Search Results for Girling Ball

First Title value, for Searching Ball, Sir William Girling (1881 - 1945)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-04-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003700-E003799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375980375980
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at New Barnet on 9 October 1881, he was the son of William Henry Girling Ball who was in business as a carpet warehouseman in Gresham Street, EC. Educated at Merchant Taylors' School, then in Charterhouse Square, from 1894 to 1899, he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he quickly made a name for himself, acting as house surgeon to Sir Anthony Bowlby, winning the Luther Holden research scholarship for surgical pathology, and becoming a demonstrator of pathology in 1907. He was elected assistant surgeon to the hospital in 1912, and in due course was promoted to surgeon. He was warden of the residential college for students from 1913 to 1920, and from 1925 was dean of the medical school. When he took office as warden in 1913 the St Bartholomew's medical school was conducted practically on the lines laid down when it was founded by David Pitcairn and John Abernethy about the year 1796. It was independent, though it had a loose connexion with the hospital; in fact, a proprietary school carried on for the benefit and at the sole risk of the teachers. When Sir Girling Ball went to take up war work in 1939 he left a school entirely reorganized and conducted on modern lines. A charter of incorporation had been obtained to make the school a medical college and to provide for the representation of the governors of the hospital upon its council; the school had become affiliated to the medical faculty of London University, and had acquired the site in Charterhouse Square formerly occupied by Merchant Taylors' School. Sir Girling Ball was mainly, but not wholly, instrumental in bringing about these changes. He was very popular with the students, and was reputed to have said publicly: "I would do anything for my boys, and my boys would do anything for me." At the Royal College of Surgeons he gained the Jacksonian prize in 1909 with an essay on the treatment of surgical affections by vaccines and antitoxins; he was a Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology in 1912, and a member of the council from 1934. He was vice-president 1943-45 and Bradshaw lecturer in 1944. He was also honorary secretary of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1920 and was elected president in 1938. He was dean of the medical faculty of the senate of London University. In 1908 he joined the newly formed territorial force as captain, RAMC, *à la suite*, was called up in August 1914, served for a short time in France, and was then placed in command of the military wing at St Bartholomew's Hospital which was a part of No 1 London general hospital. He held an appointment as consulting surgeon to the RAF. During the 1939-45 war he was group officer for Sector 3 of the London region under the emergency medical service (Ministry of Health). He was created a Knight Bachelor in 1938. He married Violet Isobel, daughter of William Cavander, in 1912. Lady Ball survived him, but without children. Girling Ball died at Hill End Hospital, St Albans, on 16 July 1945, aged 65. A memorial service was held at St Bartholomew-the-Great on 25 July. He had practised before the war at 77 Wimpole Street. Girling Ball was a man of great physique and character. Under a brusque, commanding manner and an air of philistinism he hid administrative and intellectual abilities of uncommon quality. He made himself an invaluable member of all the committees on which he served through a mastery of the details of their business. One of his greatest contributions to British medicine was the part he played in organizing the emergency medical service in the war of 1939-45. Sir Francis Fraser, its director-general, wrote of him: "When war threatened Sir Girling Ball was an energetic member of the committees on whose advice the emergency hospital scheme and medical services were planned. He was largely responsible for shaping the London sectors, and the important part taken by medical schools and teaching hospitals of London in staffing and equipping the upgraded and expanded hospitals in the sectors was to an extent due to his guidance and help. Throughout the war, as chairman of the sector hospital officers, he was a source of strength to the headquarters staff of the emergency medical services in Whitehall, and by his example, leadership, and efficiency he was responsible to a great extent for the magnificent service rendered by their hospitals to the people of London in the years of air raid attacks. Ball helped in many ways the moulding of the medical profession and its institutions into a service for the nation." Ball was an excellent general surgeon, with special interest in urology. Publications:- *Diseases of the kidney*, with Geoffrey Evans, FRCP London, 1932, 424 pp. General surgical pathology and bacteriology, General surgery, Injuries and diseases of tendons and tendon sheaths, fasciae, bursae and muscles, Gonorrhoea. Sections 1, 2, 4, and 28, of *Surgery, a textbook by various authors,* edited by G E Gask and H W Wilson. London, 1920, pp. 1-175,283-299, 1179-1186. Some cystoscopic appearances in tuberculosis of the urinary tract. *Brit J Surg*. 1923-24, 10, 326. The treatment of simple papilloma of the bladder by fulguration. *Ibid*. 1924-25, 11, 760. Leiomyoma of the stomach. *Ibid*. 1938-39, 26, 942.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003797
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Gilbert, Roger Gordon (1908 - 1993)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007900-E007999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380137380137
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Eastbourne on 27 September 1908 to D G Gilbert, Headmaster of Roborough School, Eastbourne, Gilbert attended his father's school and then went to St Bartholomew's Hospital where he qualified with the conjoint examination in 1932 and became house surgeon to Girling Ball and Blundell Bankart. He passed the FRCS in 1937 and at the beginning of the war was SHMO at the Belmont Hospital, which became the Sutton Emergency Hospital, until 1942 when he entered the RAMC as a graded surgeon, serving until 1946 when he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He married in 1938 the daughter of Aleck Bourne, consultant gynaecologist at St Mary's Hospital. They had one son and two daughters, none of whom were in medicine. He died on 16 October 1993.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007954
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching McGavin, Donald Burns (1906 - 2003)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

First Title value, for Searching Mitchell, William Eric Marcus (1897 - 1990)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007500-E007599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379703379703
Occupation General surgeon Urologist
Details William Eric Marcus Mitchell was born at Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, on 29 April 1897, the son of Dr John Finlay Mitchell, a medical practitioner and Anna, nee Shaw. His early education was at Campbell College, Belfast, and after leaving school he joined the Royal Irish Rifles, serving in France from 1916 to 1918 and being awarded the Military Cross in 1917. After demobilisation he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1922. Within a year of qualifying he had passed the FRCS to a surgical unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he served under Sir Holburt Waring, Sir Girling Ball and McAdam Eccles. He was also clinical assistant at St Peter's Hospital for Stone. He passed the MRCP in 1931 and emigrated to Victoria, British Columbia, where he was appointed surgeon to the Royal Jubilee Hospital. On the outbreak of war he returned to England, serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1939 to 1946 as officer commanding a surgical division with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. At the end of the war he returned to his post in Canada, practising general surgery and urology until he retired. He married Catherine Hamilton in 1922 and there was one daughter of the marriage. His outside interests were climbing mountains, photography and painting. He died on 27 December 1990, aged 93.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007520
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hamblen-Thomas, Charles (1887 - 1983)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007300-E007399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379488379488
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Charles Hamblen-Thomas was born on 25 March 1887 at Paignton, Devon, the eldest child of Charles Kaines Thomas, a civil engineer, and Evelyn Hamblen. He was educated at Glengorse School, Eastbourne, before entering St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1914 and after house appointments to Sir William Girling Ball and Louis Bathe Rawling joined the British Expeditionary Force in France as Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. After demobilisation he passed the FRCS Edinburgh in 1923 and the FRCS in 1926. His initial appointments were as assistant ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Evelina Children's Hospital, aural specialist to the Ministry of Pensions and Finchley Urban District Council. He was also consultant otologist to Essex County Council. Later he was appointed consultant otorhinolaryngologist to the West London Hospital and the North East Metropolitan Throat Hospital and consultant laryngologist to the British Red Cross Society rheumatism clinic. He served as President of the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society and as honorary secretary of the Otology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was also a member of the Council of the Laryngology Section. After retiring from the hospital service he remained in private practice, eventually retiring in October 1978. He married Eulalie Oliver in 1926 and they had one son, an engineer. His hobbies were flying, golf, fishing, shooting and philately. He died on 5 April 1983, aged 96.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007305
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Coltart, William Derrick (1907 - 1963)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-02-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004900-E004999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377150377150
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Born on 4 August 1907 the son of W W Coltart MRCS of Epsom he was educated at Epsom College and St Bartholomew's Hospital, to which he had won a scholarship. He qualified in 1930 and was, in succession, house surgeon to Sir Girling Ball, J P Hosford, R C Elmslie, S L Higgs and Sir Harold Gillies. Following this he was resident medical officer at King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and orthopaedic registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Later he worked at the British Red Cross Clinic for Rheumatism, the Arthur Stanley Institute at the Middlesex Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, and for the Hertfordshire County Council. For a time he was orthopaedic surgeon at East Ham Memorial Hospital. During the war of 1939-45 he attained the rank of Wing Commander RAFVR, with charge of the surgical division of Church Village RAF Hospital. After the war he was appointed an additional orthopaedic surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He held a Hunterian Professorship in 1948, and wrote extensively on orthopaedic problems. He was active in the British Medical Association, being vice-president of the Orthopaedic Section at Brighton in 1956 and secretary at the joint meeting with the Irish Medical Association in Dublin in 1952. He was a man of great energy, with a fine presence, and was an excellent teacher. He had been an athlete in his youth and was later a keen fisherman. He died on 5 June 1963 aged 55, survived by his wife.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004967
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ward, Frederick Godsalve (1909 - 1989)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

First Title value, for Searching Corsi, Henry (1893 - 1950)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376257376257
Occupation Dermatologist
Details Born in London on 23 November 1893, the eldest son of Cesare Corsi, an Italian provision merchant, and Alice Bertarelli, his wife. He was educated at Uppingham and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he took second-class honours in the natural sciences tripos part 1, 1916. He took his clinical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was house surgeon to Girling Ball. After serving as resident surgical officer at the Miller Hospital, Greenwich, he came under the influence of Dr H G Adamson in the skin department at St Bartholomew's and specialized as a dermatologist. He was chief assistant to Adamson and to Dr A C Roxburgh for sixteen years 1926-42, and then became assistant physician, retiring in 1945. He was also surgeon to the Lock Hospital, but gave most of his interest to his work as physician to St John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, where also he was librarian from 1946 and chairman of the medical committee from 1948, and president of the St John's Dermatological Society from September 1948. He was interested in the application of new remedies and therapeutic methods, but not himself a research worker; and was a sound, helpful teacher and a sympathetic clinician He was secretary of the dermatology section at the British Medical Association annual meeting in 1934. Corsi was a man of wide cultivation, not only bilingual in English and Italian, but a good French and German scholar, a book collector, and a student of Dante. He was a prominent bridge player in "Our Whist Club" and a regular ski-er in Italy or Switzerland. He was a delightful and drily humorous after-dinner speaker. He was dogged by ill-health in his last years, following a car accident, and died suddenly in Switzerland on 1 January 1950, aged 56. Corsi married in 1924 Margaret Doyle, who survived him with a son and daughter. His house, 114 Harley Street, was destroyed by enemy action in the war of 1939-45 and he lost most of his possessions; he subsequently lived at 95 Harley Street. Publications:- Epithelioma of the skin: a review of treatment. *St Bart's Hosp J* 1938, 46, 28. Therapeutic uses of thorium x. *Lancet*, 1943, 2, 346.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004074
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Robertson, Douglas James (1919 - 2005)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19
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/372504372504
Occupation General surgeon
Details Douglas Robertson was a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Hospital, Sheffield. He was born in London in 1919 of Scottish parents. His father, Falconer Robertson, was a banker, and his mother, Jane Mary Duff, was a teacher. Douglas was educated at the Stationers’ Company School. He entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital at the age of 17 in 1936, being interviewed by Sir William Girling Ball. He passed the Primary at the age of 20 and qualified in 1942, winning the gold medal in obstetrics and the Brackenbury prize in surgery. He was invited by Sir James Patterson Ross to be his house surgeon on the professorial unit, but Douglas had already joined the Royal Navy and soon found himself as a surgeon lieutenant on Arctic convoys. Later he was posted to Ceylon with the Fleet Air Arm. He returned to Bart’s in 1946 and at once became interested in the new specialty of vascular surgery. He was appointed second assistant to Sir Edward Tuckwell in 1947 and chief assistant to the surgical unit under Ross in 1950. Having won a travelling fellowship, he took the opportunity to visit the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Eric Hüsfeldt in Copenhagen and Sir James Learmonth in Edinburgh. He was a Hunterian Professor at the College in 1954. He was finally appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal Hospital, Sheffield in 1955. At the Royal Hospital he continued to practise a wide range of general surgery and to build up a large practice. He was secretary and later president of the Moynihan Club, and was a moving figure in establishing St Luke’s Hospice, under the aegis of Dame Cicely Saunders, the first such hospice to be set up in the provinces. He married Alison Duncombe, née Bateman, a medical social worker and had two daughters, Joanna and Fiona. He was a popular figure, clever, quick-witted, funny, mercurial and very effective. A contemporary recorded that ‘there was never any hurry or worry about his surgery’. He enjoyed driving fast cars, music, reading and walking in the hills of Galloway, where they had a second home. He died on 7 December 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000317
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Capper, William Melville (1908 - 1971)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-09-25 2015-09-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006000-E006099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378222378222
Occupation Gastroenterological surgeon
Details William Melville Capper was born on 25 January 1908 at Newport, Monmouthshire, and went to Canford School where he did well in classics. He came to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his medical course, where he also distinguished himself as a formidable rugby forward. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1932, and became house surgeon to Sir Girling Ball. He passed the FRCS in 1936, and then decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynaecology, obtained the MRCOG in 1938 and in 1939 was appointed consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist to the Bristol Royal Infirmary. In the second world war he joined the RAMC and was in command of the surgical division of a general hospital in North Africa and Italy with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. After demobilization he made a remarkable change in his career, abandoning obstetrics for general surgery. He served first as a surgical registrar, but in 1946 was appointed consultant surgeon to the Bristol Royal Hospital, and made significant contributions to gastroenterology. He also served as surgeon to Southmead Hospital. He was an excellent teacher, and with Harold Rodgers published a text-book of surgery. He served for some years as Clinical Dean of the Bristol Medical School. As a leader in his chosen specialty he was made president of the Society of Gastroenterology in 1965, and in 1969 was President of the Section of Surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine. Bill Capper, as he was known to his many friends, will long be remembered as a Christian whose religion inspired his whole life. He was Chairman and President of the Christian Medical Fellowship, and was a popular preacher at the Alma Road Chapel in Bristol. But the outstanding feature was the generous and loving manner in which he helped all, and especially the younger people, who appealed to him for advice and assistance. He had a wonderful home life with his wife May and their two sons and daughter, who survived him when he died suddenly, though after prolonged illness, in the Bristol Royal Hospital on 10 December 1971, aged 63.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006039
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hosford, John Percival (1900 - 1991)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008000-E008099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380195380195
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Hosford was born in London on 24 July 1900, the son of Benjamin Hosford, a medical practitioner in Hornsey, Essex, and his wife Anne, née Haines. He came from a remarkable medical family, three brothers, two cousins and two uncles all being doctors. He was educated at Highgate School and St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he qualified in 1922. He held junior posts at St Bartholomew's and then became demonstrator in anatomy there. After surgical registrarships at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and St Bartholomew's he became assistant to the professorial unit at Bart's and then assistant surgeon there in 1936. He wrote a popular students' textbook on fractures and dislocations in 1939, but eventually had to give up his interest in orthopaedics because of a rapidly expanding practice in general surgery. At the outbreak of war, much of Bart's was moved to Hill End Hospital, St Albans, and Hosford took charge of one of the surgical units there under the Emergency Medical Service. In 1946 he was appointed full surgeon to St Bartholomew's and also to the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and the Nightingale Hospital. As a young man he was much influenced by such great surgeons as Girling Ball, Paterson Ross, Thomas Dunhill and Berkeley Moynihan (later Lord Moynihan of Leeds) gaining considerable experience from these early associations. He was a very fine technician, especially in abdominal, breast and thyroid surgery, and an outstanding teacher of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He was appointed Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1932, lecturing on hydronephrosis, and he also wrote important papers on peritoneoscopy, partial gastrectomy and stones in the common bile duct. He became a member of the Court of Examiners of the RCS in 1956, and examiner in surgery to the universities of Oxford, London, Sheffield and Belfast, and was also a member of Council of the Association of Surgeons. John Hosford was a modest, gentle person, a good listener and a kindly chief who was greatly respected by his patients and colleagues alike. He retired early at the age of 60 and went to live in the mountains of Portugal, returning to Essex 24 years later. He was a keen traveller, gardener and lover of the countryside. He died at the age of 90 on 10 February 1991 following a fall, when he sustained several fractured ribs and an extrapleural haematoma. He was survived by his wife Millicent, whom he married in 1932, and by a son, John, and daughter, Elizabeth. On his death he was described as 'the last of the gentlemen surgeons'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008012
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Jones, Arthur Edward (1919 - 1999)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008600-E008699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380856380856
Occupation Radiotherapist
Details Arthur Jones was a pioneering radiotherapist. He was born in Wrexham, North Wales, on 1 February 1919. His father, Edward Hugh Jones, died when he was young and he was brought up by his mother, Margaret Lloyd Jones. He was educated at Grove Park School, where he became interested in physics, and his decision (at the age of 17) to become a radiotherapist was encouraged by his mother. He won the Jeaffreson entrance exhibition to Bart's in French and mathematics, and there proceeded to gain a dazzling number of awards. He gained scholarships in anatomy and physiology, the Harvey prize in physiology, the Wix prize, the Brackenbury scholarship, the Dame Dorothy Jeffreys exhibition, the Dodd memorial award and the Wall bursary. Girling Ball was the Dean, but his real hero was Frank Lloyd Hopwood, the Professor of Physics. He was dresser to Paterson Ross, who was the clinician who influenced him most. On qualifying, he was house physician to Christie and house surgeon to Douglas Northfield at the London, who kindled his interest in the nervous system. On joining the RAMC, he served at the Military Hospital for Head Injuries at St Hughes, Oxford, along with Walpole Lewin, under Sir Hugh Cairns and Sir Charles Symonds, ending as a Major in charge of a neurological centre in Hamburg, where he became an expert in the management of head injuries. On returning to Bart's after the war, he served as chief assistant to I G Williams, and, in 1950, he was appointed consultant (at the age of 30), as deputy director in the radiotherapeutic department. He became physician to the department in 1961 and director in 1972. In 1974, the title of Professor of Radiotherapy was conferred on him by the University of London, the first such title to be awarded to an NHS consultant. He was Vice-President of the Royal College of Radiologists from 1967 to 1968, and was co-opted to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons to represent radiology in 1973. He was Hunterian Professor in 1960, and was made an FRCS by election in 1978. He was much sought after to lecture abroad and served on innumerable committees. He was Dean of the Medical College at Bart's from 1968 to 1969. He was particularly interested in music and the history of art. He married Caroline Bonsor in 1945. They had one daughter, Deirdre Anne, and one son, Daril Peregrine Lloyd, a dental surgeon. He died on 4 July 1999.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008673
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Burt-White, Harold John (1901 - 1952)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-02-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004900-E004999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377119377119
Occupation Gynaecologist
Details Born in 1901, son of R J Burt White, cotton goods buyer, of Crouch End, he was educated at Epsom College and St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he won the Foster prize in anatomy and the Harvey prize in physiology. He was house surgeon to W McAdam Eccles and Girling Ball, and served as intern midwifery assistant. He qualified in 1924, and in that year hyphenated his name as Burt-White. He took the Fellowship in 1926, but turning to gynaecology he proceeded to the MD in 1927, being awarded a gold medal. He was Lawrence research scholar at St Bartholomew's in 1926-27, won the Bishop Harman prize of the British Medical Association in 1930, and the Nichols prize of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1931. He studied the bacteriology of puerperal sepsis, and published useful papers on the subject. He served as chief assistant in the gynaecology and obstetrics department at St Bartholomew's, and was elected to the staff of the City of London Maternity Hospital, the Soho Hospital for Women, and the Whipps Cross Hospital. Burt-White was removed from his Fellowship and Membership of the College on 6 April 1933, after the erasure of his name from the Medical Register by the General Medical Council, on a charge of improper association with a woman patient. Burt-White always denied the allegations. He was restored to the Membership and Fellowship on 4 January 1937. During the years when he could not practise Burt-White kept himself in touch with medical research and also studied law. War broke out within two years of his return to practice, and he served in the RAMC (1939-45) as gynaecological specialist to the women's forces in Northern Ireland. He was appointed in 1946 consulting gynaecologist to the Salisbury Infirmary and to the Salisbury hospitals group, but resigned the latter appointment in 1952. He was also gynaecologist to the National Temperance Hospital, and had consulting rooms at 98 Harley Street, while living at De Vaux House, Salisbury. He had a severe illness in 1950. Burt-White committed suicide at his home at Salisbury during the night of 20-21 October 1952, aged 51. He had been depressed for some months, believing that his surgical skill and speed were failing. He was buried at Putney Vale cemetery. His wife survived him. Publications: Contributions to the problem of puerperal sepsis, with R R Armstrong. *Proc Roy Soc Med* 1928, 21, Obstetrics and gynaecology p. 28. Puerperal sepsis and sensitiveness to streptococcal toxins. *Brit med J* 1928, 1, 974. Problem of puerperal sepsis: bacteriology of the puerperium with R R Armstrong. *Brit med J* 1929, 1, 592. A study of cutaneous sensitiveness to scarlatinal toxin in pregnancy and the puerperium, with others. *Brit med J* 1930, 1, 240.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004936
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Underwood, William Elphinstone (1903 - 1985)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379912379912
Occupation General surgeon
Details William Elphinstone Underwood was born in Birmingham on 20 October 1903, the son of Dr Arthur Underwood MRCS, a general practitioner, and his wife, Phyllis Maud (née Fairclough). His father was a descendant of Dr Michael Underwood, physician to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. His early education was at Chigwell House Preparatory School, Birmingham, and at Rossall School after which he entered Cambridge University for his preclinical studies. While there he was one of the founder members and the first honorary secretary of the Cambridge Univerisity Medical Society. He graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1923 and then entered St Bartholomew's Hospital with a senior entrance science scholarship. He qualified in 1927 and was initially appointed house surgeon to Sir Holburt Waring. He passed the FRCS in 1929 and afterwards was chief assistant to Sir Girling Ball and assistant director of the surgical unit under Sir James Paterson Ross. He was then appointed assistant surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and sub-dean of the Medical College a well as being assistant surgeon to St Andrew's Hospital, Dollis Hill, and Harrow Hospital. He won the Jacksonian Prize in 1936 and was elected Hunterian Professor in 1937. In 1939 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a surgical specialist and later rose to be assistant director of medical services and consulting surgeon with the rank of Colonel. He was twice mentioned in despatches and his war service was recognised by the award of OBE (Mil) in 1943. After demobilisation in 1945 he was appointed Professor of Surgery and Dean of the faculty of medicine to the University of Witwatersrand and chief surgeon to Johannesburg Hospital. He was an excellent undergraduate teacher and was much appreciated by the students but antagonised many people in the department of surgery. He was doing experimental work in valvular cardiac surgery, using dogs and after carrying out a successful operation, details were leaked to the press who published a photograph of a fox-terrier with a black patch on its otherwise white leg. Some time later a reporter phoned him to enquire about the dog's progress and although it had died ten days previously he was told it was in good health. The reporter then requested permission to photograph the animal and another dog was produced with a black patch painted on its white leg. The facts were well known in his department and as soon as his enemies heard of it they reported the deception and lodged a complaint with the South African Medical and Dental Council. A formal enquiry was held and he was asked to resign. He then went to live in Zimbabwe, where for a time he was medical adviser to the Messina group of companies. During his early years his outside interests were rugby, hockey and sailing and in later years swimming, tennis, music and theatre. He married in 1935 and one of his two sons is a research biochemist with the Glaxo-Allenbury consortium. He died on 11 April 1985 aged 81.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007729
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Longland, Cedric James (1914 - 1991)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-17
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008100-E008199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380333380333
Occupation General surgeon
Details Cedric Longland was born at Bolobo in the Belgian Congo on 30 September 1914. His father, Frank Longland, was a civil engineer in East Africa and later Provincial Commissioner for Tanganyika Territory. Daisy Longland, Cedric's mother, was one of the earliest women to qualify in medicine at Edinburgh in 1910, and under the auspices of the Baptist Missionary Society she ran a mission hospital in Kinshasa, Belgian Congo, while her husband Frank ran the mission steamer *The Endeavour* 500 miles up the Congo river. At that time, as a civil engineer, he also built bridges, roads and churches and it was later that he moved eastwards to Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where he became Provincial Commissioner. Cedric spent his early years in Africa and received all his education from his mother until the age of twelve. He was then sent home as a boarder in 1926 to Monkton Combe School, where he played cricket and rugby football and rowed for his school at Henley Regatta. In 1932 he went to St Bartholomew's Medical School, where he won the Walsham prize for pathology and graduated in 1937 with honours in medicine. Influential teachers at that time included Sir Girling Ball and Professor Paterson Ross. After qualifying, he was appointed house surgeon to Sir Girling Ball, followed by an appointment as house surgeon to the ear, nose and throat department and a demonstratorship of pathology, all at St Bartholomew's Hospital, between 1937 and 1940. In 1940 he became resident surgical officer at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, a post he held for two years, before joining the First Airborne Division, with which he served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, before being dropped at Arnhem in 1944. There, he treated casualties at St Elizabeth Hospital until it was overrun and he was captured, subsequently escaping from a prisoner of war camp at Appeldoorn, following which he linked up with the Dutch underground, but was later recaptured. He was awarded the Bronze Cross of Holland. Following his release he served as SMO to the military hospital in Bermuda until 1946. He then returned to St Bartholomew's Hospital and was first assistant in the surgical professorial unit between 1947 and 1950, and in 1949 was a member of the surgical team that carried out a lumbar sympathectomy on King George VI, for which he was awarded the MVO in May 1949 (later the LVO). Between 1951 and 1954 he was assistant on the surgical professorial unit at University College Hospital with Professor Pilcher, being appointed to the staff of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary as consultant surgeon in 1954, a post he held until retirement in 1977. He was an examiner in surgery for the University of Glasgow in 1960, and in 1966 he spent a year in Nairobi, Kenya, as part of a team from Glasgow helping to set up a medical school there. His appointment to Glasgow Royal Infirmary as surgeon in charge of wards initially caused consternation because he was unknown, but he identified himself totally with the Infirmary and was appointed first Chairman of the Surgical Division and Chairman of the West of Scotland Surgical Association. His interests were surgery of the biliary tract and pancreas and the prevention of wound infection. He also pioneered mechanical suture methods in gastrointestinal anastomoses and the use of the choledochoscope. Cedric enjoyed rowing and sailing, the latter on Loch Lomond and as a crew member in the Bermuda to New York yacht race. He skied in Austria and Scotland, where he also fished, and in retirement studied music at Glasgow University as an extra-mural student, bought a clavichord and composed 'Elizabethan' music. In 1982 he moved to Grittleton in the Cotswolds, where he was church warden and secretary of the parish council, and where he redesigned his garden, which included work in stone walling. His publications reflected his interest in general and vascular surgery, his war experience and a variety of wider and historical subjects. He married Helen Cripps, an artist and teacher, in 1965 and they had three daughters, Rosemary, Susan and Annette. He died on 14 January 1991, survived by his wife, daughters and nine grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008150
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Capps, Frederick Cecil Wray (1898 - 1970)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006000-E006099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378223378223
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Capps was born in the Naval Hospital, Gibralter, on 17 May 1898, the only son of Fleet-Surgeon Frederick A Capps, who lost his life in action at the Battle of Jutland (1916). With this family background he was from an early age destined for a career in the Royal Navy, and accordingly entered the Royal Naval College, Osborne as a Cadet in 1911. Two years later, when the time came for him to proceed to Dartmouth Naval College, he failed to pass the stringent eyesight tests required for entry, so in 1913 he was transferred to Epsom College. Here he had a distinguished school career, winning prizes for science and English essay, and passing the 1st MB London with distinction in physics. In addition he was a member and secretary of the first rugby football XV. In 1916 he entered the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital with the Epsom College scholarship, and before qualification with the Conjoint Diploma in 1921 established an outstanding place among his contemporaries by gaining the Treasurer's and Foster Prizes in anatomy, as well as the Brackenbury Scholarship in surgery. There followed a year as house surgeon to Holburt Waring and Harold Wilson, a discipline in general surgery of a very high order, which did much to mould his future surgical outlook. In 1923 he joined the nose and throat and the ear departments, which were then still separate though sister departments, as house surgeon to Douglas Harmer and Sydney Scott, the respective heads of these two departments, and thus began an active connection which persisted unbroken until his retirement forty years later. While acting as chief assistant in the ear department he also served in succession as junior demonstrator of anatomy, and of pathology, until, on the retirement of Frank Rose in 1930, he was elected to the visiting staff as assistant surgeon to the nose and throat department. In 1947 he became surgeon-in-charge of the amalgamated ear, nose and throat department, serving till his retirement in 1963. In addition to his clinical and teaching duties at St Bartholomew's he served as Chairman of the Medical Council, as a Governor of the Hospital, and a member of the Hospital Planning Committee, and was Treasurer and later Vice-President of the Medical College. He also found time for many outside appointments, as ear, nose and throat surgeon to the Metropolitan Hospital, the Willesden General Hospital, the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, the West Suffolk General Hospital and the London County Council. He became consulting laryngologist to the Royal Navy, and aural referee to the Treasury Medical Service and Civil Service Commission. During the first world war he served in 1917-18 as Surgeon Probationer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant. In the second world war he was, from the onset, Deputy Hospital Officer of Sector III in the Emergency Medical Service, succeeding Sir William Girling Ball in 1945 as Sector Hospital Officer. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons 1952-58, and also examined for Part I of the Diploma of Laryngology and Otology 1951-56. He was President of the Section of Laryngology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1951-52, and was at the time of his death President of the United Services Section of the Society. In 1957 he delivered the Semon Lecture of the University of London, and was awarded the Semon Medal. When the Fourth International Congress of Otolaryngology was held in London in 1949, he acted as General Secretary and showed great powers of organisation in overcoming the many difficulties still prevailing during the post-war years. Between 1945 and 1951 he was honorary secretary of the newly formed British Association of Otolaryngology, and was Vice-President 1951-53. He married Gertrude Margareta Torell, a Swedish lady, in 1931; there were two sons and two daughters of the marriage. His elder son Peter qualified in medicine in 1956, and became consultant paediatrician in the Shrewsbury Hospital Group. His younger daughter Joan trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's, and was ward sister there to the Surgical Professorial Unit until her marriage in 1969. His death from a sudden heart attack occurred at his home in Regent's Park on 12 June 1970. Publications: Lympho-epithelioma of nasopharynx. *J Laryngol Otol* 1939, 54, 3. Malignant disease of the paranasal sinuses. *Ann Roy Coll Surg Eng* 1949, 4, 38-47. Tumours of glomus jugulare of tympanic body.* Brit Surg Progress* 1954, pp89-104. Abductor paralysis in theory and practice since Semon. Semon Lecture, 1957. *J Laryngol Otol 1958, 72, 1-31. Four recent cases of juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma. *J Laryngol Otol* 1961, 75, 924-931.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006040
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Capener, Norman Leslie (1898 - 1975)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

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/378556378556
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Born on 4 May 1898 at Hornsey, Middlesex, the third son of Alick Wellstead Capener, an engineer, and Ada Isabella Tree, Norman Capener was one of six brothers, all of whom were educated at the City of London School through musical scholarships in the choir of the Temple Church, London, where, under Sir Walford Davies his love of music began. In 1917, after a period in the Inns of Court Training Battalion he was commissioned in the Royal Marines but because he was a medical student he was transferred to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as Surgeon Sub-Lieutenant, a 'Surgeon-Probation', in April 1918. He qualified from St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1922 and subsequently held a number of appointments there as Luther Holden Research Fellow, demonstrator in anatomy and assistant in the surgical professorial unit. His work was particularly influenced by Sir Holburt Waring, Sir Girling Ball, Harold Wilson, Reginald Elmslie, George Gask and Geoffrey Keynes. He took the FRCS in 1924 and in 1926 he was invited to the University of Michigan as instructor of anatomy by the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Dr Hugh Cabot. He was later appointed instructor in surgery and then Assistant Professor (Orthopaedics) at the University Hospital before returning to England in 1931. While in the United States he worked with Fred Coller and Carl Badgley of Michigan and Robert Osgood in Boston. On his return he was appointed orthopaedic surgeon at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital at Exeter and shortly after he was appointed the first orthopaedic surgeon to the newly established Mount Gold Orthopaedic Hospital at Plymouth. This was the beginning of a very long and distinguished career during which he built up an outstanding regional orthopaedic service in south west England with Exeter as its centre. He held consultant appointments at hospitals throughout Devon, organised outpatient clinics staffed by aftercare nursing sisters, many of whom he trained himself. Gradually 'Devonian orthopaedic services' as he liked to call his organisation, grew to achieve a national and international reputation for the quality of work, teaching and training service. He contributed over a hundred papers to medical literature, mainly on the surgery of the spine and the hip. In particular he will be remembered for his work on the treatment of tuberculosis of the spine by lateral rachitomy. During the second world war he was consultant advisor in orthopaedics for the South West Region and had charge of the orthopaedic section of the Emergency Hospital at Exminster, later moved to the Musgrove Hospital, Taunton. He was a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Orthopaedic Section, of which he was successively honorary secretary and President. He was a member of the British Orthopaedic Association and served in a number of offices, including President 1958-60. From 1948 to 1966 he was a member of the editorial board of the *Journal of bone and joint surgery*. When the Medical Appeal Tribunals for Industrial Injuries were established by the Ministry of Pensions in 1948 he became a member and continued until 1968, and from 1968 to 1973 served as a member and sometimes chairman of Pension Appeals Tribunals under the Lord Chief Justice. Other bodies on which he served were the Empire Rheumatism Council, the South West Regional Hospital Board, the International Committee on Prosthetics and Orthotics, the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases and he was Chairman of the Committee for Research into Appliances for the Disabled, of the Institute of Sports Medicine and of the British Standards Institution Commission on Surgical Implants. At the College he was Hunterian Professor in 1941 and Arris and Gale lecturer in 1946. Later on he was Robert Jones lecturer 1958 and Bradshaw lecturer 1972. He was a member of Council from 1961 to 1973 and for the last three years was Senior Vice-President. His Vicary Lecture in 1971 on Chaucer and John of Gaddesden drew on his extensive knowledge of history and literature, as well as medicine. During his time on Council he served as a member, later Chairman of the Library and Publications Committee and after his retirement remained Honorary Curator of Portraits and Works of Art until shortly before his death. In 1963 Capener was appointed Chairman of a College committee set up to study problems relating to accident prevention and of the convention on this subject held at the College that year. It was largely due to his efforts that in the following year, 1964, the Medical Commission on Accident Prevention was founded and he was first its scientific director and later its Chairman. In 1966 he was made CBE. Capener had many interests outside medicine, but music, art and literature were predominant. He was a talented painter and a discerning collector of contemporary British art. For many years he was an artist member of the Penwith Society of Artists where he exhibited under the name of Norman Caerne. His friendship with Dame Barbara Hepworth stimulated his interest in sculpture, for which he showed a great talent. He submitted an entry in the controversial 'Unknown Political Prisoner' competition of 1953 which he left to the College and in 1969 the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery mounted a retrospective exhibition of his work. It was through Norman Capener that Barbara Hepworth was able to make a series of drawings of surgeons at work at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital at Exeter. The last of these was an oil painting *Concourse*, painted on a panel that Capener had given her and which he formally presented to the College in 1969. A bronze cast of his hand, also by Barbara Hepworth, was left to the College in his will. He loved the Devon countryside and Exeter and he was involved in many local societies and organisations. The cathedral and its library was one of his particular interests and he and his wife took a great delight in acting as cathedral guides, sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with the many visitors. In his younger days he was a very fast motorist with a passion for vintage Bentleys. In 1922 he married Marion Constance Vera Clarke, MRCS, LRCP, the daughter of Captain J Stanhope Clarke, RN. There were four children of the marriage, one son who became a civil engineer and three daughters, the middle of whom entered medicine. After the death of his first wife in 1970 he married Elsa May Batstone who survived him. He became ill while organising a visit of the College to Exeter in December 1974, but as he was unable to attend the meeting a special presentation of the College's gold medal was made to him at his bedside in the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospital. He died on 30 March 1975.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006373
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Sir Charles Felix (1900 - 1974)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-08-11 2015-05-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005700-E005799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377956377956
Occupation Paediatrician
Details The following was published in volume 5 of Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Charles Felix Harris was born in New York on 30 March 1900. He spent his childhood in Australia, but completed his education at Epsom College and St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying with the Conjoint Diploma and the London degree in 1923. After early house appointments he took the MD degree and the MRCP in 1925, and then concentrated on paediatric training at Great Ormond Street and at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He was appointed assistant physician to St Bartholomew's in 1928, and in the following year became the first physician in charge of a separate department for the diseases of children. His was a complicated character, and many found him difficult to get to know intimately; his many-sided nature was never shown more clearly than in his clinical work, where his somewhat gruff manner was counterbalanced by the gentleness with which he managed his small patients and their parents. In 1936 he was appointed Warden of the Medical College and thus commenced a succession of administrative tasks which gradually became the prime interest in his life. At the outbreak of war he took charge of what remained of St Bartholomew's Hospital under the Emergency Medical Service, and at the end of it he took over from Girling Ball as Dean of the Medical College. He thus established a reputation for committee work which was still further enhanced by his subsequent duties in the University of London. Harris was elected to the Senate of the University in 1950, and to the Court in 1951. He became Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and Chairman of the Academic Council from 1953 to 1958, and Vice-Chancellor from 1958 to 1961. In the latter year he was elected Chairman of Convocation, and also of the Joint Finance and General Purposes Committee, positions which he held till within a few months of his death. These committees brought him into close contact with many of the schools of the university, particularly the specialist schools and post-graduate Institutes. He always held that in the interests of the staff of the students it was better for the post-graduate to be independent of the undergraduate schools, and he was most helpful as a member of the governing body of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, and the Committee of Management of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences. This latter appointment meant a close link with the Royal College of Surgeons, and in recognition of his support he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1966. The University's appreciation of his services was expressed by the award of an Honorary LLD in 1973. His final illness, though harrowing in nature, was mercifully short, and borne with wonderful courage. He died in St Bartholomew's Hospital on 10 March 1974, and his wife Nadia, who always loyally supported him in all his work, survived him. The following was published in volume 6 of Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Charles Felix Harris was born in New York on 30 March 1900. He spent his childhood in Australia, but received his later education at Epsom College and St Bartholomew's, where he qualified in 1923. He served as house physician at Bart's and in 1925 proceeded MD and took the MRCP. After a few months as house physician at Great Ormond Street and a period in the paediatric department of Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, he became chief assistant in the children's department at Bart's and in 1928 was appointed assistant physician. The department at that time was represented only in outpatients, children who were inpatients being cared for by the general physicians. In 1929 Charles Harris became the first physician in charge of a separate children's department with its own ward accommodation, a personal triumph. Also in that year he married Edith Nadejda Goldsmith. In 1936 he was appointed warden of the Medical College. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 he took over the task of medical officer in charge of St Bartholomew's Hospital under the Emergency Medical Service. He organised the hospital for its wartime role, maintained the college activities and education on that site, and at the same time continued his teaching in paediatrics. In 1945 he became Dean of the Medical College. His administrative ability was recognised by the University of London. He became Chairman of the Deans of Metropolitan Medical Schools and was elected to the Senate of the University in 1950 and to its Court in 1951. He was Chairman of the Academic Council and from 1958 to 1961 Vice-Chancellor. He was then elected Chairman of Convocation. During many busy years he found time to help in the governing bodies of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the School of Pharmacy. The part he played in the establishment of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons was recognised in 1966 by the award of an honorary FRCS. In 1968 he was knighted, and the University of London conferred an honorary LLD upon him. Sir Charles had been physician to the Westminster Hospital for Children, Vincent Square, and consultant paediatrician to the London County Council. From 1934 to 1938 he was joint editor of *Archives of disease in childhood*. In 1962 he was President of the British Paediatric Association. Charles Harris gravitated to a position of control in every one of his activities. He had that natural authority which is essential to the conduct of affairs. At school, in hospital, in medical college, in the University of London, Harris achieved eminence and considerable power. He was a remarkable chairman and member of committees. His grasp of the situation and his judgement were based on careful study. He could be a formidable opponent and a remarkable advocate. Disagreements were inevitable, but they were not taken outside the committee room, and in defeat the jocular grumble, the tilt of the head, and the disarming smile would rapidly dispel any rancour. He knew many people, but it was the privilege of few to know the real Charles Harris; to these he showed remarkable loyalty and kindness. Beneath his somewhat abrupt manner one could perceive the features of gentleness which were so well demonstrated in his management of children and their parents. When seemingly unobserved, his affection for and enjoyment in children were readily apparent. He faced his final illness with the reserve and fortitude with which he had faced other problems in his life. He died on 10 March 1974, aged 73 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005773
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ross, Sir James Paterson (1895 - 1980)

2025-10-07T21:48:11Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-05-25 2012-03-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372420372420
Occupation General surgeon
Details James Paterson Ross, the eldest of four sons of James Ross, an official in the Bank of England, and of May (née Paterson), was born in London on 26 May 1895. After early education at Christ's College, Finchley, he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School in 1912, with an entrance scholarship in science. He was an outstanding student and was awarded the Treasurer's Prize and a junior scholarship in anatomy and physiology. His studies were interrupted during the first world war when he served as a sergeant dispenser to the 1st London General Hospital but was released and returned to Bart's in 1915. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma in 1917 and, after three months as a house surgeon to Cozens Bailey and Girling Ball, he entered the Royal Navy as a Surgeon-Lieutenant and was demobilised in 1919. After the war, Paterson Ross, as he was generally known, graduated in 1920 with distinction in surgery and forensic medicine and was awarded the Gold Medal. At Bart's he served as a demonstrator of physiology in 1920 and pathology, 1921-22. He passed the FRCS in 1922 and the MS in 1928. Shortly after he went to Boston for neurosurgical training under Dr Harvey Cushing by whom he was received almost as a member of the family. Returning to London in 1923 he joined Professor George Gask's newly established surgical professorial unit at Bart's. Together with Gask there developed a special interest in surgery of the sympathetic nervous system and Ross was awarded the Jacksonian Prize in 1931 for his essay on this subject. In the same year he gave a Hunterian Lecture on the treatment of cerebral tumours with radium. In 1933 he gave a second Hunterian Lecture on *Sympathectomy as an experiment in human physiology*, and was Hunterian Professor for the third time in 1939 when he lectured on *The effects of radium upon carcinoma of the breast.* During the period between the two world wars he was greatly influenced by Sir Thomas Dunhill who served first as assistant director and then associate surgeon to the professorial unit. Ross also influenced by Geoffrey Keynes's work on breast carcinoma and succeeded Keynes as private assistant to Lord Moynihan for the latter's London practice. On George Gask's retirement in 1935 Ross succeeded to the Professorial Chair at the age of 40. He had never been entirely happy in private practice and was admirably suited to this academic appointment, being an excellent teacher of undergraduates. He was a most competent clinician and a sound operator in his special fields though never entirely at ease with difficult technical work. On the outbreak of the second world war he moved with his unit to the Bart's sector hospital at Hill End, St Albans, and moved house there. He sometimes remarked with envy, though without rancour, on the excellent and undisturbed conditions under which his colleague Learmonth worked in his Edinburgh professorial unit during the war. However, at St Albans, he did conduct investigations into the bacteriology of war wounds and war injury of blood vessels. Before and at the beginning of the war Ross was responsible for organising the neurosurgical casualty service in London and East Anglia, though neurosurgery at Hill End was done by John O'Connell. After the war his unit was re-established at Bart's, but by then his time was increasingly occupied by committee work with little opportunity for research and publication. He was appointed civilian consultant surgeon to the Royal Navy and consulting surgeon to King Edward VII Convalescent Home for Officers, at Osborne, and the Papworth Village Settlement. He had been elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1943, became Vice-President, 1952-54, Bradshaw Lecturer in 1953 and President, 1957-60. From 1954 to 1957 he was Dean of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the College and Arthur Sims Travelling Professor in 1957. In 1949, when King George VI had developed signs of serious ischaemic symptoms in one leg, at the suggestion of the then Sergeant Surgeon, Sir Thomas Dunhill, Paterson Ross and James Learmonth were called into consultation and then undertook a lumbar ganglionectomy operation. Both surgeons were created KCVO. Sir James Paterson Ross subsequently attended Sir Winston Churchill, assisting Dunhill with the repair of a large inguinal hernia. Dr Langton Hewer was the anaesthetist on that occasion and has related with piquant relish that Ross was treated by Dunhill as though he was still a house surgeon! Ross was appointed Surgeon to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. Subsequent to this he received many honorary fellowships and degrees in the U.K., the Commonwealth and the U.S.A. On terminating his Presidency and vacating his Chair at Bart's he was created a Baronet. In the same year he succeeded Sir Francis Fraser as Director of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, where he stayed until 1966. He remained actively interested in the College Court of Patrons and served as a Hunterian Trustee for the rest of his life. His obituarist in *The Times* was Sir Geoffrey Keynes who stated that Ross would be remembered as an outstanding technician and that it was his mental capacity, sound judgement and sympathetic understanding of patients which marked him out. He was not a prolific writer, but shared with Sir Ernest Rock Carling the editing of *British surgical practice*, a work in several volumes. Jim, as he was known to his friends, gained the affection of many of his colleagues, students and patients; but there were some people with whom he did not establish a warm relationship and easy rapport, and whom he judged badly. This was possibly due to an innate shyness and reserve, for he was a man of high ideals, humanity and selflessness. He married a Bart's ward sister, Margaret Townsend, in 1924. She was a great supporter of him throughout his career though she predeceased him in 1978. They had three sons, the first of whom died in infancy. The elder surviving son, Keith, is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Southampton, and the younger is a general surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading. Sir James died in Oxford on 5 July 1980, during a convivial gathering of fellow professors, and is survived by his sons, the elder of whom inherited the Baronetcy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000233
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset