Search Results for Burkitt

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

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Jones, Roger Barritt (1944 - 2012)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-09-07 2014-10-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002800-E002899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375030375030
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Roger Barritt Jones was a consultant surgeon and clinical director of surgery and urology at Rotherham General Hospital. He studied medicine at Manchester University, gaining a BSc in 1965 and graduating MB ChB in 1968. After house posts, he was an assistant lecturer in anatomy at Manchester University, and a registrar in surgery at the University Hospital of South Manchester. Prior to his appointment to his consultant post, he was a senior registrar in general surgery at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield. Roger Barritt Jones died on 18 June 2012, aged 67. He was survived by his wife, Hilary, and sons Andrew, Richard and Paul.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002847
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Rose, Michael Barritt (1940 - 2016)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Keith Vaughton
Publication Date 2016-07-29 2017-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381411381411
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Michael Rose was a highly-respected urologist who worked all his consultant life in Swansea, south Wales. He was born on 4 September 1940 whilst his parents were visiting the Philippines on holiday from south China. His mother, Dorothy Rose née Barritt, went into early labour following treatment with quinine for a bout of malaria. His father, John Richard Rose, was a surgeon who had studied at Queens' College, Cambridge and trained at St Thomas' Hospital, London. In 1932, he became a Methodist missionary doctor in south China, which is where Michael was brought up as a small boy. At the age of one Michael and his parents were incarcerated by the Japanese following their invasion of China. The family suffered much hardship, brutality, hunger and fear until the end of the Pacific war in 1945. Just a year later the family returned to China, where his father was rebuilding the Methodist hospital, only to experience evacuation again as Westerners were thrown out of the country by Communist rebels. Michael started his formal schooling in 1948 at Kent College, Canterbury. From here he gained a place at Queens' College, Cambridge to read medicine. At university he enjoyed cross country running and squash, and throughout his life he had a keen interest in the natural world and natural history. His other interest was bell ringing and it was through this shared enthusiasm that he met his future wife Hilary (née Griffiths) when they were both ringing at Trumpington Parish Church. They were married in the summer of 1964. After qualifying, Michael did house officer and senior house officer posts in Taunton, Canterbury, Bath and Bristol, before returning to St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey. From there he was appointed to the senior registrar rotation in urology at Leeds in 1975. He started his consultant career in Swansea in 1977. He was given the responsibility for developing the embryonic urology service and by the time he retired in 2000 there were three consultant urologists. He had a particular interest in endoscopic surgery and stone disease having written his MChir thesis on the 'Urinary inhibition of renal stone formation'. He, with colleagues, introduced percutaneous stone surgery and extracorporeal lithotripsy to Swansea. He was clinical lead urologist and programme director in urology for a number of years. He was first secretary and then chairman of the Welsh Urological Society. In 1994, his department was short-listed for Urology Team of the Year. In 1992, he invited the British Association of Urological Surgeons to hold their autumn meeting in Swansea. A year earlier, Michael took part in a six-month exchange with George McGirr, a consultant urologist from Whangarei in New Zealand. In his time as a consultant Michael published several papers in the *British Journal of Urology* and in the *Annals* of the Royal College of Surgeons. Outside medicine, Michael continued his enthusiasm for bell ringing and his love of the natural world, which complemented the interests of his wife Hilary, who has a PhD in botany. Together they had two sons; Richard is a teacher and Philip is a professional photographer. After his retirement, Michael fulfilled a long-held ambition by studying English literature at Swansea University, for which he was awarded a first-class degree in 2010. Sadly, Michael was diagnosed with a progressive lung condition in the early 1990's. This caused his health and fitness to deteriorate relentlessly, leaving him severely debilitated and dependant on supplementary oxygen. He coped courageously with this illness, keeping himself as active as possible. He died on 11 July 2016 aged 75. He is remembered by all who worked with him as a kind and caring doctor, a talented surgeon with a compassionate personality; a true gentleman.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009228
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Burfitt-Williams, Walter John (1927 - 1996)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008400-E008499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380659380659
Occupation General surgeon
Details Walter John Burfitt-Williams was born in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, on 27 June 1927. His father, Grosvenor John Williams, was an ophthalmic surgeon. His mother, Mary Boyd Burfitt, was a physician. Two of his brothers were doctors - Thomas was a physician and Grosvenor, an ophthalmologist. Walter was educated at the Marcelin College, Sydney, and the University of Sydney. After junior appointments he went to England to specialise in surgery and passed the FRCS in 1957. He returned to Sydney as a clinical assistant at St Vincent's Hospital, and was appointed honorary surgeon to the Mater Misericordia and the Lewiston Hospitals. After passing the primary, he married Dorothy Laffy, a nursing sister he had met as an undergraduate in Sydney. They had no children. He was a keen golfer and follower of horse racing. He was the owner of several champion race horses and a member of the Jockey Club. In 1975 he was found to have multiple myeloma of the cervical spine and underwent many courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. When he found it difficult to stand he resigned from his hospital appointments, in 1981, but went on to develop a notable Limousin cattle stud on 640 acres in New South Wales, winning numerous prizes in shows.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008476
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Birkett, John (1815 - 1904)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-03-01 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372390372390
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born April 14th, 1815, at 10 The Terrace, Upper Clapton, Middlesex, the only child of John and Mary Birkett. Educated at various private schools; at one the master was a Frenchman, at another a mathematician and astronomer, and at a third a Greek scholar. Birkett thereby gained a wide general knowledge. In September, 1831, he was bound apprentice to Bransby Cooper, then Surgeon to Guy's Hospital, being, as is thought, the last pupil to pay the customary fee of £500 which gave the apprenticeship some claim to consideration when a vacancy occurred on the hospital staff. Birkett did not begin his medical studies at Guy's Hospital until October, 1832. He was admitted M.R.C.S. on Oct. 6th, 1837, and was immediately appointed a Demonstrator of Anatomy. He held the post until 1847, and had in succession as his colleagues James P. Babington, Thomas Moody, and Alfred Poland. He was elected F.R.C.S. without examination in 1844 and signalized the session 1845-1846 by giving demonstrations on microscopic anatomy on certain evenings in each week, and in this way beginning the teaching of histology in the medical school. In 1847 he was appointed to make the post-mortem examinations in the hospital, and in May, 1849, he was elected Assistant Surgeon in consequence of the death of John Morgan and the promotion of Edward Cock (q.v.). In the same year he gained the Jacksonian Prize for his Essay on "Diseases of the Mammary Gland". In this year, too, making a bid for practice he moved from 2 Broad Street Buildings, where he had lived since 1840, to Wellington Street, Southwark. He lectured on anatomy jointly with John Hilton (q.v.) in 1851, and two years later he was elected Surgeon to Guy's Hospital on the resignation of Bransby Cooper, his former master, and this post he held until 1875, when he retired on reaching the age of 60. As full Surgeon he lectured on surgery conjointly with John Poland, and in 1856 he moved to Green Street, Grosvenor Square, where he spent the rest of his active life until he retired to Sussex Gardens in 1896, where he died after a prolonged illness on July 6th, 1904. At the Royal College of Surgeons he served on the Council from 1867-1883, and was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology from 1869-1871, lecturing on the nature and treatment of new growths. He was an Examiner in Anatomy and Physiology (1875-1877), a Member of the Court of Examiners (1872-1882), of the Examining Board in Dental Surgery (1875-1882), Vice-President (1875 and 1876), and President (1877). He was one of the Founders of the Pathological Society of London and served as a Vice-President (1860-1862), doing good work by insisting upon the use of the microscope in the investigation of tumours at a time when such a method was unusual. He served for some years as Inspector for the Home Office of the Anatomical schools of Anatomy in the Provinces. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers in 1871 and 1892. In 1842 he married Lucy Matilda, daughter of Halsey Jansen; five sons and a daughter survived him out of a family of seven boys and three girls; two of his sons were distinguished football players. John Birkett was essentially a surgeon of the old school, a reliable operator, a good anatomist, and very careful in the after-treatment of his patients. He obtained good results because he was clean in himself, was not engaged in anatomy, and was accustomed to have the patient washed before he was brought into the operating theatre. The diagnosis and treatment of tumours of the breast, hernia operations, and the surgery of the arteries interested him most; abdominal operations and surgical interference with joints and veins were abhorrent to him. As a teacher he was slow and uninspiring; as an individual he was a cultured gentleman of wide knowledge, an excellent field botanist, and a great walker. In these walks he carried into private life the characteristics which had made him successful as a surgeon. Few men knew better than he how to use a map. To form one that could be serviceable and easily consulted even if the walk were no longer than from Sevenoaks to Maidstone or across the Yorkshire Moors from Danby to Goathland he would make the starting-point the centre by joining two or more of the ordnance survey plans. Then after bevelling the edges that the junction might be almost invisible, colouring the areas of equal height, describing concentric circles increasing by two or more miles, mounting on linen and constructing a case no whit inferior to that sold in the map-sellers' shops, he was secure from losing his way in his peregrinations, come fog, come snow, or blinding rain. Publications: - A. Von Behr's *Handbook of Human Anatomy, General, Special and Topographical.* Translated from the original German and adapted to the use of English students by John Birkett. 8vo, London, 1846. *Description of Some of the Tumours Removed from the Breast and Preserved in the Museum of Guy's Hospital,* 8vo, with 6 plates, London, 1848. *Diseases of the Breast and their Treatment* [Jacksonian Prize Essay], 8vo, plates, 1850. *Adenocele of the Mammary Gland, *8vo, London, 1855. *Contributions to the Practical Surgery of New Growths or Tumours. Series iii. Cysts* 12mo, plates, London, 1859. Articles on "Injuries of the Pelvis", "Hernia", and "Diseases of the Breast" in Holmes's *System of Surgery,* 1870, and again in Holmes and Hulke's *System of Surgery,* 1883.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000203
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Burnett, William (1921 - 1981)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-11-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006300-E006399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378569378569
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Burnett was born on 23 March 1921 and educated at Ballater and Banchory Schools on Deeside, Aberdeenshire. He entered Aberdeen University in 1938 and graduated in medicine with first class honours in 1943. He then spent a year as an assistant with Professor R D Lockhart in the University of Aberdeen department of anatomy as he had decided on a career in surgery. During this time he gained the Hallett Prize in the Primary Fellowship examination of the Royal College of Surgeons. He spent three years until 1948 serving in the RAMC in Germany, Palestine, Egypt and Greece. Returning to Aberdeen he began his surgical training with Professor W C Wilson in the Royal Infirmary and gained the FRCS in 1949. From 1951 to 1956 he held the post of lecturer in surgery in Aberdeen. The award of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1951 enabled him to spend a year at the University of Minnesota and he carried out research in diseases of the liver and gall bladder, in which he continued to have a special interest. For his thesis on the differential diagnosis of jaundice he was granted the ChM with honours by Aberdeen University. In 1956 Burnett was appointed a consultant surgeon with Professor Sir Charles Illingworth in the university unit of the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, and his interest was stimulated in gastric surgery and he early realised the value of the fibreoptic gastroscope. He became a member of the distinguished group of professors of surgery who owed their chief inspiration to Sir Charles Illingworth. In 1963 William Burnett was appointed Mayne Professor in the University of Queensland, Brisbane, and he built up a large and progressive university department where research was much emphasised. He did much to develop and expand the surgical services there, attracting young surgeons of quality to work with him. He was a skilful writer too, with many publications and the Australasian College owed him much for finally bringing to completion their *Manual of basic sciences in relation to surgery*. William Burnett was essentially a man's man, somewhat diffident and shy in company, though a splendid host. As a young man he was often climbing and hill-walking in the Cairngorms, he loved the hills of Deeside. He had a great interest in music and the arts, and he built up a personal collection of Australian paintings. For a time he was director of the Arts Council of Queensland and President of the Theatre Club in Brisbane. Although an accomplished teacher and researcher, he was the perennial student taking various university courses including French literature, world religions, Oriental languages and only a month before he died he gained a credit in Semitics. He was a most interesting companion with his incisive mind and objectivity apparent in his lively discourse on many and varied subjects. He was unmarried and survived by his sister, Mrs Helen Rimmer, in Brisbane. He died on 30 August 1981 at the age of 60.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006386
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Birkett, Arthur Noel (1905 - 1985)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-04-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007100-E007199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379320379320
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Born in Stockport, Cheshire, in 1905, Arthur Noel Birkett was educated at Stockport Grammar School and Manchester University where he graduated MB ChB in 1930. He held resident posts at Manchester Royal Infirmary and he demonstrated anatomy in the department of Professor J S B Stopford. He then became house surgeon at the National Orthopaedic Hospital for two years, obtaining the FRCS Diploma in 1936. He was appointed resident orthopaedic registrar to the General Hospital, Nottingham in 1937 and in 1946 he became the first honorary orthopaedic surgeon there, and to the City Hospital, the Children's and Ilkeston Hospitals. In addition to his orthopaedic commitments, he was responsible for a busy accident department at the General Hospital. He built up a large practice and because he was devoted to the care of his patients, he found it difficult to be punctual on occasion. On arriving late at the operating theatre one day an irate anaesthetist told him that he had taken a message and gave Birkett a number to ring. On dialling that number, he heard "at the third stroke, it will be..."! He was Chairman of the General Hospital Committee and a member of the Nottingham Medical Appeals Tribunal. In 1939, he married Mary, whom he first met when she was theatre sister at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. They had two daughters and a son who is now Associate Professor of Surgery at Boston, Massachusetts. He died suddenly, whilst hoeing his beloved roses, on 12 September 1985, survived by his wife, daughters, son and seven grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007137
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Burnett, Clifford William Furneaux (1906 - 1971)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-07-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005600-E005699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377866377866
Occupation General surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details William Burnett was born in London on 14 March 1906 and received his medical education at University College Hospital. As a student he won exhibitions in pathology and biology. After qualification in 1929 he took resident appointments at Portsmouth Hospital, and then settled in general practice at Rochester, Kent, where he stayed for five years. While in Kent he became interested in obstetrics and gynaecology, and in 1938 left general practice to join the obstetric and gynaecological unit at Southend Municipal Hospital, Essex; while working there he took his MRCOG in 1940. In 1941 Burnett moved to Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, as deputy superintendent with charge of the Obstetric and Gynaecological unit. Two years later he was appointed to the staff of the West Middlesex Hospital and remained there until his death. While at the West Middlesex he worked closely with David Stern and together they made many contributions to the literature of their subjects, including their well known text book *Modern practice of obstetrics*. Clifford Burnett will be best remembered for his outstanding ability as a teacher and lecturer. For some time he used to teach at the West London Hospital Medical School but when that closed he carried on postgraduate teaching with great success at the West Middlesex. Burnett was a member of the Council of the Royal College of Midwives, a lecturer at the College and a member of the editorial staff of the *Midwives chronicle*. He was also on the examination committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and he examined many times for the University of Khartoum from 1955 onwards. Though Burnett reached the retiring age early in 1971 he was still very active and hoped to obtain a post at one of the newer commonwealth schools where so many of his former students worked; but he died suddenly when he was about to start a teaching round at the West Middlesex on 20 November 1971. He was survived by his second wife and the daughter of his first marriage. His widow died three weeks after Burnett's death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005683
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Chaturvedi, Mahavir Pershad (1922 - 2007)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-03-24 2016-10-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009000-E009099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381261381261
Occupation General surgeon
Details Mahavir Pershad Chaturvedi was a general surgeon. His last-known address was in New York, USA. He was born in Benares, India, on 12 May 1922. His father, Mulchandji Chaturvedi, was a railway claims inspector. His mother, Phoolkunwar Chaturvedi née Chowdry, was the daughter of a banker. He was educated at a convent school and at the Government College, Ajmer, under Agra University. He went on to study medicine at GS Medical College in Bombay and BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad. He qualified as a licentiate certified physician and surgeon (LCPS) in 1946. He worked at the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Bombay, and in the UK, at Nottingham General Hospital. He listed Anappa Vithal Baliga, Profulla Kumar Sen, J F Sheehan and A K Burkitt as the surgeons who had influenced him. He gained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh in 1965, and a fellowship from the Canadian College in 1972. Outside medicine, he was interested in Indian classical music and the political history of India. In 1945 he married Padma. They had two sons. Mahavir Pershad Chaturvedi died on 8 April 2007. He was 84.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009078
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Nevill, Gerald Edward (1915 - 2003)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372467372467
Occupation General surgeon
Details Gerald Nevill was a consultant surgeon in Kenya. He was born on 22 December 1915 in Nurney, County Carlow, Ireland, the son of Alexander Colles Nevill, Archdeacon of the Church of Ireland, and Rosettah Fitzgerald, a teacher of modern languages and one of the first women to graduate from the University of Dublin. He was educated at Kilkenny College, where he gained a scholarship to Campbell College, Belfast. He subsequently won the McNeil medal for mathematics and played rugby for his school. He won an entrance sizarship to Dublin University, won first class honours in all his examinations, came first in the final examinations, was awarded the Hudson medal and scholarship, and played rugby for the university. After qualifying, he was house surgeon at the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, Salford Royal Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brighton. From 1940 to 1944 he served with the East African Forces. He went to London to do the Guy’s FRCS course and, having passed the FRCS, returned to Kenya as the successor to Roland Burkitt in Nairobi. He was appointed honorary consultant surgeon to the Native Civil Hospital, later the King George VI Hospital, and subsequently the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. He held honorary lecturer appointments at the Makerere University Hospital, Kampala, and the University of Nairobi Medical School, and was on the organising committee of the new medical school. He published many articles on general surgical topics in the *East African Medical Journal* and was a foundation member and later president of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa. Gerald Nevill married twice. His first wife was Hilda Francis Lurring, a school teacher, by whom he had three sons, one of whom became a doctor. His second marriage was to Mary Evelyn Furnivall née Brown. He continued on the rugby field for many years as a referee and was chairman of the Kenya Referees Society from 1965 to 1980. He was a keen fisherman and freemason. He died on 23 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000280
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First Title value, for Searching Singh, Pritam (1920 - 2009)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Manmeet Singh
Publication Date 2009-12-17 2010-05-26
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/373006373006
Occupation General surgeon
Details Pritam Singh was chief medical officer, director of health services and deputy secretary of health to the Punjab government in India. He was born in Patiala, India, on 9 January 1920. His father, Harcharan Singh Seraph, was an architect who had worked with Lutyens on the building of New Delhi. His mother was Gurdevi Kaur. After attending the celebrated Mohindra College, Patiala, he did his pre-clinical studies at the Forman Christian College, Lahore, where he was first in the college and third in the university. His clinical training was undertaken at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, where V R Mirajkar was the professor of surgery. He qualified with the Rahim Khan gold medal and became house surgeon to Mirajkar. In 1945 he was awarded the Maharaja of Patiala scholarship for further studies in England. He was registrar to Basil Page, the pioneering urologist at the North Middlesex Hospital, for three years, during which time he attended courses at St Peter’s Hospital and other teaching hospitals in London and passed the FRCS in 1948. In 1949 he went to the USA for two years, to the Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and the Mayo Clinic. In 1951 he was invited to become a surgical specialist at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. He was a colleague of Dennis Burkitt and they shared a passion for photography. Together they made a particular study of lymphoma, especially of the jaw, which was common in children. His reputation grew and in 1962 he was recommended by Sir Cecil Wakeley to Pandit Nehru as the right man to set up the new medical school at Chandigarh. There he organised and accomplished the transformation of a small cottage hospital into a modern teaching hospital, to which he attracted outstanding teachers from all over the world, including his old friend Burkitt. His achievement was recognised by his appointment as chief medical officer and later director of health services and deputy secretary of health to the Punjab government. Pritam Singh had many interests. He was a keen artist and illustrated many of his own papers. He photographed the 16th century Kangra Valley paintings for Mohinder Singh Randhawa’s monograph, was a keen golfer, gardener and woodworker. He married Harjit in 1953. They had four children – Sukhwant Singh (a businessman), Kanwal Chopra (a schoolteacher), Gitanjali Johar (an importer of stone) and Anjali Sawhney (a teacher at Imperial College, London). He died on 30 May 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000823
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Johnston, Ivan David Alexander (1929 - 2007)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

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

First Title value, for Searching David, John Brooke (1912 - 1980)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006300-E006399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378582378582
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John David was born on 12 July 1912 in Rugby. He was the first son of the Rev Albert Augustus David, DD, who was headmaster of Rugby School and later Bishop of Liverpool, and of Edith Mary Miles whose father had been a civil engineer in Jaipur, India. John was educated at Rugby School and graduated from Liverpool University in 1936 with distinction in forensic medicine. He held resident appointments at Liverpool Royal Infirmary and the Royal Northern Hospital, London, and was especially indebted to Sir Robert Kelly at the former institution and to Hamilton Bailey, Sir Lancelot Barrington Ward and Kenneth Walker in London. He was appointed to the Indian Medical Service in the second world war serving as a full surgical specialist in the Middle East and with the 4th Indian Division and retiring as a War Substantive Major. He then worked at the Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith and the Royal Masonic Hospital until 1949. After passing the general FRCS examination he became clinical assistant in aural surgery at the London Hospital and later registrar at the Royal National ENT Hospital, the Whittington and Charing Cross Hospitals. After applying for the colonial service he was appointed to the Gold Coast in 1954 to take charge of the first specialist ENT department there, and continued in that appointment until his death. His devoted service to the people of Ghana was recognised by the award of the Ghana Gold Medal in 1973. A member of the BMA for many years, David took a keen interest in the formation of the Ghana Medical Association and was for some time its treasurer. He was also a foundation member of the West African College of Surgeons and served on its faculty of otolaryngology and ophthalmology. He made it possible for young Ghanaians to go abroad to train in ENT work. He undertook much plastic surgery on patients with cancrum oris, especially children, and showed great concern for their well-being. Despite a lifelong stammer he was a good and entertaining lecturer. Though his special interests were in Africa and its art, dance and sculpture, he spent most of his vacations on the Isle of Harris in the outer Hebrides where he liked to restore ancient buildings. He was also interested in plant cultivation. He wrote a number of papers including a notable one with Denis Burkitt. John David will always be remembered by the people of Ghana and he was much loved by his patients, especially the children. He never married and when he died on 30 September 1980, he was survived by his mother, a sister and two brothers.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006399
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ngu, Victor Anomah (1926 - 2011)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-07-27 2019-07-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009100-E009199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381356381356
Occupation Government minister
Details Victor Anomah Ngu was head of surgery at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, a minister of public health and a founder of the West African College of Surgeons. He was born in Molyko, Buea, Cameroon on 1 February 1926. His father, Nazarius Ngu, was a catechist; his mother Monica Ngu née Siri was the daughter of a farmer. He was initially educated at Sasse, south-western Cameroon (then part of Nigeria) and later transferred to the Government College, Ibadan, where he completed his secondary education. In 1948, he was admitted as one of 12 foundation medical students at the newly-established University College of Ibadan and completed his undergraduate medical training at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. He qualified in 1954 with prizes in pathology. In 1958, he became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1959. In 1962, he completed a masters’ degree in surgery. From 1957 to 1958 he was a surgical registrar at University College Hospital, Ibadan and from 1958 to 1959 a registrar in the UK at Paddington General Hospital. On his return to Africa by sea in 1959, he discussed the idea of founding a forum for surgeons working in West Africa with an Irish colleague, Charles Bowesman. In April 1960, Ngu travelled along the West African coast canvassing the idea of forming what would become the Association of Surgeons of West Africa (ASWA), meeting up with Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, Nicholas de Heer, Charles Easmon and Emmanuel Badoe, among others, during the trip. The idea met with an enthusiastic response and the inaugural meeting of the ASWA was held in Ibadan in December 1960. Ngu was appointed as the first honorary secretary under the presidency of Sir Samuel L A Manuwa. In 1969, the ASWA became a training organisation and a college in 1973. Ngu was the sixth president of the Association. On his return to Africa, Ngu became a senior registrar at the University College, Ibadan in 1960, a lecturer in 1962 and was professor of surgery there from 1965 to 1971. During the Nigerian Civil War (1967 to 1970) he served as a colonel. He subsequently returned to Cameroon, where he was professor and head of surgery at the newly-established centre for health sciences, University of Yaoundé from 1971 to 1974. He was vice chancellor of the University of Yaoundé from 1974 to 1982, director general of Scientific and Technical Research, Cameroon from 1982 to 1984 and minister of public health from 1984 to 1988. He was director of the Cancer Research Laboratory from 1984 to 1991 and pro-chancellor of the University of Buea from 1993 to 2004. He researched into Burkitt’s lymphoma, cancer immunotherapy, fever thermodynamics, chronic infections and the role of viruses in the causation of cancer. The last two decades of his life were focused on HIV. He was a founding member and president of the Nigerian Cancer Society, president of the Association of African Universities, a member of WHO and UNICEF advisory committees and president of the Bernard Fonlon Society. Among many awards, prizes and honours, he was presented with the Albert Lasker award in clinical cancer chemotherapy in 1972, the Dr Samuel Lawrence Adesuyi award and medal by the West African Health Community in 1989 and the Leon H Sullivan achievement award in the United States in 2003. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary fellowship of the South African College of Surgeons, the first black man to be so honoured. In 2000, the West African College of Surgeons established a lecture in his honour: the Professor Victor Anomah Ngu lecture is awarded to younger fellows of the College to showcase their research work. Outside medicine, he enjoyed tennis, music and reading. In 1960, he married Clara Ugbodaga. Predeceased by his wife, Victor Anomah Ngu died on 14 June 2011 at the age of 85 and was survived by their daughter, three sons and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009173
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Duff, John Keitley (1935 - 2019)

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

by Johan Fagan
Publication Date 2020-08-12 2020-11-23
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
Occupation Otorhinolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details John Duff was an ENT surgeon in Cape Town, South Africa. He was born in Golders Green in London. He recorded on his *Lives of the Fellows* biographical form that: ‘Amazingly the exact date of my birth is confused. My father who registered it quotes 20.3.35. My mother claims it to be 21.3.35. Of no significance except 20.3 is Pisces & 21.3 is Aries which has been a conscionable social disability!’ His father, Keith Keitley Duff, was a gynaecologist in Harley Street, who moved his family to Nairobi, Kenya after the Second World War. His mother was Florence Olive Duff née Reed. John attended Glenalmond College Boarding School in Perthshire, Scotland, and then proceeded to study medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London, qualifying in 1958. He subsequently undertook ENT training at King George VI Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya from 1958 to 1964, and was awarded the diploma in laryngology and otology in 1963. He gained his FRCS in 1965. In Kenya, he worked with Peter Clifford, a pioneer in the fields of Burkitt’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal cancer. Together, they published the results of novel research relating to the use of methotrexate, and reportedly performed the first bone marrow transplant in Africa. John then took up a senior consultant position in Barbados in the West Indies (from 1965 to 1968). He related how he gained a large stapedectomy experience as the West Indies had a virgin population of otosclerosis patients. He showed us how he used to fashion a stapedectomy piston from a wire and would crimp the end around a piece of fat or fascia. He was once called upon to attend to Princess Margaret, who was recuperating in Barbados with Lord Snowdon following a tonsillectomy she had undergone in London. Despite the perfect weather in the West Indies, he missed the change of seasons in Africa and the UK. He relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa and shortly thereafter to Pietermaritzburg. There he held positions both in private practice and at the Edendale Public Hospital. John was a born teacher and loved training junior doctors at Edendale. In Pietermaritzburg, John met Pamela, who was to become his third wife. They moved to Cape Town in 1986, where she had been appointed headmistress of Herschel Girls’ School. He became a senior specialist at Groote Schuur and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s hospitals and a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town, positions he held until his retirement in 1995. John ran the medical student ENT training programme at the University of Cape Town. He managed to reduce the ENT curriculum to 10 key points that students had to know to pass their block exam, one of which was that ‘a child with a runny ear and facial nerve palsy has TB until proven otherwise’. When Blom and Singer first wrote about voice prostheses to restore speech in laryngectomy patients in the early 1980s, John unsuccessfully tried to fashion a prosthesis using the tip of a Foley catheter, but subsequently proceeded to pioneer fistula speech in South Africa with speech therapist Roslyn Lentin. The authors were both ENT registrars to John Duff at Groote Schuur Hospital and remember him as a wonderfully inspiring teacher, a versatile surgeon with a great pair of hands, a raconteur, an excellent cook and lover of good food and wine, and a gardener with a large collection of orchids. John’s experiences and advice on practice management, which he acquired whilst in private practice, were extremely helpful to those of us who entered private practice. John was a keen sportsman. He played rugby for Guy’s Hospital and captained the West Indies rugby team. John was a regular golfer and captained the University of Cape Town ENT department golf team, which he aptly named ‘the ENT Bogies’ in the interdepartmental golf days. Our team was often the winner of this annual event, mostly due to John’s positive encouragement, his golfing skill and his fiercely competitive spirit. John and Pamela were most gracious hosts, often inviting the entire department to a seafood extravaganza evening at their home. We would arrive at their home to the sight of John with apron on standing over a pot of mussels and cooking up a storm. He would share the recipes, many of which are still used in our own kitchens to this day. These seafood evenings would often be preceded by John doing a slide show of his latest overseas trip, which kept us all thoroughly entertained. Following his retirement in 1995, Pamela and John moved to Greyton, a small village 85 miles from Cape Town. There he enjoyed country life, tended to his orchids, read widely, played golf and served on the Greyton Conservation Society committee and the Greyton Nature Reserve advisory board. In tributes from colleagues and friends following John’s death, reference is made to his surgical prowess, his sound clinical judgement, his inspirational teaching, and his broad interests outside of medicine. John was married three times. In 1957, he married Julia Mary Wilson. They had a daughter, Karen, and a son, Jonathan, and divorced in 1968. In 1969, he married Maureen Snow. His third wife was Pamela Macdonald. John died on 28 August 2019 at the age of 84 and is keenly missed by Pamela, his daughter and son, his stepdaughters Fiona and Shelagh, and all their families.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009769
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-09-08T15:46:52Z

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
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