Search Results for "RCS

First Title value, for Searching Fordyce, Gordon Lindsay (1925 - 2018)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Andrew Sadler
Publication Date 2023-07-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010200-E010299
Occupation Oral surgeon, Dental surgeon
Details Gordon Fordyce trained in dentistry at the University of St Andrews in Dundee from 1942 to 1946. After a few months of practice he was called up for national service where he treated army recruits and, after a year, was posted to Austria where he worked at the 31st British General Hospital as No 2 dentist and subsequently Senior Dental Officer. There he became responsible for trauma. After demobilisation he wanted to practise hospital oral surgery and back in Dundee he was advised by the Professor of Anatomy that a medical qualification would not be necessary if he passed the new Fellowship in Dental Surgery examination. Thus he worked as an anatomy demonstrator while studying for part one of the exam and was then appointed as Registrar at Hill End Hospital near St Albans, and a year later promoted to senior registrar. After his four years as a senior registrar Gordon was too young for a consultant post so he was appointed as a senior hospital dental officer. After the age of 32 he was appointed as a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital for two sessions a week and the North West Thames Health Authority agreed to upgrade him to consultant at Mount Vernon Hospital (to where the Hill End department had moved in March 1953). Gordon Fordyce published papers relating to oral pathology, facial trauma and orthognathic surgery. He became involved in local and national dental politics; he was a section chairman and a member of the representative board of the BDA, President of the Institute of Maxillofacial Technology and President of the British Association of Oral Surgeons. However, his major legacy to the dental profession was the introduction of vocational training for dentists. He became an elected member of the GDC and Dental Dean of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation. He found the GDC hostile and resistant to change. It took 15 years to persuade them, many of whom were deans of dental schools, that their undergraduate training was inadequate preparation for independent practice and to persuade the government to provide funding. The first vocational training pilot started in Guildford in 1977 and it became mandatory in 1988. Gordon Fordyce retired from clinical work at Mount Vernon in 1988 but remained Chairman of the Department of Health Vocational Training Committee until 1992. He was awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, OBE in 1988 and the John Tomes Medal by the BDA in 1990.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010289
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1999 1988

First Title value, for Searching Rice, Noel Stephen Cracroft (1931 - 2017)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2017-12-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381806381806
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Noel Rice was a consultant ophthalmologist and medical director at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London and a pioneer in the development of microscope-assisted eye surgery. He was born on 26 December 1931 in Norwich, the son of Raymond Arthur Cracroft Rice, an anaesthetist, and Doris Ivy Rice née Slater, a nurse. His brother, John Cracroft Rice, also became a surgeon. Rice was educated at Haileybury and then went up to Clare College, Cambridge and St Bartholomew’s Hospital for his clinical studies. At Barts he was a house physician to Sir Ronald Bodley Scott and a house surgeon to Alec Badenoch. In 1957 he began his career in ophthalmology under Hyla (Henry) Stallard and continued his training as a junior specialist in the RAF as a flight lieutenant. On his return to civilian life, he joined the staff of Moorfields, where he remained for the rest of his career, becoming a consultant in 1967. At the Institute of Ophthalmology he was a senior lecturer, clinical teacher and, from 1991, dean. He was made a fellow of the Institute of Ophthalmology in 1996. As ophthalmology became more specialised, he was one of the first corneal specialists in Europe and helped open the era of microsurgery for eye conditions. He also specialised in the care of children with congenital glaucoma. He helped establish the corneal service at Moorfields and also the congenital glaucoma service, which became one of the largest in the world. He pioneered the use of anti-scarring therapy in the form of a focal dose of beta radiation, a precursor of modern anti-scarring regimens. He retired in 1996, but continued in ophthalmology as a consultant at the St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem until 2002. He was made a Knight of the Order of St John in recognition of his service to the hospital. In 1989 he became a member of the international organisation Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis. For his contribution to ophthalmology in Iceland, he was awarded the Order of the Falcon by the Icelandic government. He was also a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. He enjoyed fly fishing and music and sung in various choirs. He was married twice. In 1957 he married Karin Elsa Brita Linell (Brita). They had three children, Andrew, Karin and David, two of whom followed their father into medicine. After Brita’s death in 1992, he married Countess Ulla Mörner, in 1997. Rice died on 5 November 2017 from motor neurone disease. He was 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009402
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1996

First Title value, for Searching Gilmour, Andrew Graham (1955 - 2016)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by M Cassidy
Publication Date 2023-07-06
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010300-E010399
Occupation Specialist in restorative dentistry
Details Dr Andrew Graham Gilmour died peacefully on 8 January 2016 after a short illness, at the untimely age of 60. Graham was born on Good Friday, 1955. He qualified at Glasgow Dental School in 1978, then joined the SHO/Registrar rotation in Glasgow and passed the FDSRCPS in 1982. He became a lecturer in prosthodontics shortly afterwards and in 1988 was appointed consultant in restorative dentistry at Mayday Hospital, Croydon. A member of the appointments committee later told me that Graham was the most outstanding applicant for the post among the candidates. Graham quickly developed the service in Croydon and established outreach clinics around the southeast of England, including Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton, which soon attracted the attention of the dental teaching hospitals in London who wanted to get their higher trainees in restorative dentistry and orthodontics into attachments at Graham’s unit in Croydon. Most of these trainees were later appointed consultants and professors up and down the UK. Graham was particularly skilled as a diagnostic clinician, a first class teacher, an educator, who was invited to lecture locally, nationally and internationally, where his clinical skills and natural humour endeared him to every audience. He had a very sharp political touch. He understood how NHS committees worked and developed the philosophy that one should be either a committee member or chairman, but never the treasurer or secretary! He was appointed Associate Postgraduate Dental Dean for the KSS Region in 2003, and was asked to organise the training of clinical dental technicians which attracted applicants from all around the UK, every one of whom successfully completed the course and held Graham in the highest esteem. One of his most endearing attributes was his unique sense of humour and fun, for which his trainees will testify. He organised educational programmes with the Cunard shipping line, crossing the Atlantic to New York on the QE2 twice, and cruising with Cunard in the Caribbean in 1994 which proved to be very popular. He had a particularly mischievous sense of humour; in 1982 Pope John Paul II came to Glasgow to say mass. On the same day, in Glasgow Dental Hospital, the oral surgery registrar received a phone call from a Cardinal, who was the Pope’s personal secretary, reporting that the Holy Father had toothache and wanted to see the Professor of Oral Surgery, at 4 pm that day! It was of course, a joke, played by ‘Cardinal’ Graham Gilmour! Graham was hugely loved by his colleagues at Mayday Hospital in Croydon, and will be sadly missed by all of those who worked with him, his brother Rowland, but most of all by his wife Virginia, and his daughters Ginny and Ally.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010313
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1982

First Title value, for Searching Arthur, Ian Hugh (1957 - 2018)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2019-02-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon
Details Ian Hugh Arthur was a registrar in general surgery and orthopaedics at St. Albans City Hospital. He was born on 29 December 1957 and trained in medicine at London University and the Royal Free Hospital, graduating MB, BS in 1981. Initially a house physician and surgeon at the Royal Free, he joined the staff of the surgical rotation at the Basingstoke District Hospital. After passing the fellowship of the college in 1990, he began work at St. Albans City Hospital. He lived in Uxbridge and died on 18 December 2018 aged 60.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009567
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1981

First Title value, for Searching Webb, Anthony John (1929 - 2024)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Jason Webb
Publication Date 2024-11-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010600-E010699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/388455388455
Occupation General surgeon Endocrine surgeon Breast surgeon Cytologist
Details John Webb, a consultant general and endocrine surgeon for the Bristol United Hospitals, was a masterly technical surgeon and pioneer cytologist. In an era when a lump in the breast presaged uncertain frozen section biopsy and mastectomy, Webb mastered fine needle aspiration and accurate diagnosis, saving countless patients from avoidable surgery, achieved through single-handed endeavour and a microscope in his own home. His work forms the basis of the routine investigation of suspected breast cancer in modern practice. He was born in Clifton, Bristol on 29 December 1929, the son of Charles Reginald Webb, who worked in the corn trade, and Gwendoline (‘Queenie’) Webb née Moon. He was educated at Sefton Park Junior School and Cotham Grammar School, where he was head of the school from 1947 to 1948. He then entered the University of Bristol Medical School, graduating MB ChB in 1953, when he won the silver medal. He was a house officer at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1953 and 1955, and then carried out his National Service as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1955 until 1957. He was a surgical registrar at Frenchay Hospital, from 1957 to 1960 and then spent seven years in Birmingham and Coventry as a registrar and senior registrar. He returned to Bristol in 1967, when he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to Bristol Royal Infirmary, a post he held until he retired in December 1994. Following his retirement, he became a senior research fellow in the department of surgery at the University of Bristol. As a general surgeon, he retained broad general skills in all disciplines owing to his exhaustive training experience, but his research and clinical specialty interests focused on breast, endocrine and salivary gland disease. Central to this was his conviction that cytology, which formed the focus of his life’s research, could hold a key to investigating and thereby treating these diseases better. He undertook a higher degree, a ChM, awarded in 1974, with his thesis entitled ‘A cytological study of mammary disease’. This entailed studying with a leading cytologist, Paul Lopes Cardozo, in Leiden. He was a Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1975. His fascination with cytology did not stop with gaining his ChM; he became expert in all aspects of it, and this led to him being awarded the fellowship of the International Association of Cytologists – extremely rare for a surgeon. In 1993, he was also awarded the Erica Wachtel medal of the British Association of Cytopathology for his long service to the subject. His research changed the modern surgical practice of the treatment of breast cancer, heralding the concept of the one-stop clinic where a breast lump was examined and its nature ascertained through fine needle aspiration cytology at the initial consultation. Owing to his own cytological expertise, he was able to diagnose varied conditions and was called upon by colleagues around the city when a diagnosis was elusive. One memorable case involved a request from the physicians to identify the primary in a patient with metastatic disease. Noticing a bony metastasis in the vertebral body of C3, he performed fine-needle aspiration via an open mouth technique through the oropharynx. This was performed on the ward with minimal fuss or disruption, the diagnosis of a colonic primary being provided the following morning. He was the surgeon of choice to fellow consultants in need of help and a studious trainer of junior surgeons, from whom he demanded as near to his own meticulous surgical technique as they could achieve. He was president of the British Association of Endocrine Surgeons from 1992 to 1994. In his youth, John Webb was a fine rugby player, appearing at fly half for Bristol. He sang in the choir at Clifton College and was an ardent student of history. A keen observer of human traits, he had a wry sense of humour, put to use in nicknames for colleagues whose aspirations may have exceeded their abilities. Predeceased by his wife Audrie (née Bowen), whom he married in 1955, he died from old age and frailty on 21 September 2024 at the age of 94. He was survived by their four children, Mark, Dominque, Charlotte and Jason, most of whom have followed their father into either surgery or professions allied to medicine, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010681
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1980 1974

First Title value, for Searching Iyer, Sennaporatti Sivashankar Viswa ( - 2020)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2020-11-02
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
Occupation Trauma surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Sennaporatti Sivashankar Viswanath Iyer was born in India. He studied medicine at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute and qualified MB,BS in 1963. Initially he worked as a general surgeon and passed his MS in 1970. He was a lecturer in surgery at Mysore Medical College from 1971 to the end of 1972. In February 1973 he travelled to the UK and began his training in orthopaedics. He passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1975 and the college fellowship the following year. Following what he described as a *tortuous route*, he worked at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, the Hammersmith Hospital, the Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital and the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh doing various locum posts. In 1994 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at King George Hospital in Ilford and finally he became consultant at St George’s Hospital in Tooting. Throughout his career he very much enjoyed teaching, especially his work on the inaugural *Training the trainers* course in Edinburgh. When young he was a keen sportsman and excelled in cricket, badminton and table tennis. He described himself as a very aggressive batsman and, when he came to the UK, played cricket for a local first division team from 1973 to 1981. In table tennis he also reached a reasonably high standard. He died on 23 July 2020.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009862
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1975 1970

First Title value, for Searching Lynch, James Brendan (1921 - 2018)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2019-03-04
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation Pathologist
Details James Brendan Lynch was a consultant pathologist at St James’ Hospital, Leeds and formerly professor of pathology at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. He was born on 9 May 1921 in Wallasey, Cheshire, the third child and second son of Thomas Patrick Lynch, a teacher and headmaster, and Margaret Lynch née Pierce. He attended local schools in Wallasey and St Francis Xavier Grammar School in Liverpool and then went to the University of Liverpool to study medicine, qualifying in 1944. He was a house surgeon and senior casualty officer at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, lectured in anatomy at the University of Leeds, and then served in the Army. He was a registrar in general surgery at the Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool and gained his FRCS in 1950. During his training he was influenced by Henry Clarence Wardleworth Nuttall and Richard Webster Doyle, both surgeons in Liverpool. He was subsequently a lecturer in pathology at the University of Leeds. Lynch then went to the University of Khartoum, where he founded the department of pathology. By the mid 1960s, he had returned to the UK: in March 1964 he gave a Hunterian Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on ‘Mycetoma in the Sudan’ (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1964 Dec;35[6]:319-40). He was appointed as a consultant pathologist in Leeds, where he was also dean for postgraduate medical education. He was the co-author of *Pathology of toxaemia in pregnancy* Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1973. Outside medicine he enjoyed golf, reading, DIY and silver craftmanship. In 1957 he married Jacqueline Fitzgerald. They had two sons. James Lynch died on 24 August 2018 at the age of 97.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009583
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1969

First Title value, for Searching Kolb, Thomas Axel Thor (1935 - 2022)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-06-27
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010200-E010299
Occupation Dental surgeon Community Dentist
Details Tom Kolb was a dentist in Cirencester with a particular interest in children’s dentistry. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk
Resource Identifier RCS: E010246
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1959

First Title value, for Searching Bharucha, Pesi Beramsha (1920 - 2018)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2019-03-04
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon
Details Pesi Bharucha was chief of surgery at the Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur, Bihar, India. He studied medicine at Grant Medical College, Bombay and qualified in 1944. He initially trained as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, but then went to the UK shortly after Indian Independence to train in general surgery. He worked at Walton General Hospital in Liverpool for eight years and gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1954. In 1955 he returned to India, where he became a consultant surgeon at the Tata Main Hospital. He was chief of surgery and superintendent before retiring in 1980. He initially carried out all the general surgery, orthopaedics and trauma, but gradually developed the hospital into a multispecialty facility. He also worked with the World Health Organization, particularly arranging trips into remote areas of Bihar to vaccinate people against smallpox. After retiring from the Tata Main Hospital, he became the medical director of Breach Candy Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai (from 1982 to 1996). He died on 28 November 2018 and was survived by his wife Gool, two children and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009578
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1954 1952

First Title value, for Searching Adams, Rosemary Helen MacNaughton (1926 - 2018)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2019-05-02
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation Accident and emergency specialist
Details Rosemary Helen MacNaughton Adams was a consultant in the accident and emergency department at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. She was born in Edinburgh on 26 April 1926, the second child and eldest daughter of Thomas MacNaughton Davie and Lilias Tweedie Davie née Henderson. She was brought up in Beverley, Yorkshire, where her father was medical superintendent at the East Riding County Asylum. She attended the High School in Beverley and then studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where she was an outstanding student, achieving four medals, including the most distinguished graduate of the year award; she qualified in 1948. She held house posts in Edinburgh and then initially specialised in ear, nose and throat medicine, as a registrar at Hull Royal Infirmary. In 1954 she married another doctor, John Campbell Strathie Adams. His specialist posts took them from Yorkshire to Birmingham and finally to Norwich, where he was appointed as a consultant geriatrician. She was an associate specialist in the casualty department at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and became a consultant in 1975. She helped found the Norfolk branch of what became the British Association of Immediate Care Schemes (BASICS). She taught, spoke at conferences on immediate care and wrote papers on the emergency treatment of poisoning. She retired in 1990. She was appointed as a magistrate in 1965 and served on the north Norfolk bench until 1994. She enjoyed music, and played the piano and viola. With her husband, she organised a concert series at the local church at Salle in north Norfolk, where she was a churchwarden. In 1994 she and John moved back to Beverley. Sadly, her husband died the following year. She had age-related macular degeneration for many years and died from Alzheimer’s disease on 16 October 2018 at the age of 92. She was survived by her two daughters, son and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009566
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1948

First Title value, for Searching Crouch, John (1810 - 1872)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373529373529
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at North Stoneham, near Southampton, and was educated at Hyde Abbey School, Winchester. He was apprenticed to W G Wickham of that city, and finished his professional education at St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals and at King's College, London. He became House Surgeon at Winchester Hospital, and later settled at Bruton, Somersetshire, where he married, became Surgeon to the Hospital, and acquired a large practice. Here he greatly distinguished himself as one of the early and successful ovariotomists at a time when ovariotomy was regarded with apprehension. He had the credit of recording an early case of pregnancy and parturition in a patient from whom a diseased ovary had been removed. From Bruton he went to Mitcham in order to enlarge the sphere of his experience. Here, however, he was crippled by an insidious disease of the spinal cord, against which he fought with signal courage, continuing his custom of visiting the obstetrical and gynaelogical departments of hospitals as soon as he felt at all better. At the same time he resumed his writing for the medical press, but his sufferings increased, and after a painful period he died at Chippenham, Wiltshire, on April 18th, 1872. The *Lancet* is of opinion that a career of great usefulness and ability was thus cut short. Publications:- He was author of various papers on his special subject. These include: "A Successful Case of Ovariotomy by a Large Abdominal Section." - *Lond. Med. Gaz*, 1849, N.S. ix, 366. "On Ovariotomy, with a Table of all the Cases recorded in England previous to 1849." - *Prov. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, xiii, 622. "A Successful Case of Parturition in a Patient who had previously undergone Ovariotomy by a large Incision." - *Med. Times and Gaz.*, ii, 597. Various papers on ovariotomy in *Lancet* (1854-1859) and *Assoc. Jour.* (1854).
Resource Identifier RCS: E001346
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crowfoot, William Miller (1838 - 1918)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373531373531
Occupation General surgeon
Details The grandson of William Henchman Crowfoot (often cited as Henchman Crowfoot) (qv), and the elder son of William Edward Crowfoot (qv). The Crowfoots of Beccles were well known as medical men in East Anglia for more than a century, and each generation followed worthily in the footsteps of its fathers. Crowfoot was educated at Fauconberge School, Beccles, and then at Basle; he received his professional training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where his student career was brilliant, for he won exhibitions and scholarships with ease. In 1857 he won the University of London Gold Medal in Anatomy and Physiology at the Intermediate MB examination, and in 1859 the Gold Medal in Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery - carrying with it an Exhibition - and the Gold Medal in Midwifery. He was offered an appointment at St Bartholomew's Hospital immediately after graduating, but preferred to enter into practice with his father at Beccles, where he greatly increased an already large number of patients. He was for many years Surgeon to the Beccles Hospital, of which he was Hon Consulting Surgeon at the time of his death. As a medical practitioner he gained the affection and confidence of a large circle of patients. Always keeping himself abreast of medical knowledge and procedure, his opinions were received with marked attention by his colleagues, and his wide experience was always at the disposal of his younger brethren. Michael Beverley, MRCS, who was associated with him professionally for over fifty years, bore witness to his popularity in the medical circle at Norwich and to his high social and scientific qualifications. Crowfoot was an enthusiastic naturalist, botanist, and archeologist, and an early supporter of the Volunteer movement which started in 1860, and in which he held the rank of Hon Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a sound public man, both as a magistrate, and as a worker on Borough and County Councils and on Diocesan Committees. To the proceedings of medical meetings in Norwich he contributed many valuable papers, and among these his address as President of the East Anglian Branch of the British Medical Association was a signal success. He married Catherine Ann Bayly, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. One son, William Bayly, followed in his father's footsteps and joined him in practice, but died in 1907. One daughter married H Wood-Hill, practising in Beccles, and another daughter married N E Waterfield, FRCS. He died, after his retirement, at his residence, Blyburgate House, Beccles, on April 6th, 1918, and his funeral was attended by the Mayor and Corporation in state.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001348
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davey, Henry W. Robert ( - 1870)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-14 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373567373567
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the Middlesex Hospital and at the Great Windmill Street School. He was at one time Assistant Surgeon to the 7th Royal Fusiliers, and then, settling in Suffolk, was Surgeon to the Beccles Dispensary. He was at the same time a member of the Suffolk Institute of Archeology, and of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society; he was also President of the Norfolk and Norwich Pathological Society. At the time of his death he was living in retirement at 13 Steyne Road, Worthing, and was President of the Local Board of Health, and a member of the Sussex Archeological Society. He died at Worthing in 1870.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001384
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davies, Benjamin ( - 1895)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, David (1821 - 1910)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, Frederick (1809 - 1877)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, Francis Joseph ( - 1926)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, John (1817 - 1868)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies, William Joseph (1817 - 1883)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Davies-Colley, John Neville Colley (1842 - 1900)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373576373576
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Chester on September 9th, 1842, one of the four sons of Dr Thomas Davies (d.1892), Physician to the Chester General Infirmary, who afterwards took the name of Colley. Educated at King's College School, London, when Dr Major was Head Master. He was admitted a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, as John Neville Colley Davies in 1860 and became a Scholar of the College in 1863. He graduated BA in 1864, being bracketed Forty-first Wrangler and appearing top of the second class in the Classical Tripos. He subsequently became a Fellow of Trinity College and was later a Fellow of St Catharine's College. During his undergraduate career he proved himself so good an oarsman as to have been the reserve man in the University crew. Davies-Colley entered Guy's Hospital in 1884, where he attracted favourable notice, both as a student and athlete, and was appointed Surgical Registrar and Tutor in June, 1868. He then became Lecturer on Experimental Philosophy and Demonstrator of Anatomy at Guy's Hospital, and in 1872 was appointed Assistant Surgeon, at which date Thomas Bryant (qv), Senior Assistant Surgeon, succeeded Edward Cock (qv) as Surgeon. In 1880, upon the resignation of Cooper Forster (qv), Davies-Colley became full Surgeon. He lectured upon anatomy during several sessions, and then for many years gave half the course on surgery. He was also Visiting Surgeon, and at the time of his death Consulting Surgeon, to the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, and was Examiner in Anatomy on the Conjoint Board of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons (1888-1892); Examiner in Anatomy for the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (1887-1888); Examiner in Anatomy to the University of Cambridge; and a Member of the Court of Examiners (1892-1900). He also examined in surgery at the University of Cambridge. His career as a hospital surgeon and teacher was one of great success, and as an examiner he was conspicuously popular with those students who knew their subjects, for he was quiet, clear, and scrupulously courteous. As a teacher he was extremely lucid and painstaking, his somewhat deliberate methods of imparting instruction being particularly appreciated by his pupils. His slow and cadenced method of speaking was adopted as a remedy for a defect of speech: he had an obstinate proclivity to stammer, but by taking thought over his manner of elocution he overcame the infirmity early in his career. He held in turn the appointments in the Medical School of Guy's Hospital of Demonstrator of Anatomy, Demonstrator of Practical Surgery, Lecturer on Anatomy, and Lecturer on Surgery. As a surgeon he held a very high place in the opinion of all his confreres. He was bold in scheme and careful in procedure, while his great industry and fine memory allowed him to carry about with him the results of his experience to be produced in a moment exactly when and where it was wanted. He trod in the footsteps of Henry Howse (qv), who introduced Listerism into the surgical routine at Guy's Hospital. He subsequently followed the latest trend of aseptic surgery, and, well informed in all that was then known, undertook the biggest operations up to the last. His work at the Royal College of Surgeons was notable. He was elected to the Council in July, 1896, and both there and at the examination table was conspicuous by his abilities. One of his last acts at the College was the unveiling in the theatre of the Lister portrait by W W Ouless. In November, 1899, Davies-Colley first became aware that he was suffering from cancer of the liver, but to others he gave no sign of his knowledge. He continued imperturbably at his work, and with failing strength completed the first half of the winter session at Guy's Hospital. He married the daughter of Thomas Turner, for many years Treasurer of Guy's Hospital, and sister of Dr F Charlewood Turner, Physician to the London Hospital. Two of his sons became Fellows of the College, Robert Davies-Colley, CMG, becoming Surgeon to Guy's Hospital, whilst his daughter, Miss Eleanor Davies-Colley, had the unique distinction of becoming the first Woman Fellow of the College. He practised at 36 Harley Street. He died at his country house, Borough, Pulborough, Sussex, on May 6th, 1900, and was buried in the churchyard, Pulborough. He was survived by his widow and children. His portrait (of early date) is in the Council Album, and a good one accompanies his biography in the *British Medical Journal*. In *Guy's Hospital Gazette* (1900, June 9) there is a fine portrait, which some do not, however, regard as a good likeness. A Davies-Colley Memorial, for which subscriptions were invited at a meeting of the staff of the Medical School of Guy's Hospital, took the form of a collection of books now in a special case in the Guy's Hospital Library. Some £380 were subscribed towards this object. Publications: Davies-Colley put his name to no separate work, but up to the time of his death was still employed upon an important book on surgery, which from its practical nature might have become a classic if published. "Carbuncle," "Gonorrhoeal Rheumatism," "Injuries and Diseases of the Neck, Throat, and Oesophagus," and "Malignant Pustule" in Heath's *Dictionary of Surgery*. Articles on "Muscles" in Morris's *Treatise of Anatomy*. "A Case of Resection of the Tarsal Bones for Congenital Talipes Equino-varus." - *Med.- Chir. Trans.*, 1877, lx, 11. In this article he recommends the procedure for cases where ordinary methods had been unsuccessfully employed or were likely to fail in a severe case. "On Malignant Pustule." In this article he advocated the excision of the whole of the inflamed area, or, at any rate, of the indurated skin, with the subsequent use of iodoform, perchloride of mercury, or a strong solution of nitric acid. The full title of this article is "Notes of Two Cases of Malignant Pustule, together with a Table of Seventeen Cases treated at Guy's Hospital: with a Report on the Microscopical Examination of Sections of Skin affected with Malignant Pustule, removed during life by F Charlewood Turner," 8vo, 3 coloured plates, London, 1882; reprinted from *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1882, lxv, 237. "A New Operation for the Cure of Cleft of the Hard and Soft Palate, with an Account of Six Cases so treated." - *Ibid.*, 1894, lxxvii, 237. All these papers are highly practical and good examples of the sound common-sense principles of surgery which he always taught. He sent numerous reports of cases to the *Guy's Hosp. Reps.*, of which journal he edited many volumes in conjunction first with Dr Frederick Taylor and then with Dr Hale White. His reports of cases and articles are in most of the volumes from 1870 onwards and cover a wide range of subjects. He contributed also a number of reports of cases to the *Trans. Clin. Soc.*, *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, the *Lancet*, and other medical journals.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001393
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davy, Richard (1838 - 1920)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373577373577
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Chulmleigh in Devon, where his father, J C Davy, had long practised. He became a student at Edinburgh and at Guy's Hospital, and worked under John Hilton and Thomas Bryant. He returned to Edinburgh and followed the clinics of Spence, Syme, and Lister. He was a Clinical Clerk under Dr J Hughes Bennett and Dr Thomas Laycock, and was greatly attracted by William Turner's teaching of anatomy. He graduated in 1862 with 2nd class honours, his thesis being on "Clinical Reports upon certain forms of Cerebral Disease". His interest was distinctly surgical, and he spent the winter of 1863 in Paris, working at anatomy and practical surgery. Some of his Edinburgh friends bore him company, including John Duncan, afterwards a leading surgeon in the Edinburgh school. In 1864 he settled in London, and was appointed Surgeon to the St Marylebone General Dispensary, and in 1871 on the staff of Westminster Hospital, where he held the offices of Assistant Surgeon, Surgeon, and Surgeon in charge of the Orthopaedic Department. He was also Lecturer on Practical and Operative Surgery in the Medical School. Davy has been described by his contemporaries as an unconventional and independently-minded man, more interested in the mechanical side of surgery, in which he exulted, than its scientific aspect. Trained by Spence in the Edinburgh school, he was antagonistic to Listerism and did not believe in the modem theories of sepsis. To him infections following surgical operations were the result of 'diatheses', and if the patient were possessed by the septic diathesis, so much the worse for the patient. Davy was a highly original orthopaedic surgeon; he was an exponent of the removal of the bones of the tarsus for flat-foot and club-foot, and of the excision of the knee- and hip-joints for tuberculous disease. His name has survived in instrument catalogues under the title of 'Davy's rod' or 'lever'. This rod he passed up the rectum in an attempt to compress the iliac arteries during amputation at the hip-joint, but it caused injury of the rectum and soon fell into disuse. In 1893 Davy resigned all his appointments, retired to Devonshire, and became a country gentleman. He died at Burstone Manor, Bow, North Devon, on September 25th, 1920, and was buried at Chulmleigh. He married the daughter of George Cutliffe, of Witheridge, Devon, by whom he had two daughters, one of whom became a nurse at St Thomas's Hospital. Publications: *New Inventions in Surgical Mechanisms*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1875. *Surgical Lectures delivered in the Theatre of Westminster Hospital*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1880. *General Remarks on Sanitation*, 8vo, London, 1888. *Westminster Hospital Medical School: The Introductory Address*, 8vo, London, 1875. "Excision of an Osseous Wedge at the Transverse Tarsal Joint in confirmed Club Foot." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1876, 1877, 1883. "New Method of Controlling Hemorrhage during Amputation at Hip-joint." - *Ibid.*, 1878, i, 704. "Tibio-femoral Impaction for Excision of Knee-joint." - *Ibid.*, 1883, ii, 758. "Observations on some Local Anaesthetics" (with Dyce Duckworth), 8vo, Edinburgh, 1862; reprinted from *Edin. Med. Jour.*, 1862.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001394
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dawson, William (1800 - )

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dayman, Henry (1809 - 1885)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Deakin, Charles Washington Shirley (1850 - 1889)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Griffiths, Donald Barry (1921 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372253372253
Occupation General surgeon
Details Donald Griffiths was a consultant general surgeon in Aberystwyth. He was born in Colwyn Bay on 12 March 1921, the son of Thomas Owen Griffiths, a science master, and Alice Adelaide, the daughter of a tailor. He was educated at Penmaenrhoe Council School and Colwyn Bay County School, and was Denbighshire county scholar. He studied medicine at University College Hospital, with a physiology scholarship, qualifying in 1943. He held house appointments at New End Hospital and at Queen Mary's, Carshalton, and was a registrar at Bethnal Green Hospital and Epsom District Hospital. During the war he served with the RAMC in West Africa and Greece. After the war, he returned to the professorial surgical unit at UCH, where he held the John Marshall fellowship. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at Aberystwyth in 1960 and later at the newly built Bronglais Hospital. He was President of the Aberystwyth division of the BMA in 1972 and was awarded the BMA certificate of commendation in 1994. A member of the Welsh Surgical Society, he travelled widely to their meetings. Late in his career he developed a severe illness of the hands, caused by surgical gloves, but recovered and resumed his duties. A delightful, gregarious person, he knew everyone in the little village of Llanon in Cardiganshire where he retired. A keen football supporter, he was a former chairman of Aberystwyth Town Football Club. Recovering for surgery for aortic stenosis, he remained active until shortly before his death from heart failure on 12 April 2004. He leaves a widow, Mary, and five children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000066
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Wright, Peter (1932 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
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/372331372331
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Peter Wright was a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Hospital and a former President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. He was born in London on 7 September 1932, the son of William Victor Wright and Ada Amelie (née Craze). He was educated at St Clement Danes, and then went on to study medicine at King’s, London. After house jobs at King’s and Guy’s Maudsley neurosurgical unit, he joined the RAF for his National Service and became an ophthalmic specialist. He returned to Guy’s as a lecturer in anatomy and physiology, and then went to Moorfields to train in ophthalmology. He was appointed as a senior registrar at King’s and made a consultant in 1964. In 1973, he was appointed to Moorfields as a consultant, and in 1978 became full-time there. In 1980, he was appointed clinical sub-dean at the Institute of Ophthalmology. At Moorfields he was responsible for the external disease service, dealing with infection and inflammation in the anterior part of the eye. His research included collaborative studies on skin and eye diseases, and ocular immunity. These led to the identification of the Practolol oculocutaneous reaction, work that gave him an ongoing interest in adverse drug reactions. He was invited to lecture all over the world, and was a visiting professor at universities in India and Brazil. In 1991, he became the second President of the College of Ophthalmologists, and it was under his presidency that the College was granted a royal licence. He was the last President of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, President of the ophthalmic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, ophthalmic adviser to the chief medical officer and consultant adviser to the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain. He received many honorary awards. In 1960, he married Elaine Catherine Donoghue, a consultant psychiatrist, by whom he had two daughters, Fiona and Candice, and one son Andrew, who sadly died in the Lockerbie air disaster. There are two granddaughters. His marriage was dissolved in 1992 and in the following year Peter retired from Moorfields and moved with his partner John Morris to Bovey Tracey, where he had time to renovate his Devon house and enjoy his major interest, classical music. He was an excellent pianist, superb cook, and fine host. He was a keen gardener and a founder member of the Nerine and Amaryllid Society of the Royal Horticultural Society. He died on 26 May 2003 from the complications of myeloid leukaemia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000144
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Docker, Edward Scott (1816 - 1887)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Connell, Anthea Mary Stewart (1925 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Littlewood, Arthur Henry Martin (1923 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Guthrie, George James (1785 - 1856)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 2018-06-08
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/372188372188
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born in London on May 1st, 1785. His grandfather, a Scotsman, served with the army at the Battle of the Boyne. His father succeeded his maternal uncle, a retired Naval Surgeon, as manager of a business for the sale of lead plaister. Guthrie learnt French from the Abbé Noel when quite a boy, and spoke it so perfectly that he was often mistaken in after-life for an émigré. At the age of 13 he accidentally came under the notice of John Rush, Inspector of Regimental Hospitals, who had him apprenticed to Dr Phillips, a surgeon in Pall Mall. He attended the Windmill Street School of Medicine, and was one of those into whose arms William Cruikshank - Dr Johnson's 'sweet-blooded man' - fell when he was delivering his last lecture on the brain on June 27th, 1800. From June, 1800, to March, 1801, Guthrie served as Hospital Mate at the York Hospital, Chelsea, which then occupied what is now a part of Eaton Square. Surgeon General Thomas Keate issued an order that all hospital mates must be members of the newly formed College of Surgeons. Guthrie presented himself for examination on the day following the issue of the order, was examined by Keate himself, and made so favourable an impression that he was at once posted to the 29th Regiment. He was then 16 years of age; his Colonel was 24 - but, notwithstanding, it was generally agreed that no regiment was better commanded or better doctored. Guthrie accompanied the 29th Regiment to North America as Assistant Surgeon, remained there until 1807, then returned to England with the regiment and was immediately ordered out to the Peninsula. There he served until 1814, seeing much service and earning the especial commendation of the Duke of Wellington. He acted as Principal Medical Officer at the Battle of Albuera, though he was only 26 years old, and one evening had on his hands 3000 wounded with four wagons, and such equipment as regimental surgeons carried in their panniers, and the nearest village seven miles away. He was appointed in 1812 to act as Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, but the Medical Board in London refused to confirm the appointment on the ground of his youth. He was placed on half pay at the end of the campaign, began to practise privately in London, and attended the lectures of Charles Bell and Benjamin Brodie at the Windmill Street School of Medicine. He hastened to Brussels directly after the Battle of Waterloo in June, 1815, was received enthusiastically by his former comrades, amputated at the hip with success, extracted a bullet from the bladder, and tied the peroneal artery by cutting down upon it through the calf muscles, the latter operation being afterwards known as 'Guthrie's bloody operation'. On his return to London he was placed in charge of two clinical wards at the York Hospital [The Duke's or York Hospital - military - was in Grosvenor Place where Hobart Place now is], with a promise that the most severe surgical cases should be sent to him. He discharged this duty for two years, during which he was amongst the first in England to use lithotrity. He also began a course of lectures which was continued gratuitously to all medical officers of the public services for the next twenty years. At the end of the first course, 1816-1817, the medical officers of the Army, Navy, and the Ordnance presented him with a fine silver loving-cup appropriately inscribed. The cup has become an heirloom in the family of Henry Power (qv), to whom it was presented by his last surviving child, Miss Guthrie. In 1816 Guthrie was instrumental in establishing an Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye, which became 'The Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital', long situated in King William Street, Strand, next to the Charing Cross Hospital, but removed in 1928 to Broad Street, Bloomsbury. Guthrie was appointed Surgeon and remained attached to the hospital until 1838, when he resigned in favour of his son, C W G Guthrie (qv) [but retained his connection with the hospital until 1856]. In 1823 he was elected Assistant Surgeon to Westminster Hospital, becoming full surgeon in 1827, when the Governors made a fourth Surgeon to mark their esteem for his surgical reputation and personal character. He resigned his office in 1843, again to make way for his son. At the Royal College of Surgeons Guthrie was a Member of Council from 1824-1856, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1828-1856, Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1853, Hunterian Orator in 1830, Vice-President five times, and President in 1833, 1841, and 1854. He was Hunterian Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery from 1828-1832. He was elected FRS in 1827. He married twice and had two sons and one daughter, none of whom left issue. He died suddenly on his birthday - May Day 1856, and was buried at Kensal Green. [See entry for his younger son Charles W G Guthrie; the elder son Lowry Guthrie (1814-48) became a clergyman, see Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses.] Guthrie is described as a man of active and robust frame, keen and energetic in appearance, with remarkably piercing black eyes. Shrewd and quick, he was at times very outspoken and somewhat inconsiderate in regard to other people's feelings; but behind his military brusqueness was much kindness of heart. He was very popular as a lecturer, his lectures being full of anecdotes and illustrative cases, and his Hunterian Oration is memorable; it was given fluently and without notes, as was afterwards done by Sir James Paget, Savory, Henry Power, Butlin, and Moynihan. He was noted for his coolness as an operator and for the delicacy of his manipulations. His unrivalled experience in military surgery, gained during the later years of the Peninsular War and at the most receptive period of his life, justly entitles him to be called 'the English Larrey'. It enabled him to advance the science and practice of surgery more than any other army surgeon since the days of Richard Wiseman. Before his time it was usual to treat gunshot wounds of the thigh by placing the limb on its side. Guthrie introduced the straight splint. He differed from John Hunter in the treatment of gunshot injuries requiring amputation. Hunter was in favour of the secondary operation; Guthrie advocated immediate removal of the limb. After Albuera he introduced the practice of tying both ends of a wounded artery at the seat of the injury; Hunter contented himself with its ligature above the wound. Guthrie also advocated the destruction with mineral acids of the diseased tissues in cases of 'hospital gangrene'. In connection with ophthalmic surgery he taught that the cataracting lens should be extracted, not 'couched', and he was one of the first to describe congenital opacity of the lens. He was heterodox in the treatment of syphilis for he recommended that mercury should not be used, and his advice was largely followed by his pupils. At the College of Surgeons he was in favour of Reform, and did much to secure the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. He was opposed to the Charter of 1843. A life-size half-length portrait by Henry Room (1802-1850) hangs in the Secretary's Office at the Royal College of Surgeons. It was presented by his daughter, Miss Guthrie, in 1870. There is a bust by E Davis, also presented by Miss Guthrie in 1870; there are two copies of a fine mezzotint in the College Collection. The plate was engraved by William Walker after Room, and was published by the London Publishing Co on May 10th, 1853. A crayon portrait by Count D'Orsay is in the Westminster Hospital. There is also a clever but rather spiteful pencil sketch in the College Collection. It represents Guthrie lecturing on emphysema - May 6th, 1830 - "Mr Guthrie's 11th Lecture" appears in the handwriting of William Clift below the sketch. It is initialled T M S in the bottom right-hand corner. It was probably made by T Madden Stone, Library Assistant in 1832, who was unfriendly to Guthrie - and not without reason. PUBLICATIONS: - Guthrie is best known by his *Treatise on Gunshot Wounds*, which was first published in 1813 [changed to 1815]. It may still be read with pleasure for the graphic accounts of the Military Surgery of a bygone age. The Commentaries on the Surgery of the War in Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands from the Battle of Roliça in 1808 to that of Waterloo in 1815, revised to 1853, of which a new edition was published in 1855, is a digest of the Treatise on Gunshot Wounds. It forms the substance of Guthrie's public lectures and contains his matured opinion on military surgery. In 1819 he published a Treatise on the Operation for the Formation of an Artificial Pupil, which he included in a larger work entitled, Lectures on the Operative Surgery of the Eye. These lectures reached a 3rd edition in 1838. Remarks on the Anatomy Bill in a Letter to the Right Hon Lord Althorp, 1832. The Wounds and Injuries of the Arteries of the Human Body, with the Treatment and Operations required for their Cure, 1846. In these lectures Guthrie drew attention to the anastomotic circulation.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000001
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ackroyd, Jenny Susan (1950 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 2016-11-25
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/372189372189
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Jenny Ackroyd was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. She was born in Leeds on 23 May 1950, the fourth child of Peter Ackroyd and Evelyn née Nutt. Her father, an academic theologian, was subsequently a professor at King's College, London, and was known as 'Old Testament Ackroyd'. She was educated at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich, and then went on to New Hall, Cambridge, where she read medicine and fine arts. She then went to Middlesex Hospital for her clinical studies. During her junior doctor training she became the first female surgical registrar and senior registrar at St Thomas's, a particularly male-dominated institution at the time. She was awarded the FRCS in 1979. She also achieved the degree of master of surgery at Cambridge in 1986, possibly the first woman ever to do so. She was appointed as consultant surgeon in general and vascular surgery at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in 1987 and developed a particular interest in day surgery. There was no dedicated day unit there, so she and a band of enthusiastic helpers helped raise the necessary funds to build one. Her most recent interest was the building of a new surgical wing, opened by the Secretary of State for Health in November 2004, and named in her honour. Jenny was a founder member of Women in Surgical Training, a body formed at the Royal College of Surgeons for the encouragement of training of women in surgery and felt strongly that, at about two per cent, the current representation of female consultant surgeons was unacceptably low. She is remembered as a caring, encouraging, enthusiastic and patient teacher by her junior staff and was nominated by them for a trainer of the year award from the Association of Surgeons in Training. Twelve years ago she developed a melanoma of the eye and after treatment lost the sight of the eye, but continued her professional life and was often known locally as the 'partially sighted, female surgeon from Wareside', to the amusement of her patients. In this capacity she was invited to attend the Woman of the Year lunch in 1993, which was sponsored by the Royal National Institute of the Blind. During this busy professional life, working full-time throughout, Jenny had a fulfilling social and family life. She married Malcolm Lennox, also a consultant surgeon, in 1976, and had two children, Sophie and Sandy. She was a faithful member of St Mary's Church choir and also sang in Ware Choral Society and played the cello. Her manner was sympathetic, concerned and helpful, but most of all she was lively, fun to be with, colourfully dressed and noisy in a delightful way. She died peacefully at home on 5 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000002
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ackland, Thomas Henry (1908 - 1994)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Hardy, James Daniel (1918 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2007-08-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372351372351
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details James Daniel Hardy was an organ transplant pioneer and the first chairman of the department of surgery and surgeon in chief at the University Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi. Board certified by both the American Board of Surgery and the Board of Thoracic Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Hardy worked to improve medical and surgical care in Mississippi throughout his career of teaching, caring for patients and clinical research. Over 200 surgeons trained with him during his tenure as chairman of the department of surgery from 1955 to 1987. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on 14 May 1918, the elder of twin boys, he was the son of Fred Henry Hardy, owner of a lime plant, and Julia Poyner Hardy, a schoolteacher. His early childhood was tough and frugal, thanks to the Depression. He was educated at Montevallo High School, where he played football for the school, and learned to play the trombone. He completed his premedical studies at the University of Alabama, where he excelled in German, and went on to the University of Pennsylvania to study medicine, and during his physiology course carried out a research project (on himself) to show that olive oil introduced into the duodenum would inhibit the production of gastric acid - an exercise which gave him a lifelong interest in research. At the same time he joined the Officers Training Corps. In his last year he published research into the effect of sulphonamide on wound healing. After receiving his MD he entered postgraduate training for a year as an intern and a resident in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and also conducted research on circulatory physiology. Research became a vital part of his professional life. His military service in the second world war was with the 81st Field Hospital. In the New Year of 1945 he found himself in London, before crossing to France and the last months of the invasion of Germany. After VE Day his unit was sent out to the Far East, but when news arrived of the Japanese surrender his ship made a U-turn and they landed back in the United States. He returned to Philadelphia to complete his surgical residency under Isidor Ravdin. He was a senior Damon Runyon fellow in clinical research and was awarded a masters of medical science in physiological chemistry by the University of Pennsylvania in 1951 for his research on heavy water and the measurement of body fluids. That same year Hardy became an assistant professor of surgery and director of surgical research at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Memphis, later he was to become an associate professor, and continued in this position until 1955, when he became the first professor of surgery and chairman of the department of surgery at the newly established University of Mississippi Medical Center, School of Medicine, Jackson. As a surgeon charged with establishing an academic training programme, Hardy became known as a charismatic teacher and indefatigable physician. He also actively pursued and encouraged clinical research in the newly established department of surgery. His group’s years of research in the laboratory led to the first kidney autotransplant in man for high ureteral injury, and to advances in the then emerging field of human organ transplantation. The first lung transplant in man was performed at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1963 and in 1964 Hardy and his team carried out the first heart transplantation using a chimpanzee as a donor. Hardy authored, co-authored or edited more than 23 medical books, including two which became standard surgery texts, and published more than 500 articles and chapters in medical publications. He served on numerous editorial boards and as editor-in-chief of *The World Journal of Surgery*. He also produced a volume of autobiographical memoirs, *The Academic surgeon* (Mobile, Alabama, Magnolia Mansions Press, c.2002), which is a most readable and vivid account of the American residency system and its emphasis on research, which has been such a model for the rest of the world. Over the course of his career he served as president of the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the International Surgical Society and the Society of University Surgeons and was a founding member of the International Surgical Group and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary tract. He was an honorary fellow of the College, of the l’Académie Nationale de Médicine and l’Association Français de Chirurgie. The proceedings of the 1983 surgical forum of the American College of Surgeons was dedicated to Hardy, citing him as “…an outstanding educator, investigator, clinical surgeon and international leader.” In 1987 Hardy retired from the department of surgery and served in the Veteran’s Administration Hospital system as a distinguished VA physician from 1987 to 1990. He married Louise (Weezie) Scott Sams in 1949. They had four daughters: Louise, Julia Ann, Bettie and Katherine. He died on 19 February 2003. An annual James D Hardy lectureship has been established in his honour at the department of surgery, University Medical Center, Jackson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000164
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First Title value, for Searching Vincent, John Painter (1776 - 1852)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching White, Anthony (1782 - 1849)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Arnott, James Moncrieff (1794 - 1885)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Keast-Butler, John (1937 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
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/372531372531
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details John Keast-Butler was a consultant ophthalmologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He was born in London on 26 September 1937. His father, Joseph Alfred Keast-Butler, was a salesman and his mother, Mary Loise Brierley, was a secretary. He was educated at University College School and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read medicine, going on to University College Hospital for his clinical studies. After National Service in the RAMC he specialised in ophthalmology, at first as a registrar at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, then as a senior resident officer at Moorfields Eye Hospital, City Road, and finally as a senior registrar at St Thomas’s Hospital and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. In 1977 he was appointed as a consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, Cambridge University Teaching Hospitals Trust and Saffron Walden Community Hospital. In addition he was associate lecturer (medicine) at the University of Cambridge, director of studies (clinical medicine) at Trinity College, Cambridge, and attachment director in ophthalmology, University of Cambridge School of Medicine. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, chairman of the BMA ophthalmic group committee for some years and honorary secretary of the Cambridge Medical Graduates’ Club. His colleagues rightly described him as a big man in stature and in personality. He was a skilled craftsman and enjoyed carpentry, photography and gardening. He married Brigid Hardy, a nurse, in 1967 and they had three children – one daughter (a civil servant) and two sons (a trainee ophthalmic surgeon and a business analyst). He died on 19 March 2005 while travelling with his wife in Goa. He had a major fall that proceeded a fatal pulmonary embolism.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000345
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Lange, Meyer John (1912 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching McNeill, John Fletcher (1926 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Nixon, John Moylett Gerrard (1913 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Bigelow, Wilfred Gordon (1913 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Green, Sydney Isaac (1915 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Sarah Green
Publication Date 2006-01-13 2015-09-23
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/372362372362
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Sydney Green was a neurosurgeon based in Washington DC and Bethesda. He was born in Glasgow on 10 June 1915 and lived in a one bedroom apartment with his parents and four older siblings, Lionel, Fagah, Mae and Lillah. He often spoke lovingly about his parents Hymen Harry and Sarah Sayetta Green, and told many stories of life at Springhill Gardens. As he played in the courtyard, he would yell up to his mother, 'Ma, throw me a piece!' and his mother would fix him a bread, butter and sugar sandwich and lower it down to him on a pulley which she rigged up on the fourth floor. The family moved to London when Syd was 10. He decided to become a doctor like his brother Lionel and went on to study medicine at Guy's Hospital. He qualified in 1938. During the Second World War, he served as a captain in the RAMC and was aboard the *Dinard* when it was sunk after hitting a mine on D-Day. Later, he crossed the Rhine as surgeon in charge of the Glider Ambulance Unit, 6th Airborne Division, and was one of the first to liberate the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, an experience which profoundly shaped his feeling toward religion and his Jewish heritage. After the war he returned to specialise in neurosurgery under Hugh Cairns and Murray Falconer and in 1958 went to the United States, where he was in practice in Washington and then Bethesda, working mainly at the Sibley Memorial Hospital. He was much appreciated by his patients and admired by his peers, and was meticulous and incredibly thorough. Intensely devoted to each and every patient, he told how, during the war, he insisted on using more and more blood in an attempt to save one soldier. He was disciplined for his commitment to his patient. Throughout his career, his waiting room was often crowded. He simply wouldn't take shortcuts with any person, much less his patients - but he was well worth waiting for. In 1961 he met a widow, Phyllis Leon Brown. The story goes that she took him on a walk on their second date, and before he knew it they were in a jewellery store choosing rings. They married in 1962 and Syd instantly became a father to three boys, Stuart, Myles and Ken. A daughter, Sarah, was born in 1964. His pride in his family was transparent: family defined his life. He always tried to be home for dinner every night, even if it meant he would have to go back to work late into the evening. He didn't have many hobbies that would take him away from home, but he was passionate about his garden. He would drive up the driveway and, before going inside, he would take off his jacket and lie down in a patch of grass, painstakingly picking out the crabgrass. He would sometimes lose his glasses in the garden, only to find them crunched by the lawnmower weeks later or would come in the house frantically looking for them, only to realise that they were still on the top of his head. He loved to sing off key and tell jokes, good and bad, and to play games. He was intensely alive at every moment and took incredible pleasure in food, whether marmite on burnt toast, over ripe bananas and really crusty bread. Syd had the eccentric habit of grading every meal he ate. While his wife learned to accept a solid B with some satisfaction, other hostesses weren't so thrilled to accept that their meal was anything less than an A+. With Syd, there was no such thing as grade inflation. He was thrilled to see each of his children find his or her life partner, and was passionate about his grandchildren. As Sydney's family tree grew, so did his life force, it seemed. He was famous for travelling to new cities, finding phone books in hotel rooms and looking up anyone who had a name that vaguely resembled his mother's maiden name 'Sayetta'. If he found someone, he would call them and invite them for tea. Whether or not they were related, it was a new person to meet with the potential of connecting with them on some intellectual or emotional level: Syd was a people person to the very end. He saw a great deal during his long life, including two world wars and the horrors of the Holocaust. He was also around to see some of the most fantastic advances in technology and he made sure he kept up with the latest medical breakthroughs, even into his eighties. In 1996 he underwent a pneumonectomy and, after a prolonged battle with chest disease, he died on 14 September 2005. He was 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000175
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Till, Anthony Stedman (1909 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
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/372539372539
Occupation General surgeon
Details Anthony Stedman Till, known as ‘Tim’, was a consultant surgeon in Oxford. He was born in London, on 5 September 1909, the eldest son of Thomas Marson Till OBE, an accountant, and Gladys Stedman, the daughter of a metal broker in the City. Tim was educated at Ovingdean Hall, Brighton, and Marlborough, before winning a scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he went to the Middlesex Hospital to do his clinical training as a university scholar. After he qualified he was house physician, house surgeon, casualty officer and registrar, and then became an assistant to Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor, who was a large influence on him. Tim also studied in Heidelberg and became fluent in German. In 1940 he joined the RAMC, and in the same year married Joan Burnyeat, the daughter of Colonel Ponsonby Burnyeat, who had been killed in 1918. Tim was posted to the Middle East, via Cape Town and Suez. He was taken prisoner during the battle for Lemros and was shipped, via Athens, to Stalag 7A. While a prisoner-of-war he operated not only on his fellow prisoners but also on the local civilians, and later, possibly as a result of his services to the local population, he was repatriated to the UK. He was soon back on the continent with the 181st Field Ambulance, and was with the first medical group to enter Belsen. He was always reluctant to talk about the sights he saw, which made a huge impression on him, but did remember how he picked a flower there, finding this a symbol of hope. Shortly after demobilisation in 1945 he was appointed as a registrar in Oxford and, soon afterwards, consultant surgeon. His special interests were thyroid and abdominal surgery, where he made notable contributions in both fields. He was President of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine, President of the Association of Surgeons, and a member of the Court of Examiners of our College. Outside the profession, he served as a magistrate. He hunted with the Heythrop, and when he gave up riding he bought himself a mountain bike so that he could ‘ride out’ every morning. In retirement he was the District Commissioner – an onerous task. He was also a skilled fisherman and an accomplished artist in oils and watercolour. He had a long and happy retirement in the Cotswolds with his wife Joan, who gave him stalwart support. He died on 31 August 2006, leaving his widow, three daughters (the eldest predeceased him), ten grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000353
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Walt, Alexander Jeffrey (1923 - 1996)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10 2022-02-03
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/372540372540
Occupation General surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details Alexander Walt was a former president of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1923 and went to school and university there. After qualifying in 1948 he completed his house jobs at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, before winning a Dominion studentship to Guy’s Hospital in 1951. He then completed a surgical residency in the USA, at the Mayo Clinic, from 1952 to 1956. He returned to the UK, as a surgical registrar at St Martin’s Hospital, Bath, where he remained until 1957. He then went back to Cape Town, to the Groote Schuur Hospital, as an assistant surgeon for the next four years. He was subsequently appointed to Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, USA, where in 1966 he became professor and chairman of the department of surgery. He was recognised by his peers by his election to the presidency of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma in 1997, the presidency of the Western Surgical Association in 1987, and the presidency of the American College of Surgeons in 1995. **See below for an additional obituary uploaded 8 October 2015:** Alec Walt was born in Cape Town in 1923, the son of Isaac Walt, a wholesale grocer who had emigrated to South Africa from Lithuania to escape the pogrom. When only two and a half years of age, his mother, Lea, née Garb, and two sisters were killed in a train crash, but his father was determined that all three sons be educated – and all three became doctors. At Grey High School in Port Elizabeth he distinguished himself as a sportsman and formed a lifelong friendship with Bill (later Sir Raymond) Hoffenberg. Together they entered the University of Cape Town as medical students in 1940, but an acute sense of patriotism led them to volunteer for service with the army medical corps – which was approved only at the third attempt. They served for three and a half years with the 6th SA Armoured Division and 5th US Army in Egypt and Greece, and throughout the whole of the Italian campaign, during which time they spent many hours planning how to fail trivial army examinations so that they could remain together as privates in the same unit. It was service with a surgical team in the field which instilled a long-abiding interest in trauma and served him well in later years during his time in Detroit. He played rugby for the Mediterranean forces, and was disappointed that circumstances did not allow him to accept a place in the army team in London where he hoped to see his brother after a 25 year absence. With army planning at the time, he also missed the appointment for an interview for a possible Rhodes scholarship. On demobilisation in 1945, Alec Walt returned to medical school, graduating in 1948 and serving his internship in Groote Schuur Hospital. In 1947 he married Irene Lapping, with whom he had been close friends since boyhood, and they went abroad for his surgical training, firstly to attend the basic science course for the primary fellowship of the College, and then to undertake residency training at the Mayo Clinic. While there he qualified FRCS Canada in 1955 and MS Minnesota in 1956. Returning to England as surgical registrar at St Martin’s Hospital, Bath, he took his final FRCS in 1956 before returning to Groote Schuur with his wife and three children – John Richard, born in 1952, Steven David, born in 1954, and Lindsay Jane, born in 1955 – as an assistant surgeon and lecturer. However, he became increasingly concerned that his family should not be brought up in the political climate of South Africa and in 1961 left a flourishing practice to return to the United States and an appointment with the Veterans Hospital in Detroit. His abilities were clearly recognised, for in 1965 he was appointed Chief of Surgery at Detroit General (later Receiving) Hospital, and the following year Chairman of Surgery and Penerthy Professor of Surgery of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, from which he retired in 1988. He was assistant and, from 1968 to 1970, associate dean of the medical school. As Professor of Surgery, Alec Walt gained recognition as a superb teacher and distinguished academic. He was designated ‘clinical teacher of the year’ on no fewer than three occasions and in 1984 received the Lawrence M Weiner award of the Alumni Association for outstanding achievements as a non-alumnus. On his retirement in 1988, he was a visiting fellow in Oxford with his old friend Bill Hoffenberg, then President of Wolfson College and also of the Royal College of Physicians. He was elected to the Academy of Scholars and was designated Distinguished Professor of Surgery of Wayne State University. Alec Walt’s avid thirst for knowledge made him an active and prolific clinical investigator, his 165 published papers and reviews concentrating on the surgery of trauma and of hepatobiliary disease which, along with breast cancer, were his prime interests. His army experience, which endowed him with unusual skills in the organisation of trauma services, stood him in good stead during the Detroit riots in 1967, when his paper on the anatomy of a civil disturbance and its impact on disaster planning was a classic. On four occasions he took surgical trauma teams for training in Colombia, whose government presented him with the Jorge Bejarano medal in 1981 Principal author of the first paper describing the prognostic value of oestrogen receptors in breast cancer, he was an active participant in therapeutic trials in this disease and latterly became a strong proponent of the need for multidisciplinary care. His final contribution to Detroit surgery was his development of the Comprehensive Breast Center in the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, now named the Alexander J Walt Center. Alec Walt had a distinctive clarity of writing and speaking which led to his appointment to the editorial boards of several medical journals, including the <i>Archives of surgery</i> and the <i>Journal of trauma</i>. He was in great demand as a lecturer, honouring numerous prestigious national and international commitments. He was Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1969 and Moynihan Lecturer in 1988, and in 1995 gave a keynote address at the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He held leadership positions in many North American surgical organisations, including the Presidency of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Board of Medical Specialties and was Vice-President of the American Surgical Association. He was elected an honorary Fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in 1989, and of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Australasia in 1993 and 1995 respectively. A keen contributor to the affairs of the American College of Surgeons, Alec Walt served as a Regent from 1984 to 1993 and as Chairman of the Board of Regents from 1991 to 1993. He was elected 75th President in 1994, an office to which he immediately brought great panache. Unfortunately, during his presidential year he developed a massive recurrence of a bladder cancer, first treated twelve years previously. With typical courage he elected to have chemotherapy ‘spaced’ so that he could preside over the Annual Clinical Meeting, at which his successor was to be inaugurated. The attributes which contributed to Alec Walt’s great distinction as an academic surgeon were a keen intelligence, capacity for hard work, absolute integrity, a deep concern for all people, particularly the young, and, greatest of all, a deep and sincere humility. He did not suffer fools gladly and had no hesitation in attacking the uncritical, unscientific or badly presented paper with a characteristic irony; but he would always have a kind congratulatory word for those who had given of their best. A top sportsman – champion hurdler at school, captain of cricket and an athletic Blue at university – he led by example, not dictate. Realising a boyhood dream of climbing to 17,000 feet in Nepal with one of his sons and his daughter at the age of 62 while recovering from treatment of his bladder cancer, he took with him Tennyson’s Ulysses, a favourite poem, passages from which he would loudly declaim. He was devoted to his wife Irene, his three children, his son-in-law and his 20 month old granddaughter Eve Lenora, all of whom gave him the love and respect which nourished him throughout his professional life, and supported him during his final illness. Alec described his mother as a ‘homemaker’, and his wife had been no less. From the earliest days of his marriage Irene provided a home with an ever-open door, a kindness which endeared her to impoverished and hungry British fellows at the Mayo Clinic, of which I was one. Vivid personal memories of Alec Walt are firstly early days together in Rochester, Minnesota when, as the deluded captain of the first and only Mayo Clinic cricket team which lost their match in Chicago he chastised us for our dismal performance and undisciplined behaviour on the previous night; later, when as visiting professor to his department in Detroit, joint discussions with his students revealed the depth of his feelings for the inequalities of care for women with breast cancer which, later on at midnight in the emergency room, was extended to all of those others whom society had deprived; then at the Asian Association of Surgeons when, as President of the American College of Surgeons he gave a masterly address on surgical training, during which his deep sense of responsibility for the future of young surgeons was only too evident; and finally, on the beach in Bali, when we shared our feelings of good fortune to have had a job in life which had provided us both with such great fulfilment, pleasure, and even fun. Shortly before his death he advised his son John to ‘work hard, be honest, and the rest will take care of itself’ – advice which is exemplified by the life he led. He died on 29 February 1996 aged 72, survived by his wife Irene and his children – John, a lawyer, Steven, a professor of law, and Lindsay Jane, a sculptress. Sir A Patrick Forrest with assistance from Mrs Irene Walt
Resource Identifier RCS: E000354
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Smith, Rodney, Baron Smith of Marlow in the County of Buckinghamshire (1914 - 1998)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372541372541
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lord Smith was one of our great presidents. Successive holders of that office have faced many and various challenges, but by any measure the confrontation between the Labour government and the BMA from 1974 to 1975 was a major crisis that threatened the future of consultant practice. Rodney Smith, as he was then, was equal to the occasion; by behind the scenes diplomacy he played a vital part in the resolution of the conflict. Yet this was only one of the many tasks he successfully undertook on behalf of the College in a long and ambitious career. In parallel, he developed a formidable surgical skill, combined with a bold and innovative approach, which made him a world leader in the field of pancreatico-biliary surgery. Surgery was not however his only skill – he was endowed with an enviable array of talents which would have enabled him to succeed in any career of his choice. In his youth, he was an accomplished violinist and had contemplated music as a profession. He stayed with surgery because, he was wont to remark, a surgeon could enjoy music, but a musician could hardly undertake surgery as a hobby. As a medical student he still found time to play cricket for Surrey second XI and on a memorable occasion scored a double century at the Oval while working for the primary. Golf came easily to him, chess was a fascinating contest, but bridge was a more serious business, which brought him into contact with both sides of the political divide. In retirement, he took up painting with his customary success, maintaining at the same time his expertise in numismatics and opera. In all these fields he was driven by the urge to excel and, although in public his ambition was decently cloaked, it was never entirely concealed. His father, Edwin Smith, was a south London coroner, his mother, Edith Catherine née Dyer, a professional violinist, and it is hardly surprising therefore that medicine and music engaged his early interests. After schooling at Westminster, which he left early after a row with the headmaster, Dr Costley-White, about an intended performance at the Chelsea Music Festival, he crossed the river to St Thomas’s for his medical training, conceiving there an admiration for Philip Mitchiner, a forthright and plain spoken surgeon whose earthy sense of humour was to provide an endless source of anecdotes for later after dinner speeches. Rodney qualified in 1937, but the sudden death of his father precluded him from taking the unpaid resident posts at St Thomas’s to which his student achievements would have entitled him. After a spell of general practice in Wimbledon, he passed his FRCS examination and in 1939 was appointed surgical registrar at the Middlesex Hospital, then staffed by an outstanding group of general surgeons. Senior amongst these was Sir Alfred, later Lord, Webb Johnson, shortly to become the long-serving President of the College and chief architect of our post-war reconstruction. It was Webb Johnson who first impressed upon Rodney the importance of the College to the profession and the prestige which attached to those who attained high office in it. Thereafter the College was to be the focus of his ambitions and a determination to fit himself for its service was to be the mainspring of his working life. In the meantime, war provided for him, as for so many surgeons, invaluable opportunities. He joined the RAMC in 1941 and with both the MS and FRCS was recognised as a surgical specialist. He served in North Africa, Yugoslavia and Italy, being wounded at Anzio. War surgery gave him the necessary practical experience required for the development of technical excellence in the operating theatre and shortly after demobilisation, in 1946, he was appointed as consultant surgeon to St George’s Hospital. Rodney Smith made it the most famous centre in Britain for the treatment of major biliary and pancreatic disorders, with a reputation which rivalled that of his friend Cattell in Boston. He was a prolific author, writing books and contributing to surgical journals, and was a hard working editor of multi-volume standard texts. His *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworths, 1960), which ran to many editions, written and edited in co-operation with Charles Rob of St Mary’s, was particularly successful. His popularity as a lecturer brought him many invitations to centres abroad. A spell as a visiting professor in Sydney gained him an honorary Fellowship in the Royal Australasian College, the first of many such honours. The busy life of travel and practice left him little time to devote to his own medical school, but it did not divert him from the Royal College of Surgeons, which he was determined to serve, first in the humble, later in the most prestigious capacity. He gained the Jacksonian prize in 1951, he delivered Hunterian Professorial lectures in 1947 and 1952. In 1957, he took the post of Penrose May tutor and successfully organised clinical surgery courses for postgraduates. In 1962, he was appointed to the Court of Examiners and in 1965 was elected to the Council. In the following year, he became Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, an enterprise run jointly by the College and the University of London and in need of revitalising. He proved to be popular with both the staff and students, and the Institute thrived under his administration. There could never be any doubt that he would become President, but due to the death in office in 1973 of Edward Muir, he achieved that position earlier than expected. Rodney Smith came to the presidency fully prepared: he combined management skills with a proper regard for the ceremonial and had an agreeable affability on social occasions. He could of course be a hard task-master and intolerant of weakness or failure, but his zeal in the promotion of the high status of the College, paralleling his own ambitions, was unfaltering. His influence on the profession was far reaching, he had a wide circle of acquaintances, but few friends. His position and his acknowledged technical prowess brought him numerous invitations to be guest professor or eponymous lecturer, he received gold medals and no less than nine honorary fellowships, all of which he received with aplomb. In 1975, he was awarded the KBE and was clearly marked out for a role in national affairs, meanwhile the state of the NHS was causing a crisis of morale in the profession. Barbara Castle, Minister of Health in the incoming Labour government, was determined to create a whole-time salaried hospital service, eliminating private beds in NHS hospitals, which Bevan had allowed in 1948 to secure the co-operation of the consultants. The matter came to a head with a strike by hospital domestic staff unions, aimed at ousting private practice from the NHS, and the BMA reacted by calling for a work to rule by consultants. This was a strategy the College could not condone, even though its objectives were agreed. Overt political action was of course ruled out by the College’s charitable status and direct opposition to the BMA would clearly not unite the profession. Rodney Smith effectively used his diplomatic skills to help resolve the impasse, and emerged with great credit and with his leadership of the profession recognised by both government and opposition. Rodney Smith married Mary Rodwell in 1938 and they had four children – Martin, Andrew, Elinor and Robert. He divorced in 1971 and married Susan Fry in the same year. There are six grandchildren. He died on 1 July 1998 at the age of 84.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000355
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cook, Charles Alfred George (1913 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dunstone, George Hargreaves (1925 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372543372543
Occupation General surgeon
Details George Hargreaves ‘Steve’ Dunstone was a consultant general surgeon at Dryburn Hospital. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring, county Durham, on 23 October 1925, the son of William Anthony Hargreaves, a jeweller and watchmaker, and Elsie Bailey, the daughter of a schoolmaster. He was educated at the primary and grammar schools in Houghton-le-Spring, from which he won a county scholarship to King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the University of Durham. After qualifying, he completed junior posts at Darlington Memorial Hospital and the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton. From 1949 to 1951 he did his National Service in the RAMC in Malaya with the Gurkha Rifles. On demobilisation he trained as a surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, where he developed a particular interest in vascular and oesophageal surgery under Kenneth McKeown. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Dryburn Hospital in 1964, where his outstanding technical expertise attracted many trainees from Australia. He was postgraduate surgical tutor and college tutor for our College, and an active member of the Vascular Surgical Society and the Hadrian Surgical Club. He was president of the North of England Surgical Society from 1984 to 1985. In 1955 he married in 1955 Mavis Blewitt, by whom he had two daughters. His many interests included fly-fishing and travel, particularly to France, and the game of bowls. He was a governor of Durham High School for Girls and a member of Hatfield College of Durham University. He died on 15 November 2006 from bronchopneumonia and essential thrombocythaemia, leaving his wife, two daughters and two grandsons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000357
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hickey, Brian Brendan (1912 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372544372544
Occupation General surgeon
Details Brendan Hickey was a consultant general surgeon and urologist at Morrison Hospital, Swansea, and spent some time as a professor of surgery in Khartoum and as a surgical specialist to the Iraq government. He was born on 20 June 1912 in Newton Hyde, Cheshire, where his father, John Edward Hickey, was a schoolmaster. His mother was Grace Neil née Dykes. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, from which he won an open scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he won the Theodore Williams scholarship in pathology. At the London Hospital he won the Treeves and Lethby prizes. After qualifying he did house appointments at the London under Sir James Walton and Douglas Northfield, and had passed the FRCS before the war broke out. He joined the RAMC, rising to be lieutenant colonel, and after the war continued as a keen member of the Territorial Army, becoming colonel in charge of Third Western General Hospital and honorary surgeon to the Queen. He was Hunterian Professor in 1958. He married in 1939 Marjorie Flynn, by whom he had one son, who became a doctor, and two daughters. Brendan Hickey died on 3 August 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000358
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hickinbotham, Paul Frederick John (1917 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372545372545
Occupation General surgeon
Details Paul Hickinbotham was a consultant surgeon in Leicester. He was born in Birmingham on 21 March 1917, the second son of Frederick John Long Hickinbotham, an export merchant and JP, and Gertrude née Ball. He was educated at West House School, Birmingham, and Rugby, and went on to Birmingham to do his medical training, qualifying in 1939. There he was much influenced by H H Sampson, a charismatic general surgeon from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Hickinbotham went on to specialise in surgery, becoming resident surgical officer at Bradford Royal Infirmary from 1941 to 1942, when he passed the FRCS. He joined the RAMC in 1942 and served in North Africa and Italy. After the war he returned to the Leicester group of hospitals, where he served as a general surgeon on the staff until he retired in 1982. He married Catherine Cadbury in 1942. They had one son, Roger, and one daughter, Claire, neither of whom went into medicine. They had eight grandchildren. His extra-curricular interests included forestry and Welsh hill walking. He died at his home in Leicester on 22 September 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000359
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pollock, Alan Victor (1921 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2007-06-08 2018-05-10
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/372546372546
Occupation General surgeon
Details Alan Pollock was a consultant surgeon at Scarborough Hospital, Yorkshire. He was born on 10 September 1921 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to school and University in Cape Town, where he graduated in medicine in 1943, winning a medal in surgery along the way. After house appointments he joined the South African Navy and was seconded to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve with the rank of surgeon lieutenant. Demobilised in 1946, he emigrated to the UK, and initially worked for a year in experimental pathology with Howard Florey's group in Oxford. During this time he was an author of two research papers on antibiotics, both published in Nature. Despite his auspicious beginning in laboratory work, he decided that surgery was more his bent. He obtained a resident appointment at Westminster Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by Sir Stanford Cade, a leading cancer surgeon. Then followed a series of posts at St Peter's and St Paul's Hospital, St Mark's Hospital and the West London Hospital, before he moved north to a senior lecturer's post in Leeds. There he came under the influence of John Goligher, whose teaching of colorectal surgery caused this subject to become a particular interest. In 1958, he was appointed consultant general surgeon to Scarborough Hospital, Yorkshire, where he remained for the rest of his career. During his consultant years, and after he retired from clinical work, Alan Pollock's early interest and ability in research never left him. Although working in a non-university hospital, together with his research associate Mary Evans, he produced a constant stream of research papers on topics as diverse as pre-operative bowel preparation, surgical incisions, wound drains, approaches to achieving haemostasis, different suture materials and techniques, and anaesthetic techniques. A key interest throughout his career was prevention of post-operative morbidity and to this end he, with Evans, conducted many randomised controlled trials into different antibiotics and antibiotic regimens for reducing post-operative infections as well as trials into different methods of reducing post-operative deep vein thrombosis. He was the author of several books. The dedication in one reads: 'I dedicate this book to all my registrars, who have taught me how little I really know'. Not surprisingly, he was a regular contributor to scientific meetings both at home and abroad, especially in the United States, where he was well known. He was an active member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, serving on the council for a period, as well as the Royal Society of Medicine, sections of surgery and coloproctology, as well as with groups interested in infection. Married to Hilary née Grant, he had two sons and a daughter, none of whom followed him into medicine. He will be remembered by many as a very clubbable man, often wreathed in pipe smoke, who showed how a questioning and determined district general hospital surgeon could contribute top class research at an international level. Sadly, his last years were clouded with progressive motor neurone disease, from which he died on 19 January 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000360
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Thomas Meurig (1910 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-08-21 2010-02-04
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/372729372729
Occupation General surgeon
Details Thomas Williams was a consultant general surgeon at the West Suffolk General Hospital, Bury St Edmunds. He was born into a medical family in Canterbury, Kent, on 6 May 1910, the son of Moses Thomas Williams FRCS. Tom’s schooling was first at Sir Roger Harwood’s Grammar School, Sandwich, and then Rugby School, from which he entered Oriel College, Oxford, and gained a BA degree before going on to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical training. After qualifying, he became a casualty officer and later a house surgeon at St Thomas’, working with Philip Mitchiner and Oswald Lloyd Davies, both of whom influenced him greatly. Later he was a resident surgical officer to St Mark’s Hospital. He had the highest regard for Norman Tanner and visited him frequently, as did many aspiring gastric surgeons. During the Second World War he served in India with the RAMC, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. His wide general experience did not extend to vascular surgery and in later years at Bury St Edmunds he referred these cases to a newly appointed surgeon who had a wide experience in this field. Tom was a good golfer, and went abroad on regular skiing trips in his early days. He married a Miss Thomas in 1943: they had two daughters. He re-married and his second wife, Chrissie, cared for the two daughters and her own son. Retiring in 1975 to live first in Great Barton, Bury St Edmunds, he later moved to Winchester to be near his family. He died on 31 August 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000545
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nisbet, Norman Walter (1909 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21 2009-05-01
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/372730372730
Occupation General surgeon
Details Norman Walter Nisbet was a former director of research at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry. He was born in Edinburgh on 23 March 1909, the son of a science master. He first qualified as a dentist, but abandoned dentistry in favour of medicine. After completing his training in general surgery in Edinburgh and Birmingham, he began his orthopaedic career. In 1938 he was appointed as a house surgeon at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, where at the outbreak of the Second World War he became resident surgical officer. During the war years, the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt was virtually a military hospital. Nisbit was responsible for the surgical care and rehabilitation of many war casualties. One German airman crashed not far from the hospital. Norman treated his serious fractures by standard methods and his burns with ‘Tannifax’, which turned the burnt area black. When the airman saw the black area he was horrified, thinking that he had been deliberately painted black as a distinguishing mark - what the English do to their prisoners - according to German propaganda. He was only reassured by seeing a British soldier, similarly treated, peeling away the black tan on his own injury to reveal healthy skin underneath. Of the hundreds of war wounded Nisbet treated, the German patient was the only one who sent him a letter of thanks. During this time, he had an unrivalled opportunity of learning all aspects of orthopaedic and fracture surgery under the influence and guidance of Sir Harry Platt, Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke, amongst others. He also worked closely with Dame Agnes Hunt, the founder of the hospital. Between 1946 and 1947 he served in the Royal Air Force as a senior orthopaedic consultant with the rank of wing commander, in charge of the orthopaedic unit at the RAF Hospital, Wroughton, Wiltshire. On demobilisation, he became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, Coventry. He also held the posts of orthopaedic surgeon to the Paybody Orthopaedic Home and the Coleshill Orthopaedic Hospital for Children. Nisbit was in New Zealand from 1950 to 1962 as associate professor in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Otago and director of the orthopaedic and fracture department of the Dunedin Hospital. The University of Otago later created a personal chair of orthopaedic surgery for him, its first personal chair. He always had a keen interest in medical research. While he was in Dunedin, spurred on by the then professor of surgery, Sir Michael Woodruff, he began working on the biology of transplantation with special reference to immunology and genetics. He returned to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hosptial in 1964 as the first director of the purpose-built Charles Salt Research Centre. He continued his work in immunology and published extensively. He retired as director of research in 1983, at the age of 74. However, having received a personal MRC grant to further his work into the origins of osteoclasts, he stayed on for another three years. With his wife, Mary, he retired to the south coast of England. His passion had always been shooting. He maintained a gun in a shoot in Sussex until the age of 93. Thereafter he continued shooting clay pigeons. Mary, who had been in declining health for many years, died in 2005. They had been married for 60 years. Nisbet, having looked after Mary for many years, continued to live completely independently. He swam daily, shopped, cooked and cleaned for himself and carried on driving his car until, at the age of 95, his health slowly went down hill and he began to depend on others. He died on 25 September 2007 at the age of 98 and is survived by his daughter, Lesley, son-in-law St John and grandchildren, Katherine and Tom.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000546
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching O'Malley, Eoin (1919 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372731372731
Occupation Cardiac surgeon
Details Eoin O’Malley was a cardiac surgeon and a past president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was born on 5 April 1919 in Galway, where his father was professor of surgery. From Clongowes Wood College he went to medical school, at first in Galway and later at University College, Dublin, where he proved himself a formidable debater and rugby football player, and won prizes and distinctions in every subject. He completed house appointments in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital and went on to specialise in surgery at Southend General Hospital and the Lahey Clinic in Boston. He was appointed to the consultant staff of the Mater Hospital as a general and cardiac surgeon in 1950 and became professor of surgery in 1958. At first an all round general surgeon, he was one of the first to specialise in cardiac surgery and succeeded in setting up a specialist unit, which was later named after him. As a teacher he was noted as a skilled and thoughtful lecturer and a sympathetic examiner. As a trainer of young surgeons he took care to see that his pupils expanded their vision by going abroad to other centres for clinical experience and research. Indeed, to encourage his colleagues to travel, he founded the Irish Surgical Travellers Club. Together with other Irish professors of surgery, Eoin organised a national surgical training programme, a planned rotation scheme, entry to which was to be by competitive examination. He soon became involved in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was elected to its council in 1965 and became president in 1983. His presidency was marked by the celebration of the bicentenary of the college. His interests outside surgery included fishing, meteorology, literature, theatre, history and politics. Eoin married Una O’Higgins, a young solicitor, in 1952. Una was the daughter of the Irish national hero Kevin O’Higgins, the hard man of the liberation movement and first minister of justice in the new republic, who was assassinated when Una was only five months old. Later Una became a nationally celebrated poet, whose verse sang of peace and forgiveness. Una was a prime mover in the reconciliation movement and a founder of the Glencree Reconciliation Centre. They had six children, of whom Kevin has followed his father and grandfather into surgery. A man of great dignity, utterly without bombast or arrogance, Eoin was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and distinctions, including the honorary Fellowship of our College. Enid Taylor
Resource Identifier RCS: E000547
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Hill, Ian Macdonald (1919 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-09-11 2008-10-24
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/372741372741
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon
Details Ian Hill was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born on 8 June 1919. When he was only five he developed diphtheria and was admitted to an isolation hospital for many weeks. There he was allowed no visits from his family and witnessed at close quarters the frequently unsuccessful attempts of surgeons to save the lives of other children with that terrible disease. This dreadful experience gave him the emotional drive to overcome disease and save lives, although later he maintained that he went into medicine because it was his father Tom’s own unfulfilled wish: indeed their house in Palmers Green was chosen to be near the railway that would eventually take him to Bart’s. His mother Annie was a gifted teacher and helped him with his homework, passing on to him the skills of patient and supportive clarity he used in his own teaching. He was educated at the Stationers’ Company School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he had a brilliant career as a student, qualifying with honours in 1942. He was house surgeon to (later Sir) James Paterson Ross, whose testimonial stated “his academic record has been one of rapid and uninterrupted success, winning most for the prizes for which he was eligible. He is honourable, forthright, diligent and utterly trustworthy. He absorbs knowledge readily and applies theory to practice with good judgement and effect. He is a skilful, safe, and resourceful operator who can win the confidence of his patients, his colleagues and his students”. After serving as a demonstrator of anatomy he married Agnes Paice in 1944, having met her when both their hospitals had been evacuated. He joined the RAF medical branch in 1945 and was wing commander in command of the surgical division of No 1 RAF Hospital. He then specialized in cardiothoracic surgery, becoming senior registrar to Russell Brock at Guy’s Hospital in 1947, where he carried out experimental work on cardiopulmonary bypass and became surgical chief assistant at the Brompton Hospital. He returned to St Bartholomew’s as consultant surgeon in 1950 at the early age of 31, as second in command to Oswald Tubbs, where he continued to build up its cardiothoracic unit. He was a skilled operator who had ‘green fingers’. He was often described by his junior staff as a one-man band, for, apart from his operative ability he typed his own operation notes and wrote summaries of the patient after each operation. Surprisingly these records were never analysed and sadly they were destroyed after his death: they would have made a fascinating contribution to cardiothoracic archive material. He cared deeply about the training of his young doctors and for eight years served as sub-dean of the medical college (from 1964 to 1972). He was prodigiously well organised, kept meticulous records and was obsessed by time. He was both scrupulously logical and persistent in trying to solve problems. For several years he owned a vintage Rolls Royce car, which he maintained himself, having taken a course on its maintenance. When his junior staff telephoned his home for advice they were frequently told by his wife “I’ll get him from under his car!” Ian’s 40 years as a consultant surgeon were a period of explosive development in cardiothoracic surgery, but despite his brilliant mind and ability he wrote very little, and he made no definitive contribution to his specialty. He had a poor relationship with Oswald Tubbs, his senior consultant, who was disappointed in his subsequent career and thought that he had not fulfilled the potential implied in Ross’s glowing testimonial. He was a cutting surgeon rather than a writing surgeon and was, as many have said, an enigma. After he retired he continued to serve on the board of governors of St Bartholomew’s. Ian retired with Agnes to Fernham in 1984, where he lived the life he had always dreamed of in the countryside, creating his garden, running a prodigiously productive allotment, and indulging his fascination for fine engineering, old clocks, the fine arts, good food and wine. He upset his allotment neighbours by giving away much of his produce in competition to the many who sold for profit. Despite being an agnostic, he served as clerk to the parish council. Predeceased by his wife, he died on 22 September 2007 leaving three sons and a daughter, Alison, who is a general practitioner in London.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000558
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ball, John Robert (1934 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2008-09-18
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/372742372742
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Ball was a true general surgeon, having spent his entire consultant career in practice on the isolated Scottish island of Skye, where he established a first-class surgical reputation, as well as becoming a much loved and hugely respected local figure. His reputation on the island was such that in 1995 he received the rare distinction of being made a Freeman of Skye and Lochalsh; less than half-a-dozen individuals have been so honoured. John Ball was born on 28 October 1934 Port Talbot, south Wales, the second son of William James Ball, a grocer, and Eleanor née Lewis. He was educated at Aberafan Grammar School, Port Talbot, and at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, where he won two prizes. He also excelled at sport, especially rugby and cricket, and was a member of the cricket and rugby sides that won the London Hospitals Cup in 1958, the year he qualified. After house jobs at St Mary’s, he spent two years National Service in the RAMC in Hong Kong. He then returned to become a senior house officer at St George’s Hospital, London, and then St James’ Hospital, Balham. From 1966 he was a surgical registrar at Paddington General Hospital. In these training posts he was greatly influenced by Norman Tanner, Rodney Smith, Victor Riddell and Sir Arthur Porritt. In 1970 he became a locum consultant at the Central Middlesex Hospital, but this appointment was short-lived as the following year he moved to the Dr Mackinnon Memorial Hospital in Broadford, Skye, where he practised for the rest of his career. This was the island where Ball and his wife had spent their honeymoon. There he carried out a broad range of surgery, but was especially interested in biliary disease. He was a founder member the Viking Surgical Club, which consisted of single-handed surgeons who practised throughout the United Kingdom and beyond. He was a very successful host of the third annual meeting of the Club. He was also an outstanding fundraiser especially from grateful American tourists who became his patients. By this means he was able to acquire up-to-date scanning equipment for the hospital. After his retirement in 1999 he worked as a ship’s surgeon on the Fred Olsen Cruise Line, before moving to live in Inverness. In private life John Ball was hugely knowledgeable about music and possessed a fine baritone voice. He was a member of the Broadford Church choir and an elder of that church. He also enjoyed sailing, hill walking and golf. Happily married to Adrianne since 1965, herself medically qualified, and with three children, Helen, Joanna and Jonathan, and eight grandchildren, John Ball was a man of enthusiasm, humanity, loyalty and deep Christian faith. He died on 9 February 2008 after a short illness, aged 73, in Inverness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000559
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372635372635
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of Stephen Hammick, surgeon and Alderman of Plymouth, and Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of John Love, Surgeon of Plymouth Dockyard. He studied under his father at the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth, in 1792, and in 1793 was appointed Assistant Surgeon there. In 1799, after further study for a few months at St George’s Hospital, he qualified at the Corporation of Surgeons and returned to Plymouth. He was elected full surgeon to the Hospital in 1803. Debarred from private practice by this appointment, he gave gratuitous opinions in difficult cases. He was Surgeon Extraordinary to George IV as Prince of Wales, Prince Regent, and King, also to the household of William IV. He resided from 1829 in Cavendish Square and was one of the original members of the Senate of the University of London. He was created a baronet on July 25th, 1834, and died at Plymouth on June 15th, 1867. He married in 1800 Frances, only daughter of Peter Turquand, merchant, of London. She died in 1829, leaving issue two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, Stephen Love Hammick (1804-1839), MD, of Christ Church, Oxford, Radcliffe Travelling Fellow in 1831, died just as he was about to commence practice in London, in 1839. He had attended E Mitscherlich’s lectures on chemistry in Berlin, and published a translation of a part in 1838. Hammick was succeeded in the baronetcy by his second son, the Rev St Vincent Love Hammick (1806-1888).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000451
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ogg, Archibald John (1921 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Owen, William Jones (1945 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-08-09
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/372295372295
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Jones Owen was a consultant surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals and a senior lecturer at King’s College, London. He spent his early life in north Wales, where he excelled at his academic work, rugby, music and Welsh. He won first prize in a recital group at the Urdd National Eisteddfod and the Evanson scholarship from Llandovery College. He went on to Guy’s, where he took a BSc in anatomy, with a distinction in pathology. He held house posts in the south east of England, and gained his FRCS, winning the Hallet prize. He returned to Guy’s for his higher surgical training, and during this period obtained his masters degree in surgery from the University of London for his studies on intestinal adaptation. At the end of his training, in 1981, he was appointed to the staff of Guy’s, as a senior lecturer with Ian McColl. He remained in this position until he died. For many years he also worked at Lewisham and later at St Thomas’s Hospitals, and took on management responsibilities. He was considered a warm and loyal colleague, becoming a surgeons’ surgeon. He established one of the best oesophageal laboratories in the country, producing over 100 excellent papers. He played a prominent role in the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and was Chairman of the oesophageal section of the British Society of Gastroenterology. He was an examiner at the College and an honorary surgeon to the Army and the Royal Society of Music. He loved music and was an enthusiastic follower of sport. He was married to Wendy, a doctor who worked with him in the oesophageal laboratory. They had a daughter, Sarah, and a son, David. He died from a brain tumour on 3 April 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000108
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching de Fonseka, Chandra Pal (1919 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2008-10-17 2015-09-11
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372748372748
Occupation Accident and emergency surgeon
Details Chandra Pal de Fonseka was an accident and emergency surgeon in Bristol. He was born in Panadura, Ceylon, on 22 December 1919 into a family with many medical connections. His grandfather and two uncles were medical practitioners. His father, Hector Clarence de Fonseka, was a landowner who managed his own rubber and coconut estates. His mother was Inez Johanna née Gunewardene, whose three brothers studied medicine in London. Three of his cousins were also in medicine. Chandra qualified in medicine from the University of Ceylon with the Sir Andrew Caldecott and Dadabhoy gold medals in his final examination. He then held house appointments in his own teaching hospital. At the end of the war it was difficult to get a passage to England, so he signed on as ship's doctor to the Blue Funnel liner SS Demodocus, which was a naval auxiliary that had been held up in Colombo because her doctor had fallen ill and had been sent back to England. After a seven-month voyage, he arrived in Liverpool in November 1946. He attended the primary course at the Middlesex Hospital, passed the examination, and returned to Ceylon, where he underwent an arranged marriage to his first wife Rukmani Dias. He returned to London to specialise in surgery, doing registrar jobs at Hammersmith, the North Middlesex and St Mark's hospitals, enriching his experience by attending rounds and courses in a number of hospitals, among which he particularly valued his experience at St James's, Balham. Having passed the FRCS in 1949, he became a resident surgical officer at St Bartholomew's Hospital, Rochester, for two years and was then a registrar in Bath under Sholem Glaser who, with the other five general surgeons, gave him a glowing testimonial. There he met Peter London, then the senior registrar in orthopaedics. From Bath he went to Bristol to widen his experience in cardiothoracic surgery under Ronald Belsey in the Frenchay Hospital thoracic unit for another two years. Belsey was unstinting in praising his clinical and operative skills. Whilst there he did his best to learn neurosurgery and plastic surgery, experience which he found particularly valuable on his return to Ceylon in 1956 as senior lecturer in the university department of surgery in Colombo. Celyon had won its independence from Britain in 1948 without a drop of blood being shed. In 1958 communal riots broke out between the Tamil and Sinhalese populations. Chandra was in the theatre round the clock, dealing with gun-shot and knife wounds under the most difficult circumstances. His Tamil anaesthetist was beaten up by a Sinhalese mob. Buddhist priests complained to the administrator (a Tamil) that another doctor was treating Tamils rather than Sinhalese and the doctor was duly dismissed. The Prime Minister was assassinated in September. Laws were passed to outlaw the Tamil language and make Sinhalese the only official language. Chandra was appointed professor of surgery in July 1960. The workload increased, especially in cancer. In 1962 his marriage was dissolved and he married his second wife, Maria Thérése Bertus in Colombo. In 1963 he was asked to set up a new department of surgery in Kandy. By now Chandra was one of the senior figures on the medical scene, having become president of the medical section of the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science. He had been granted a sabbatical year to study in the UK and had planned visits to the foremost centres in Britain and Germany, with introductions from Ronald Raven and Sir James Patterson Ross among others. But permission was repeatedly refused for his wife to accompany him until eventually she was allowed to go as a pilgrim to Rome with their new baby daughter. They eventually made their way to the UK in 1964. There Chandra was appointed senior research fellow to set up the road accident research unit in Birmingham, the report of which was published in five volumes in 1969. During this period he was a clinical assistant to the accident department of Dudley Road Hospital. In 1969 the Medical Research Council invited him to set up a similar study into accidents in the home and he was appointed honorary lecturer in accident epidemiology in the department of public health in the University of Bristol. This project developed into the National Home Accident Monitoring Scheme of the Home Office. From then on he continued to work in the accident and emergency department until he retired in 1985. He was a man of great integrity, charm and courtesy, who was widely admired for his qualities not only as a technical surgeon but as a teacher. He published extensively on road and domestic accidents, and was in demand as a lecturer in Europe and America. His many outside interests included geology, cosmology and astronomy, and with Thérése he was a keen traveller and photographer. He was for many years treasurer of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, a charity for the disabled that was affiliated to the Catholic Church. He died on 5 April 2008, leaving his widow and the youngest of their two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000565
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Ainley, Roger Gwynne (1932 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2008-10-24
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/372751372751
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Roger Gwynne Ainley was an ophthalmic surgeon in the Merseyside area. He was born in Fringford, Oxfordshire, on 8 September 1932. His father, Joe Ainley, was a headmaster and his mother, Dora (née Carter), was a music teacher, both in schools and freelance. The family are related to the Shakespearian actor Henry Ainley. Roger Ainley attended Lord Williams’ Grammar School, Thame, and then the Old Grammar School, Bicester, from 1943 to 1950. His studies were then interrupted by National Service in the Royal Air Force for two years. In 1952 he went to Keble College, Oxford, to read zoology, but a year later changed to medicine. His clinical training was also in Oxford. His medical and surgical house jobs were at the Radcliffe Infirmary and then he began his formal ophthalmological training as senior house officer and registrar at Oxford Eye Hospital from 1961 to 1963. From 1965 to 1969 he was a lecturer and then senior lecturer at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. During this period, in 1968, he was awarded the George Herbert Hunt travelling scholarship and visited ophthalmic departments in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Ohio State University. In 1969 he was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to Merseyside Regional Health Authority and was postgraduate medical tutor to the Wirral Group from 1974 to 1976. He was a member of the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress, a charter member of the International Association of Ocular Surgeons and a member of Wallasey Medical Society, becoming president in 1989. He wrote quite widely on ocular subjects, but was particularly interested in vitamin B12 levels in ocular fluids and tobacco amblyopia. His other interests were diverse – music, playing the clarinet, sailing, squash and particularly a lifelong interest in butterflies and moths. Initially he collected specimens and his collection covered all European countries, USA, Thailand, Morocco, Costa Rica, Kenya, the Gambia and Mediera. Later he became more interested in conservation and was a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, Butterfly Conservation and Cheshire Wildlife Trust. Between 1963 and 1991 he had six papers on butterflies and moths published in *The Entomologist* and *The Entomologist’s Record*. In December 1959 he married Jean Burrows, a nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. They had two children, Elizabeth Anne, born in 1965, who is a chartered accountant, and Timothy Charles, born in 1967, a linguist. Roger Ainley died in 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000568
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Baird, Robert Hamilton (1915 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Enid Taylor
Publication Date 2008-10-24
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/372752372752
Occupation Ophthalmologist
Details Robert Hamilton Baird was an ophthalmologist in Belfast. He was born in Belfast on 19 September 1915. His father, William Baird, was a district inspector with the Royal Irish Constabulary and his mother was Mary McAdam. He was educated in Belfast, at the Methodist College, from 1929 to 1934, and then went on to study medicine at Queen’s University in the city, qualifying in 1939. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1939 to 1946, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel and was mentioned in despatches in May 1945. After leaving the Army, he trained as an ophthalmologist, as a resident surgical officer in Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital. He was appointed consultant ophthalmic surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and North Down Hospital Group. He was a clinical lecturer and an examiner to Queen’s University, Belfast. In 1962 he married a Miss Drayson and they had two sons. He was interested in electronics and enjoyed playing golf. He died on 19 April 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000569
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Latto, Conrad (1915 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Marshall Barr
Publication Date 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/372753372753
Occupation General surgeon
Details Conrad Latto was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. He was born on 3 March 1915, the son of David and Christina Latto. His father was the town clerk of Dundee, his mother a frugal Scot who scrupulously saved towards the education of their three sons. Conrad, Gordon and Douglas all went from Dundee High School to study medicine at St Andrews. A younger brother, Kenneth, died in childhood of a Wilms’ tumour, which may have influenced Conrad’s future career. In 1937 he qualified with first class honours and a gold medal from St Andrews University. He held junior hospital appointments at Cornelia & East Dorset Hospital, Poole, the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth, and Rochdale Infirmary. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1940. For 18 months, from 1940 to 1942, he was a resident surgical officer at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Plymouth. It was during the Blitz on Plymouth in 1941 that his surgical reputation was established. Ironically, Latto was a conscientious objector on religious grounds. Eric Holburn, assistant superintendent at the Prince of Wales Hospital, sent this testimonial to his tribunal: “Soon after the devastation of Plymouth by enemy savagery in the early part of 1941, Mr Latto informed me that his views concerning the destruction of life had become so strongly crystallized that he could not honestly serve, even in a medical capacity, with the Armed Forces…This objection is the outcome of his earnest and overruling desire to put into practice his conception of a Christ-like life…I know of no individual who has served his country so magnificently and in such a quietly heroic and unassuming way as Mr Latto…The direction of the hospital emergency service was left entirely in his hands …With bombs falling all round and the hospital services being disrupted he carried on with imperturbable fortitude…” H F Vellacott, honorary surgeon wrote: “During the Plymouth blitzes…It was he who arranged which cases should go to theatre, which cases should have blood transfusions…Throughout these trying times he proved invaluable, and I cannot speak too highly of his conduct and of his administrative qualities. When each actual blitz was on his example of courage and calmness helped to hold the whole hospital organization together. He was outstanding in this respect and a special note of thanks was sent him by the Honorary Staff before he left.” The tribunal excused him from military service, with the condition that he continued to serve as a doctor. In 1943 he went to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary as surgical registrar for 12 months, followed by a year as an accident service officer at King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. Now in Berkshire, and in his words “liking the look of the Royal Berks”, he became resident surgical officer in 1945. He was to remain closely attached to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for the rest of his life. With glowing testimonials from honorary surgeons Aitken Walker and Gordon Bohn, he became honorary assistant surgeon in December 1947, one of the last appointments to the voluntary hospital staff before the arrival of the NHS. Aitken Walker, the senior surgeon, suggested they all have a specialty. Walker chose thyroid and sympathectomy for himself, Bohn was given gall bladder and stomach, Robert Reid the colon and rectum. Latto had done some urology at Liverpool and therefore got urology. He took up the challenge with characteristic enthusiasm. Now a consultant in the NHS, he visited Terrence Millin and Alec Badenoch at St Bartholomew’s and St Peter’s hospitals to bring Reading up to date with the latest in the specialty. In 1961, sponsored by Badenoch and Sir James Paterson Ross (Sir James’s son Harvey was at that time Latto’s surgical registrar), he undertook a two-month study tour in the USA of the major centres for urology and general surgery. Latto was an excellent general surgeon who became a skilled urologist. He served on the council of the urology section of the Royal Society of Medicine and was an important influence in establishing the specialty in the Oxford region. In 1961 he jointly founded, with Joe Smith, the Oxford Regional Urology Club. His endoscopic and surgical skills, together with the length of his operating lists, were legendary. In the 1970s he assisted the GU Manufacturing Company in testing their prototype rod lens urology instruments. Harold Hopkins of the University of Reading, who had developed the rod lens and fibre-optic systems used in endoscopy, became both a patient and a very good friend. Another close friend was Denis Burkitt, whom he met when they were together at Poole. They were both Christian vegetarians: Latto became a member of the Order of the Cross and was president of VEGA (Vegetarian Economy and Green Agriculture). The two friends’ common interest in the effects of dietary fibre led to combined study and lecture tours in Africa, India, the Persian Gulf and behind the Iron Curtain. In 1971 Latto crusaded successfully for the introduction of dietary bran in Reading hospitals. He was a leading figure in British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS), at whose urging the College offered him the FRCS *ad eundem* in 1977. A tall, imposing figure with a shock of silver-grey hair, Conrad Latto had an enormous influence on the Royal Berks and on the medical and nursing staff in training. Although teetotal as well as vegetarian, he was the very opposite of the dour Scot. He never preached his beliefs (other than the importance of fibre). He published few papers, but was a passionate teacher, speaking eloquently and amusingly in a delightful soft Scottish accent. When in 1980 he had to retire from his beloved hospital, he took over the general practice in Caversham of his sister-in-law Monica Latto. He attended refresher courses and out-patient teaching sessions to update his knowledge and for seven years was a highly respected and much loved GP. In final retirement, he remained an active member of the local medical society, the Reading Pathological Society, of which he had been arguably its most effective post-war president. He died at his Caversham home on 6 July 2008, leaving a wife Anne, daughters Rosalind and Sharon, and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000570
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cullum, Victor John Leslie (1930 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-14
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/372754372754
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Victor Cullum was an orthopaedic surgeon in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was born in Cape Town on 25 February 1930, the son of John Richard Leslie Cullum, a businessman, and Olive Mildred née Willmott, who owned a nursery school. He was educated at St George’s Primary School, Cape Town, and St John’s College, Johannesburg, before studying medicine at Witwatersrand University. After qualifying, he completed intern posts in medicine and surgery at Johannesburg Hospital and went to England to specialise in surgery. He did a series of house jobs at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and the Birmingham Accident Hospital, and passed the FRCS in 1958. He was then a registrar in orthopaedics at the Hammersmith Hospital, working partly in Hammersmith and partly at the Ascot Infirmary. Returning to South Africa, he held registrar appointments in the orthopaedic department of Johannesburg Hospital and was registered as an orthopaedic specialist in 1963. He entered private practice in 1964, while continuing to hold part-time appointments at the Johannesburg and Germiston hospitals, and the Johannesburg branch of the General Mining Hospital Group. He married Joyce Grimes in 1957. They had two girls (Irene Alison and Jennifer Anne) and two boys (John Brian and Robert Victor). Victor Cullum was a keen dinghy sailor and a member of the South African Racing Yacht Association. He and his wife undertook a circumnavigation of Africa during the summer months of 1991, 1992 and 1993. He died on 26 May 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000571
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sahoy, Ronald Rabindranath (1940 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-11-14 2009-05-01
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/372755372755
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon General surgeon
Details Ronald Sahoy was a pioneering cardiothoracic and general surgeon in the Caribbean. He was born on 3 January 1940, in Essequibo, British Guiana (now Guyana). His father was Kunandan Ramdial Sahoy, a business man who owned a trucking service, and his mother was Baidwattee née Narayan, who had worked as a clerk in the civil service in London in the sixties. Ronald was educated at the Modern Educational Institute, which had been founded by a cousin, Ongkar Narayan, the Central High School, Guyana, and Queen’s College, Guyana, where he won the Guyana Government intercollegiate scholarship. He studied medicine at the University of the West Indies, where he qualified in 1965, winning the Wilson-James surgery prize. He completed internships at the University Hospital of the West Indies in general surgery and general medicine and cardiology, followed by a senior house officer post in general and cardiothoracic surgery and a casualty officer post. He then did a general surgical rotation for two years, from which he won a Commonwealth scholarship in 1969, which took him to London to study for the FRCS. In 1970 he was clinical assistant to Norman Tanner at St James’s Hospital, Balham. Having passed the FRCS, he returned to the University Hospital of the West Indies, where he was a senior registrar in general and cardiothoracic surgery for the next three years. In 1973 he became a consultant surgeon to the National Chest Hospital, formerly the George V Memorial Hospital. There he headed the cardiothoracic team. In 1976 he entered private practice at the Medical Associates Hospital, where he was the senior surgeon and medical director. He married Pauline Rohini Samuels in 1965. Their two sons both became airline pilots. He died suddenly on 6 April 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000572
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Young, Ian William (1929 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19
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/372374372374
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Ian Young was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon based in Swindon. He was born in Rugby on 25 February 1929, the only child of George Sangster Young, an electrical engineer and Margaret Fenton Wright Breingan. He was educated at Rugby School and Merton College, Oxford. He then went on to University College Hospital, London for his clinical studies, qualifying in 1954. After house jobs at UCH he served in the RAMC with the 1/6th Gurkha Rifles in Malaya and Hong Kong. He returned to continue his surgical training at UCH as a registrar from 1960 to 1962, and then to the Radcliffe Infirmary, where he specialised in orthopaedics and became senior registrar there and at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Swindon in 1967. He married Anne Martine Davies, another UCH medical graduate, in 1955. They had one son and one daughter. His hobbies included squash and bird-watching. He died on 30 August 2005 of a pulmonary embolism.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000187
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hawkins, Caesar Henry (1798 - 1888)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-22
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/372375372375
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details One of the ten children of the Rev. Edward Hawkins, grandson of Sir Caesar Hawkins, Bart. (1711-1786), Surgeon to St. George's Hospital and Serjeant-Surgeon to George II and George III, who was descended from Colonel Caesar Hawkins, commanding a regiment of horse for Charles I. Caesar Hawkins was born on Sept. 19th, 1798, at Bisley, Gloucestershire, and, his father having died whilst he was still young, he was sent to Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School), where he remained from 1807-1813, when he had to be withdrawn as he was not destined for either Oxford or Cambridge. He was apprenticed to Mr. Sheppard, of Hampton Court, then the medical attendant of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV, who lived at Bushey Park. At the end of his indentures in 1818 he was admitted a student at St. George's Hospital under Sir Everard Home and Benjamin Brodie, and attended the chemistry classes of Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. As soon as he had qualified he began to teach anatomy at the Hunterian or Windmill Street School of Medicine, having Sir Charles Bell as his colleague. He was elected Surgeon to St. George's Hospital on February 13th, 1829, and resigned in 1861, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon. In 1862 he was gazetted Serjeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria, and was thus the fourth member of his family to hold a like office. He was a Member of the Council from 1846-1863, and of the Court of Examiners from 1849-1866; was Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1860; delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1849, when H R H the Prince Consort honoured the College with his presence; was Vice-President in 1850, 1851, 1859, 1860; President in 1852 and again in 1861; and Representative of the College on the General Medical Council from 1865-1870. In 1871 he was elected a Trustee of the Hunterian Museum. He was elected FRS on June 9th, 1856. He married: (1) Miss Dolbel, and (2) Miss Ellen Rouse, but left no issue by either. He died on July 20th, 1884, at his house, 26 Grosvenor Street. As a surgeon Hawkins attained eminence and achieved success, his opinion being especially sought in complex cases. For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when anaesthetics were unknown. He did much to popularize colotomy. A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and he was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it. Long after he had become Consulting Surgeon to his hospital he continued to be a familiar figure on the wards, where he gave his colleagues the benefit of his lifelong experience. Caesar Hawkins was a man of sterling worth and merit, as well as of great capacity. His family was, indeed, distinguished for talent, as evidenced by the fact, above alluded to, that four of them rose to the rank of Serjeant-Surgeon. Two of Caesar Hawkin's own brothers were men of mark - Edward (1794-1877) the well-known Provost of Oriel who played so great a part in the life of Oxford during the Tractarian Movement, and Dr. Francis Hawkins, the first Registrar of the General Medical Council, who was known as one of the best classical scholars among the physicians of his time. His nephew Sir John Caesar Hawkins (1837-1929), Canon of St. Albans, was the author of the well known *Horae Synopticae*. Hawkins was not remarkable for graciousness of demeanour on a first acquaintance - in fact, most men complained of him as somewhat dry and repellent under these circumstances. But this vanished on a closer acquaintance, when his genuine kindness of heart and sincerity became recognized. Everyone knew how firm a friend he was to those who had earned his friendship, and how trustworthy a counsellor, and he ended his days amid the universal respect and regard of the many who had been his colleagues and pupils. One of the latter, when addressing students of St. George's at the opening of the session of 1885, thus concluded a reference to the examples left them by their predecessors in the school:- "I would point out to you, as an example of what I mean, the great surgeon who has lately passed away from us, full of years and honours, endeared to those who had the happiness of being his pupils by every tie of gratitude and affection, and reverenced by all who can appreciate stainless honour. Caesar Hawkins was rich in friends, who watched and tended the peaceful close of his long and brilliant career. They can testify how well he bore Horace's test of a well-spent life, '*lenior et melior fis accedente senecta*' (Epist. ii. 211). The old words involuntarily occur to everyone who contemplates an old age so full of dignity and goodness: 'The path of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day'" (Proverbs v. 18). He has been described as one of the cleverest minds in the medical profession, a mind of unquestioned accuracy, unswayed by imagination, temper, or desire for renown. No one was more discreet and honest in council, or less influenced by self-interest. A bust by George Halse was presented to the College by Mrs Caesar Hawkins in June, 1855. Photographs are preserved in the College Collection. PUBLICATIONS:- Hawkins contributed largely to the medical journals, and reprinted his papers for private circulation under the title, *The Hunterian Oration, Presidential Addresses, and Pathological and Surgical Writings,* 2 vols., 8vo, 1874. Among these mention may be made of valuable lectures "On Tumours", and of papers on "Excision of the Ovum", "The Relative Claims of Sir Charles Bell and Magendie to the Discovery of the Functions of the Spinal Nerves", "Experiments on Hydrophobia and the Bites of Serpents", "Stricture of the Colon treated by Operation", etc.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000188
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Skey, Frederic Carpenter (1798 - 1872)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 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/372376372376
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Upton-on-Severn on Dec. 1st, 1798, the second of the six children of George Skey, a Russian merchant in London. He was educated at one or two private schools in early life, the last being that of the Rev. Michael Maurice, the Unitarian preacher, father of Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), whose friendship he retained through life as they had been schoolfellows. A visit to his father's cousin, Dr. Joseph Skey, Inspector of Army Hospitals at Plymouth, was the beginning of Skey's professional education. During this visit Napoleon was brought to Plymouth in the Bellerophon, and Skey often referred in later life to the fact that he had seen the great Emperor on this occasion. From Plymouth he went to Edinburgh to begin his medical education, stayed there for a year or two, and then spent some months in Paris. He was apprenticed to John Abernethy on April 15th, 1816, paying the ordinary premium of 500 guineas. Abernethy had so high an opinion of his pupil's ability that he entrusted Skey with the care of some of his private patients whilst he was still an apprentice. By the interest of Abernethy, Skey was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1826. The appointment provoked considerable jealousy, more especially in the breast of William Lawrence (q.v.), and when other arrangements were made after the death of Abernethy, Skey resented them as unjust, and resigned in 1831. Associating himself with Hope, Todd, Marshall Hall, Pereira, and Kiernan, he reopened the Aldersgate Street School of Medicine, which had previously been a Cave of Adullam for discontented members of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The school soon became famous, one of the largest in London, and a thorn in the side of its neighbour. In this school Skey lectured on surgery for ten years, his lectures proving very attractive to students, many of whom became his staunch personal friends. His bearing towards them showed a frankness and cordiality which drew into intimate and enduring friendship not only his own private pupils, but also the great body of students, over whom he exercised an amount of influence larger perhaps than that of any other contemporary teacher. When fresh arrangements had been made in the Medical School at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Skey was elected Lecturer in Anatomy in 1843, a position he resigned on Jan. 5th, 1864. Although the work of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was completely severed from the proprietary Medical School attached to it, Skey was nevertheless elected Assistant Surgeon on Aug. 29th, 1827, after an unsuccessful contest in 1824 when Eusebius Arthur Lloyd (q.v.) was chosen. He did not become Surgeon until May 10th, 1854, and retired under a newly established age limit at 65 on Jan, 18th, 1864. He was then appointed Consulting Surgeon and continued for some time to give clinical lectures. Skey was appointed Consulting Surgeon to the Charterhouse in 1827; on April 10th, 1837, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society; and in 1859 he acted as President of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of the Council from 1848-1867 and gave the Hunterian Oration in 1850. He was Arris and Gale Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery, 1852-1854, when he lectured on "Muscular Action, Dislocations, and the Treatment of Disease"; a Member of the Court of Examiners, 1855-1870; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1862, and of the Dental Board in 1865. He served as Vice-President in 1861 and 1862, and was elected President in 1863. In 1864 his friend Benjamin Disraeli caused him to be appointed Chairman at the Admiralty of the first Parlimentary Commission to inquire into the best mode of dealing with venereal diseases in the Navy and Army. The report of the Committee led to the framing and passing of the Contagious Diseases Act which was afterwards repealed. For his services Skey was decorated C.B. He practised at 13 Grosvenor Street, but failing health led him to move to 24 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, where he died on Aug. 15th, 1872. There is a bust of Skey in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, of which there is a copy in the Royal Society of Medicine. A fine lithograph of J H Maguire's is in the College Collection. It was published in 1850 and is said to be a striking likeness, not only of his countenance and expression, but also of the very air and manner of the man. Skey was a man of great intelligence, energy, courage, candour, and good nature, a charming companion, with a genial disposition, full, even in advancing years, of youthful buoyancy. Sympathetic to all, he had in a special degree a fondness for animals. He was a good writer, a clear lecturer, and an excellent teacher. He concerned himself with the broad principles of his subject rather than with details. As a surgeon he was an able operator, and his great ability was conspicuously shown in his treatment of exceptional cases, for he was skilful and ingenious in diagnosis and, in the face of unusual difficulties, fertile in resource. PUBLICATIONS:- "On Structure of the Elementary Muscular Fibre of Animals and Organic Life." - *Proc. Roy. Soc.*, 1837, iii, 462. A creditable performance considering that abstract scientific research was not encouraged by the surgeons of his day and that he had to borrow the use of a microscope. *On a New Mode of Treatment employed in the Case of Various Forms of Ulcer and Granulating Wounds*, 8vo, London, 1837. The remedy was opium in small doses. He employed it with success in chilblains, and afterwards proposed to use it for troops on night duty in the Crimean trenches. *A Practical Treatise on Venereal Disease*, 8vo, London, 1840. The substance of his lectures at the Aldersgate Street School of Medicine in 1838-9. *On a New Operation for the Cure of Lateral Curvature of the Spine: with Remarks on the Causes and Nature of the Disease*, 8vo, London, 1841; 2nd ed., 1842. He divided the tendinous sheath of the longissimus dorsi subcutaneously. Pamphlets and a series of letters in *The Times* on the dangers of over-training. *Operative Surgery*, 8vo, Lond., 1850; 8vo, Phil., 1851; 2nd ed., Lond., 1858. This is a work of much merit, influenced throughout by the author's energetic protest against the use of the knife except as a last resource. He advocated the value of tonics and stimulants in preference to the bleeding and leeching which were still in use. His great energy of thought and action rendered him incapable of steady, constant labour, and it is reported that, when he undertook to write this work, incited by a friend who offered to publish it, he set about it forthwith without previous preparation or any special attention to the literature of his subject. He wrote chapter after chapter right off, mostly in the middle of the night or very early morning, for he slept but little. He lost one of the chapters between his house and hospital, and vehemently declared that he neither could nor would rewrite it, and that the work must either be given up or published without the missing portion. It was recovered by advertising in *The Times*. In his lectures on *Hysteria*, 8vo, London, 1867: 3rd ed., 1870, he maintains the advantages of the 'tonic' mode of treatment by 'bark and wine'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000189
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hodgson, Joseph (1788 - 1869)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-22
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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/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 Wormald, Thomas (1802 - 1873)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 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/372378372378
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Pentonville in January, 1802, the son of John Wormald, who came of a Yorkshire family, a partner in Child's Bank, and Fanny, his wife. He was educated at the Grammar School of Batley in Yorkshire, and afterwards by the Rev. W. Heald, Vicar of Bristol in the came county. He was apprenticed to John Abernethy in 1818, lived in his house and became a friend. Abernethy used him as a prosector, caused him to teach the junior students, and made him assist Edward Stanley (q.v.) in his duties as Curator of the Hospital Museum. During his apprenticeship he visited the schools in Paris and saw something of the surgical practice of Dupuytren, Roux, Larrey, Cloquet, Cruveilhier, and Velpeau. When Abernethy resigned his lectureship Edward Stanley was appointed in his place, and it was arranged that Wormald should become a Demonstrator. But when the time arrived Frederic Carpenter Skey (q.v.), an earlier apprentice of Abernethy, was chosen, and 'Tommy', as he was known to everyone, was disappointed. He therefore became House Surgeon to William Lawrence, who was of the opposite faction, in October, 1824. It was not until 1826 that Wormald became Demonstrator of Anatomy conjointly with Skey, and when Skey seceded from the medical school to join the Aldersgate School of Medicine, Wormald remained as sole Demonstrator, and held the post for fifteen years. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital on Feb. 13th, 1838, on the death of Henry Earle, and spent the next twenty-three years teaching in the out-patient department without charge of beds. He became full Surgeon on April 3rd, 1861, on the resignation of Eusebius Arthur Lloyd (q.v.), and was obliged to resign under the age rule on April 9th, 1867, when he was elected Consulting Surgeon. He was Consulting Surgeon to the Foundling Hospital from 1843-1864, where his kindness to the children was so highly appreciated that he received the special thanks of the Court of Management and was complimented by being elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of Council from 1840-1867, Hunterian Orator in 1857, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1858-1868, and Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1864. He served as Vice-President in 1863 and 1864, and was elected President in 1865. He married Frances Meacock in September, 1828, and by her had eight children. He died of cerebral haemorrhage after a few hours' illness whilst on a visit to the sick-bed of his brother at Gomersal, in Yorkshire, on Dec. 28th, 1873, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. A pencil sketch by Sir William Ross (1846) is in the Conservators' Room at the Royal College of Surgeons, and a photograph taken later in life hangs by its side. Wormald was the last pupil of John Abernethy, and his death snapped the link connecting St. Bartholomew's Hospital with Hunterian surgery; but it is as a teacher of clinical surgery and not as a surgeon that Wormald is remembered. The long years first as a Demonstrator of Anatomy and afterwards in the out-patient room made him a teacher of the highest class. He was so perfect an assistant that it was said in jest he ought never to have been promoted. He is reported to have been cool, cautious, and safe as an operator, and in diagnosis remarkably correct, particularly in diseases and injuries of joints. He had some mechanical skill, for he invented a soft metal ring which was passed over the scrotum for the relief of varicocele, known as 'Wormald's ring', and would forge his own instruments. He read but little and trusted almost entirely to observation and experience. He exercised a great influence over students and put a permanent and effective stop to smoking and drinking in the dissecting-room. His manner was brusque but not offensive, and was modelled upon that of his master, John Abernethy, whose gestures and eccentricities he often mimicked. He drew well, and illustrated his demonstrations and lectures with freehand sketches on the blackboard. His style of speaking was easy, clear, and forcible. There was no hurry or waste of words, and he had the art of arresting and keeping the attention of his class, partly by his quaintness and originality, partly by his frequent reference to surgical points in the anatomy he was discussing, and partly by his inexhaustible fund of humour and of anecdotes, many of which were not quite proper. In person he was of a ruddy countenance, with light-brown hair lying thin and lank over his broad forehead, his eyes twinkling and roguish; his coat and waistcoat were 'farmer-like', his trousers tight-fitting, with pockets in which he usually kept his hands deeply plunged; his boots were thick and laced. He looked, indeed, more a farmer than a surgeon. PUBLICATIONS:- *A Series of Anatomical Sketches and Diagrams with Descriptions and References *(with A. M. MCWHINNIE, q.v.), 4to, London, 1838; re-issued in 1843. These sketches from one of the best series of anatomical plates made for the use of students. They are true to nature and not overloaded with detail.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000191
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Partridge, Richard (1805 - 1873)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 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/372379372379
Occupation General surgeon
Details The tenth child and seventh son of Samuel Partridge, of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. He was born on January 19th, 1805, and was apprenticed in 1821 to his uncle, W. H. Partridge, who practised in Birmingham. During his apprenticeship he acted as dresser to Joseph Hodgson (q.v.) at the Birmingham General Hospital. He entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1827 and attended the lectures of John Abernethy, acting afterwards as Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Windmill Street School of Medicine. He was appointed the first Demonstrator of Anatomy at King's College, London, when the medical faculty was instituted in 1831, and held the post until 1836, when he was promoted Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy in succession to Herbert Mayo (q.v.). John Simon (q.v.) became Demonstrator in his place two years later, in 1838. On November 5th, 1831, occurred the 'resurrectionist' case in London which was instrumental in causing the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. Bishop, Williams, and May brought the body of Carlo Ferrari, an Italian boy, to King's College asking nine guineas for it. Partridge, being on the alert owing to the Burke and Hare case in Edinburgh in 1830, suspected foul play and delayed payment until the police were informed, saying that he only had a £50 note for which he must get change. Bishop and Williams were hanged, May was respited and sentenced to transportation for life. On Dec. 23rd, 1836, Partridge was elected Visiting or Assistant Surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital; he was promoted to full Surgeon on January 8th, 1838, and resigned the office on April 13th, 1840, when he was appointed Surgeon to the newly established King's College Hospital in Clare Market. He remained Surgeon to King's College Hospital until 1870. In 1837 he was elected F.R.S. He held all the chief positions at the Royal College of Surgeons, serving as a Member of Council from 1852-1868; he was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1864-1873; Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1865; Hunterian Orator and Vice-President in the same year; and President in 1866. He filled many offices at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, where he was elected a Fellow in 1828; he was Secretary from 1832-1836; a Member of Council 1837-1838, and again in 1861-1862; Vice-President, 1847-1848, President, 1863-1864. Partridge succeeded Joseph Henry Green (q.v.) as Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy in 1853. He had himself some skill in drawing, having taken lessons from his brother John, the portrait painter. In the autumn of 1862 he went to Spezzia, at the request of Garibaldi's English friends, in order to attend the general, who had been severely wounded in the right ankle-joint at the Battle of Aspromonte. Having no previous experience of gunshot wounds, he unfortunately "overlooked the presence of the bullet", which Nélaton afterwards localized by his porcelain-tipped probe, and it was subsequently extracted by Professor Zanetti. This failure did him much harm professionally, though Garibaldi himself always wrote to him in the kindest terms, and he died a poor man on March 25th, 1873. Partridge has been described as a fluent lecturer, an admirable blackboard draughtsman, an excellent clinical teacher, and one who, though he operated nervously, paid close attention to the after-treatment of his patients. He was a painstaking but not a brilliant surgeon; minute in detail and hesitating in execution - a striking contrast to the brilliant performances of his colleague, Sir William Fergusson. He was somewhat of a wit, and it is recorded of him that, being asked the names of his very sorry-looking carriage-horses, he replied that the name of one was 'Longissimus Dorsi', but that the other was the 'Os Innominatum'. This was to a student. He wrote very little, and his copiously illustrated work on descriptive anatomy was never printed. There is a portrait of him by George Richmond, R.A., which was engraved by Francis Holl. There are in addition a lithograph by Maguire, dated 1845, and a photograph of a picture by an unknown artist representing Partridge attending the wounded Garibaldi; it is reproduced in the centenary number of the Lancet (1923, ii, 700, fig. 10).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000192
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Hilton, John (1805 - 1878)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
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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/372380372380
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born at Sible Hedingham, a small village on the River Colne in the heart of Essex, on September 22nd, 1805, the first son of John and Hannah Hilton. His parents were in humble circumstances when he was born, but his father afterwards made money in the straw-plaiting industry, became the owner of some brickfields, and built the house in Swan Street which is still called Hilton House. In addition to John, the Hilton family consisted of a brother, Charles, who inherited his father's property, and two sisters, one of whom, Anne, married Charles Fagge on December 27th, 1836. Hilton was educated at Chelmsford and afterwards at Boulogne, and became a student at Guy's Hospital about 1824. Guy's separated from St. Thomas's during his student career, and he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy under Bransby Cooper (q.v.), his fellow-demonstrator being Edward Cock (q.v.), in 1828. The two demonstrators worked together in friendly rivalry, and when Sir Astley Cooper proposed that they should investigate the origin and distribution of the superior laryngeal nerve, Cock undertook the comparative and Hilton the human anatomy side of the question. The results were largely instrumental in causing his election as F.R.S. in 1839. From 1828 Hilton devoted himself so assiduously to the dissecting-room as to acquire the sobriquet 'Anatomical John'. When he was not dissecting or teaching he was making post-mortem examinations, and after sixteen years of this work he had gained an unrivalled knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and had become a first-rate teacher and lecturer. About 1838 he was engaged in making those dissections which, modelled in wax by Joseph Towne, still remain as gems in the Museum of Guy's Hospital. For this purpose Hilton spent an hour or two every morning in making a most careful dissection of some very small part of the body - usually not more than an inch or two. He then left, and Towne copied the dissection in wax. Towne worked alone in a locked room, and the secrets of his art died with him. Hilton was elected Lecturer on Anatomy in 1845 and resigned in 1853. As a lecturer and teacher he was admirable, for he had the power of interesting students by putting the trite and oft-told facts of anatomy in a totally new light, the result of his own observation and experience. He combined, too, elementary physiology with anatomy, for the two subjects had not then been separated. He was, however, a confirmed teleologist and tried to prove that anatomical distribution was due to design rather than to development. He had neither the education nor the inclination to appreciate anatomy in its scientific aspects. Hilton was elected Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1844, Thomas Callaway and Edward Cock being his colleagues, whilst John Morgan, Aston Key, and Bransby Cooper were full Surgeons. He thus had the distinction of being the first surgeon at one of the large London hospitals who was appointed without having served an apprenticeship either to the hospital or to one of its Surgeons. In 1847 James Paget was elected to a similar position at St. Bartholomew's Hospital without either of these qualifications, and the rule previously looked upon as inviolate soon became more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Hilton's period of probation in the out-patient room was of short duration. Aston Key (q.v.) died of cholera after an illness of twenty hours in 1849, and Hilton as the Senior Assistant Surgeon was promoted to fill his place. The ordeal was trying, for he had been an anatomist all his life and had never had charge of beds, but he came well through it. He did not acquire the brilliancy or expertness of the older surgeons, but the very exactness of his anatomical knowledge made him a careful operator. His caution is still remembered by that method of opening deeply-seated abscesses with a probe and dressing forceps after making an incision through the skin, which is known as 'Hilton's method'. He shone especially in clinical lectures, where he brought out the importance of every detail in a case, and so linked them together as to form a continuous chain which interested even the idlest student. He attracted to himself the best type of men, and to be a dresser to Hilton was considered a blue ribbon at the hospital. Yet he was no easy master to serve, for he was rough in speech and was prone to indulge in personalities designed to hurt the *amour propre* of those to whom they were addressed. At the Royal College of Surgeons Hilton was chosen a life-member of the Council in 1854. He lectured as Hunterian Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery from 1859-1862, but it was not until 1865 that he became a Member of the Court of Examiners, a post he held for ten years. He served as Vice-President during the years 1865 and 1866, and was elected President in 1867, the year in which he delivered the Hunterian Oration. He resigned the Lectureship on Surgery at Guy's Hospital in 1870, though he continued to practise at 10 New Broad Street, E.C. In 1871 he was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and in the same year he was President of the Pathological Society. He married twice, and his children survived him. He died at Clapham of cancer of the stomach on September 14th, 1878. Hilton's claim to remembrance rests upon his essay "On the Influence of Mechanical and Physiological Rest in the Treatment of Accidents and Surgical Disease and the Diagnostic Value of Pain". The essay was delivered as his course of Arris and Gale Lectures at the Royal College of Surgeons in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862, with the title "Pain and Therapeutic Influences of Mechanical and Physiological Rest in the Treatment of Surgical Diseases and Accidents". It was published as an octavo volume in 1863; the second edition, with the shortened title *On Rest and Pain*, edited by W. H. A. Jacobson (q.v.), appeared in 1877; the third in 1880; the fourth in 1887; and the fifth in 1892. All the issues except the first are duodecimos; the third, fourth, and fifth contain no material changes. *Rest and Pain* is interesting historically as showing the state of surgery in a large general hospital when its practice was based entirely upon anatomy and was devoid of the assistance it now derives from histology, bacteriology, and anaesthetics. It bears perhaps the same relation to modern surgery as Chambers's *Vestiges of Creation* bears to modern geology and biology. There is much morbid anatomy, and great common sense mingled with very crude speculation. It remains a fascinating work, written by one who, though a master of one side of his subject, was unable to see the whole, partly because he was insufficiently acquainted with advances of his contemporaries, and partly because the means for developing the scientific aspects of surgery were not in existence. The particular points upon which Hilton laid stress in his lectures were the blocking of the foramen of Magendie in some cases of internal hydrocephalus; the cautious opening of deep abscesses; the pain referred to the knee by patients with hip disease and its anatomical explanation; the cause of triple displacement in chronic tuberculous disease of the knee; and the importance of the early diagnosis and treatment of hip disease. All this and many other things which are now the commonplaces of surgery, Hilton set out in *Rest and Pain*, in which the naïve description of his cases and their treatment is by no means the least attractive feature. It was said that no one looking at Hilton would have taken him for a great surgeon: he appeared much more like a prosperous City man. Short, rather stout, and plodding in his walk; dapper in a plain frock-coat with a faultless shirt front, a black stock or bow-tie, a fancy waistcoat festooned with a long gold chain which was hung from the neck; always in boots irreproachably blackened at a time when Warren's and Day & Martn's blackings were at the height of their vogue - such was the picture of Hilton as he sat on the bed of a patient in one of his wards examining an inflamed ulcer with a probe to determine the position of any exposed nerve. A life-size half-length oval portrait of Hilton by Henry Barraud (1811-1874) hangs in the Conservator's room at the College. It was presented by Mrs. Hilton in 1879. There is a photograph in the New Sydenham Society's "Portraits by President" portfolio; and a medallion given by Mrs. Oldham to C. H. A. Golding-Bird, F.R.C.S., in 1894 hangs in the Librarian's room at the College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000193
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Quain, Richard (1800 - 1887)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-09
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372381372381
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Fermoy, Co. Cork, in July, 1800, the third son of Richard Quain, of Ratheahy, Co. Cork, by his first wife - a Miss Jones. Jones Quain (1796-1865), the anatomist, was his full brother, and Sir John Richard Quain (1816-1876), Judge of the Queen's Bench, was his half-brother. Sir Richard Quain, Bart. (1816-1898) was his cousin. Richard Quain was educated at Adair's School in Fermoy, and after apprenticeship to an Irish surgeon came to London and entered the Aldersgate School of Medicine under the supervision of Jones Quain, his brother, for whom he acted as prosector. He afterwards went to Paris and attended the lectures of Richard Bennett, who lectured privately on anatomy and was an Irish friend of his father. Bennett was appointed in 1828 a Demonstrator of Anatomy in the newly constituted School of the University of London - now University College - and Quain acted as his assistant. Bennett died in 1830 and Quain became Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, Sir Charles Bell being Professor of General Anatomy and Physiology. When Bell resigned the Chair Richard Quain was appointed Professor of Descriptive Anatomy in 1832, Erasmus Wilson (q.v.), Thomas Morton (q.v.), John Marshall (q.v.), and Victor Ellis (q.v.) acting successively as his demonstrators. He held office until 1850. Quain was elected the first Assistant Surgeon to University College - then called the North London - Hospital in 1834. He succeeded, after a stormy progress, to the office of full Surgeon and Special Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1848, resigning in 1866, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of the Council from 1854-1873; a Member of the Court of Examiners, 1865-1870; Chairman of the Midwifery Board, 1867; Vice-President, 1866 and 1867; President, 1868; Hunterian Orator, 1869; and Representative of the College at the General Medical Council, 1870-1876. He was elected F.R.S. on Feb. 29th, 1844, and was Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria. He married in 1859 Ellen, Viscountess Midleton, widow of the fifth Viscount, but had no children. She died before him. He died on Sept. 15th, 1887, and was buried at Finchley. The bulk of his fortune of £75,000 was left to University College to encourage and promote general education in modern languages (especially the English language and the composition of that language) and in natural science. The Quain Professorship of English Language and Literature and the Quain Studentship and Prizes were endowed from this bequest. Quain himself had received a liberal education, and one of his hobbies was to write and speak English correctly. Quain was a short and extremely pompous little man. He went round his wards with a slow and deliberate step, his hands deep in his pockets and his hat on his head. As a surgeon he was cautious rather than demonstrative, painstaking rather than brilliant, but in some measure he made up for his lack of enterprise with the knife by his insistence on an excellent clinical routine, and he was a careful teacher. He had a peculiar but intense dread of the occurrence of haemorrhage. He devoted especial attention to diseases of the rectum. "Even such a matter as clearing out the scybala had to be performed in his wards in a deliberate manner, under his own superintendence." He had certain stock clinical lectures which he delivered each year, and one of these was on the ill consequences attending badly fitting boots, which he illustrated profusely by the instruments of torture called boots devised by some shoemakers. He edited his brother's *Elements of Anatomy* (5th ed., 1843-8), and was author of a superbly illustrated work, *The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body* (8vo, with folding atlas of plates, London, 1844), deduced from observations upon 1040 subjects. The splendid plates illustrating this were drawn by Joseph Maclise (q.v.), brother of the great artist, and the explanation of the plates is by his cousin Richard Quain, M.D. (afterwards Sir Richard). He also published *Diseases of the Rectum* (8vo, London, 1854; 2nd ed., 1855), and *Clinical Lectures* (8vo, London, 1884). He was an unamiable colleague, for he was of a jealous nature and prone to impute improper motives to all who differed from him. He quarrelled at one time or another with most of the staff of University College Hospital. In these quarrels he sided with Elliotson and Samuel Cooper against Liston and Anthony Todd Thomson. At the College of Surgeons he was strictly conservative, and apt to urge views on educational subjects which did not commend themselves to the majority of his colleagues. A life-size half-length portrait in oils painted by George Richmond, R.A., hangs in the Secretary's office at the Royal College of Surgeons, and in the Council Room is a bust by Thomas Woolner, R.A.; it was presented by Miss Dickinson in December, 1887.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000194
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Halton, John Prince (1797 - 1873)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372382372382
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of the Rev John Halton, MA, St Peter's, Chester; educated at the University of Edinburgh and at Guy's Hospital under Sir Astley Cooper. After Continental travel he settled in Liverpool, and in 1820 was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, an appointment he held until 1856, when he became Consulting Surgeon. In 1844 he published a pamphlet attacking the heavy mortality following operations at the Liverpool Northern Hospital, as compared with that at the Royal Infirmary during the previous twenty-two years. The reply by the Surgeons of the Northern Hospital as to the salubrity and ventilation of the building breathes a considerable spirit of deference to Halton. He caused a rule to be passed excluding the Surgeons at the Royal Infirmary from the practice of pharmacy, for a surgeon, he said, should restrict himself to cases in surgery. Further, he advocated education at universities and large centres of population. Thus, as a successor of Park and of Hanson, Halton did much to advance the reputation of surgery in Liverpool. He retired from practice in 1885 and died at Woodclose, Grasmere, Westmorland, on Jan 27th, 1873. He married in early life; his wife, a daughter of John Foster, of Liverpool, died in 1871.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000195
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Fergusson, Sir William (1808 - 1877)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
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Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Prestonpans on March 20th, 1808, the son of James Fergusson. He was educated at Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, at the High School, and at the University of Edinburgh. He was placed by his own desire in a lawyer's office at the age of 15, but finding the work uncongenial he changed law for medicine when he was 17. He became a pupil of Robert Knox, the anatomist, then at the height of his reputation, who appointed him demonstrator in 1828, when the class consisted of 504 students and the lectures had to be repeated thrice daily. Fergusson quickly became a skilled anatomist, and it is said that he often spent sixteen hours a day in the dissecting-room, and he soon began to lecture in association with Knox. He was elected Surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Dispensary in 1831, and in that year tied the third part of the right subclavian artery for an axillary aneurysm, an operation which had been published only twice previously in Scotland. He described the appearances seen at the post-mortem examination in the *London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science* (1841, i, 617). In 1855 he employed the dangerous method of direct compression of a subclavian aneurysm (*Lancet*, 1855, ii, 197). He married Helen Hamilton Ranken on Oct. 10th, 1833. She was the daughter and heiress of William Ranken, of Spittlehaugh, Peebleshire, and the marriage at once placed Fergusson in easy circumstances. He continued zealous in his profession, and in 1836, when he was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he shared with James Syme (q.v.) the best surgical practice in Scotland. In 1840 Fergusson accepted the Professorship of Surgery at King's College, London, with the Surgeoncy to King's College Hospital, which was then situated in the slums of Clare Market. He settled at Dover Street, Piccadilly, whence he removed in 1847 to George Street, Hanover Square. His fame brought crowds of students to King's College Hospital to witness his operations. He became Member of the College of Surgeons in 1840, Fellow in 1844, was a Member of Council from 1861-1877, and of the Court of Examiners from 1867-1870, Vice-President in 1869, President in 1870, and Hunterian Orator in 1871. As Arris and Gale Lecturer he delivered two courses on "The Progress of Anatomy and Surgery during the Present Century", in 1864 and 1865. In these lectures Fergusson mentioned three hundred successful operations for hare-lip performed by himself. In 1849 he was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Prince Albert, and in 1855 Surgeon Extraordinary to H. M. the Queen. He was made a baronet in 1866, and Serjeant-Surgeon in 1867. The occasion of his receiving a baronetcy was seized upon to make a presentation of a dessert service of silver plate which was subscribed for by three hundred of his old pupils. He was elected F.R.S. in 1848, President of the Pathological Society in 1859-1860, and of the British Medical Association in 1873, and Hon. LL.D of Edinburgh in 1875. He resigned the office of Professor of Surgery at King's College in 1870, but retained the post of Clinical Professor of Surgery and Surgeon to the hospital until his death. He invented the term 'conservative surgery', by which he meant the excision of a joint rather than the amputation of a limb. He introduced great improvements in the treatment of hare-lip and cleft palate, and his style of operating attracted general attention and admiration. As an operator, indeed, he is justly placed at the pinnacle of fame. Lizars said he had seen no one, not even Liston himself, surpass Fergusson in a trying and critical operation, and his biographer, Mr. Bettany, says in the *Dictionary of National Biography*: "His manipulative and mechanical skill was shown both in his mode of operating and in the new instruments which he devised. The bulldog forceps, the mouth-gag, and various bent knives for cleft palate, attest his ingenuity. A still higher mark of his ability consisted in his perfect planning of every detail of an operation beforehand; no emergency was unprovided for. Thus, when an operation had begun, he proceeded with remarkable speed and silence till the end, himself applying every bandage and plaster, and leaving, as far as possible, no traces of his operation. So silently were most of his operations conducted, that he was often imagined to be on bad terms with his assistants." Fergusson was celebrated as a lithotomist and lithoritist, and it was said that to *wink* during one of his cutting operations for stone might involve one's seeing no operation at all, so rapidly was the work performed by that master hand. On one occasion when performing a lithotomy the blade of the knife broke away from the handle. He at once seized the blade in his long deft fingers, finished the operation, and quietly told the class: "Gentlemen, you should be prepared for any emergency." He died in London of Bright's disease on Feb. 10th, 1877, and was buried at West Linton, Peebleshire, beside his wife, who died in 1860. He was succeeded in the title by his sons, James Ranken; a younger son, Charles Hamilton, entered the Army, and there were three daughters. Fergusson's personality was marked. Tall and of fine presence, with very large and powerful hands, he was genial and hospitable. He was beloved by hosts of students whom he had started in life, and of patients whom he had aided gratuitously. Those who could afford to pay sometimes gave him very large sums for an operation. Like John Hunter, he was a good carpenter, and had besides a number of social pursuits and accomplishments. He was a staunch friend, forgiving to those, such as Syme, who opposed him, and his best monument is the life and work of the many pupils whom he influenced and stimulated as few have ever done. He made many contributions to surgical literature, and wrote a *System of Practical Surgery*, of which a fifth edition appeared in 1870. An expressive and nearly full length oil painting of Fergusson by Rudolf Lehmann hangs in the Secretary's office at the College, and there are numbers of portraits in the College Collection. The portrait was painted in 1874, and a replica hangs in the Edinburgh College of Physicians. He was extremely social and given to kind and friendly hospitality in private life. He sometimes invited a small circle of friends to dine at a well-known city hostelry, The Albion Tavern. On one of these occasions he invited the then Editor of *Punch*, who responded in these terms: "Look out for me at seven, look after me at eleven. - Yours, Mark Lemon." PUBLICATIONS:- *A System of Practical Surgery*, of which the first edition in 18mo was published in London, 1842; 2nd ed., in 12mo, 1846; 3rd., 1852; 4th ed., 1857; 5th ed., 1870. The work deals with the art rather than the science of surgery, and was a good text-book for medical students. Paper on lithotrity in the *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1835, xliv, 80. Paper on cleft palate in the *Med.-Chir. Trans.,* 1845, xxviii, 273. The Hunterian Oration, 8vo, 1871, is chiefly remarkable for the generous eulogium of James Syme, his former colleague, with whom relations had been somewhat strained.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000196
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Busk, George (1807 - 1886)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Hancock, Henry (1809 - 1880)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
Unknown
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372385372385
Occupation General surgeon Ophthalmic surgeon
Details Born on Aug. 6th, 1809, at Bread Street Hill, the son of a City merchant, his mother being a daughter of Alderman Hamerton. He was educated at Mr Butter's school in Cheyne Walk and at Westminster Hospital, where his ability soon attracted the attention of G. J. Guthrie and Anthony White. He acted as House Surgeon and was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy in 1835. In 1836 he was elected Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology at the Charing Cross Medical School after a severe contest with James F. Palmer, the editor of the works of John Hunter. Palmer afterwards went to Australia and became Speaker of the House of Assembly at Melbourne. Hancock was appointed Assistant Surgeon in 1839 to the recently established Charing Cross Hospital, becoming Surgeon in 1840, on the appointment of Richard Partridge as Surgeon to King's College Hospital. This post he retained until 1872, when he resigned and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. He acted as Ophthalmic Surgeon to the hospital during the year 1841. He was one of the founders and chief ornaments of the Medical School attached to the hospital, and made the tradition of a high standard of teaching for which the school became celebrated. He lectured on anatomy and physiology from 1836-1841, and on surgery from 1841-1867. He acted as Dean of the School from 1856-1867. He was also attached to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, which was then next door to the Charing Cross Hospital in King William Street, but has recently been rebuilt in Broad Street, Bloomsbury. As early as 1832 he acted as House Surgeon; about 1840 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon, becoming full Surgeon in 1845, and Consulting Surgeon in 1870. At the Royal College of Surgeons Hancock was a Member of the Council from 1863-1880 and of the Court of Examiners from 1870-1875. He was Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1871, Vice-President in 1870 and 1871, President in 1872, and Hunterian Orator in 1873. As Arris and Gale Professor in 1866-1867 he lectured on the foot, his attention having been directed to the study of articular diseases by his old master, Anthony White. He was one of those who early took up the subject of conservative surgery and the excision of joints. He introduced into England, and improved, Moreau's method of excision of the ankle-joint, and devised an amputation which, while preserving the back part of the os calcis and upper part of the astragalus, gives, when these are juxtaposed, a mobile and exceedingly valuable stump. He also modified Syme's amputation of the foot by dissecting the heel flap from above downwards, instead of from below upwards. At the Medical Society of London he was Orator in 1842 and President in 1848. He was greatly interested in the welfare of the Epsom Benevolent College, of which he was first Hon. Secretary and afterwards Treasurer. As an oculist he gained a large practice, and followed the tradition of Guthrie. A mode of dividing the ciliary muscle for glaucoma was introduced by him - an operation which has since given place to iridectomy. He was an excellent surgeon and clinical teacher. He was kindly and considerate, of a lovable character, earnest and enthusiastic about his work, and markedly straightforward and attached to duty. He retired into Wiltshire, and died on Jan. 1st, 1880, of cancer of the stomach, at Standen House, Chute, where he was buried, his father, at nearly the same age, having succumbed to that or a similar disease. He married and left a family. A portrait by George Richmond, R. A., is in the possession of the College, and there is a photograph in the Fellows' Album. The College Collection contains a lithograph by Hanhart after a sketch by Maguire made in the spring of 1849. PUBLICATIONS: - Translation of Velpeau's *Regional Anatomy* Tracts on Operation for Disease of the Appendix Caeci (8vo, London, 1848), and on the Male Urethra and Stricture *Lancet*, 1852, i, 187.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000198
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First Title value, for Searching Curling, Thomas Blizard (1811 - 1888)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
Unknown
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372386372386
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Tavistock Place, London, on Jan. 1st, 1811, the son of Daniel Curling, F.S.A., Secretary to the Commissioners of His Majesty's Customs, and Elizabeth, daughter of William Blizard and sister of Sir William Blizard. He was educated at The Manor House, Chiswick, and was afterwards apprenticed to his uncle Sir William Blizard (1743-1835), Surgeon to the London Hospital. During his apprenticeship he was a student at the London Hospital and attended the lectures of Edward Stanley (q.v.) and Sir William Lawrence (q.v.) at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where Blizard, his master, had himself been educated. Curling began to write before he was qualified, and communicated an article on the cranium to Partington's *Cyclopoedia*, and another, on cases he had observed at the London Hospital, to the Hospital Reports in the *London Medical Gazette*. Sir William Blizard resigned his office of Surgeon to the London Hospital in 1833, James Luke (q.v.) was promoted, and Curling was elected Assistant Surgeon in January 1834, after a severe contest with William Coulson (q.v.). In the same year he gained the Jacksonian Prize at the Royal College of Surgeons for his essay "On Tetanus", which was published in 1836. About a year after his election Curling was required to reside in the immediate neighbourhood of the hospital, and for seven years he occupied a place called 'The Mount', in the Whitechapel Road, a name given, it is said, because of the accumulated rubbish carted there after the Great Fire of London. He devoted much time to surgical pathology whilst acting as Assistant Surgeon, made the post-mortem examinations, and lectured on morbid anatomy. In 1841 he was appointed, in conjunction with James Luke, Lecturer on Surgery at the London Hospital, and in 1849 was appointed Surgeon in the place of John Goldwyer Andrews (q.v.). He was admitted a F.R.S. on June 6th, 1850, and bequeathed at his death the sum of £200 to the Scientific Relief Fund of the Royal Society. Curling was Consulting Surgeon to the Jewish, to the German, and to the Portugese Hosptials: he was also Consulting Surgeon to the London Orphan Asylum and a member of the Medical Board of the Royal Sea-Bathing Hospital at Margate, in the affairs of which he took an active interest. At the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society he filled the office of Surgical Secretary in 1845-1846 and President in 1871-1872. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of Council from 1864-1880, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1871-1879, Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1872, Vice-President in 1871 and 1872, and President in 1873. He discovered during his long tenure of office in the out-patient room of the London Hospital that the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the testicle needed revision. He published a paper in 1841, "Some Observations on the Stucture of the Gubernaculum and the Descent of the Testis in the Foetus", and in 1843, *A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Testicle, Spermatic Cord, and Scrotum. *The book met with a hearty reception, ran through many editions, and was translated into foreign languages, the Chinese version being made by Sir Patrick Manson in 1866. Curling published in 1851 *Observations on the Diseases of the Rectum*, which also had a large sale, and, like "Curling on the Testis", became a standard work. His paper at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society seems to have been the first to draw attention to the occurrence of duodenal ulcer after burns of the skin. He died at Cannes on March 4th, 1888. Curling's punctuality at the London Hospital was proverbial; he entered the gates as the clock struck the hour. In the wards he was exact and conscientious to a degree, his strong sense of duty to the patient leading him into the minutest supervision of the dresser's work. His sound judgement was grounded on vast clinical experience; he was consequently opposed to fanciful inductions. "His practice and his teaching were not at variance; both were sound, upright, and just." He was not personally popular, for his manner was cold, yet he was a staunch and sincere friend, whom to know was to trust and to honour. He was punctual in the performance of his duty in a remarkable way. He was not a good speaker, and instructed his pupils rather by what he did than by what he said. They could readily perceive that Curling's treatment of his patients was guided by fixed princicples, and that they could gain from him much valuable information. He was a careful and cautious operator, whose first consideration was a regard for the good of the individual patient. At the College he enjoyed the complete confidence of his colleagues on account of his zeal and the great interest he took in his work. The estimation in which his judgement was held by his contemporaries was shown by the fact that he was appointed five times to the important post of Surgical Referee at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, the last time succeeding the period of his Presidency. Curling was a man of commanding stature. There is an engraving of him from a daguerrotype in the *Medical Circular*, a photograph in the Fellows' Album, and another in *Photographs of Eminent Medical Men* (Barker and Edwards, 1867, i), and there is an engraving in the possession of the London Hospital. In later life he is described as a gentleman, tall, erect with white hair, pale complexion, and an inheritor of the large nose which marked the Blizard family.
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Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Hamerton, George Albert ( - 1920)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-28
Unknown
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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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Paget, Sir James (1814 - 1899)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-13 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/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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Peter Ernest Heaton (1932 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kindersley, Hugh Kenyon Molesworth, Second Baron Kindersley of West Hoathly (1899 - 1976)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Travers, Benjamin junior (1808 - 1868)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Bond, Charles John (1856 - 1939)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372646372646
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Bittersby, Leicestershire, the second of the three children and the only son of George Bond, gentleman farmer, and Elizabeth Higginson, his wife, on 27 October 1856. He was educated at Repton from January 1871 to 18 April 1873, was engaged in farming for a few months, and entered as a pupil at the Leicester Infirmary in February 1875. He went to University College, London, in October 1875, where he won the gold medals in physiology and anatomy, the silver medals in surgery, midwifery, and forensic medicine, and was an assistant demonstrator of anatomy. Here he formed a close and lasting friendship with Victor Horsley. At Bedford General Infirmary he was house surgeon from 1879 until he was appointed resident house surgeon at the Leicester Royal Infirmary in 1882. Here he was surgeon from 1886 to 1912, when he resigned and was appointed consulting surgeon and vice-president. From 1925 to 1932 he acted as chairman of the drug and medical stores committee of the infirmary. He retired from private practice in 1912 but retained his hospital appointment, and visited Australia in 1914. During the war of 1914-18 he was gazetted temporary honorary colonel on 31 May 1915, was appointed consulting surgeon to the military hospital in the Northern command and was the representative of the Medical Research Council on the inter-allied committee on the treatment of war wounds. The meetings of the committee were held at Paris from 1916 to 1918. He married Edith, daughter of George Simpson, JP, of Hazlebrow, Derbyshire on 7 August 1890. She survived him with a son and a daughter. He died on 23 November 1939 at 10 Springfield Road, Leicester, and left £1,000 to Leicester Royal Infirmary. Bond was a man of many interests and of great energy. As a surgeon he introduced with Sir Charles Marriott aseptic methods at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, and at the meeting of the British Medical Association there in 1905 he delivered the address in surgery on Ascending currents in mucous canals; he spoke on Septic peritonitis at the Toronto meeting of the Association in 1906. He was president of the Leicester Medical Society, and as vice-president took a keen interest in the progress of the Leicestershire and Rutland University College. He served on the Leicester city council for two years; was a member of the Leicester health insurance committee from 1918 to 1920 and on the advisory council of the National Insurance Committee, and was president of the Literary and Philosophical Society in 1901 and again in 1935. For his civic work he was rewarded in 1925 with the freedom of the city of Leicester, and in 1924 he became a Fellow of University College. Always interested in biology, he kept cocks and hens to study problems in breeding and in 1932 he delivered five William Withering lectures at Birmingham, taking as his subject Certain aspects of human biology; in 1928 he gave the Calton memorial lecture on Racial decay. During the latter years of his life his friendship with Charles Killick Millard, MDEd, who was for many years medical officer of health for Leicester, led him to take an active part in launching the voluntary euthanasia legalisation society. Its object was to seek the passing of a law permitting a doctor under safeguards to bring about easy death for incurable persons suffering prolonged agony who wished their sufferings ended. Bond was chairman of the society's executive committee from its inception. For eight years he was a member of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board; of the Departmental Commissions on cancer and blindness, and the Trevithin committee on the prevention of venereal disease. He contributed a chapter on “Health and healing” to *The great state* by H G Wells and others, and collaborated with Wells in *The claims of the coming generation*. In 1949 his admirers placed a memorial to Bond in the Leicester Royal Infirmary and endowed in his memory travelling and research scholarships in biology at Leicester University College. They presented a complete collection of his writings to the Royal College of Surgeons Library. *Other publications*: *The leucocyte in health and disease*. London, 1924. *Biology and the new physics*. London, 1936. *Recollections of student life and later days, a tribute to the memory of the late Sir Victor Horsley.* London, 1939.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000462
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Brown, James Marsh (1913 - 1965)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Rumsey, Henry Wyldbore (1809 - 1876)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-11 2012-03-09
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/372649372649
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Chesham, Buckinghamshire, on July 3rd, 1809, the eldest son of Henry Nathaniel Rumsey, a surgeon, by his wife, Elizabeth Frances Catherine, second daughter of Sir Robert Murray, Bart, whom he had married late in life. His grandfather, the youngest son of an old Welsh family, had settled and practised in Chesham from the middle of the eighteenth century. Rumsey's father had taken shorthand notes of John Hunter's lectures in 1786 and 1787. His notes were printed by James F Palmer in his edition of Hunter's works, who says of them, "one might almost suppose that the writer had had access to the Hunterian manuscript: for besides being generally more full, it never omits examples and illustrations in proof of opinions. The style too is characteristically Hunterian." Rumsey received a desultory education, one of his tutors being the Rev Joseph Bosworth, DD (1789-1876), the eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar. He was apprenticed at the age of 16 to Dr Attenburrow at the Nottingham Hospital, and afterwards became a house pupil of Caesar Hawkins (q.v.), Surgeon to St George's Hospital. In 1831 he was Resident Physician for three months to Lord Dillon at Ditchley, in Oxfordshire, after which he returned to Chesham and took over the family practice. Three years later he went to Gloucester, where he remained for twelve years, acting as Surgeon to the Dispensary, and being appointed Cholera Inspector in 1849. Having overworked himself in this office, he retired to Cheltenham, and from 1851 built up a large practice by his delicate generosity, untiring industry, his suavity, and his kind-heartedness. He got into financial difficulties towards the close of his life owing to the failure of *The European*, and his friends - Dr William Farr being Chairman of the fund - presented him in 1876 with a handsome sum of money, a service of silver plate, and obtained for him a Civil List pension of £100 a year. He died at Prestbury, near Cheltenham, on Oct 23rd, 1876. Rumsey was one of the leading sanitarians of his generation. Lacking the science, philosophic insight, organizing power, and literary genius of Sir John Simon, and the masterly command of statistics possessed by Dr William Farr, he was none the less a great man. In 1835, after having devoted much attention to the establishment of provident societies among the working classes, he commenced his labours as Hon Secretary of the Sick Poor Committee of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association - labours which were continued for ten years. He furnished materials for a series of Reports, on which was founded a Bill, introduced into the House of Commons in 1840 by Mr Serjeant Talfourd, for the better regulation of Medical Relief under the Poor Law. This led to his being examined, first in 1838 by the Poor Law Committee of the House of Commons, and again in 1844 by Lord Ashley's Select Committee on Medical Poor Relief, when he submitted a mass of evidence, collected with much labour, relating to the sickness prevalent among the poor in towns, and forcibly showing the need of preventive measures, under the superintendence and control of a General Department of Public Health. The results of these investigations, and of his previous inquiries into the working of the so-called self-supporting Dispensaries, were embodied in two pamphlets, one published in 1837, on *The Advantages to the Poor of Mutual Assurance against Sickness*, the other in 1846, in connection with Lord Lincoln's Public Health Bill and Sir James Graham's Bill for the Regulation of the Medical Profession, on *The Health and Sickness of Town Populations*. After the publication in 1836 of his paper on the "Statistics of Friendly Societies", with suggestions and forms for an improved Registration of Sickness in connection with them, Rumsey on many occasions, either singly in papers of remarkable ability, or in co-operation with others, pointed out with much clearness and force certain "Fallacies of Vital and Sanitary Statistics", and the difficulty of drawing correct conclusions regarding the Public Health from returns of mortality, apart from records of sickness. In 1848, in his "Remarks on the Constitution of the Authorities under the Public Health Bill", then before Parliament, he anticipated and indicated with great precision the defects - many of which had remained unremedied - of that important measure. The same high intelligence and remarkable mental activity and acuteness were conspicuously manifested by him in the prominent part he took in all the subsequent phases of sanitary legislation, and in the valuable evidence given by him before the Royal Sanitary Commission in 1869. He was consulted in 1849 by the authorities of the Colony of St Christopher's, and in 1850 by the nascent Colony of New Zealand, on their sanitary schemes. His merits and public services were repeatedly recognized. In 1863, by the advice of the Privy Council, he was nominated by the Queen a Member of the General Medical Council; in 1868 and 1869 he was nominated a Member of the Royal Sanitary Commission. It was mainly under Rumsey's guidance, and largely at his instigation, that the British Medical Association procured the appointment of the Royal Sanitary Commission, whence has sprung the improved sanitary legislation of our days; and he will be remembered among the band of workers - Farr, Simon, Stewart, Michael, Acland, Stokes, Clode, and Chadwick - who have placed the health of the people upon a new and surer footing. He died at the beginning of November, 1876, and at the time of his death was an honorary member of the Metropolitan Association of Health Officers and a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. Rumsey's best-known book, which for many years was the only work on the subject, was his *Essays on State Medicine* (8vo, London, 1856). To attempt to write his full bibliography would be useless in any short notice of his life, but the following remarks by his able biographer in the *British Medical Journal* may be taken as covering most of the ground: "The very numerous and able papers presented by him...to the British, the Social Science, and the British Medical Associations, and to the Manchester Statistical Society, or published either separately or in various reviews, form a record of unwearied literary and philanthropic activity such as not many public men can boast of. Amongst the most important of these, not already adverted to, are his Address on Sanitary Legislation and Administration read at the first Meeting of the Social Science Association in 1857; Public Health, the right use of Records founded on Local Facts, in 1860; A Proposal for the Institution of Degrees or Certificates of Qualification in State Medicine, in 1865; Comments on the Sanitary Act, in 1866; an Address on State Medicine, delivered at the Dublin Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1867, and followed by the formation of the Joint Committee of the British Medical and Social Science Associations, which applied for and obtained from Her Majesty's Government the appointment of the Royal Sanitary Commission in 1868. On Population Statistics, with reference to a County Organization for Sanitary Administration, in 1870; and a paper on The State Medicine Qualification, which was read before the London Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1873, and led to the appointment of a Committee for the promotion of legislation on that subject."
Resource Identifier RCS: E000465
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pyrah, Leslie Norman (1899 - 1995)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-11 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/372650372650
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Leslie Norman Pyrah was born at Farnley, near Leeds, on 11 April 1899, the son of a headmistress. Unfortunately no further details of his forbears are available. He was educated at Leeds Central High School and served in the army during the final stages of the first world war. He then read medicine at Leeds University, interrupting his course to take an honours degree in physiology. On qualification he did a wide variety of resident training posts during the next five years, notably with Berkeley Moynihan at the Leeds General Infirmary, where he became surgical tutor. In 1932 he secured a travelling scholarship to visit urological centres in Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen, Innsbruck and Paris, and was then appointed assistant surgeon to the Leeds Infirmary and Public Dispensary in 1934. He was also visiting surgeon to a number of neighbouring hospitals and lecturer in surgery to Leeds University. Following appointment as consultant surgeon to St James's Hospital in 1940 and to the Infirmary in 1944 he built up a large general surgical practice. In 1948 he was elected to the council of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) which had only formed three years earlier. He then co-founded the Urological Club, comprising urologists from the teaching hospitals. His consuming interest in urology led him to give up his general surgical practice and start a department of urology in Leeds. By 1956 he was appointed professor of urological surgery in his outstandingly successful department which had attracted researchers of the highest calibre. In the same year he became director of the Medical Research Council Unit in Leeds and set up the first renal haemodialysis unit in the UK with Dr Frank Parsons as its head. He and Professor Bill Spiers persuaded the Wellcome Foundation and other benefactors to fund a four storey research building for the Infirmary which was completed in 1959. Pyrah did outstanding and tireless work in promoting urology and urological specialist centres throughout Britain. He was President of the Urological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1958; President of BAUS from 1961 to 1963; a member of College Council from 1960 to 1968 and was appointed CBE in 1963. In his youth Leslie Pyrah was a gifted pianist (at one time considering a possible career as a concert pianist) as well as a formidable tennis player. He enjoyed good food and wine and was an excellent cook with a particular taste for sauces. He also collected Chinese porcelain and Dutch paintings. Affectionately known as 'Poppah Pyrah' he had a somewhat portly figure and, even in the hottest climate, he always wore a mackintosh and a crumpled grey felt hat. He was a true Yorkshireman of rugged independence, friendly and approachable, never pulling rank and notably hospitable at all times. Pyrah married Mary Christopher Bailey in 1934. She died in 1990 and they had a son and a daughter who survived him when he died on 30 April 1995, another son having predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000466
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Seager, Charles Dagge (1779 - 1844)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dyer, Samuel (1781 - 1846)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Wood, Richard (1779 - 1860)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Harris, John (1803 - 1861)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Badley, John (1783 - 1870)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Tjandra, Joe Janwar (1957 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-03-27 2013-11-25
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372660372660
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Joe Tjandra was a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital, and associate professor of surgery at the University of Melbourne. He was born in Palembang, Indonesia, to Hasan and Tini Tjandra, who were of Chinese origin. His father ran a small trading business. After primary school in Indonesia, Joe Tjandra was sent to Singapore, where he learnt English. He went on to Melbourne, Australia, to Mentone Grammar School, and then studied medicine at the University of Melbourne. He was house surgeon to Alan Cuthbertson and Gordon Clunie in the colorectal unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He then went to the UK, where he trained under Les Hughes at Cardiff. He gained his FRCS in 1986. In 1987 he returned to Australia and carried out clinical research with Ian McKenzie at the Research Centre for Cancer and Transplantation at the University of Melbourne. They worked on monoclonal antibodies, hoping to target toxins specifically to cancer cells. Among the volunteers for his project was his old headmaster at Mentone. Tjandra was awarded his MD for this research and, in the following year, gained his FRACS while a surgical registrar in the colorectal unit. Tjandra then spent a year with John Wong in Hong Kong, after which he went to the Cleveland Clinic, USA, to work for two years with Victor Fazio. He then spent a further year with Les Hughes in Cardiff. In 1993 he returned to Australia and was appointed colorectal surgeon to the Royal Melbourne Hospital and to the Royal Women's Hospital. In 2002 he was made an associate professor at the University of Melbourne and, three years later, coordinator of the Epworth Gastrointestinal Oncology Centre. He also established a large private practice. He published over 150 scientific papers, wrote 70 chapters and edited six books. His *Textbook of surgery* (Malden, Mass/Oxford, Blackwell Scientific) is now in its third edition. He was frequently a visiting lecturer/professor, particularly in the Asian Pacific region, but also in the US and Europe. He was editor of *ANZ Journal of Surgery* for several years and was on the board of a number of international journals. He died on 18 June 2007, aged just 50, following a ten-month battle with bowel cancer. He leaves a wife, Yvonne Pun, a rheumatologist, two sons (Douglas and Bradley) and a daughter (Caitlin).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000476
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Chapman, Sir John (1773 - 1849)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Attree, William ( - 1846)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Campbell, George Gunning ( - 1858)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Langstaff,(1) George (1780 - 1846)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372665372665
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Richmond in Yorkshire, in or about the year 1780, and received his preliminary education in that town. Proceeding to London to study medicine, he was attracted by the reputation of Abernethy and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital. Here he soon distinguished himself by his love of observation. “His interest in the study of morbid action would seem to have been only increased by the death of his patient, for he diligently sought every opportunity of verifying the results of his observation by a careful examination of the diseased organs, and of determining the traces impressed by disease on the human frame.” Before settling in practice he made several voyages to the East and West Indies, and became a zealous naturalist and zoologist, laying the foundations of the collection of specimens which afterwards grew into his museum. During an eastward voyage he made some important observations on the cause of the luminosity of the sea at night. In the years following his Membership examination - that is, between 1804 and 1813 - he settled in St Giles's Cripplegate, and in the latter year received the appointment of Surgeon to the workhouse, where he had abundant opportunities of studying both pathology and practical anatomy. During many years he acquired a large local practice. He was a good surgeon and operator, and was the first to call attention to that bulbous condition of the extremities of the nerves in an amputated limb, which he termed ‘ganglionated’. He possessed several specimens in his collection illustrative of this condition (*see Lancet*, 1846, 439). Besides drawing largely for his collection on the specimens afforded him in the Workhouse Infirmary, he wrote important papers on pathology in the *Transactions of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society*, of which body he became a Fellow in 1814. In 1842 he published the catalogue of his museum, in the compilation of which he had been assisted by one of his pupils, Erasmus Wilson (q.v.). The full title of the work is *Catalogue of the Preparations illustrative of normal, abnormal, and morbid structure, human and comparative, constituting the Anatomical Museum of George Langstaff,* 8vo, pp. 518, London (Churchill), 1842. In his *catalogue raisonnée* he records the great work of his life: 2380 preparations are described, and Langstaff refers to it as a brief abstract of ten bulky MS volumes, in which he had preserved careful descriptions, case-histories, collateral circumstances, etc. “The consequences of Mr Langstaff's excessive devotion to his museum, and the resulting neglect of the calls made upon his attention by practice, began to be apparent towards the latter years of his life.” But he still supported himself with the belief that present loss of income could be compensated for by the sale of his museum, in which he had sunk thousands of pounds in the purchase of alcohol (methylated spirit was as yet unknown) and glass. Pleasant and sociable, a typical collector ever ready to impart his experience to others, he impressed his friends and admirers as a great man with a magnificent hobby that might prove his ruin. His *Lancet* biographer, who was probably George Macilwain, his contemporary among the Fellows of 1843, writes as follows: “The catalogue being finished, the preparations were transferred to the auction-rooms of Mr Stevens, in Covent Garden. The sale commenced; and, to Mr Langstaff's chagrin and disappointment, many of the preparations sold at prices less than the original cost of the glass and spirit. With the hope of averting the sacrifice, the sale was suspended. But now another evil presented itself - the collection was too bulky and fragile to be moved without difficulty; while, on the other hand, the rent of the rooms would each day be diminishing its proceeds. In this dilemma, application was made to the Council of the College of Surgeons, who consented to receive the collection and purchase such of the preparations as were suitable for the Hunterian Museum. The sum given by the College was very small, and another and a smaller sum was offered for the remainder of the collection.” The Museum Committee actually paid £165 15s 6d, for 1500 preparations. This was in October, 1842. Langstaff had previously sold to the College some 257 specimens, and he was proud that he had always put up the preparations with his own hands. The poor prices were probably accounted for by the state of the specimens. The College at that time gave large prices and was buying freely. Thus in January, 1842, they gave £800 13s Od for a specimen of Mylodon. In March, Liston offered 307 specimens, which were bought for £450 (his own price). Langstaff's biographer concludes:- “Such was the honour and reward of the devotion of a life and fortune to science. The disappointment naturally preyed upon Mr. Langstaff's mind, and weakened his constitution; and his death, which took place at his house at New Basinghall Street, on the 13th of August [1846], was undoubtedly hastened by this sad blight of his expectations and hopes. It is remarkable that his Commonplace Book, a bulky folio, preserved in the College Library, says nothing of this sale, though it contains many interesting accounts of cases, notably his own first attack of gout, in describing which he follows Sydenham's precedent. Among the College Archives are two MS lists by Clift, entitled severally, “Mr Langstaff's Collection. List of Specimens proposed to be taken by the Royal College of Surgeons, July, 1835”, and “List of Preparations selected…July, 1835”. In Sir James Paget's handwriting we find a note on the title-page of the last-mentioned MS to the effect that “Mr Langstaff sent the College detailed descriptions and histories of nearly all the pathological specimens named in this list, and these descriptions and histories were used in describing for the catalogue all those of this portion of his Museum which are still preserved in the Pathological Series.” Publications:- “A Case of Fungus Thematodes.” - *Trans. Roy. Med.-Chir. Soc.*, 1812, 277. “A Case of Fungus Hæmatodes, with Observations; to which is added an Appendix by William Lawrence, Esq.” - *lbid.*, 1817, viii, 272. “Practical Observations on the Healthy and Morbid Conditions of Stumps.” - *Ibid.*, 1830, xvi, 128. “A Case of Polypus of the Uterus.” - *Ibid.*, 1882, xvii, 63. “History of a Case of Medullary Sarcoma which affected several important Viscera; with a Description of the Morbid Appearances which were observed on Dissection.” - *Ibid.*, 1833, xviii, 250. Besides these he contributed several papers to the *Lancet*. (1) The name is so spelt by himself: Clift spells it LONGSTAFF.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000481
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Cheng, Koon-Sung (1966 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Davis, Thomas (1778 - 1863)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Corbin, Marc Antony Bazille ( - 1908)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Corbould, Francis John (1819 - 1884)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Brookes, William Philpot (1819 - 1865)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Corkey, Isaac Whitla (1892 - 1927)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-07-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373458373458
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Warrenport, Co Down, the son of Isaac Corkey and a nephew of Sir William Whitla, Professor of Medicine at Belfast. He was educated at the University of Dublin, where he won a medical scholarship at Trinity College in 1913. He served with distinction during the Great War, winning the Military Cross. After demobilization he passed the Fellowship Examinations both in Ireland and in England, having in 1918 been appointed Assistant Surgeon to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Dublin. He was also appointed Demonstrator of Bacteriology at Trinity College, Dublin, and was Chief Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Dublin School of Physic. He practised at 93 Lower Baggot Street, and had to all appearances a successful career before him in the Irish capital; but the Irish Free State and the methods of those who strove for its formation were both so distasteful to him as an Ulsterman that he threw up his appointment, settled at Epsom in partnership with another of his compatriots, William Napier, FRCSI, and was appointed Surgeon to St Anthony's Hospital, Cheam. At the time of his death he was also Surgeon to the Epsom and Ewell Cottage Hospital, Surgeon Specialist to the Ministry of Pensions, and Vice-President of the Dublin University Biological Society. He has been described by a former colleague as in many ways a typical Irishman; impulsive, even hot-headed, generous, humorous, and above all eminently human. He died quite suddenly on March 7th, 1927, and was survived by his widow and one young child. He practised at 3 Ladbroke Road, Epsom. Publication: "Adenoma of Small Intestine, with Intussusception" (with G M KENDALL). - *Brit. Jour. Surg.*, 1925, xii, 617.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001275
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cormick, William (1820 - 1877)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cornelius, James Connor (1807 - 1876)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Burke, John Page ( - 1870)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-11-11 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373262373262
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was Staff Surgeon at the Naval Medical Establishment at Malta (Royal Naval Hospital). He died on or before May 21st, 1870.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001079
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Arnold, James (1819 - 1866)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Brookhouse, Joseph Orpe (1835 - 1905)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373161373161
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Brighton, being descended on his father’s side from a Staffordshire family, while on his mother’s he derived from the Halfords of Leicestershire. He was educated at Ashby-de-la-Zouche Grammar School and received his professional training at Guy’s Hospital. Two years after qualifying he settled in Nottingham (1859) in partnership with John Norton Thompson, MRCS. Later he succeeded to the practice of Dr (afterwards Sir) William Tindal Robertson, MP, and was appointed Physician to the Nottingham General Hospital. He was one of the founders of the Nottingham and Midland Eye Infirmary, and was for some years its Surgeon. He was Senior Physician to the Nottingham General Hospital at the time of his death, and was Chairman of the Medical Committee as well as Physician to the Sherwood Forest Sanatorium for Consumption, and Consulting Medical Officer to the Midland and Great Northern Railways. His duties in connection with these appointments often led to his appearance in courts of law, where his clear, fearless, and straightforward evidence was of the greatest value. His long experience of railway compensation cases made his opinion particularly valuable and supplied him with an almost inexhaustible fund of anecdote. At the meeting of the British Medical Association at Nottingham in 1892 he presided over the Section of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He was a successful medical practitioner with simple unconventional methods, which inspired confidence. He also loved music and pictures and was in touch with the intellectual and social life of his day. His death occurred at Nottingham on October 27th, 1905. He practised at 1 East Circus Street, Nottingham. Publications:— “Obstruction of Bowel by Large Intestinal Concretion (consisting mainly of Cholesterin): Enterotomy. Death.” – *Lancet*, 1882, ii, 216. “On Defective Nerve Power as a Cause of Bright’s Disease.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1876, i, 473. “Address to Therapeutic Section of the British Medical Association, Nottingham.” – *Ibid.*, 1892, ii, 250.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000978
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brooks, James Henry (1807 - 1886)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Broughton, Francis (1817 - 1882)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Heath, Christopher (1835 - 1905)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-04 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372402372402
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born in London on March 13th, 1835, the son of Christopher Heath (1802-1876) and Eliza Barclay. His father was the well-known Irvingite who was instrumental in building the beautiful Catholic Apostolic Church in Gordon Square, where he afterwards acted as angel, or minister, of the congregation. Heath was educated at King's College School, which he entered in May, 1845. He was apprenticed to Nathaniel Davidson, of Charles Street, Manchester Square, and began his medical studies at King's College, London, in October , 1851. Here he gained the Leathes and Warneford Prizes for general proficiency in medical subjects and in divinity, and was admitted an Associate in 1855. From March 11th to Sept. 25th, 1855, he served as hospital dresser on board H.M. Steam Frigate *Impérieuse* in the Baltic Fleet during the Crimean War, and was awarded a medal. He was appointed Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy at King's College, and served as House Surgeon at King's College Hospital to Sir William Fergusson (q.v.) from May to November, 1857. In 1856 he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at Westminster Hospital, where he was made Lecturer on Anatomy and Assistant Surgeon in 1862. Heath was consulting Surgeon to the St. George and St. James's Dispensary in 1858, and in 1860 he was elected Surgeon to the West London Hospital at Hammersmith; in 1870 he was Surgeon to the Hospital for Women, Soho; and later he was Consulting Surgeon to the National Dental Hospital in Great Portland Street. He was elected Assistant Surgeon and Teacher of Operative Surgery at University College Hospital in 1866, where he became full Surgeon in 1871 on the resignation of Sir John Eric Erichsen (q.v.). He was appointed Holme Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1875, resigned his hospital appointments in 1900, and was then made Consulting Surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery. At the Royal College of Surgeons he gained the Jacksonian Prize in 1867 with his essay upon "The Injuries and Diseases of the Jaws, including those of the Antrum, and with the Treatment by Operation, or otherwise." He was a Member of the Council from 1881-1897; Examiner in Anatomy and Physiology from 1875-1880; a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1883-1892; and an Examiner in Dental Surgery in 1888. He was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology in 1887, Bradshaw Lecturer in 1892, and Hunterian Orator in 1897. He was a Vice-President in 1895, and was called upon to act as President when John Whitaker Hulke (q.v.) died on Feb. 19th, 1895. Heath was elected President in his place in the following July and served his term of office during the year 1895-1896. In 1897 he visited the United States and delivered the second course of "Lane Medical Lectures" which had been recently founded at the Medical College, San Francisco. He visited Montreal on his way back to England and was given the honorary LL.D degree by the University of Montreal. He was President of the Clinical Society of London and an Associate Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Heath lived for many years at 36 Cavendish Square; the house has now been rebuilt. He married (1) Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Jasper Peck; and (2) Gabrielle Nora, daughter of Captain Joseph Maynard, R.N. He died on Aug. 8th, 1905, leaving a widow, five sons, and one daughter. His fourth son, P. Maynard Heath, F.R.C.S., became Surgeon to the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children. Heath was a brilliant surgeon and a great teacher. His intimate knowledge of anatomy made him a dexterous operator, but his comparative inability to appreciate new truths of bacteriology cut him off from the scientific side of surgery. Early in his career he showed a very special aptitude in the art of surgery, of which his master, Sir William Fergusson, was so excellent an exponent. For thirty-three years Heath was one of the most active members of the Surgical Staff of University College, and his boldness and skill were exhibited in his successful case of simultaneous ligature of the carotid and subclavian arteries for aneurysm in 1865. The patient lived for five years afterwards in spite of her intemperate habits. As a teacher Heath was at once direct and practical, and as an examiner prompt, penetrating, and just. He served the College in various capacities for many years, and in all of these devoted himself with zeal and energy to its interests. He was a born conversationalist with marked antipathies; a hard hitter with a confident belief in his own opinion. In person he was tall and handsome; in mind wonderfully alert, seeing instantaneously any flaw in the argument of his adversary. There is a marble bas-relief by Mr. Hope Pinker in the hall of the Medical School buildings of University College Hospital, and there is a good likeness of him in the portrait group of the College Council, by Jamyn Brookes. PUBLICATIONS:- All Heath's works were published in London. The chief of these are:- *A Manual of Minor Surgery and Bandaging,* 1861; 13th ed., 1906; 16th ed., 1917 (edited by H. MORRISON DAVIES). *Practical Anatomy. A Manual of Dissections,* 1864; 9th ed., 1902 (edited by J. E. Lane); translated into Japanese, Osaka, 1880. This text-book displaced *The Dublin Dissector,* which had been the favourite of many generations of medical students (see HARRISON, ROBERT). *Injuries and Diseases of the Jaws,* 1868; 4th ed., 1894 (edited by H. P. DEAN); translated into French, 1884. *Essay on the Treatment of Intrathoracic Aneurism by the Distal Ligature*, 1871; re-issue, 1898. *A Course of Operative Surgery*, 1877; 2nd ed., 1884; translated into Japanese, Osaka, 1882. *The Student's Guide to Surgical Diagnosis*, 1879; 2nd ed., 1883; Philadelphia, 1882; New York, 1881. *Clinical Lectures on Surgical Subjects*, 1891; 2nd ed., 1895; second series, Philadelphia, 1902. He edited a *Dictionary of Practical Surgery* in 2 vols., 1886.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000215
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Blake, Valentine Walshman (1818 - 1881)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373081373081
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital. He was a Fellow of the Obstetrical Society and practised at Birmingham, where he was at one time Surgeon to the Industrial School; to the Midland Counties Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary for Diseases of Women and Children; the Saltley Reformatory; and the Midland Counties Idiot Asylum, Knowle District. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Lying-in Charity and Industrial School. He had at one time also been Lecturer on Midwifery and the Diseases of Women and Children at Sydenham College. He practised latterly at 6 Old Square, Birmingham, and Five Lands, Moseley. He died at Moseley on November 24th, 1881. His photograph is in the Fellows’ Album.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000898
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Adams, James Edward (1844 - 1890)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-31
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372823372823
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in New Broad Street on Sept 23rd, 1844, the second son of John Adams,FRCS Eng (q.v.) and his wife Mary Ann. Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, then in Suffolk Lane, which he entered in December, 1854, and at the London Hospital, where his father was a member of the surgical staff. There he made a reputation as an athlete, and in 1865 gained the Gold Medal for Medicine. In the same year he was appointed Medical Registrar to the Hospital, becoming House Surgeon and Demonstrator of Anatomy in 1867, and Assistant Surgeon in 1868. He then devoted himself to the practice of ophthalmic surgery, filling in succession the offices of Clinical Assistant, Assistant Surgeon, and Surgeon at the Moorfields Hospital; Ophthalmic Surgeon and Lecturer on Ophthalmic Surgery at the London Hospital. He may be regarded as one of the founders of the Ophthalmological Society of Great Britain, for a small group of active ophthalmic surgeons used to meet him for discussion in the evening at Moorfields. In 1879 he was appointed full Surgeon to the London Hospital, and at this period was Honorary Consulting Surgeon to the Eastern Dispensary and to the Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, and was practising at 17 Finsbury Circus. In 1881 he succeeded John Couper (q.v.) as Lecturer on Surgery at the London Hospital. In the autumn of 1883 he rapidly became blind, owing to atrophy of the optic nerve, one eye failing first, and the other becoming affected within a few months. He resigned his appointments, and spent the rest of his life either at Grateley near Andover, Hants, or at a little cottage at St Margaret’s, Dover. He bore his affliction bravely, learnt Braille, walked, drove, and maintained his interest in the medical world and in his hospitals. His general health failed for about a year, and he died on Jan 26th, 1890, after an attack of coma. He married in 1880 Ellen Holgate Binns, who had been Sister in charge of the Ophthalmic Ward at the London Hospital. He left no children. Adams was essentially a sound clinical surgeon, and as an operator equally good in capital operations and in the minute delicacy of an iridectomy or cataract. His well-developed figure, his military bearing, his scrupulous neatness, and his genial kindly face made him a favourite alike with students and his colleagues. It is related of him that in 1876 he amputated the thigh at the hip-joint of a lad emaciated by disease and suffering with lardaceous disease. The amputation was performed easily and dexterously, but the boy showed signs of collapse whilst the vessels were being tied. Adams decided to transfuse his own blood into the veins of the patient. Advantage was taken of the presence of Dr Roussel and his apparatus. Adams exposed his left arm, the apparatus was adjusted, and in a few minutes blood flowed from the arm of the surgeon into a vein in the stump of the patient. Adams then had his arm bound up and finished the operation. The patient died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000640
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brookes, Victor Stanley (1920 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by P Gilroy Bevan
Publication Date 2009-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372824372824
Occupation General surgeon
Details Victor Stanley Brookes was an eminent Birmingham surgeon. His main surgical work was carried out at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was a consultant for 25 years up until his retirement. He was a generalist in the traditional fashion with special interests in gastroenterology and colo-rectal conditions, but also made an outstanding contribution in the field of surgical training, both regionally and nationally. He obtained an honours degree in medicine at Birmingham University in 1943 and passed his FRCS in 1949. His National Service years, from 1945 to 1948, were spent mainly in France as a consultant surgeon in the RAMC and he became commanding officer of a military hospital, rising to the rank of captain and acting lieutenant colonel. On returning home, he resumed his surgical training in 1950 by appointment as resident surgical officer at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where he developed expertise in paediatric surgery over the next five years. After completing his registrar and senior registrar posts at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, he obtained his consultant post in general surgery, remaining there until his retirement in 1986, thus completing 36 years of surgical work at the Birmingham United Hospital. During these years he gained a universal reputation for the proficiency of his surgical technique and the kindness and courtesy with which he treated his patients. He blossomed as a surgical teacher and his students gave open evidence of the benefits of his teaching, many of them subsequently following a surgical career; this group included many coming to Birmingham from abroad. In addition to his surgical work, Victor was appointed by Birmingham University as a senior lecturer in surgery, giving an academic background to his work. He produced written articles and gave many lectures on topics of surgical technique, especially to the West Midlands Surgical Society, one of the earliest provincial societies of its type. Victor was also a member of the faculty board of medicine of Birmingham Medical School and took his faculty appointments seriously. For 20 years, leading up to his retirement, he was regional adviser to the College and met regularly with colleagues in London to advise on national aspects of surgical training. For 20 years he acted as a consultant surgeon and chief medical adviser to the West Midlands Police Force, with his own department at police headquarters, where he examined and treated police of all ranks. He performed a similar role for the West Midlands Fire Service. In retrospect, Victor’s most significant contribution to training was arguably the establishment of the senior surgical registrars rotational training scheme, the first of its kind in the country. At the time of initiation 12 senior registrar posts were established in surgery in the West Midlands at the main teaching and district hospitals, with one year at each designated hospital, providing a four-year training programme and a regional committee controlled their placement. This pattern still persists, but with flexibility and additions, as all the hospitals involved are now designated as teaching hospitals, and the scheme is reinforced by annual interviews and reports to the College. It has been extended in recent years by the advent of academic posts at senior registrar grade. Victor introduced the scheme and ran it with aplomb until he retired. A similar scheme, but more diffused, has been developed for surgical registrars. As well as providing individual guidance to senior registrars, the scheme has served to unify the regional surgical services, strengthen the relationship between university and district hospitals, and improve the surgical treatment of patients throughout the West Midlands, in addition to serving as a model for other regions. It is a fitting tribute to Victor Brookes’ foresight. Victor Brookes was married twice. His first wife, Rita, died of cancer. They had two children, Rosemary, who predeceased him, and David. He married for a second time, to Moira.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000641
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Saunders, Henry William ( - 1924)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, George (1814 - 1874)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Saunders, Thomas (1843 - 1904)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Savage, Ernest Smallwood (1869 - 1924)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-10-31
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003000-E003099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375274375274
Occupation Gynaecologist
Details The second son of Thomas Savage (qv). He was born in Birmingham in December, 1869, and after being educated at Birmingham School, matriculated from Christ Church at the University of Oxford on October 14th, 1884, graduated BA in 1890 and acted for a short time as Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University. He then entered the London Hospital, where he became House Physician and Receiving Room Officer. He practised in Birmingham, and at the time of his death was Surgeon to In-patients at the Maternity Hospital of Birmingham Lying-in Charity and Wolverhampton and District Hospital for Women, as well as Gynaecologist to the Birmingham Medical Mission and Smallwood Hospital, Redditch. He practised at 133 Edmund Street, Birmingham, and died at his residence, 80 Hagley Road, Edgbaston, on June 17th, 1924. Publications: "Uterine Haemorrhage: Causes and Treatment." - *Midland Med Jour,* 1902. "An Early Case of Chorionepithelioma -Vaginal Hysterectomy - Recovery." - *Brit Med Jour,* 1904, ii, 1393. "Haematoma of Ovary." - *Brit Gynaecol Jour,* 1905-6, xi, 285. "Vaginal Caesarean Section for Cancer of Uterus with Pregnancy and for Placenta Praevia."- *Birmingham Med Rev,* 1907, lxi, 331.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003091
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Arrowsmith, James Yerrow ( - 1866)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Arthur, John (1806 - 1876)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ashby, Alfred ( - 1922)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372887372887
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital, and then became Surgeon to the Western General Dispensary. Appointed Medical Officer of Health to the united districts of Grantham, Newark, Sleaford, and Ruskington, and afterwards to Caversham, and to the Rural Districts of the Grantham, Newark, and Sleaford Unions. He came to Reading about the year 1882, and served the Borough for over forty years, being at the time of his death Consulting Medical Officer of Health to the Reading and Wokingham Union and Wokingham Rural Districts, Public Analyst, and Gas Examiner to the County Borough of Reading. He died suddenly at the entrance to the Reading Town Hall on Jan 7th, 1922. His official address had been at the Municipal buildings in Valpy Street, and his home address was at Ashdene, Argyll Road. Publications: *Grantham, Newark, and Sleaford combined Sanitary District*: Sec. 1. Precautions against the Spread of Infectious Diseases. Sec. 2. Directions for Disinfection. Sec. 3. Penalties for the Neglect of Precautions....Sec. 4. Directions for Rendering House Drainage free from Danger. Sec. 5. General Directions for the Preservation of Health. 8vo, Grantham, *n.d*. “Illustrations of Arrest of Infectious Diseases by Isolation of the Sick.” *Practitioner*, 1878, xxi, 300, and 1879, xxiii, 148. “Log-wood as a Re-agent.” *Analyst*, 1884. “The Fallacies of Empirical Standards in Water Analysis.” *Proc. Soc. M.O.H.*, 1884. “Powers of Local Authorities in respect of Dairies, Cowsheds, Milk Shops, etc.” * Ibid.*, 1886. “The Medical Officer of Health” in Stevenson and Murphy’s *Treatise on Hygiene*, 1893, ii. “The Detection of Methylated Spirits in Tinctures, Spirits or Ether.” *Analyst*, 1894, xix, 265. “Milk Epidemic of Diphtheria associated with an Udder Disease of Cows.” *Public Health*, 1906.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000704
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ashe, Evelyn Oliver (1864 - 1925)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-07 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372888372888
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Owens College, Manchester, and at the London Hospital, where he was Scholar in Anatomy and Physiology (1883-1884), and in Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry (1884-1885). He was also Surgical Scholar, and obtained an Honours Certificate in Obstetrics in 1886-1887. After qualification he was House Physician, House Surgeon, Dental Assistant, and Resident Accoucheur at the London Hospital. In 1892 he went out to Kimberley, Cape Colony, as Senior House Surgeon to the Kimberley Hospital. Started practice in Kimberley in 1894, and became Surgeon to the De Beer's Consolidated Mines and Surgeon to the Kimberley Hospital, where he was Senior Surgeon at the time of his death on April 27th, 1925. His qualities were such that he was accorded a public funeral. Publications: *Besieged by the Boers: a Diary of Life and Events in Kimberley during the Siege*. 8vo, New York, 1900. "Galyl in Malta Fever." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1918, i, 454. "Cæsarean Section for Eclampsia - Survival of Mother and Child." - *S. Afric. Med. Record*, 1919.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000705
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rickards, Edwin (1840 - 1908)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003000-E003099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375276375276
Occupation Physician
Details The fourth and youngest son of the Rev Thomas Ascough Rickards, Vicar of Cosby, Leicestershire, where he was born in 1840. He matriculated at St John's College, Oxford, on July 1st, 1861, and graduated with a pass degree in Arts in 1864. He received his professional training at University College Hospital, in due course becoming House Surgeon under Sir John Eric Erichsen (qv). In 1870 he was appointed Resident Pathologist to the General Hospital, Birmingham. After acting as Pathologist, he was for a short time Resident Medical Officer. In 1874 he was elected Physician and filled the office for the long term of thirty years, being the last Physician appointed before the creation of the assistant staff appointments. A testimonial was presented to him on his retirement in 1904, which included an illuminated address, subscribed for by members of the Board, by the staff, and by Governors of the Hospital, when he became Consulting Physician. At the same time an etched portrait, drawn by H Macbeth-Raeburn, was presented to the Hospital, a replica being given to Mrs Rickards. From 1883-1903 he was one of the Consulting Physicians to the Birmingham General Dispensary, and was also Physician to the General Institution for the Blind for the same period. He was for a short time a systematic lecturer in the Medical School, and was a popular, painstaking, and conscientious clinical teacher. He had a wide knowledge of human nature and a quaint gift of original humour, which made his lectures attractive. The work of the new Birmingham University interested him greatly, and he gave a substantial sum of money to build and equip the first pathological laboratory. At the time of his death he had been for some years on the Council of the University and had filled various offices in local medical societies, being President in 1880 (for many years Treasurer) of the Birmingham Branch of the British Medical Association; President of the Midland Medical Association, of the Medical Institute (1902-1904), and of the Birmingham Benevolent Society. Although he took little part in the debates at these medical societies, and was usually a silent listener, he could on occasion show that he was neither an unmindful nor an inattentive observer of the progress of medical science, and that he had pondered with profit on passing events. In 1893, when President of the local Branch of the British Medical Association, he chose for the subject of his address, "The Treatment of Infectious Diseases by Vaccine", and showed in it an appreciation of the possibilities, then latent, in this method, and a deep and wide acquaintance with the hopes and aspirations of those pathologists who then stood as pioneers of progress. It must be remembered that at this time the profession was suffering from a reaction, and many were disposed to discredit the possibility of the cure of diseases by substances derived from bacterial cultures, in consequence of the disappointments experienced by the failure of Koch's tuberculin to fulfil the exaggerated promises entertained respecting it. He wrote on this occasion: "The apparent failure of any one method of dealing with a particular infectious disease by a vaccine through imperfection of detail must not shake our confidence in bacteriological science generally. I am free to admit that we are far from home in this matter, but I believe the road is right, and if ever we are to have a definite treatment for the infectious diseases it will be in the direction of vaccines, germicides, or antitoxins, and in respect to these we must look for light from the laboratory." In the concluding sentences he appealed for State help in order to allow of bacteriology undertaking those important national investigations which, as he rightly said, "become every day of more pressing necessity". He was a cultured gentleman, exceedingly hospitable and much beloved by his friends, and at his death was referred to by the Birmingham correspondent of the *Lancet* as one "of a generation which is all too rapidly passing away and taking with it the open, generous, loyal, and friendly spirit which characterized it" and was of great benefit to Birmingham. He practised at 54 Newhall Street, and died after a short illness at Ellerslie, Edgbaston, on June 11th, 1908. He was buried on June 15th in the churchyard of Northfield Parish Church, many medical men and friends being present. He was survived by his widow, whom he had married when he was well advanced in years. This lady was the daughter of John Archer (qv), of Birmingham. Publications: "Six Cardiac and Vascular Cases." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1881, i, 916. "Fatty Transformation of the Kidney." - *Ibid*, 1883, ii, 2. "Ulcerative Endocarditis." - *Ibid*, 1889, i, 640. His presidential addresses were written in a good style, and "two of his contributions deserve to be remembered, as they were, if not unique, at least exceedingly rare; one of these was an account of complete calcification of the pericardium, and the other of complete fatty transformation of a kidney in the pelvis of which a calculus was lodged".
Resource Identifier RCS: E003093
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ricketts, Martin ( - 1859)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Robert (1800 - 1858)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-20 2018-03-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373173373173
Occupation General surgeon
Details Began the practice of his profession in Preston, where he soon rose in public estimation, and was much sought after by a large circle of patients. Connected with the Dispensary, he rose in time to be its Senior Hon Surgeon. He was a Member of the Preston Town Council from its first constitution under the Municipal Reform Act until his death, and in 1847 was elected an Alderman. He was also a Member of Council of the British Medical Association and Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society. Alderman Brown was noted for his kindness and suavity both as a public man and a friend. Despite the claims of his extensive practice, he managed to devote much time to archaeological pursuits, and in these he found full scope for his active and cultivated intellect. He was a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society. His vigour was impaired by a serious illness, and he was compelled to relinquish much of his former activity towards the close of his life. He had been confined to his house in Winckley Square, Preston, for some months before his death on February 1st, 1858. His son was Sir Robert Charles Brown (q.v.).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000990
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, Robert (1821 - 1902)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373174373174
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital. He practised for many years at Brixton Hill, SW, latterly in partnership with Charles Henry Drake. In the eighties of the century he moved to Crawley Down, Sussex, where he died on March 28th, 1902.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000991
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bellot, Thomas (1806 - 1857)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372998372998
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Manchester on March 16th, 1806, the son of Thomas Bellot, a surgeon practising in Oldham Street, and Jane Hale, daughter of Thomas Hale, of Darnhall, Cheshire. Thomas Bellot was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, which he entered in 1816, and was afterwards apprenticed to Joseph Jordan, a well-known practitioner in the city. He entered the Navy in 1831 and as Surgeon to the *Harrier* took part in several boat attacks on pirates in the Straits of Malacca. He joined the *Leveret* in 1835 and was engaged in the prevention of the slave trade. Bellot then served for three years in the *Firefly* on the West Indian Coast, where he had two attacks of yellow fever. He went with Wolfe in 1843 to the coast of China. In 1849 he was in medical charge of the *Havering* when she was conveying 300 convicts to Sydney and cholera broke out in the ship. He made his last voyage in 1854, when he joined the flagship *Britannia* which conveyed Vice-Admiral Dundas to the Black Sea as Commander of the Fleet. He was put in charge of the naval hospital at Therapia, on the Bosphorus, and returned to England in charge of invalids in 1855. He died at Manchester in June, 1857, and was buried in the churchyard at Poynton, Cheshire. Bellot was known as a philologist. He translated the “Aphorisms” of Hippocrates and Galen “On the Hand” in 1840. In the intervals of half pay he travelled abroad and made the acquaintance of Bunsen and Bopp. He published at Manchester in 1856 *Sanscrit Derivations of English Words*, which is in effect a comparative dictionary and wrote an article on the best means of learning the Chinese language. He bequeathed his collection of Chinese books and bronzes to the Manchester Free Library. His younger brother was William Henry Bellot (qv).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000815
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bellot, William Henry (1811 - 1895)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372999372999
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Manchester. His brother was Thomas Bellot, Naval Surgeon and philologist (qv), and their father, Thomas Bellot, was a practising surgeon in Oldham Street, and a native of Derbyshire, who in 1818 gave evidence before a House of Lords Committee on Sir Robert Peel’s Factory Bill. Their mother was Jane Hale, daughter of Thomas Hale, of Darnhall, Cheshire, who claimed to be of the same family as Sir Matthew Hale. William Henry Bellot, like his brother Thomas (qv), was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, and was then apprenticed to his uncle, Dr Joseph Bellot, of Stockport. He attended Jordan’s School and the Royal Infirmary, and went to London to complete his professional training at Westminster Hospital, at University College Hospital, and in Paris. On returning to England he entered into partnership with his uncle at Stockport and eventually succeeded him. He was at one time Surgeon to the 1st Royal Cheshire Militia, and for about twenty years Surgeon to Military Hospitals and Inspector of Recruits. He was for above eleven years Operating and Visiting Surgeon to the Stockport Infirmary, and was also an Inspecting Surgeon under the Factory Act. In 1864 he moved to Moreton Lodge, Leamington Priors, and, having retired from practice, gave much attention to the affairs of local public institutions, being on the committee of the Warneford Hospital up to the time of his death. He was also Hon Medical Referee to the Home for British Incurables, London, an Hereditary Governor of the Royal Institution, Manchester, and a member of the British Medical Association. He died at Leamington on September 24th, 1895, leaving a widow and family. Mrs Bellot’s maiden name was Killer, and she was the daughter of an old-established Stockport practitioner. Thomas Bellot left his valuable collection of Chinese books and ancient bronzes to his brother for life, after which they were to go to the Manchester Free Library. Many of the books, however, were transferred at once, and formed the ‘Bellot Collection’. Hugh H A Bellot, son of William Henry Bellot, presented a number of valuable works from his father’s collection to the Library of the College in March, 1920. In one volume (Cooper’s Hernia, fol.) is his book-plate with motto ‘Toujours Bellot’ (Always Pretty). There is an old-fashioned photograph of William Henry Bellot in the Council Album. Publications: “De Pneumoniâ,” Latin Thesis, 1860. “Injuries to the Cranium.” – *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1852, ii, N.S. v, 369. Translation of Nélaton’s “Lecture upon Jordan’s Invention of Autoplastic Treatment of Ununited Fracture.” – *Ibid.*, 1856, ii, N.S. xiii, 270.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000816
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Riley, Francis ( - 1919)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-07 2018-06-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375283375283
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at Westminster Hospital, where he was Guthrie Scholar in 1891, President's Prizeman and Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1893, and later House Surgeon. He served next as Medical Officer on the steamships Fifeshire, Mound, and Buteshire, then practised for a time at Winton, New Zealand, when he was Public Vaccinator. About 1900 he returned to practice at Pen-y-bryn, Hereford, subsequently at 3 Culverden Gardens, St John's Road, and finally at Howard Lodge, Mount Zion, Tunbridge Wells. He died in or before 1919.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003100
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dudley, William Lewis (1821 - 1902)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chilver, Thomas Farquhar (1805 - 1875)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ashley, William Henry (1819 - 1874)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ashton, Thomas Mather (1812 - 1878)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ashworth, Percy (1865 - 1929)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Aspland, Alfred (1816 - 1880)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Chippendale, John (1805 - 1895)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373351373351
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College, London, and in Paris. He practised before 1850 at 69 Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC, and was for seventeen years Surgeon to the Farringdon General Dispensary, and for six years Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology at the Hunterian School of Medicine. For seven years of his life, probably after 1850, he was Surgeon in the Royal West India and Brazil Mail Service. During the last decades of his long life he practised at 16 Upper Phillimore Place, Kensington. He was the first Annual President of the Medical Society of University College, London, and was a Fellow, and at one time Member of Council, of the Medical Society of London. He died in Kensington on December 23rd, 1895, at which time the Lancet (1895, ii, 1659) describes him as "a venerable and well-known member of the Profession", but, after promising to publish an extended notice of his life, omitted to do so. Publications: Chippendale's writings prior to 1847 include the following contributions to the Lancet: "A Statistical Account of the Different Dispensaries of the Metropolis." "On Vivisection: a Defence thereof." "On the Non-contagiousness of Gonorrhoea." "On the Cause of Constipation in Hernia." "On an Operation for the Radical Cure of Prolapsus Uteri." "On Catheterism in Disease of the Prostate Gland." "On the Use of Tobacco in Neuralgia." "On a Flap Operation for the Removal of Tumours." "On Idiopathic Erysipelas"; etc.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001168
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cotterell, Edward (1857 - 1898)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373466373466
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at University College, London, where he was Atkinson-Morley Scholar in 1881, House Surgeon to Christopher Heath, and Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. He practised for some years at Bicester, where he won a high reputation, chiefly by his boldness and skill in dealing with surgical emergencies. He had at this time two other addresses-one at 1 High Street, Banbury, the other at 7 Welbeck Street-and was Medical Officer to the Stoke Lyne District of the Bicester Union and Acting Surgeon to the 2nd Oxfordshire Rifle Volunteers, as well as Medical Referee to the Commercial Union Assurance Company. Removing to London in 1891, he settled at 39 Weymouth Street, W, and was appointed Surgeon to Out-patients at the Lock Hospital. He was also, at the time of his death, Surgeon to the West End Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System, and to the Cancer Hospital. He died of pneumonia at his residence, 5 West Halkin Street, Belgrave Square, W, on April 5th, 1898. Publications: *The Pocket Gray; or Anatomist's Vade-Mecum*, 5th ed, 1901. *Roaring in Horses. A Popular Description of its Causes and its Radical Cure*, 16mo, London, 1888. *Syphilis: its Treatment by Intramuscular Injections of soluble Mercurial Salts*, 16mo, London, 1893. He was editor of 2nd ed of Alfred Cooper's *Syphilis*, 8vo, London, 1895. "Successful Case of Removal of the Entire Uterus for Cancer affecting Cervix." - *Brit. Med. Jour*., 1887. "Two Cases of Uretero-Lithotomy." - *Trans. Roy. Med.-Chir. Soc*., 1894, lxxvii, 255. "Stone Impacted in the Ureter; its Consequences, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment." - *Lancet*, 1894, ii, 1189. "On the Frequent Occurrence of Epithelioma of the Tongue after Syphilitic Lesions of that Organ, and its Treatment." - *Med. Week*, 1894. "A Rectangular Splint for Use after Removal of the Breast." - *Brit. Med. Jour*., 1898, i, 442.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001283
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cottle, Ernest Wyndham (1847 - 1919)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-08-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373467373467
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on October 21st, 1847, the eldest son of John Morford Cottle, of Bruges, Belgium, author of a *Manual of Human Physiology for Students*, an amusing book, to judge by its full title, containing memoria technica rhymes. Wyndham Cottle matriculated at St Alban Hall, Oxford, on October 17th, 1865, and took a pass degree in Arts apparently after he had migrated to Merton College. He then entered St George's Hospital, and thence passed first into Netley in 1871. He took the Herbert Prize in 1871-1872 at the Army Medical School. He also passed first into the Army Medical Service, being appointed Assistant Surgeon on September 30th, 1871. He was gazetted to the Scots Fusilier Guards on November 2nd, 1872, his designation being altered to Surgeon under Royal Warrant on March 1st, 1873. He resigned his surgeoncy on September 5th, 1877. Settling in practice at 3 Savile Row, he became well known as a dermatologist. He was for a time Senior Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, Blackfriars, and Lecturer on Diseases of the Skin to the Medical Mission, Vincent Square, as well as Medical Officer to the Universal Provident Assurance Society. In or before 1887 he became full Surgeon to the Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, and Consulting Dermatologist to the School for Indigent Blind. Before the close of the century he was appointed Physician to the Skin Department, St George's Hospital, and had removed to 39 Hertford Street, Mayfair. He retired also from his post at Blackfriars and was appointed Consulting Surgeon. On his retirement from St George's Hospital and London practice, Cottle took up his residence at Ringwood Manor House, near Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, and was appointed Hon Consulting Physician to the Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital, Ryde. He died at his Isle of Wight home in May or June, 1919. Publications: *The Hair in Health and Disease. Partly from Notes by the late George Nayler*, 12mo, London, 1877. "Warty Growths." - *St George's Hosp. Rep.*, 1877-8, ix, 733. "Use of Chrysophanic Acid in the Treatment of Diseases of the Skin." - *Ibid.*, 745. "Herpes, or Erythema Gestationis." - *Ibid*., 1879, x, 627. "Notes on the Treatment of Ringworm." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1879, ii, 292. "Congenital Neurotic Papilloma." - *Ibid*., 1880, i, 387. "The Rash of Enteric Fever." - *Lancet*, 1876, ii, 251. "Local Treatment of Psoriasis." - *Ibid*., 1876, ii, 460. "Influence of Temperature on the Occurrence of Pompholyx of the Hands." - *Ibid*., 1877, i, 528, 632. "Pruritus associated with Lymphadenoma." - *Ibid.*, 1901, ii, 518.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001284
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wheeldon, Francis Tasker (1917 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372519372519
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Francis Tasker (‘Frank’) Wheeldon was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Plymouth. Born in north London on 1 August 1917, his father was permanent private secretary to Sir Thomas Lipton, the tea magnet. He was educated at Weston-super-Mare Grammar School and Westminster Hospital, qualifying in 1941. Immediately after qualification he joined the RAMC and was posted to the embryonic Special Air Service in Cairo, and was subsequently medical officer to the Special Boat Squadron of the regiment, based in the Greek islands, accompanying them on many of the operations against the Axis forces. Whilst visiting an Army hospital in Palestine he met his future wife, Rhianon, a nurse, whom he married in 1946. After the war he obtained the FRCS and trained in orthopaedics as a registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital, Oswestry, and as a senior registrar at St George’s Hospital. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Plymouth group of hospitals in 1955, practising in Mount Gould, Freedom Fields and Greenbank hospitals. Following his retirement he was actively involved in, and a respected chairman of, many organisations, enabling him to pursue his love of architecture, antiquities and the arts, particularly 18th century English porcelain. He died on 16 January 2005, and is survived by his wife Rhianon and four sons (Peter, Hugh, Christopher and Nicholas), one of whom qualified at the Westminster Hospital. He was predeceased by two sons, John and Simon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000332
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Alpar, Emin Kaya (1943 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brownbill, Thomas Frederick George (1812 - 1863)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Browne, Cornelius Harrison ( - 1853)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Browne, James ( - 1880)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Browning, Benjamin ( - 1876)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Browning, Charles (1805 - 1878)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373187373187
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy’s Hospital. He practised in London first in the neighbourhood of Dorset Square, and was at one time Surgeon, and then Senior Surgeon, to the Kilburn Dispensary. His death occurred at his residence, 25 Portsdown Road, Maida Vale, W, on November 1st, 1878. A photograph of him is in the Fellows’ Album. Publications: “Case of Successful Tracheotomy in Croup.” – *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1858, ii, 34. “Case of Recurrent Encephaloid Disease of the Eyeball, with Secondary Deposits.” – *Ibid.*, 1859, i, 576. Contributions to *Lancet* and *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1858.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001004
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harding-Jones, David (1936 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Amdrup, Erik (1923 - 1998)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10 2014-08-07
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/372527372527
Occupation Gastroenterological surgeon
Details Erik Amdrup was director of surgical gastro-enterology and professor of surgery at Aarus Kommune Hospital, Denmark. He was born on 21 February 1923. His PhD thesis in 1960 was on the dumping syndrome. Later he developed a method of 'precise antrectomy' to avoid that complication and carried out research into the effect of vagotomy on parietal cell function, work which led to the Arhus county vagotomy trial. This won him international fame, the Novo Nordisk prize in 1977 and the *Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology* Prize for 1987. As a supervisor of research he was an unpretentious and highly regarded teacher, and published (together with J F Rehfeld) *Gastrins and the vagus* (London, Academic Press, 1979). In addition he had another career as an author of detective novels, several of which were made into films. Some of his short stories made their way into anthologies alongside Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. Erik Amdrup died on 22 February 1998, the day after his 75th birthday.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000341
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Challis, Margaret Thornton (1934 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Allgöwer, Martin (1917 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-10-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372894372894
Occupation General surgeon
Details Martin Allgöwer was chair and professor of surgery at the University of Basle, Switzerland. He was born in St Gallen, Switzerland, on 5 May 1917. He received his education at St Gallen and studied medicine at Geneva, Zürich and Basle. After qualifying, he was resident in the department of surgery at Basle under Carl Henschen and Otto Schürch, a distinguished orthopaedic surgeon who encouraged Allgöwer to set up a research institute of experimental surgery in Davos, where his first studies were on sulphonamide antagonists in tissue fluid, work carried out before penicillin was introduced. There he continued to work on tissue biology and wound healing, work which he continued as a visiting fellow in Galveston, Texas, under Pomerat and Blocker. He published the result of his research as *The cellular basis of wound repair* (Springfield, Illinois, Thomas) in 1956. In the same year he was appointed surgeon in chief in the Rätische Kantonsspital at Chur, Switzerland, later moving to be professor of surgery in Basle. He was the recipient of numerous honours, among which was the honorary fellowship of our College. He died on 27 October 2007 in Chur.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000711
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Crowfoot, William Edward (1806 - 1887)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Da Costa, Francis Xavier (1863 - 1928)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dale, Frederic (1857 - 1913)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dale, George Cornelius (1822 - 1897)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dale, George Peckitte (1821 - 1893)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dalton, William Russell (1813 - 1882)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Daniel, James Stoke (1804 - 1884)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Daniell, William Freeman ( - 1865)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Crowther, William Lodewyck (1817 - 1885)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07 2022-09-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373532373532
Occupation General surgeon Politician
Details Educated at St Thomas's Hospital and at the Hotel-Dieu and La Charité, Paris. He settled in practice in Hobart Town, Tasmania, and was Surgeon to HM General Hospital from 1860-1869. Towards the close of his life he devoted himself to politics and was a well-known public man, being a member of the Legislative Council and of the Tasmanian Court of Medical Examiners, and twice a Minister without a portfolio. He was also Surgeon Major in the South Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery. About the year 1868 or 1869 he sent a valuable Tasmanian Collection to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and for this service received the signal honour of the Honorary (Gold) Medal (1869), of which the previous recipients had been very few - viz, James Parkinson in 1822, Joseph Swan (qv) in 1825, and George Bennett (qv) in 1834. Subsequent recipients have been men of the highest distinction, such as Owen, Erasmus Wilson, Paget, and Lister. The Library contains a "List of Specimens presented to the Museum...by W L Crowther...Hobart Town" in Sir William Flower's handwriting. The Hon Mr Crowther died of peritonitis at his residence in Hobart on April 12th, 1885, being then one of the oldest practitioners in the Colony. Publications: "On the Median Operation for Stone, with Section of the Urethra only, and Dilatation of the Prostate." - *Lancet*, 1867, ii, 126. "Urethrotomy or Lithotrity in Aged and Debilitated Subjects." - *Ibid.*, 1873, ii, 624. **See below for an expanded version of the original obituary which was printed in volume 1 of Plarr’s Lives of the Fellows. Please contact the library if you would like more information lives@rcseng.ac.uk** William Lodewyck Crowther was a surgeon, naturalist and politician who served as premier of Tasmania from 20 December 1878 to 29 October 1879. He is known to have collected and dissected the bodies of Aboriginal Tasmanians; in 1869 he was suspended from his post as an honorary medical officer at Hobart General Hospital after being charged with mutilating the body of William Lanne, then considered the ‘last’ male Aboriginal Tasmanian. Crowther was born on 15 April 1817 at Haarlem in the Netherlands, the son of William Crowther, a doctor, and Sarah Crowther née Pearson, the daughter of George Pearson, a former mayor of Macclesfield, Cheshire. The family emigrated to Hobart in what was then known as Van Diemen’s Land in 1825. Crowther became a boarder at Claiborne’s Academy, Longford in around 1828, and it was while he was at school that he developed an interest in natural history. In 1832 he was apprenticed to his father for five years and then became a partner as a surgeon apothecary and accoucheur. In February 1839 he sailed on the *Emu* to England, arriving in June. He sold a natural history collection of Tasmanian animals to the Earl of Derby and used the money to pay for his living costs and fees at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School and for another year of study in Paris. He gained his conjoint examination in 1841. On 12 November 1841 he married his cousin Sarah Victoria Marie Louise Muller, the daughter of Colonel A B Muller, equerry to the Duke of Kent. They had 11 children. In 1842 Crowther returned to Hobart and took over his father’s practice. His focus was on surgery, particularly of the bladder for stone and he rose rapidly in his profession. He wrote two papers for *The Lancet* (‘A few remarks on the safety of the median operation for the removal of stone from the bladder, the section being limited to the membranous urethra, with simple dilation of the prostate gland’ *Lancet* 1867 ii 126 and ‘Urethrotomy or lithotrity in aged and debilitated people’ *Lancet* 1873 ii 624). In 1860 he was appointed as an honorary medical officer at Hobert General Hospital. He continued collecting and was elected as a corresponding member of the Royal Zoological Society. Between April 1840 and 1868 he donated a large number of specimens to William Flower, the curator of the museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The collection included the complete skeleton of a sperm whale, Tasmanian fish and a dolphin, together with ‘the bones of an Australian male’. In March 1869 he was awarded the gold medal of the College. In the same month he was suspended from his post at Hobart General Hospital after being charged with mutilating the body of William Lanne, a whaler, and reputedly the last ‘full-bloodied’ male Aboriginal Tasmanian. Lanne died in early March 1869 in Hobart from cholera and dysentery aged just 34. His body was taken to the morgue at the General Hospital and, as *The Times* reported on 29 May 1869, there followed an ‘unseemly struggle’ for his skeleton: ‘It is stated that on the night before the funeral a medical gentleman connected with the hospital abstracted the skull, intending to send it to the English College of Surgeons, and inside the scalp the skull of the corpse of a white man, also in the dead-house, was inserted in lieu of that which had been removed. When this mutilation was discovered the hands and feet were cut off to frustrate any attempt of the first mutilator to obtain the whole skeleton. The trunk was then buried, the coffin carried to the grave covered by a black opossum skin rug and followed by above a hundred citizens. In the following night, it is stated, the body was raised from the grave by order of the house surgeon of the hospital.’ An inquiry took place. Crowther was suspected as having carried out the first mutilation and was suspended from his post. A petition was sent to the Governor Charles Du Cane seeking an annulment of his suspension, but without success. The outcry over what had happened to Lanne directly led to the introduction of the 1869 Anatomy Act, regulating the practice of anatomy in the colony and protecting the dead from dissection without prior consent, the first legislation of its kind in Tasmania. Lanne’s skull was later donated to the anatomy department of the University of Edinburgh by Crowther’s son, Edward. It has since been returned to Tasmania. Crowther was a popular if controversial figure in Hobart and was active in politics. He was elected to the House of Assembly as the member for Hobart. He resigned, but from 1869 to 1885 held the Hobart seat on the Legislative Council. From 1876 to 1877 he was a minister without portfolio in the administration of Thomas Reibey. In December 1878 he was invited to form his own government as premier and served until October 1879, the first medical practitioner to hold that office in Tasmania. Apart from his surgical career, Crowther also had a number of successful business interests. In the 1850s he owned saw mills and exported timber to other Australian colonies and New Zealand and frame houses to California. He also owned whaling ships and shipped guano to Tasmania and the mainland. He later transferred his interests to the new Anglo-Australian Guano Company. Crowther became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1874. In 1889 a statue of Crowther was erected in Franklin Square in Hobart. After a campaign led by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, in August 2022 the City of Hobart Council voted to remove the monument. Sarah Gillam
Resource Identifier RCS: E001349
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cuff, Herbert Edmund (1864 - 1921)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373535373535
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's Hospital, where he was House Physician. He was then appointed Resident Medical Officer to the Leeds General Infirmary, and in 1893 entered the service of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. In 1897 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of the North-Eastern Fever Hospital, and in 1905 he was appointed Principal Medical Officer to the Metropolitan Asylums Board, devoting his whole time to his duties, except during the Great War, when he was resident head of the Belgian Refugee Camp at Alexandra Palace, a service for which he was awarded the OBE. Of his work at the Metropolitan Asylums Board, Lauriston Shaw, one of the medical members, wrote somewhat fully to the *Lancet*, 1921, Sept 3rd. His earlier work for the Board was carried out solely in the infectious fever service, but this did not prevent him from acquiring practical knowledge of, and maintaining a keen interest in, the various other departments of medical work - mental diseases, eye diseases, tuberculosis, venereal diseases, etc, which have been gradually added to the Board's activities. It was characteristic of Cuff's energy that when the Board was first entrusted with the administration of institutions for the treatment of tuberculosis, he spent some portion of his well-earned vacation as locum-tenens superintendent of a sanatorium. At the height of his useful career Cuff met with a tragic end. When spending an August holiday with his family at Burnham Overy, on the north coast of Norfolk, he was drowned in a brave attempt to save the lives of his two young daughters who had got into difficulties while bathing. His portrait is in the College collections, and an enlarged photograph hangs in one of the committee rooms of the Metropolitan Asylums Board on the Victoria Embankment, EC4. Publications: *Lectures on Medicine to Nurses*, 1896; 7th ed, 1920. *Practical Nursing, including Hygiene and Dietetics* (with Isla Stewart - *see Dict. Nat. Biog.*), 1899 ; 6th ed (with W T G Pugh), 1924.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001352
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cutfield, Alfred Baker (1816 - 1863)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Cutler, Edward (1796 - 1874)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373544373544
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Wimborne, Dorset, the son of a clergyman. Entering the Navy at an early age, he found himself not sufficiently robust to continue in that service. Accordingly he took to medicine and was educated in the schools of Great Windmill Street and St George's Hospital. He was gazetted Assistant Surgeon in the Life Guards on July 25th, 1821; retired on half pay on June 21st, 1824, and commuted his half pay November 6th, 1832. Later he assisted Sir Benjamin Brodie in private practice. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to St George's Hospital in 1834, and Surgeon in 1848, when he resigned the office of Surgeon to the Lock Hospital - held by him for many years. His service at St George's Hospital, till he retired in 1861, was most faithful and efficient. In the whole of it he was only once absent for more than a week save on one occasion when ill health prevented his attendance. He was a most dexterous operator, and in cases of lithotomy was uniformly successful. He could use the knife with the left hand equally as well as with the right. He was rarely equalled in the facility with which he performed perineal section. Cutler never lectured, never spoke at Medical Societies, never wrote on professional subjects, yet obtained a practice and an influence over such a number of people of importance as few of his confreres could boast of. Through his connection with the Lock Hospital he enjoyed as large a practice in venereal diseases as any since the time of John Pearson. The older pupils of St George's Hospital may recollect him occasionally visiting a patient in the hospital early in the morning, an overcoat covering the 'pink', previous to a run with the royal staghounds, as Sir Philip Crampton might have been seen in Dublin in bygone days. He died at his residence, 15 New Burlington Street, W, on September 7th, 1874. Mrs Cutler, a daughter of Sir Thomas Plumer, Master of the Rolls, survived him, as did also a daughter and a son - a Chancery barrister. His portrait is in volume ii of *The Medical Profession in All Countries* (1874). At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to both St George's and the Lock Hospitals.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001361
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cutliffe, Henry Charles (1832 - 1873)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Daglish, George (1793 - 1870)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372235372235
Occupation Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Albert Davis was an obstetrician and pioneering neuro-gynaecologist. He born on 4 January 1904 into a Jewish family in Manchester, where he studied medicine and became resident at the Manchester Royal Infirmary to Sir Harry Platt and Sir Geoffrey Jefferson, who greatly influenced him. He soon developed an interest in neurology and gynaecology. He was a Dickeson research scholar in the gynaecology research laboratory in Manchester, studying the innervation of the pelvis. He visited Cotte in Lyons, the founder of presacral neurectomy, and performed meticulous work on the cadaver, leading to an MD and a Hunterian professorship at the College. His lifelong concern was with chronic pelvic pain, which he treated with alcohol injection or open presacral neurectomy. After resident posts at Guy’s and Chelsea Hospitals, he was appointed as a consultant to Dulwich, St Giles, the London Jewish, Bearsted Maternity, the Prince of Wales and French Hospitals, and, after the war, King’s College Hospital. During the second world war, he was obstetrician to the south east London metropolitan sector, and later also to the north east sector. Here he honed his surgical skills, being able to perform a caesarian section in 20 seconds. In one day in Hackney he performed 11 of these operations in a single day. In 1950, together with Purdom Martin at Queen Square, he drew attention to the horrors of back street abortion in a *BMJ* paper. The paper reviewed 2,655 cases, describing their neurological consequences. In retirement, he continued his interests in literature, music, art and numismatics. He was a fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society. When he was 90 he was delighted to hear that presacral neurectomy had been reintroduced in the United States with the laparoscope. In 1947, he married Renate Loeser, a cytopathologist, who survived him along with two children, one of whom is Charles Davis, the neurosurgeon. He died on 21 October 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000048
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372238372238
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Bill Doey was a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital in London. He was born in Bessbrook, county Armagh, Northern Ireland, on 22 February 1912, the son of Rev Thomas Doey, a Presbyterian minister. His mother was Charlotte Chesney née McCay, the daughter of a minister and farmer. Bill was educated at the Academical Institution, Coleraine, Derry, and at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He then completed his clinical studies at the London Hospital, where he did house jobs until the outbreak of the second world war. From 1940 to 1946 he served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, as a squadron leader and ENT specialist, in mobile field hospitals in France, Belgium and Holland. After the war, he was appointed as a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, and as a lecturer at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology. He also held appointments at St Albans City Hospital and the Hemel Hempstead Hospital. He had a particular interest in medical history, especially that of the fatal illness of Crown Prince Friedrich, Queen Victoria’s son-in-law, who had been treated by Sir Morell MacKenzie. He lectured on the subject at the Kopfklinikum, Wurzburg, Germany. Bill’s lifelong interest in fishing went back to his boyhood days in Northern Ireland, and throughout his life he and his wife, Audrey Mariamné née Newman, whom he married in June 1940, enjoyed many fishing holidays. He retired to Llandeilo, where they renovated an old farmhouse and landscaped a garden out of a former paddock. He enjoyed music, languages, photography and driving – he was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. He died from a heart condition on 12 January 2004, leaving three daughters, Virginia, Louise and Angela, and four grandchildren, Mariamné, Corinna, Sibylle and Niklas.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000051
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dendy, Walter Chester (1860 - 1910)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Denne, Henry ( - 1875)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Denne, William (1809 - 1882)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dent, Clinton Thomas (1850 - 1912)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373597373597
Occupation General surgeon Mountaineer
Details Born at Sandgate, Kent, on Dec 7th, 1850, the eighth child and fifth son of Thomas Dent. He was educated at Eton (1863-1869) and at Trinity College, Cambridge (1869-1873), where he took a 'poll' degree in 1873. He was made Magister Chirurgiae in 1899 in recognition of his eminence as a surgeon; he had long been an Examiner in Surgery at the University. He entered the Medical School of St George's Hospital in 1872 at the age of 21, and in 1876 was House Surgeon. Between 1877 and 1897 he held the teaching appointments of Demonstrator of Anatomy, Surgical Registrar, Joint Lecturer in Physiology, Lecturer in Practical Surgery, and Demonstrator of Operative Surgery. He was elected Assistant Surgeon in 1880, and in 1895 became full Surgeon. At the time of his death he was Senior Surgeon and Chairman of the Medical School Committee. For many years he was Surgeon to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, which owed much to his constant guidance and to his generosity. In 1904 he became Chief Surgeon to the Metropolitan Police. Ample private means, which sometimes interfere with professional activity, had no such paralysing influence on Dent, and merely enabled him to concentrate his energies on worthy objects. He was active in the life of the London Medical Societies, serving as Secretary to the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society from 1901-1904, and at the time of his death President of the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He read valuable papers between 1890 and 1903 before the Medico-Chirurgical Society, and in 1908 delivered the Annual Oration before the Medical Society of London, of which he was Secretary and Vice-President. At the Royal College of Surgeons his record was one of great distinction. He was Hunterian Professor in 1905, a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1902-1911, Member of the Council from 1903 to the time of his death, and Senior Vice-President in 1912. In 1899 Dent went out to the South African War on his own initiative and acted as Correspondent to the *British Medical Journal*. On his return he delivered an address before the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society on "The Wounded in the Transvaal War". As a surgeon he was conscientious, careful, and at times, especially in the face of unexpected difficulties, extremely brilliant. He was not inclined to operate unless he was convinced of the need and that benefit would result; and he was always anxious to make a diagnosis before rather than at the operation. Dent was widely acquainted with various forms of athletics, and as an Alpine climber had so long been famous that the world at large thought of him in this, rather than in his professional, capacity. He made the first ascent of the Aiguille du Dru after eighteen unsuccessful attempts, the first ascent of the Rothorn from Zermatt, and of other Alpine peaks, but his greatest achievements were in the Caucasus, where he not only climbed the peaks, but explored the range. He undertook in 1889 the sad duty of searching for the bodies of W Donkin and H Fox, who were killed on Koshtantan in 1888; he had gone out with them and would have shared their fate had it not been that he was prostrated by illness. He joined the Alpine Club in 1872, was elected to the Committee in 1874, was Secretary from 1878-1880, Vice-President in 1884, and President in 1887. Dent was also the first President of the Association of British Members of the Swiss Alpine Club. He was an expert photographer, and often exhibited the fine effects which he had obtained in the Alps and Caucasus, especially at the Graphic Society of St George's Hospital, of which he was at one time President. He had an extensive collection of photographs of patients, and in 1911 gave a cinematograph demonstration of gastric peristalsis in hypertrophic stenosis of the pylorus before the Section for Diseases of Children of the Royal Society of Medicine. He lectured in a manner peculiar to himself, but stimulating to thoughtful hearers, especially at St George's. In 1895 he gave a Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution "On the Influence of Science on Mountaineering". Two juvenile lectures on "How Mountains are Made and Destroyed" were delivered before the Society of Arts in 1897. As a colleague, Dent showed many fine qualities. At St George's he has been described as a staunch and generous friend of the School, a wise leader, an excellent chairman of committees, sound in judgement, weighty in counsel. He read voluminously, and what he read he digested. He spoke rapidly, as 'a very full man', to quote Dr Johnson's phrase, and shone at his dinner parties, where he displayed conversational command of many subjects. He was an art collector, a connoisseur in old plate, furniture, embroidery, etc. In early life he was fond of amateur acting, wrote a number of farces, and adapted Pailleron's *Étincelle* under the title of *Fruit and Blossom*. He was a member of many social clubs and was on the executive committee of the Athenaeum. His death was little expected by his many friends, who saw him in his usual health at the beginning of his summer holiday in 1912. He died unmarried on August 26th, 1912, of septic poisoning originating in pyorrhoea, after an illness lasting little more than a fortnight. He was buried at Kensal Green, the coffin being carried by members of the Metropolitan Police Force, hundreds of constables following. Interesting portraits accompany his biographies in the *Lancet*, *British Medical Journal*, and the *St George's Hospital Gazette*, 1902 and 1912. In the *St George's Hospital Gazette* for 1912 "L S" contributes a verse, "Ave atque Vale". In the *Lancet* and *British Medical Journal* are several eulogies, containing much valuable detail, from colleagues and friends. The following tribute was circulated throughout the Metropolitan Police District the day after his death: "It is with deep regret that the Commissioner acquaints the Force of the death of the Chief Surgeon. A singularly able man, he devoted to the Metropolitan Police Force, from the time of his appointment in 1904, his whole-hearted efforts. The Police Medical Service has been greatly improved under his care and guidance, and those who have been brought in touch with him by sickness will long remember the personal and kindly interest he took in every case. The Commissioner feels that he has lost an able and fearless counsellor in all medical questions affecting the well-being of the Force." He left estate to the net value of £116,263, and directed that a sum of £1500 should be offered to the Belgrave Hospital. His address was 61 Brook Street, W. Publications: *Insanity following Surgical Operations*, 8vo, Lewes, 1889. "Four Hundred Cases of Amputation" (with W C Bull.) - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1890, lxxiii, 359. "The Behaviour of a Tendon Ligature" (with S DELÉPINE) - *Ibid*, 1891, lxxiv, 369. "Amputation of the Entire Upper Extremity for Recurrent Carcinoma." - *Ibid.*, 1898, lxxxi, 221. "The Wounded in the Transvaal War." - *Ibid*, 1900, lxxxiii, 297. "Congenital Hypertrophic Stenosis of the Pylorus and its Treatment by Pyloroplasty" (with E CAUTLEY) - *Ibid.*, 1903, lxxxvi, 471. "The After-results of Injuries." - Annual Oration, Medical Society, 1908. *Med. Soc. Trans.*, 1908. In this he embodied experience he derived from work among the police in connection with the difficult subject of 'traumatic neurasthenia'. "*John Hunter leaves St George's Hospital, Oct 16th, 1793." An Explanatory Notice of the Picture bearing this Title, painted by A D McCormick, RBA*, portrait of Hunter with Dog, 8vo, London, 1901. The picture was in the Royal Academy Exhibition. "Henry Gray," with portrait and facsimile of a letter by Sir Benjamin Brodie, 8vo, London, 1908; reprinted from *St George's Hosp. Gaz.*, 1908, xvi, 49. "The Nature and Significance of Pain," 1887; reprint of the Introductory Address St George's Hospital; delivered without a note. He translated and edited Billroth's *Clinical Surgery* for the New Sydenham Society, 1881. "Ankylosis," "Ligatures," etc. (jointly), in Heath's *Dictionary of Practical Surgery*. "Traumatism and Insanity" in Tuke's *Dictionary of Psychological Medicine*, 1892, ii. "Insanity and Surgical Operations" in Allbutt's *System of Medicine*. "The Surgery of the Heart" in Musser and Kelly's *System of Treatment*, 1911. "Intestinal Obstruction" in Latham and Kelly's *System of Treatment*, 1912, ii. "The Development of London Hospitals during the Nineteenth Century." - *Lancet*, 1898, ii, 1381. *Above the Snow Line*, 8vo, London, 1885. He edited and wrote a large part of *Mountaineering*, Badminton Series, 1892, 3rd ed, 1900, and contributed many articles in the *Alpine Journal*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001414
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dent, Robert ( - 1903)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Hashemian, Hassan Agha (1915 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dodd, Henry Work (1860 - 1921)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Dollard, William (1800 - 1845)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Donald, John (1813 - 1881)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Donald, Joseph Rickerby ( - 1893)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Young, Terence Willifer (1931 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Savage, Christopher Roland (1915 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Annis, David (1921 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Aylett, Stanley Osborn (1911 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 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/372192372192
Occupation Bowel surgeon General surgeon
Details Stanley Aylett was a distinguished bowel surgeon. He was born in Islington, north London, on 8 July 1911, the youngest son of Arthur John Aylett, a building contractor of the firm John Aylett and son, founded by Stanley's grandfather in the 1850s. His mother was Hannah Josephine née Henman. He was educated at Highgate School and won an open scholarship to read medicine at King's College Hospital, where he obtained a BSc in physiology with first class honours and qualified with honours in medicine. He captained the United Hospitals Rugby Football XV. He completed junior posts at St Giles' and King's College Hospital, and spent a year as a ship's doctor with the Blue Funnel Line, before becoming a resident surgical officer at East Ham and Gordon Hospitals. In 1939, he was a surgical registrar at King's and a clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital, and then a senior registrar at King's. He resigned his post at the outbreak of the second world war, in order to join the RAMC. He and his anaesthetist joined a surgical team in France, at first in a general hospital and later in a casualty clearing station at Lille. During the retreat, he set up operating posts at several locations until he reached de Panne, close to Dunkirk. When ordered to leave on 29 May, he and his companions commandeered a beached pleasure launch, dragged it into the sea, loaded it with their wounded and set off. The leaking vessel soon began to sink, but Aylett and some 20 men were rescued by a destroyer, HMS Havant. After arriving in England, he was sent to Dover to set up a small hospital in the Citadel in anticipation of a German invasion. In 1941, he sailed to the Middle East, to a posting at Alexandria, and then requested a move to forward surgical units, into the Western Desert and Tobruk just as the Axis forces were recapturing it Aylett's was the last surgical unit to escape. In January 1944, he was back in Cambridge, to train and command a field surgical unit, with which he sailed on D-day and accompanied the forces into Germany. In May 1945, he was sent into Sanbostel concentration camp, as a part of the first RAMC unit to reach the camp. His repeated requests for a hospital were turned down, until Lieutenant General Sir Brian Horrocks appeared and at once agreed. Aylett was awarded the French Croix d'honneur for his work in the camp. Later he was sent to Copenhagen to help in the evacuation of German wounded from their hospitals in Denmark. In August 1945 he was posted to Hanover as officer in charge of a surgical division of a general hospital with the acting rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In November 1945 he was demobilised. After the war, he was briefly a surgeon in the Emergency Medical Service in the King's College sector and then a surgical registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital. At the start of the NHS, he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Gordon, Metropolitan and Potter's Bar Hospitals and consulting surgeon to the Manor House Trade Union Hospital in Hampstead. He developed a special interest in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, or colitis. At that time, the standard treatment was removal of the diseased bowel and a permanent stoma. Aylett pioneered a more conservative resection, allowing the retention of lower-most bowel, avoiding a stoma. The surgical establishment condemned his approach, with surgeons voicing concern that the patient would have intractable diarrhoea and would risk developing cancer in the retained bowel. However, Aylett soon showed good results and demonstrated that the risk of cancer could be overcome by careful follow-up. His approach, ileo-rectal enastomosis, became a standard treatment. Aylett gained many honours. He was Hunterian Professor at the College and in 1974 was made a member of the Académie de Chirurgie Française. He was President of the section for coloproctology at the Royal Society of Medicine, President of the Chelsea Clinical Society, and an honorary member of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He published extensively and wrote a textbook on colonic surgery, Surgery of the caecum and colon (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1954), as well as an autobiography based on his war diaries called Surgeon at war (Bognor Regis, New Horizon, c.1979). Among his hobbies were French history, gardening and cooking. In retirement, he enjoyed a full life, travelling to his beloved France and collecting antiques, porcelain and medical instruments. His first marriage to Winsome Clare in 1949 produced a son, Jonathan Stanley, a land agent in Devon, and two daughters, Deidre Clare, a nurse, who predeceased him, and Holly Josephine, a television producer and director. After his marriage was dissolved he married his outpatient sister, Mary Kathleen 'Kay' Godfrey. Stanley Aylett died on 7 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000005
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Guthrie, Charles W Gardiner (1817 - 1859)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Keate, Robert (1777 - 1857)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lynn, William Bewicke (1786 - 1878)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 2012-07-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/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
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Thomas, Honoratus Leigh (1769 - 1846)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Kenyon, John Richard (1919 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Ketharanathan,Vettivetpillai (1925 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372275372275
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Vettivetpillai Ketharanathan or ‘Nathan’ was a senior research associate at the vascular surgery unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia. He was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on 25 November 1935 to Appiah Ketharanathan and Rukmani Nama (Sivayam) Ketharanathan, who were both teachers. He attended Jaffna Central College, but from the age of 14, when his father died, he had to shoulder the burden of family responsibilities. He studied medicine in Colombo, qualifying in 1960. After house jobs in Colombo and four years as a registrar at the General Hospital, Malacca, he went to Melbourne in 1966, as a registrar on the cardiothoracic unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he came under the wing of Ian McConchie. He became an Australian citizen, and was encouraged by McConchie to go to London, where he completed registrar posts in Hackney and the Brompton Hospital. He returned to Melbourne, where he began to carry out research into improved biomaterials for replacing cardiac valves and blood vessels, research he continued whilst he was working as a consultant thoracic surgeon at Ballarat. This work took him later to Portland, Oregon, as an international fellow in cardiopulmonary surgery. A number of new materials were patented by him and in 1990 he set up two companies, BioNova International and Kryocor Pty, to exploit them, whilst he was appointed senior research associate at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. An indefatigable investigator, he was an inspiration to many young surgeons. Among his many interests were cooking, and he was a regular client at the Queen Victoria market, seeking the freshest produce, rewarding his friends with examples of Sri Lankan fare. He died on 3 March 2005, leaving his wife Judith, and four children, of whom his eldest daughter, Selva, is an infectious diseases specialist at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth. His second daughter, Naomi, is about to qualify at Amsterdam.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000088
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching King, Philip Austin (1918 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372276372276
Occupation General surgeon
Details Philip King was a consultant surgeon at St Stephen’s Hospital, Chelsea, and honorary consultant surgeon at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth. He was born in 1918, the son of an obstetrician and gynaecologist. He was educated at Stonyhurst, and went on to read medicine at Sheffield, but the loss of some of his friends in the second world war made him interrupt his studies and join the RAF, where he served as a pilot. After the war, he completed his medical degree and then did house jobs at Sheffield and became resident surgical tutor. He then came to London as senior registrar to Sir Clement Price Thomas, Charles Drew and Frank d’Abreu at the Westminster Hospital, where he was one of the team that introduced the artificial kidney and cardiac bypass machines. He was then appointed general surgeon to St Stephen’s Hospital in Chelsea, part of the Westminster group. At this time he began his long association with the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, where Sister Pauline of the Sisters of Mercy, remembered him as a “faultless charismatic performer who cared deeply for his patients”. There he served as chairman of the medical staff committee and continued to serve the hospital long after he retired. He was admitted to the Order of Malta, first as a Knight of Grace and Devotion and later as a Knight of Obedience, and served the order with distinction, acting regularly as chief medical officer to their annual pilgrimage to Lourdes. Ironically, he developed a carcinoma of the oesophagus, a condition he had studied and written about. He underwent oesophagectomy and made a remarkable recovery. A keen sailor, for a time he owned a small island in the Menai Straits. He died of cardiovascular disease in the Hospice of St John and St Elizabeth, which he had helped established, on 7 June 2004, leaving his wife Gabrielle and three children, one of whom qualified at Westminster and became a consultant radiologist.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000089
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Doran, Alban Henry Griffith (1849 - 1927)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373617373617
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon Pathologist
Details Born in Pembroke Square, Kensington, the only son of Dr John Doran (*Dict. Nat. Biog.*) by his marriage with Emma, daughter of Captain Gilbert, RN, and was the grandson of John Doran, of Drogheda. John Doran, Alban Doran's father, lived in the very centre of Victorian literary and artist society. He was intimate with Douglas Jerrold, with Thackeray, with Frith the painter, and a host of others. And of these great men he had many stories to tell. He was editor of the *Athenaeum* for a time and of *Notes and Queries*, and is best known for his standard book on the actors -*His Majesty's Servants*. Alban Doran received his early education at a school in Barnes. When he was 18 he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he won many prizes. He served as House Surgeon to Luther Holden, as House Physician, and as Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy. He gave up teaching in a year's time, and being a skilled and delicate dissector, he became in 1873 Assistant in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons under Sir William Flower. Thus began his life-long connection with the Hunterian Museum. Soon afterwards Flower fell ill, and Doran acted as his Museum Secretary, thus establishing relations with such eminent men as Owen and Huxley, whom he always remembered with enthusiasm. It was during this period possibly that he showed Alfred Tennyson over the Museum, the poet taking the utmost interest in all he saw and thus somewhat belying the assertion of anti-vivisectionists, who rank him from the evidence of one of his poems as anti-surgical and therefore one of themselves - and this although he disclaimed any anti-vivisectionist bias. On the return to duty of Sir William Flower, Doran helped him in his work as a craniometrist. His attention was drawn to the middle ear in mammals, and he took up the subject enthusiastically, exploring the large stores of mammalian skulls in the Museum and finding a great number of auditory ossicula, which he mounted on glass. It only then came to his knowledge that Professor Hyrtl had written a monograph on the subject, based on a considerable number of specimens. At that time the College received very frequently the bodies of animals which had died in the Zoological Gardens, and these furnished him with additional materials. With the help of Mr Ockenden, for many years an assistant in the Gardens, he dissected out the auditory ossicles of an elephant. The collection of ossicula thus acquired was displayed, as they may still be seen, in wide shallow boxes. The ossicula auditus were exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Society, and a little later a monograph on the subject was published, with engravings by C Berjeau, in the *Transactions of the Linnean Society*. Doran looked back on his early period in the Museum with much fondness. His collection of ear bones is still regarded as a standard one. His Linnean Society paper was elaborate, and in the evening of his life nothing pleased him so much as a reference by a present-day authority to his early monograph. Even as he lay on what proved to be his deathbed, his interest was at once aroused when a friend mentioned to him that the accuracy of his description of the ear bones of the golden mole had been highly commended in a monograph just communicated to the Royal Society, and thereafter he relapsed into the lament that there were two important gaps in his collection of auditory ossicles in the Museum of the College he had never succeeded in filling up. Such an instance is characteristic of Doran's attitude to the world; it was knowledge, not money, that he thought of. Doran was not exclusively devoted to anatomy; he became well known as a pathologist. For some years he held the appointment of Pathological Assistant at the College of Surgeons, and for eight years he laboured with Sir James Paget and Sir James Goodhart in the compilation of a catalogue of the pathological specimens in the Museum. In 1877 he was elected an Assistant Surgeon to the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women, where he had Sir Spencer Wells, Dr Bantock, and Knowsley Thornton for colleagues, and took part in that development of gynaecology with which their names, as well as his own, will always be associated. At the Samaritan he came under the direct influence of Spencer Wells, who perhaps more than any other man can be called the originator of modern abdominal surgery. Doran became well known as an ovariotomist at the Samaritan. He was attached to the Hospital for over thirty years, and established there his claim to be a fine operator and an individual thinker. Before operating, he was said by Leslie Ward, who refers to him at some length in his memoirs, to have been the picture of nervousness, but the moment the operation began he was masterly. Owing to failing eyesight, Doran retired from private practice in 1909. After his father's death he had lived with his mother - to whom he was devoted - in Granville Place, and continued there after her decease, till he moved to a flat in Palace Mansions, West Kensington. On his retirement he returned as a volunteer officer to the Hunterian Museum, and joined with Shattock (qv) in re-arranging the obstetrical and gynaecological collections, and with Dr. John Davis Barris, he mounted a small instructive group of normal and deformed pelves. He had been elected President of the Obstetrical Society in 1899 and had held office for many years. When the Society was merged in the Royal Society of Medicine, he was active in promoting the transfer of its museum as a loan collection to the College. From 1912 onwards his energies were largely devoted to the compilation of a descriptive catalogue of the obstetrical and other instruments in the Museum, to which Sir Rickman Godlee added the appliances and instruments used by Lister. This catalogue has been of great service to those interested in the subjects above indicated. His second task was the preparation of a descriptive catalogue of the great collection of obstetrical instruments presented to the College by the old Obstetrical Society. This undertaking involved Doran in a laborious and prolonged historical inquiry into the evolution of obstetrical instruments, and nowhere is his accuracy and breadth of scholarship so apparent as in this catalogue - in reality a text-book of reference. Having finished this task, he then proceeded to prepare a new catalogue, one for which there was great need, of the great collection of surgical instruments and appliances preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. His memory for fact or the written word was prodigious, and to the very last he could give a correct reference to an obscure fact or passage in a long-forgotten periodical. He was a veritable encyclopaedia of knowledge. His last visit to the College was in June, 1927, when he arrived attended by a nurse. His sight had nearly gone, but in the Instrument Room, to which he was guided, he brightened up and gave lucid and instructive accounts of such objects as W R Beaumont's (qv) palatal sewing-machine, which he was very dimly able to distinguish with his remaining eye, the other being obscured by cataract. His had been a long race with bodily affliction, and while still visiting the College about once a week, he had repeatedly exclaimed: "I hope to finish my Catalogue before I have to give up altogether." That he did finish it in time was a vast satisfaction to him, and to all who loved him seemed a triumph. Some days before his death, Doran was taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital to be operated on for glaucoma. He fainted during, or just after, the operation, and died on August 23rd, 1927, in the Ophthalmic Ward of his old hospital. He never married. The College Collections possess many portraits of this remarkable man. Doran's bibliography is truly enormous, one of the longest in our Library Catalogue. It contains some 130 separate titles, and must be left to some future bibliographer to compile. Throughout his life he was a keen Shakespearean scholar. Doran joined the salaried staff of the *British Medical Journal* as sub-editor in the early eighties and did admirable work. He was the first editor of the *Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British Empire*, in which many biographical notices appear often from his pen. Publications: "Morphology of the Mammalian Ossicula Auditus." - *Trans. Linnean Soc.*, London, 1875-9, 2nd ser., i (Zool.), 371, with plates lviii-lxiv. *See also Jour. Linnean Soc*. (Zool.) xiii, 185; and *Proc. Roy. Soc.*, xxv, 101. *Clinical and Pathological Observations on Tumours of Ovary, Fallopian Tube, and Broad Ligament*, 1884, 8vo, London. *Handbook of Gynaecological Operations*, 8vo, London, 1887. (For an account of this important work, see the author's obituary in *Lancet*, 1927, ii, 529.) "Guide to Gynaecological Specimens, Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, England." "Medicine," Chapter 14, *Shakespeare's England*, 1916. Articles on "Diseases of Fallopian Tubes" in Allbutt and Playfair's *System of Gynaecology*, 1906, and *Encyclopaedia of Medicine*, iii. "Subtotal Hysterectomy for Fibromyoma Uteri: 40 Additional Histories." - *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med*., 1911. "Osteomalacia - the Broughton Pelvis in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons." - *Jour. Obst. and Gyncaecol*, 1912, xxi, 65. "Dusée: his Forceps and his Contemporaries," 8vo, 2 plates, London, 1912; reprinted from *Jour. Obst. and Gynaecol.*, 1912, xxii, 117. "Dusée, De Wind, and Smellie: an Addendum," 8vo, London, 1912; reprinted from *Jour. Obst. and Gynaecol.*, 1912, xxii, 203. "A Demonstration of some Eighteenth Century Obstetric Forceps," 8vo, plates, 1913; reprinted from *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med*. (Sect. History), 1913, vi, 54, 76. "Burton ('Dr Slop'): his Forceps and his Foes," 8vo, plates, London, 1913 ; reprinted from *Jour. Obst. and Gynaecol.*, 1913, xxiii, 3, 65. "The Speculum Matricis," 8vo, plates, London, 1914; reprinted from *Jour. Obst. and Gynaecol.*, 1914, xxvi, 133.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001434
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Considine, John (1925 - 2008)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by David Arkell
Publication Date 2011-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373618373618
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Initially trained as a general surgeon, John Considine later specialised in urology and spent his consultant career at Heartlands Hospital (formerly East Birmingham Hospital) in the West Midlands. He was born in County Clare, Ireland, on 30 January 1925 and was educated at University College Dublin. After graduating in 1949 he trained in Glasgow and London before his appointment as consultant urologist to East Birmingham and Solihull health authorities. Although quietly spoken, with an unassuming manner, he possessed a sharp analytical mind. He was a keen and enthusiastic trainer of surgical registrars, many of whom were initiated into urology under his guidance. His calm and patient approach converted many a young surgeon to take up the specialty as a future career. He published articles on the retrocaval ureter (whilst in training) and developed a suction diathermy electrode for the cystoscopic treatment of superficial bladder tumours. His interest in bladder cancer led him to participate in numerous trials as a member of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), but even this did not dissuade him from continuing to enjoy smoking his pipe. In the days when it was still allowed in hospitals he was easy to track down by the clouds of smoke issuing from the consultant's room! He was a very private individual, rarely mixing socially with colleagues. However, those that did meet him found him to be a true gentleman, always stylishly dressed and a most intelligent conversationalist. His French wife Marie predeceased him. They had three children, two sons, Vincent and Laurence, and a daughter, Marie. He died following a severe chest infection on 27 December 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001435
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Matthews, Hugoe Redvers ( - 2011)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Richard S Steyn
Publication Date 2011-09-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373619373619
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details Hugoe Matthews was an eminent thoracic surgeon who was an expert on the diseases of the oesophagus; he was also an authority on the Victorian nature writer and mystic Richard Jefferies. He was educated at Sutton County Grammar School where, even as a teenager, he knew he wanted to be a surgeon. He qualified in medicine and surgery at University College London (despite pronouncing a 55-year-old woman pregnant in his practical exams). After a number of jobs in London, he moved to Bristol in 1968 as a registrar in cardiothoracic surgery. Then, following a spell as a senior registrar in Liverpool, he became a consultant at East Birmingham Hospital in 1976. During his career as a consultant at East Birmingham (now Birmingham Heartlands) Hospital, 'HRM' (as he was fondly known by his juniors and staff) developed several new techniques to improve treatment of a range of problems of the chest and oesophagus. In the field of thoracic surgery, he developed what has become known as the 'minitrach' (short for mini-tracheostomy) - a small plastic tube placed in the windpipe during chest surgery through which the lungs can be cleared with a suction device. The minitrach has been used on the battlefield as an emergency breathing aid - saving the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan and other war zones. His own interests focused on diseases of the oesophagus. He established a laboratory for oesophageal disorders (which became a referral centre for the whole of the West Midlands). He had great success in reducing death rates among people with oesophagal cancer by giving chemotherapy before their operations - an unusual move at the time. He set up a programme encouraging overseas fellows to spend time in Birmingham being exposed to oesophageal practice. In 1984 he set up the Oesophagal Cancer Research Appeal to raise money for a laboratory which was opened in 1989. This research programme supported several higher degrees and generated a steady output of research papers. His research and clinical registrars all remember his tutelage fondly and will never forget his logical approach to surgical thinking and practice, and an unerring ability to know when a trainee was unsure of their ground no matter how confidently they presented themselves. He was instrumental in establishing the British Oesophageal Group (which still adheres to many of the principles he espoused) and worked closely with a former patient to establish an Oesophagal Patients' Association in 1985 which is now a well-established national charity with many local associations supporting patients throughout Britain. In the early 1990s he developed links with the department of biological sciences at Warwick University, with the result that he was created an honorary professor of thoracic surgery. His work at Warwick helped to lay the foundations for a flourishing postgraduate medical school. He published many papers and was editor of the professional journal *Thorax*. He lectured around the world and served as vice-president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons from 1993, and as president in 1995. He performed one of the first surveys of cardiothoracic consultant staff nationally trying to predict retirements and vacancies to more formally establish workforce planning and trainee numbers. At Birmingham he and a colleague set up an Escapists' Dinner Club for consultants where medical talk was banned and guests discussed their hobbies instead. His own hobby was Richard Jefferies, a contemporary of Thomas Hardy, known for his semi-mystical writing about nature and the countryside. He had stumbled across Jefferies by chance, thinking that his *The gamekeeper at home* might be a sequel to *Lady Chatterley's lover*. He read every known work published by Jefferies (and much unpublished work in his notebooks and letters), gaining a clear insight into the development of his writing and the evolution of his thoughts and ideas. He served as president of the Richard Jefferies Society and in 1993, with George Miller, published a thorough and authoritative bibliography of Jefferies's work. He followed this with *The forward life of Richard Jefferies: a chronological study* (Oxford, Pelton, 1994, written with Phyllis Treitel). He also produced a new index and anthology of Jefferies's works with the assistance of Rebecca Welshman. A contemplative man who enjoyed a pipe and listening to jazz, Matthews devoted himself to books and, after his retirement in the mid-1990s, developed his skills as an artist. He exhibited his pictures at shows held by the Tiverton Arts Society, of which he was a member. In 1968 he married Judy Thain, who survived him with their son and daughter. Hugoe Matthews died on 10 March 2011.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001436
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wright, Peter Randell (1919 - 2007)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Michael Edgar
Publication Date 2011-09-29
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373620373620
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Peter Wright was a well-known and well-regarded figure in the British Orthopaedic Association of the 1970s and 1980s as an articulate contributor to the biannual conferences. Much of this arose from his considerable experience of working in developing countries, notably Malawi, Burma and South Africa. His active involvement in World Orthopaedic Concern also derived from that experience. Peter Randell Wright was born on 11 January 1919. He grew up in Leeds, the product of a Christian (Methodist) household. He was the eldest of three brothers, all of whom entered medicine, the other two becoming general practitioners, the elder having obtained his FRCS. His father, Herbert Randell Poulter Wright, was a commercial representative and his mother Alice Jane Wright née Wooley, the daughter of a brick manufacturer, was a classical musician, instilling a musical interest in her eldest son. From Roundhay High School, Leeds, Peter moved to Leeds Grammar School from 1927 to 1937. He was attracted to medicine by the example of the family's GP in Leeds and won an open scholarship in natural sciences to the Queen's College Oxford in 1937, supported by the Leeds senior city scholarship in medicine. He did his clinical studies at the Radcliffe Infirmary and became a house surgeon to Sir Herbert Seddon, who was then involved in his classic work on peripheral nerve injuries at the Wingfield-Morris Hospital, Oxford. Called up to the RAMC in 1943, he progressed to the rank of major as a deputy assistant director medical services in South East Asia Command, from 1945 until his demobilisation a year later. Peter Wright returned to be a house surgeon to Sir Hugh Cairns at the Radcliffe Infirmary and, after passing the FRCS, was appointed as a registrar in general surgery to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, from 1948 to 1949. He returned to Oxford as a senior registrar to the accident service at the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1949 and, a year later, moved back to the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Hospital as the resident surgical officer under George R Girdlestone and Joseph Trueta. Peter Wright achieved his consultant appointment in 1952 to the Canterbury and Thanet Health District, with what he has described as a fortunate balance. This comprised trauma at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital with beds for elective orthopaedics at the Royal Sea-Bathing Hospital Margate, free from the constraints of an increasing trauma load at the acute hospital. During his valued 29 years in this position until his retirement from the NHS in 1981 he was joined by five colleagues who formed an integrated and happy team. The re-organisation of specialty training in the late sixties enabled Canterbury and Margate to become part of the King's College Hospital higher surgical training programme in orthopaedics. In 1966, Peter was seconded for a year to Burma by the NHS, under the Colombo plan, to start a training programme in trauma and orthopaedics, initially involving seven young Burmese surgeons. During that period he advised the Burma government on the establishment of a national trauma service based at the main teaching hospitals in Rangoon (Yangon) and Mandalay. He returned for further three-month secondments between 1972 and 1984. Retirement from the NHS in 1981 at the age of 62 left him with more time to be involved in the orthopaedics of developing countries. With the opportunities in Burma no longer available, he turned his attention to Africa, becoming orthopaedic surgeon to the government of Zululand between 1982 and 1987. In 1983 he advised the government of Brunei on paediatric orthopaedics. He worked in the MAP (Malawi Against Polio) programme until his total retirement from clinical orthopaedics in July 1989, aged 70. Peter's private life was full. He married Margaret Alice Milward in 1943. They had two natural sons, Martin John and David Charles, and then, 10 years later, two daughters by adoption, Elizabeth Jeanetta and Alison Mary. His wife Margaret predeceased him in 1996. He subsequently married Jean Davies, a teacher. They moved back to Oxford. Peter and Jean participated in the activities of the Senior Fellows Society. Peter Wright's orthopaedic contributions included papers on traumatic chylothorax, posterior dislocation of the shoulder, and fractures of the forearm in children in the British volumes of the *Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery*. He was a member of the British Orthopaedic Association council from 1965 to 1966. As a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine he was on the orthopaedic section committee from 1964 to 1966. He was a member of and made significant contributions to the meetings of World Orthopaedic Concern from 1974 until his last few years. Outside medicine, he was a member of his local Rotary Club from 1956 to 1997 and the Samaritans from 1982 to 1986. In 1997, he joined the then 'Blairite' Labour Party and also in 1997 threw his weight behind the Voluntary Euthanasia Society. Peter Wright achieved success at golf, squash and rugby fives in school teams and represented his college at cricket and rugby during his Oxford days. Thereafter, he continued with his interests in rock climbing and mountain walking. In later years he enjoyed travelling widely and developed ornithological expertise, particularly in Burma and South Africa. Music was always an important hobby following his mother's early encouragement. He played a range of keyboard instruments, built and played his own clavichord and harpsichord and was always in demand to accompany voice and strings. He died on 10 April 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001437
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Walkey, Gilbert Benjamin Rowland (1916 - 2009)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-09-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373621373621
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gilbert Benjamin Rowland Walkey - known as 'Ben' - was a surgeon who spent most of his working life in India. He was born in Marazion, Cornwall, on 27 June 1916. His father, Oliver, was a clerk in holy orders. Ben was one of seven children. He had an older brother, Sam, and five younger brothers and sisters - Lucy, Josephine, Barbara, Jack and Richard ('Dick'). Ben went to Wallingbrook School in north Devon and Truro Cathedral School, as well as being home-tutored, together with his brothers and sisters, by his father, a strict disciplinarian. Ben often used to reminisce wryly about his father's rule that each morning the boys should have a dip in the icy stream running through their garden. Ben set his heart on studying medicine, and his father, who by this time was working in India, eventually agreed. It was made financially possible by his generous benefactor, Maude Heaton, whom the Walkey family had got to know in Cornwall. Ben studied at King's College, London, from October 1935 until September 1938, and went on to Westminster Hospital to finish his medical training. He qualified in 1941 and, after a year of internship, joined the Indian Medical Service in February 1942. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Burma Campaign with the 14th Army and took part in the occupation of the Malay peninsula after the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945. He was twice mentioned in despatches. He was demobilised in 1946. After leaving the Indian Medical Service, he worked in the West Middlesex Hospital until 1948, and passed the FRCS whilst there. In later years he recorded his excitement at leaping up the marble staircase to receive his diploma from the examiners who included Stanford Cade from the Westminster. In 1950 he joined the Dohnavur fellowship, a Christian missionary organisation, in India, where he stayed until 1963. During this time he married Margaret Pauline Craig - 'Peggy' - and they had a son, Martin Rowland, who, tragically, lived only a few hours. Ben contracted polio soon after arriving in Dohnavur, but was very relieved that it did not affect his violin playing, though he was left with a limp. After Dohnavur, Ben worked at the Catherine Booth Hospital in Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, and in 1966 moved on to the Christian Medical College and Hospital in Vellore. He worked alongside Paul Brand, developing techniques for the surgical reconstruction of hands, feet and eyes deformed by leprosy. Ben also taught in the department of surgery at the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore. During this time Ben and Peggy became mission partners with the Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship - now Interserve. Ben's last six years in India were spent working in Bethesda Leprosy Hospital in Andhra Pradesh, which he described as being professionally the most fulfilling. He left India in April 1982 and worked as a locum general practitioner in Tamworth, Staffordshire, until he retired at the age of 79 in 1995. He and Peggy spent their final years in Pilgrim Homes, Evington, Leicester. He died on 21 December 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001438
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Paton-Philip, Philip (1922 - 2009)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-09-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373622373622
Occupation Urologist
Details Philip Paton-Philip was a consultant urologist at Epsom and District Hospital and St Helier Hospital, Carshalton, also serving as a senior lecturer to St George's Hospital Medical School with honorary consultant status. He was born in Cambridge on 12 September 1922, the eldest son of Wilfrid Paton Philip, a chest physician, and Mary Simpson, a nursing sister, whose own father had been a journalist. Educated at Perse School, Cambridge, Philip Paton-Philip proceeded to St John's College, Cambridge, for his natural science studies. He then went to St Bartholomew's Medical School on a Kitchener scholarship. After house appointments, in 1947 he served in the chest unit at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, as surgeon in charge with the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. In his post-service appointments he worked as a resident surgical officer at the London Clinic, and it was here that he was greatly influenced by Rodney Maingot, Dickson Wright, Sir Harold Gillies and Sir Archibald McIndoe. Definitive surgical and specialist urological training came as a senior registrar and chief assistant at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he worked with Rupert Corbett and Alec Badenoch, the latter influencing his future specialist career. He was a clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital for the Stone, London. In 1964 he was appointed to his definitive appointment, as a consultant urologist at Epsom and District Hospital and St Helier Hospital, Carshalton. He published in the thoracic field, particularly on death from air embolism whilst serving in the Royal Navy, and later on feminising testicular tumours. He had an extensive private practice. He retired early from the NHS in 1985. He was a member of the Hunterian Society, the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Association of Urological Surgeons and the British Academy of Expert Witnesses, having developed a reputation in the medico-legal side of urology, thoracic surgery and problems associated with deep-water diving. Outside medicine, Philip Paton-Philip was an accomplished horseman and competed regularly in amateur cross country and show jumping championships. He was a member of the Garrick and Savage clubs. Philip Paton-Philip married Julia Vaux in 1959, by whom he had one son, Charles. Later he was married for 34 years to Christina Bernhardson, a dental surgeon from Sweden, whom he had met whilst riding in Hyde Park. They had two sons, the elder, Richard, became a barrister, and James, a solicitor. Their parents sponsored both of them to play polo for Eton. In later years Philip Paton-Philip developed Alzheimer's disease: Christina cared for him with great devotion during those difficult times. He died in hospital on 2 March 2009. Christina and his three sons, Charles, Richard and James, survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001439
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doratt, Sir John ( - 1863)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-05 2013-08-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373623373623
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Doratt, a pupil of John Hunter, practised in Bruton Street, in Brussels, for many years in Paris, and then again in London. His address was for a long time in Pall Mall, and then, after various changes of residence, he settled at 4 St Martin's Place. He was twice an Embassy Physician, accompanying the first Earl of Durham to Russia in 1835-1837, and to Canada in 1838. He received the honour of knighthood at St James's Palace on February 14th, 1838. He died in 1863 at the age of 91 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. There is a manuscript in the College (Stone Collection) written by Sir John Doratt which gives an account of an embalming "performed by Mr Home, myself acting as Assistant: the Body was an Earl of Moira, all under the immediate direction of Mr John Hunter". His name is spelt Dorat in the French manner in the *Medical Directory*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001440
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Doubleday, Edward (1798 - 1882)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Duffin, Alfred Baynard (1834 - 1913)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373625373625
Occupation Physician
Details The son of Edward Wilson Duffin, MD (qv); was educated at King's College, London, and at the Universities of Edinburgh and Berlin. He came under the influence of Virchow in Berlin, and thus acquired an interest in pathology which coloured all his later work as clinician and teacher. He was House Physician at King's College Hospital in 1858 under Drs George Budd, Todd, and George Johnson. He became Assistant Physician there at the same time as Edward Liveing and Symes Thompson, but did not become Physician to in-patients until 1874. During the latter part of this long service in the out-patient room he devoted one afternoon a week to the treatment of out-patients with skin diseases, and his teaching in this subject was much appreciated by the students. In 1876 he succeeded Lionel Beale as Professor of Pathological Anatomy, and in 1893 was elected Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine. He held this latter chair alone for a few years, till joined in its duties by Burney Yeo, who succeeded him when he became Professor of Clinical Medicine. He was for a long period an active member of the Committee of Management of King's College Hospital. On retiring from service on the hospital staff in 1898 he was made Consulting Physician and Emeritus Professor of Medicine. From 1894-1896 he was a member of the Council of the Royal College of Physicians, and from 1889-1892 was an Examiner in Medicine. He also examined in medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He somewhat prided himself on being one of the few physicians practising medicine who possessed the qualification of FRCS. He was examiner for various Assurance Companies, and attended pretty regularly the meetings of the Pathological Society and the Clinical Society. For many years he was Physician to the Church Missionary Society, and was himself a man of strong religious convictions on Missions. He lived and practised for long at 18 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, W, and died, after his retirement, at his residence, Wallington, Surrey, on February 10th, 1913. He never married, but devoted his life to the companionship and care of an invalid relative. He left net personalty of over £48,000. Portraits of him accompany his biographies in the *Lancet* and *British Medical Journal*. Publications: "Cellular Pathology." - Beale's *Archives*, ii. "Perforation of Peritoneum." - *Ibid*. "Stricture of the Sigmoid Flexure: Colotomy." - *Trans. Pathol. Soc.*, 1868, xix, 197. "Temperature in Syphilis." - *Trans. Clin. Soc*., 1870, iii, 170. "Early Diagnosis of Small-pox." - *Ibid.*, 1871, iv, 117. "Treatment of Hydatids of the Liver." - *Ibid.*, 1878, vi, 23. "The Abstraction of Blood, Clinically Considered." - *King's College Hosp. Rep.*, 1895 i, 31. "Perinephric Abscess." - *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1870, ii, 362.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001442
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Goodall, Peter (1927 - 2006)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-05-10
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/372530372530
Occupation General surgeon
Details Peter Goodall was a consultant general surgeon in Derby. He was born on 8 February 1927 in London, the son of the Rev Norman Goodall, a minister of religion, and Doris Stanton, a Birmingham Medical School graduate. Peter was educated at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Barnet and Highgate School, and then Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He then went to Westminster Hospital for his clinical studies, where he won a scholarship in anatomy and physiology and the Chadwick prize in medicine, surgery and pathology. After house jobs at the Westminster Hospital he did his National Service in the RAF Medical Branch. He returned to the Westminster as a resident medical officer, and then went on to a post as surgical registrar at Oxford under ‘Tim’ Till and Joe Pennybacker. He was subsequently a senior registrar in Cardiff under Sir Patrick Forrest and Hilary Wade. Sir Patrick wrote of him: ‘When I went to Cardiff in 1961 there were no research facilities, there were no research staff, but one senior registrar…Peter Goodall. He wanted equipment to study reflux through the oesophageal sphincter. It cost £100 and the department bought it for him. His clinical work was meticulous. He was a perfectionist and liked things to go where they were meant to go.’ Peter Goodall was appointed as a consultant in Derby, where he built up a reputation as a careful and reliable surgeon, particularly in the surgery of the stomach and the thyroid, and one who took pains to train his junior staff. His operating theatre was a temple of silence, so that he could concentrate on the task in hand: woe betide anyone who disturbed the peace. He was active in the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Welsh Surgical Travelling Club, and served on the Court of Examiners of our College. He married Rhonwen (Wendy) Bulkely Williams in 1952, by whom he had a son and three daughters, two of whom went into nursing. He was keen on gardening and was a fine joiner, making many items of furniture out of cedar and green oak. He played the oboe well, and was particularly interested in the music of Finzi. In retirement he continued to enjoy all these hobbies and, together with Wendy, painstakingly restored a house in the Dordogne. Seemingly austere and perhaps a little shy, Peter will be remembered as perhaps one of the last gentleman surgeons, always the champion of his patients. He died on 30 October 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000344
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Leacock, Sir Aubrey Gordon (1918 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2012-03-14
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/372278372278
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Aubrey Gordon Leacock, known as 'Jack', was a leading consultant surgeon in Barbados. He was born on 27 October 1918 in Barbados, into an established Bridgetown family. His father, Sir Stephen Leacock, was a leading merchant. He received his early education in Barbados, at Harrison College. In 1928, he won a scholarship to Rugby, from which he went on to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he took first class honours. He went on to St Bartholomew's for his clinical training. He was a senior registrar at St George's, Tooting, and was on blood transfusion duty at the Channel ports when the British Expeditionary Force came back from Dunkirk, a heart condition having prevented him from active service. His interest was always in surgery and he became a senior registrar at St Bartholomew's when many of the consultant staff had both a national and international reputation. Jack Leacock's particular interest was in anorectal surgery. He might well have obtained a consultancy in the United Kingdom, but, when on a short trip home in 1948, he was offered an appointment at the General Hospital in Barbados. At this time general practitioners carried out the general surgery and gynaecology, the only specialists being in ENT and ophthalmology. His London training, surgical skill and imagination completely revolutionised the care of the people of Barbados. He was the first to introduce oesophagectomy for carcinoma of the oesophagus, replacing it with large bowel. His range of surgery was enormous, and done with a high degree of skill. Each year he would visit the USA or UK to keep up to date, particularly in the management of scoliosis, where he used Harrington's rods to correct the deformity. At the time of independence the British, as a goodwill gesture, built the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Barbados. Jack Leacock was involved in its design, and in setting up a blood bank, for which he had to overcome some local beliefs. Early on, he recognised the need for birth control in a small island with a burgeoning population and was one of the founders of the Barbados Family Planning Association in 1950, which effectively halved the birth rate. He was a keen sportsman, enjoying sailing, snow skiing, hang-gliding, wind surfing and polo. He rode until he was nearly 80, and began playing squash in his early seventies. He enjoyed travelling and was a talented pianist. He was equally keen on reading, and after he retired in 1977 he wrote a weekly column in the Barbados *Advocate*, in which he commented on a wide range of topics. He was knighted in 2002 for his many services to Barbados. He died in Barbados on 24 August 2003. He is survived by his wife, Margaret-Ann, whom he married in 1962, and two daughters from his first marriage and one from his second. He had two grandchildren. He gave instructions that there should be no funeral, just a simple cremation, to be followed a week later by a jazz party.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000091
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Leighton, Susanna Elizabeth Jane (1959 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12 2011-07-20
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/372279372279
Occupation Paediatric otolaryngologist
Details Susanna Elizabeth Jane Leighton née Hurley was a consultant paediatric otolaryngologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She was born in Kobe, Japan, on 20 January 1959. She qualified at St Thomas's Hospital, London, where she completed an intercalated BSc in anatomy, and was vice-president of the Amalgamated Clubs and secretary of the Medical and Physical Society. After house jobs, she decided to train as a surgeon, and became the lead surgeon on the cochlear implant team at Great Ormond Street. She also developed an interest in airway management in craniosynostosis and wrote extensively on the subject, producing guidelines. She married Barry and had a daughter (Claudia) and two sons (John and Finn). She died from metastatic breast cancer on 6 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000092
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Luke, James (1799 - 1881)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

First Title value, for Searching Douglas-Crawford, Douglas (1867 - 1927)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373627373627
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born in Liverpool, the son of a local medical man. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Junior Demonstrator in Pathology; after graduating he became Demonstrator of Anatomy to Professor Melville Paterson at University College, Dundee. He pursued his medical studies in Berlin, and at University College Hospital. After obtaining his Fellowship he joined the staff of the University of Liverpool as Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy under his former chief, Professor Paterson. Until the day of his death the importance of anatomy in surgery was an outstanding feature of his life's work. By every means in his power he sought to promote the study of anatomy as applied to surgery, both general and dental. In 1903 he became Lecturer at the University in Surgical and Applied Anatomy; in 1907 Lecturer in Clinical Surgery; in 1912 Lecturer in Clinical Surgery for Dental Students. In the same year he was a Vice-President of the Section of Anatomy at the Liverpool Meeting of the British Medical Association, and in 1925-1926 he was Chairman of the Faculty of Medicine. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Stanley Hospital in 1895, and full Surgeon in 1898. In 1910 he became Surgeon to the Royal Southern Hospital, where till the time of his death the bulk of his hospital surgery was carried out, and where he was latterly Senior Hon Surgeon. At the time of his death he also held the posts of Consulting Surgeon to the Liverpool Dental Hospital, the Hoylake and West Kirby Cottage Hospital, and the Druids Cross Hospital. During the Great War he served in Liverpool, and abroad with the 1st Western General Hospital. Much of his energy was given at one time and another to the Liverpool Dental Hospital and to teaching in the University. He was Tutor to Dental Students, to whom his instruction made a special appeal and among whom his reputation was high. He practised at 75 Rodney Street. A most active man, of breezy, cheerful manners, he had just been granted an extension of his term of office as Senior Surgeon of the Royal Southern Hospital, when he died suddenly while engaged in his usual work, on February 7th, 1927. He left a widow, but no children. Publications:- "Intraspinal Tumours, with Case of Successful removal." - *Liverpool Med.-Chir. Jour*., 1909, xxix, 815. "Chronic Prostatitis: its Cause and Treatment." - *Ibid.*, 1910, xxx, 300. "Volvulus." - *Ibid.*, 1911, xxxi, 891. "Jejunostomy for Malignant Stricture of Oesophagus." - *Ibid.*, 1914, xxxiv, 270.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001444
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Drake-Brockman, Edward Forster (1843 - 1919)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-10-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373628373628
Occupation Ophthalmic surgeon
Details The son of Lieut-Colonel H J Brockman. He was educated at St George's Hospital, where he was a contemporary of Pickering Pick (qv), John Cavafy, and T T Whipham. He also studied at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, and was Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1865. He passed first into and first out of Netley, and joined the Indian Medical Service in 1866 with a special recommendation to the Government of India. He was stationed for his period of service at Madras, where he made a reputation as an Ophthalmologist. For many years he was Superintendent of the Eye Infirmary, Madras; Fellow of the University of Madras; and Professor of Physiology and of Diseases of the Eye at the Madras Medical College. In 1882-1883 he appears to have changed his name to Drake-Brockman. The dates of his appointments in the Indian Medical Service are: Assistant Surgeon, October 1st, 1866; Surgeon, July 1st, 1873; Surgeon Major, October 1st, 1878; Brigade Surgeon, April 21st, 1890. He retired from the service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on April 4th, 1894, having received a special tribute of appreciation of his work from the Madras Government. He then practised at 14 Welbeck Street, London, was a Member of the Medical Board, India Office, from August, 1897, to June, 1900, and a Representative on the Council of the British Medical Association, on the Central Council, and on the Parliamentary Bills Committee. He was compelled to retire from all work by severe illness early in 1916, and he died at Hatch End on May 1st, 1919. He was survived by a widow, three sons (of whom one was a medical man) and a married daughter. His brother was Ralph Thomas Brockman, of Sandgate, whose grandson, R St Leger Brockman, FRCS, practised at Sheffield. Publications:- Drake-Brockman contributed extensively to the literature of his subject, mostly in the *Ophthalmic Review*. His publications include:- "Report of 22 Cases of Cataract Operated on by the Modified Linear Extraction." -*Madras Med. Jour.*, xl. This describes an operation devised by himself. "Chronic Tuberculosis Complicated with Dengue." - *Ibid.*, vii.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001445
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lumb, Geoffrey Norman (1925 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Organ, Claude H (1927 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2006-12-21
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/372358372358
Occupation General surgeon
Details Claude Organ was a distinguished American surgeon and the second African-American President of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in 1927 in Marshall, Texas, and educated at Terrell High School, Denison, and then Xavier University, Louisiana. Denied acceptance to the University of Texas on account of his colour, he studied medicine at the Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha. After qualifying in 1952 he served in the US Navy, before returning to Creighton to complete his surgical training, rising to become chairman of his department in 1971. There he became famous for encouraging his trainees to pursue bio-molecular research. He then went on to be professor and chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Oklahoma, leaving in 1988 to establish the University of California Davis-East Bay department of surgery in Oakland, now UCSF East Bay department of surgery. He remained there as chairman until 2003. He was chairman of the American Board of Surgery and President of the American College of Surgeons, being honoured by the distinguished service award of that Association, in addition to gaining numerous honorary degrees from all over the world, including the honorary Fellowship of our College. The author of more than 250 papers and five books, he was for 15 years the editor of *Archives of Surgery*. He was a frequent visitor to the UK, and in 1999 was invited to tour the British Isles as the *British Journal of Surgery* travelling fellow to review our methods of surgical training and the role of women in surgery, as a result of which he presented a detailed and perceptive report to the Association of Surgeons in 2000. He died on 18 June 2005 in Berkeley, California, and is survived by his wife Elizabeth Lucille Mays, five sons (Brian, Paul, Gregory, David and Claude) and two daughters (Sandra and Rita). The Claude and Elizabeth Organ professorship at Xavier University has been endowed in his memory.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000171
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rajani, Manohar Radhakrishnan (1935 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 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/372359372359
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 19 January 1935, Manohar Rajani qualified in Bombay and after junior posts went to England to specialise in surgery. After passing the FRCS he did a series of training posts, before going to Canada in 1965, where he passed the Canadian FRCS and settled down in practice in Toronto. He died on 13 April 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000172
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Robert Edward Duncan (1927 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 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/372360372360
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Bob Williams was a distinguished urological surgeon based in Leeds. He was born on 18 December 1927 in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, the son of Robert Williams, a steelworker, and Janet McNeil. He was educated at Dalziel High School, Motherwell, and Glasgow Medical School. After house jobs in Glasgow he did his National Service in the RAMC, serving as resident medical officer to the Northumberland Fusiliers in Hong Kong. On his return, he received his general surgical training under Sir Charles Illingworth in Glasgow and John Goligher in Leeds, before deciding to specialise in urology, which in those days was emerging as a separate entity. He became senior registrar to Leslie Pyrah in Leeds, who had set up a pioneering stone clinic. There he carried out a painstaking and far-reaching study of the natural history of renal tract stone, which won him his MD. After this he went to work with Wyland Leadbetter at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, in 1964, where he carried out research on total body water and whole body potassium, which was to win him a commendation for his MCh thesis. On his return he was appointed to the consultant staff of the University of Leeds urological department in 1966. He had many interests which were shown in his numerous publications, most notably on urinary calculi, bladder cancer and lymphadenectomy. He followed Leslie Pyrah in the energetic pursuit of the establishment of urology as a separate discipline in the British Isles, which won him the admiration and respect of his colleagues. Bob was president of the section of urology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1989 and a very active member of BAUS, of which he was president from 1990 to 1992. He was awarded the St Peter’s medal of the Association in 1993. He examined for the Edinburgh and English Colleges, and was an invited member of Council of our College from 1989 to 1992. In 1958 he married Lora Pratt, an Aberdeen graduate who was a GP and part-time anaesthetist. They had a son (Duncan) and two daughters (Bryony and Lesley), all of whom became doctors. A genial, cheerful and amusing colleague, Bob was struck down by renal failure caused by polycystic disease of the kidneys, but continued with great courage to work and publish and play an active part in BAUS, despite the need for regular dialysis. A renal transplant unfortunately underwent rejection, and he was, reluctantly, obliged to retire in 1991. He died on 26 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000173
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gough, David Christopher Simmonds (1947 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372361372361
Occupation Paediatric urologist
Details David Gough was consultant paediatric urologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. He was born on 7 July 1947 in Almondsbury, near Bristol, to Alan Gough, an electrical engineer, and Gillian née Shellard. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Liverpool University, where he helped to build a magnificent steam engine float for rag week, and met his future wife, Elizabeth. After qualifying he completed junior appointments at Broadgreen, the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital, Addenbrooke’s and the Welsh National School of Medicine, during which time he was greatly influenced by Walpole Lewin and P P Rickham. He then spent two years at the Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital before being appointed to Manchester. At first he was a paediatric surgeon with a special interest in neonatal surgery, and gradually moved on to paediatric urology, where he was particularly interested in congenital abnormalities, including exstrophy (for which he set up the National Bladder Exstrophy Service) and spina bifida, for which he set up a special unit, the second in England. He was an enthusiastic proponent and founder-member of the British Association of Paediatric Urologists and of the European Society for Paediatric Urology. He inherited a passion for restoring old cars from his father, and in later life was interested in collecting art and enjoying good wine. A committed Christian, he worked tirelessly for the underprivileged in Manchester and Salford, for whom he established a refuge. He married Elizabeth Brice in 1970. They had three children, one of whom became a doctor. He died on 29 March 2005 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000174
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bond, Alec Graeme (1926 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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 Mackie, David Bonar (1936 - 2005)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2006-11-30
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/372284372284
Occupation General surgeon
Details David Bonar Mackie was a consultant general surgeon in Salisbury, Wiltshire. His parents David Taylor Mackie and Mary Gray née Chittick were Scottish. His father was a GP in Aberdour, Fife, and then moved to a general practice in Exeter, where Bonar was born in 1936. Bonar was educated at Sherborne School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, going on to the Middlesex Hospital for his clinical studies. After house appointments he completed surgical registrar jobs at the Middlesex and Central Middlesex Hospitals, working for, among others, Cecil Murray, Leslie LeQuesne and Peter Riddle. In 1969 he won a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Mississippi. He was appointed as a consultant to the Salisbury District Hospitals in 1972. There he developed a short stay ward, and breast surgery and specialised urology services. In 1964 he married Jennifer Bland. They had three children, one of whom is a dental surgeon. A keen sportsman, Bonar particularly enjoyed golf and racing. He was medical officer to the Salisbury race course and owned, with friends, several more or less successful horses. He died on 25 January 2005, after a prolonged and slowly deteriorating Pick’s disease.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000097
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marchant, Mary Kathleen (1924 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
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/372285372285
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Mary Marchant was a former plastic surgeon in Liverpool. Born in 1924, she qualified in medicine at Liverpool and began her career as a house officer at Smithdown Road Hospital. She trained in surgery and practised in and around Liverpool, before specialising in plastic surgery. She helped set up the first plastic surgery unit in Liverpool at Whiston Hospital. In 1965, she joined a missionary surgery in Uganda, spending four years there, returning to England in 1969 because of ill health. She joined a general medical practice in Penny Lane, Liverpool, and retired in 1983. She died on 18 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000098
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marsh, John David (1925 - 2004)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2007-03-08
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/372286372286
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Marsh was a consultant surgeon to the South Warwickshire NHS Trust. His father, Alfred Marsh, was a general practitioner in Chorley, Lancashire, where John was born on 8 April 1925. His mother was Dorothea Maud née Saywell. From the Terra Nova Preparatory School in Southport he won a scholarship to Clifton College, and from Clifton a minor scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge. He went on to St Thomas’s Hospital for his clinical studies, where he won the London prize for medicine. After house jobs under R H Boggon and R W Nevin, he entered the RAMC and spent his two years National Service at Tidworth. From there he returned to be senior house officer at the Henry Gauvain Hospital at Alton under Nevin, did a casualty post in Salisbury and was resident surgical officer at the Hallam Hospital, West Bromwich. Having passed his FRCS, he returned to be assistant lecturer on John Kinmonth’s surgical unit at St Thomas’s. He spent the next three years on rotation to the Royal Waterloo Hospital and Hydestyle, before becoming senior registrar at King’s College Hospital under Harold Edwards and Sir Edward Muir. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon to the South Warwickshire NHS in 1963. He said of his time there: “Warwick was a happy time. I like to think that my main contribution was those RSOs who we taught. We identified a gap in the market for people with the Primary who needed experience to get the Final. Basically, I did all the things that had not been done to me (with a few exceptions). I came in to help with emergencies and did not allow them to be loaded with things beyond their then experience. Then we tutored them through their exams. Most of them went on to do very well. When I retired after my coronary what I missed most was the stimulus of good juniors and the teaching.” He developed a particular interest in paediatric surgery, was the College surgical tutor for the West Midlands, and served as examiner and Chairman of the Court. In 1952 he married Elizabeth Catherwood, an artist. They had a son (Simon), two daughters (Alison and Catherine) and six grandsons. Among his many interests were walking, reading and history, but above all he was a dedicated Christian and editor of the Christian Graduate and Chairman of the council of the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (from 1970 to 1980). He had his first heart attack in 1980, miraculously surviving a cardiac arrest and, wisely, took early retirement in 1983. He died on 25 January 2004 at Warwick Hospital, where he had worked for 20 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000099
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Matheson, John Mackenzie (1912 - 2003)

2025-06-23T15:49:25Z

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/372287372287
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Matheson was a former professor of military surgery at the Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, London. He was born in Gibraltar on 6 August 1912, the son of John Matheson, the then manager of the Eastern Telegraph station, and Nina. The family later moved on to Malta and then to Port Said. John was educated at the Lycée Francaise and then at George Watson’s College in Scotland, where he had some problems using English, being more fluent in Arabic and French. He had an outstanding academic career, and managed to finance much of his education through bursaries and scholarships. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where he was captain of athletics, and qualified in 1936. He then did research into the treatment of tuberculosis. He had joined the Territorial Army at university, so that, at the beginning of the second world war, he was quickly mobilised into the 23 Scottish General Hospital. On the first day at the new hospital, at the newly requisitioned Peebles Hydro, he met Agnes, known as ‘Nan’, the nursing sister who became his wife three years later. He saw service in Palestine, the Middle East and North Africa, where he was largely responsible for the organisation of medical services in the Tunisian campaign, before and after El Alamein, for which he was mentioned in despatches. He stayed with the 8th Army as they advanced into Italy. After the war, he remained in the RAMC and gained his FRCS as a clinical tutor in the surgical professorial unit in Edinburgh. For the next 36 years he served as a surgical consultant all over the world. From 1948 to 1950, he was medical liaison officer to the surgeon general of the US Army and chief of the surgical section at the Walter Reed Hospital, Washington. For this work he was awarded an OBE. From 1952 to 1953, he was in Canada and Austria. He then spent three years in Egypt in the Suez Canal zone. From 1961 to 1964, he was in Cyprus, and then spent a year, from 1967 to 1968, in Singapore, Hong Kong and Nepal. He also consulted in hospitals throughout the UK. His final posting in the Army was as commandant of the Army Medical College at Millbank and professor of military surgery. He was an honorary surgeon to the Queen from 1969 to 1971. During his time in the Army he was largely responsible for introducing central sterile supply into medical services, and made important contributions to the surgical management of gunshot wounds. On his retirement, he became postgraduate dean of medicine at Edinburgh University, a job he enjoyed for nearly 10 years. He was President of the Military Surgeons’ Society, the RAMC Association, honorary colonel of 205 Scottish General Hospital, and Chairman of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Samaritans’ committee and Scottish committee member of the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society. He was a senior elder of the kirk of Greyfriars. His wife, Nan, predeceased him in 1995, but he continued to be active, taking classes in cookery, computing and Gaelic. He had an infectious sense of humour, and his genuine compassion and unfailing optimism made him a much-admired colleague. He died on 9 November 2003. One daughter survives him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000100
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset