech at unveiling of tablet to John Hunter at 12 South Parade, Bath, where Hunter lived in 1785, (16 May 1936). *Med. Press*, 1936, 192, 490; for an account of the ceremony, see *Nature*, 1936, 137, 864. Sir Thomas Bodley’s London House. *Bodl. quart. Rec.* 1936, 8, No. 90. New blocks of the past. *St Bart’s Hosp. J.* 1937, 44, 222. Foreword to C. Wall *History of the Surgeons’ Company*, 1937. The Treasurer of the Hospital. *St Bart’s Hosp. J.* 1937, 45, 29. Removal of the upper jaw; an historical operation. *Surgery*, 1937, 2, 780. The cultured surgeon. *Aust. N. Z. J. Surg.* 1937, 6, 243. A urological cause célèbre: Bransby Cooper v. Wakley. *Brit. J. Urol.* 1937, 9, 330. Clap and the pox in English literature. *Brit. J. ven. Dis.* 1938, 14, 105-118. A letter written in 1637 giving advice to a patient suffering from stone in the bladder. *Brit. J. Urol.* 1938, 10, 109-113. The hospital beer. *St Bart’s Hosp. J.* 1938, 45, 298. Foreword to Calvert’s *John Knight, serjeant-surgeon*, 1939. St Bartholomew’s Hospital. *Med. Press*, 1939, 202, 281. *A mirror for surgeons*. Boston, Massachusetts, 1939. The muniment room at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. *Bull. Hist. Med.*, Baltimore, 1940, 8, 392-402. Thomas Johnson (1597?-1644), botanist and barber-surgeon. *Glasg. med. J*. 1940, 133, 201. Pedigree of Percivall Pott. *St Bart’s Hosp. J.* 1940, war edit., 2, 21. Purchase of land by the family of Dr Wm. Harvey. *Ann. med. Hist.* 1940, 2, 308. The journal and the profession: some memories. *Brit. med. J.* 1940, 2, 437. Power edited two volumes of articles reprinted from the *Medical Press and Circular: British masters of medicine*, 1936, including at p. 131 his own article “James Paget”; *British medical societies*, 1939, including at p. 58 his own article “The Abernethian Society.”
Resource Identifier RCS: E000530
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Mantell, Gideon Algernon (1790 - 1852)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-07
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/372715372715
Occupation General surgeon Geologist
Details Born on Feb 3rd, 1790, the third son of Thomas Mantell, and Sarah Austin of Peckham. His father, who traced his descent from Walter Mantell in 1540, was a cordwainer living in St Mary’s Lane, now called Station Street, Lewes. He is still remembered as the builder of the first Wesleyan Chapel in the town. Gideon Mantell was educated at an Academy in Lewes founded by John Button, and afterwards at a school in Wiltshire, his uncle being the Baptist minister at Westbury and Swindon. He was apprenticed to James Moore, a surgeon in Lewes, and then proceeded to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, taking with him a collection of fossils from the chalk which had already attracted his attention and interest. He returned to Lewes as soon as he had qualified, and entered into partnership with his former master, James Moore, and lived in Castle Place; he became Medical Officer of several parishes in the neighbourhood of Lewes and was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Ordnance Hospital at Ringmer. Encouraged by James Parkinson, a surgeon living at Hoxton who had published in 1804 *Organic Remains of a Former World*, he began to study geology seriously, and in 1815 published at Lewes an octavo volume, *A Sketch of the Geological Structure of the South-Eastern Part of Sussex*. In 1822 *The Fossils of the South Downs* appeared, with 42 plates engraved by Mrs Mantell and with the King as patron. In 1825 he contributed a valuable paper to the Royal Society on the Iguanodon, and with this fossil his name is now inseparably connected. In November, 1825, he was elected FRS. His next book, also illustrated, is known as *The Fossils of Tilgate Forest*, though it was published under the title *Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex* in 1827. Mantell in the meantime continued his medical work, took an active part in securing a free pardon for Hannah Russell in the Burwash case, and published in 1827 *Observations on the Medical Evidence Necessary to Prove the Presence of Arsenic in the Human Body*. In 1831 he became acquainted with Benjamin Silliman (1779-1866), Professor at Yale University and founder in 1818 of the *American Journal of Science*; the acquaintance ripened into a lifelong friendship and was the means of the honorary LLD being conferred upon him by the University of Yale in 1834. In 1833 he published *The Geology of the South-East of England*, with a dedication to the King, and in the same year he moved to 20 Steyne, Brighton, partly to reduce the labour of an extensive country practice, and partly on account of his health, which had given cause for anxiety. The move proved unsatisfactory from a professional point of view, and Mantell had serious thoughts first of emigrating to America, and later of buying a practice in London. He published in 1837 *Thoughts on a Pebble*, dedicated to his younger son, Reginald Neville Mantell; the book became very popular as a gift book, and there was a seventh edition in 1846. In September, 1837, he bought a practice at Clapham Common and sold a Geological Museum which he had collected with much pains. It was bought by the British Museum for £4000. *The Wonders of Geology* appeared in 1838 and soon established itself as a popular favourite. The eighth edition was published in England twelve years after his death; an edition appeared in America in 1839, and Dr Burchard, of Bonn, translated it into German. He also wrote the sketch of the “Geology of Surrey” which was published in Brayley’s *Topographical History of Surrey* in 1840. The following year, 1841, found him busy as a Member of the Councils of the Linnean and of the Geological Societies, and as Secretary of the Geological Section of the Royal Society. He was also one of the promoters of the Clapham Athenæum, which was established in 1841. With all these distractions it is clear that he did not neglect his medical practice, for his friends and patients at Clapham Common presented him with a purse of one hundred guineas as a birthday gift on Feb 3rd, 1844. He moved from his house in the Crescent, Clapham Common, in the autumn of 1844, to 19 Chester Square, SW. In this year he published *The Medals of Creation, or First Lessons in Geology and in the Study of Organic Remains* (2 vols, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1844). *The Thoughts on Animalcules, or a Glimpse of the Invisible World revealed by the Microscope*, with 12 coloured plates and 7 woodcuts, was issued in 1846, and in the same year *A Day’s Ramble in and about the Ancient Town of Lewes*, a small octavo with a frontispiece and vignette. *The Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight and along the Adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire: illustrative of the most Interesting Geological Phenomena and Organic Remains* appeared first in 1847. A second edition with a supplementary chapter was published in 1850, and a third edition under the superintendence of Rupert Jones, FRS, was issued posthumously in 1854. Mantell was granted a pension of £100 a year from the Civil List in 1852. He died at his house, 19 Chester Square, on Nov 11th, 1852, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery. The memorial tablet in St Mary’s Church, Lewes, gives the year of his death incorrectly as 1853. Mantell married in May, 1816 - by special licence, for she was under age - Mary Ann, daughter of George Edward Woodhouse, of Maida Hill, London, W. She was educated to become a sufficiently good artist to illustrate some of her husband’s books and papers. She outlived him, but there is no mention of her at the time of his death, though she appears to have been living at Cambridge. A half-length portrait of her from a painting is in the possession of W M Woodhouse, Esq. There were two sons and two daughters of the marriage. Walter, the elder son, was appointed in 1848 “Commissioner for the allotment and purchase of lands in the middle island of New Zealand”. He died without issue. Reginald, the second son, was a pupil of Isambard K Brunel. He was engaged in railway construction in England and the United States. He died of cholera, unmarried, at Allahabad in 1857; and was superintending the building of a bridge over the Jumna when the Mutiny broke out. The elder daughter married John Parker, publisher to the University of Cambridge; the younger daughter died unmarried. Mantell was one of the many members of the medical profession who have made for themselves imperishable names in various branches of science entirely alien to their practice. He was amongst the pioneers in the study of fossils at a time when such study was considered impious. Ill health and a marked tendency to hypochondriasis must have made him “gey ill to live with” and accounted for the unnecessary acrimony which marks some of his discussions. A careful post-mortem examination was made of his body. The results are described in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions* for 1854, xxxvii, 167-170, with plates iv, and v. His spinal column is preserved in the College Museum (No. 4808/i) as an example of extreme lateral curvature which is remarkable from the fact that it does not appear to have been very noticeable during life. There is also a plaster cast of the spine in the College Museum (Special Pathology Part xxviii) with the number 4808/2. A kitcat portrait of Mantell is in the possession of W M Woodhouse, Esq, also a half-length portrait dated 1837 by J Masquerier, engraved by Samuel Stepney. Further portraits are one in a LLD gown from an engraving by W T Davey, and a small wax medallion executed in 1841 for presentation to Professor Silliman; but this was not considered good enough for the purpose. A fine engraving by W T Davey from a drawing by Senties is in the College Collection.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000531
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barnes, Samuel (1784 - 1858)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-07 2020-11-12
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/372716372716
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Exeter, the ninth child of Ralph Barnes, Residentary Canon of Exeter from 1769, Archdeacon of Totnes, and Chancellor of the Cathedral. This Ralph Barnes (1731-1820) went to Christ Church as head boy from Westminster School. It is on record that "he was severely punished by the Dean and Chapter for his complicity with Richard James in the celebration of the Pretender's Birthday, June 10th, 1750", with the result that he migrated to St Edmund's Hall - with or without a 'bene decessit'. His companion, Richard James, who was also an old Westminster, and had come up in 1748, was expelled on account of the same night's work "for providing entertainment both of dinner and supper for several persons in celebration of the Pretender's Birthday, for forcing himself out of the College Gate at a very late hour, threatening to kill the porter and for failing to appear before the Dean and Chapter when cited." Ralph Barnes married Ann, daughter of the Rev Theophilus Blackall, Chancellor of Exeter Cathedral and Archdeacon of Barnstaple, and the children were thus members of one of the most energetic, wealthy and influential Devon families. Their great-grandfather was the bishop, and their uncles were dignitaries of the church; one of the brothers, Frederick (1771-1859), educated at Westminster, was Canon, and in 1852 Subdean of Christ Church, Oxford; another, George (1784-1847), of Exeter College, Oxford, was Archdeacon of Madras in 1814, and Archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1830; a third became Chapter Clerk and Bishop's Secretary at Exeter. Samuel was educated at the Exeter Grammar School and at the Hunterian School in London, where he came under the notice of John Sheldon (1752-1808), who had a family connection with Exeter, and thus acquired the traditions set by William and John Hunter. He passed from the Hunterian School to St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he acted for two years as House Surgeon to John Abernethy (1764-1831), and then returning to Exeter, began to practise ophthalmic surgery, and was elected to the Eye Infirmary. He was chosen without opposition Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital on July 13th, 1813. Within five years of his appointment the Surgeon to the Eye Infirmary and three out of the four hospital surgeons died, so that Barnes soon obtained a considerable practice. He introduced into Exeter the scientific Hunterian surgery and made a medical school there. With the help of his colleague John Haddy James, he obtained the leave of the Governors to discuss medical matters twice a week with students in the committee room of the hospital, to allow dissection and demonstrations of anatomy to take place, and to form a museum. Amongst the pupils were P C De la Garde (qv), who made a reputation as an ophthalmic surgeon, and John Harris, who became Surgeon to the Hospital. Barnes was at this time living at 5 Barnfield Crescent. He resigned his office as Surgeon in September, 1846, and in October of the same year he was appointed to an office especially made for him and Dr Blackall, as a Member of an Honorary Consulting Staff. From 1813-1858 he was Secretary of the Devon and Exeter Literary Institute. He married Juliana Speke, daughter of William Speke, of Jordans, Somerset, and there were many children of both sexes by the marriage. There is a portrait of Samuel Barnes in the Board Room of the Devon and Exeter Literary Institute, a replica in the hospital, and a bust by Haydon in the Institute. He died at Exeter in December, 1858. Of Barnes it is said that his equable temper neither took nor gave offence. His professional intercourse was distinguished by urbanity and integrity. His manner, pleasant and of almost child-like simplicity, never disguised the power of his mind, his clear perception, and his sound judgement. He was a good operator, for he knew what he meant to do and did it, yet he did not dislike nor did he love his profession. It was his business. Neither romance, nor ambition, nor enthusiasm gave a complexion to his life. For those who required his help he worked with all his power because he was an honest man conscientiously bent upon doing his duty. He never invented anything, and two cases in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions* were his sole contributions to knowledge. PUBLICATIONS: "Case of Double Encysted Tumour in the Orbit Containing a Tooth." - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1813, iv, 819. "Case of Successful Treatment of Incontinence of Urine consequent to Sloughing or Ulceration of the Bladder from Injury during Labour; with Observations." - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1815, vi, 583.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000532
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cother, William ( - 1852)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching James, John Haddy (1788 - 1869)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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/372718372718
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Exeter on July 6th, 1788, the son of a retired Bristol merchant. He was educated at the Exeter Grammar School and was apprenticed in 1805 to Benjamin W Johnson, and from 1806-1808 to Robert Patch, who was well known as a Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital. He thus came under the influence of John Sheldon, FRS, another of the surgeons who had been one of the distinguished ornaments of the Hunterian School of Medicine in London. James went to London after his apprenticeship and stayed there from 1808-1812, living for a year as house pupil with John Abernethy and serving as House Surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards on Oct 27th, 1812, was present at the Battle of Waterloo, exchanged on July 30th, 1816, and commuted his half pay on Sept 3rd, 1830. The Regimental Order Book of the Life Guards contains an entry on Waterloo Day that “Assistant Surgeon James is not in the future to expose himself under fire” as he had done on the previous day. James returned to Exeter, and was elected Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital on June 11th, 1816, in succession to Sydenham Peppin. He had then taken a house in Cathedral Close and was beginning general practice. Two years later, in 1818, he gained the Jacksonian Prize at the Royal College of Surgeons of England with his essay “On Inflammation”, and he was already an advocate of provincial as against exclusively metropolitan education for medical students. On Jan 7th, 1819, Samuel Barnes and James made a communication to the Committee of the Devon and Exeter Hospital in the following terms: “It being the intention of two of the surgeons of the Hospital, Mr Barnes and Mr James, to give an annual course of Anatomical Demonstrations to the medical pupils of the place on subjects procured from London for this purpose, they request, in concurrence with the other medical officers of the House, permission to employ the laboratory of the Hospital for this purpose.” Permission was readily given, a pathological museum was formed, and James made the catalogue. He resigned the office of Surgeon on Sept 2nd, 1858, and made over to the hospital the anatomical and pathological specimens which he had prepared, but remained interested in the collection and continued as Curator until 1868. The effect of the action taken by the Exeter Surgeons was to make the medical apprentices a body corporate instead of being wholly subservient to their individual masters. In furtherance of his views James became one of the original members of the Provincial and Surgical Association, the forerunner of the British Medical Association. He gave an address at Liverpool in 1839, and was elected President of the Exeter Meeting in 1842. He also took an active part in municipal affairs, becoming a Town Councillor in 1820, Sheriff in 1826, Mayor in 1828, and retiring when the old Corporation was dissolved in 1833. He married: (1) in 1822 Elizabeth Wittal (*d.* 1839), by whom he had nine children; and (2) in 1840 Harriet Hills, of Exmouth, without family. One of his sons was William Wittal James (qv). He died on March 17th, 1869, at the lower corner house of Chichester Place, East Southernhay, where he had lived for many years. He had been ill for five years suffering from glaucoma and optic neuritis which gradually culminated in blindness. Lineal descendants continued in the neighbourhood of Exeter, and collateral branches in and about the town in various professional avocations. James is described as a small, handsome, well-built man. In society his manner charmed by the happy combination of vivacity, good breeding, and intelligence; but he carried military discipline into the sick-chamber, where he was feared and obeyed; respected though beloved. His own confidence in medical art was unbounded. He was a good anatomist but not a good operator; he wanted dexterity and he wanted composure. His operations were planned with great care, yet having with considerable formality announced that he would do one thing, he would often conclude by doing something entirely different. He was one of the few surgeons who had tied the abdominal aorta for aneurysm of the internal iliac. He was a most assiduous note-taker and left eleven volumes in folio written by himself. There is an oil painting in the Board Room of the Exeter and Devon Hospital. It is said to be very like, but “it lacks the fire of the man”.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000534
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nedham, John ( - 1856)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Pierpoint, Matthew (1791 - 1855)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Rae, Sir William (1786 - 1878)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Smith, Samuel (1790 - 1867)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

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

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Jukes, Alfred (1792 - 1844)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-08 2014-08-22
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/372724372724
Occupation General surgeon
Details Held the office of House Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital for ten years; he was then elected Surgeon in 1823 and held office until March, 1843, when his place was filled by S H Amphlett (qv), who had been his pupil. He appears to have belonged to a medical family in the town, for Fred Jukes, living at 45 Cherry Street, took his MRCS in 1819 and was also for ten years Resident Surgeon to the Birmingham General Hospital. Alfred Jukes died on or before July 28th, 1847. See below for an amended version of the published obituary: Alfred Jukes was a surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital. He was born in Bordesley, Birmingham, on 24 September 1792, the son of John and Elizabeth Jukes née Mansfield. The family were dissenters and Alfred was baptised on 30 October 1792 at the Unitarian New Meeting House in Moor Street, Birmingham. Alfred's father, John, inherited a manufacturing business from his father, Joseph, and in 1818, in *Wrightson's Triennial Directory*, he was described as a plater and button manufacturer. Alfred was one of at least eight sons and two daughters: three of the family died in infancy. The 1841 census reported that Alfred Jukes was living at 17 New Hall Street, Birmingham, and he was described as a surgeon. He published a booklet: *A case of carcinomatous stricture of the rectum; in which the descending colon was opened in the loin* (London, Churchill, 1842). His brother, Frederick Jukes, was also a surgeon in Birmingham. In April 1825 Alfred married Sarah Meredith, the daughter of James Meredith. They had three children, Sarah Elizabeth, Alfred Meredith and Joseph Hordern. Alfred Jukes died on 9 October 1844 at his home at 17 New Hall Street, Birmingham, at the age of 52. A note on the back of his portrait says his death was caused by 'a fall on the stairs while attending a patient', but a report in the *Admission Register of the Manchester School* stated that he died 'after a long and painful illness, aggravated, if not caused, by injury received whilst dressing a very bad case of a patient at the hospital'. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E000540
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, John (1784 - 1845)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, John ( - 1860)

2025-08-13T15:51:24Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-08 2011-07-21
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/372726372726
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised at 35 Bedford Street North, Liverpool, and later at 60 Rodney Street. He was at one time Surgeon to the Liverpool South Dispensary and the Lunatic Asylum, as well as Lecturer on the Principles and Practice of Surgery, and on Clinical Surgery, at the Liverpool School of Medicine. He was then appointed Surgeon to the Liverpool Infirmary. In 1858 he was Consulting Surgeon to the Infirmary. His death occurred apparently between 1858 and 1860.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000542
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset