Search Results for Medical Obituaries

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Alexander, Albert Geoffrey (1932 - 2010)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by SIM
Publication Date 2023-07-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010300-E010399
Occupation Specialist in conservation dentistry
Details Albert Geoffrey Alexander (1932-2010), known to all as Geoff or AGA, was a caring clinician, a compassionate teacher and a meticulous research worker. Geoff was born in Hull and obtained a scholarship at Bridlington School, where he became Head Boy. He was the first member of his family to attend university when he entered University College Hospital Dental School, University of London, where he collected the Sinclair Medal for the best student in his cohort. He obtained LDS in 1955, BDS in 1956, FDSRCS in 1961 and MDS in 1968. After graduating he held House Surgeon posts at The National Dental Hospital, did National Service in The Royal Army Dental Corp, ran the Student Dental Service at University College and had a year in private practice in Kent. In 1960 he became a full-time Lecturer in Conservative Dentistry, a Senior Lecturer in 1962, and an Honorary Consultant in 1967. He became Vice Dean of Dental Studies in 1974 and Dean, UCL Dental School and Vice Dean (Dental) of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences in 1977, a position he continued to hold until 1992. Geoff, with his wife Connie, then went to Hong Kong for two years as Head of Conservative Dentistry and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry. As well as working, they enjoyed showing visiting friends and colleagues the highlights of Hong Kong, especially the sky-scape of Hong Kong Island as seen, over a cup of tea, from the Terrace of the Peninsular Hotel on Kowloon. Geoff and Connie found time to go walking in Switzerland and Austria and later visited 'long haul' destinations such as Canada and Japan. When he retired, despite his long standing ill health, bravely borne, he developed an interest in computing and photography and continued his long standing enjoyment of music. Geoff had a significant impact on a whole generation of dental students who went through UCH Dental School. He was a kindly man who raised students' standards by professionalism, persuasion and example. He is survived by his wife Connie, his daughter Susan and two granddaughters, Christine and Elizabeth.
Resource Identifier E010358
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset
Publication Date 1956

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Cook, John Holford (1943 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372801372801
Occupation Anaesthetist Ophthalmologist
Details John Holford Cook began his career as an ophthalmologist, but later re-trained as an anaesthetist. Born on 16 May 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, he did not meet his father until he was three years old. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, London, and, following qualification, trained as an ophthalmologist. He later switched to anaesthesia, and ultimately became director of the intensive care unit at Eastbourne. There ‘Cookie’, as he was always known, was an enthusiastic teacher and trainer. He was clinical tutor for his hospital and a college tutor for the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He had many interests outside medicine. He had long been an enthusiastic radio ‘ham’ and built his own equipment and branched out into designing circuits for the radio control of the model boats that were built by his step-father. He mastered machine code for his computers and, when his children took up music, he decided to learn the trombone, which he played in the British Legion Band and the Eastbourne Concert Orchestra, using his computer to make new arrangements for his band. He developed adenocarcinoma of the lung and died on 27 December 2006, leaving his wife Lesley, four children and a grandson.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000618
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davidson, Colin Mackenzie (1928 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372802372802
Occupation General surgeon
Details Colin Davidson was a general surgeon at Frenchay and Cossham Memorial hospitals. He was born on 11 January 1928 in Glasgow, the son of Norman Davidson, a one-time senior surgeon of the Victoria Infirmary and Mary Scott née Mackenzie, a teacher of classics. He schooled at the Glasgow Academy and Rugby School, before attending Glasgow University for his medical studies. After qualification, he worked with Sir Charles Illingworth at the Western Infirmary and W A Mackie at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, before being awarded a McCunn scholarship to visit the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, where he spent 18 months. On his return to England, he obtained a senior registrar appointment at Bristol Royal Infirmary, working with Robert Milnes Walker. During the tenure of this post he was seconded as senior lecturer to the University of Khartoum, Sudan, where he gained vast operative experience in a wide range of pathology. In 1968 he was appointed consultant general surgeon at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, where he worked for the rest of his career. He took an active part in local surgical society life, becoming president of the Cossham Medical Society, the South West Surgical Club and the Colston Research Society, Bristol. He was also sometime president of the Moynihan Chirurgical Club. His outside interests included fishing, shooting, golf and photography. He married Robina McMurtrie Macgregor in 1953 and had four daughters and nine grandchildren. He died after a short illness on 30 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000619
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davies, William Hugh (1923 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23 2010-01-13
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/372803372803
Occupation General surgeon
Details Hugh Davies was a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to the Hereford Hospital Group. Appointed in 1961, he continued work as a popular and well-loved surgeon, always being reticent about any personal achievements. In spite of his many sporting activities, he was a very self-effacing person. He was born in Swansea into a non-medical household on 25 March 1923. Hugh’s father, William Alfred Davies, owned a tin plate manufacturing firm and his mother, Florence (née Morris), was a housewife. From preparatory school in Malvern, he won a scholarship in 1936 to Marlborough College, where he continued to excel at sport. His excellence was seen in the school’s first teams at rugby football, hockey and cricket, and in his school work. He was awarded a scholarship to Caius College, Cambridge, to study natural sciences during the early years of the Second World War. Proceeding to St Thomas’ Hospital for his clinical studies, his sporting activities continued on the ‘rugger’ field and he gained a regular place in the United Hospitals XV. After house appointments at St Thomas’, he entered National Service as a major in the RAMC for 18 months. When his career veered towards surgery, he underwent general training at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, and then in Portsmouth, before returning to his alma mater as a resident assistant surgeon. His wish to sub-specialise led him to travel north for higher training in the Newcastle urology unit. Hugh Davies obtained his definitive consultant post in Hereford as a general surgeon with an interest in urology, an area of the country he particularly enjoyed as it was close to his native Wales. He was a member of both the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Association of Urological Surgeons. One former house surgeon and general practitioner wrote of him: “He was an excellent surgeon to work with and very careful. Perhaps this prolonged his surgery, but we knew he was a perfectionist.” “If asked to do a domiciliary visit, he would not leave it to the next day, but would come that day even if it was late. He would expect me to be there as it was important learning for a GP.” “Certainly we GPs had a high regard for Hugh and knew we would always have an excellent opinion and that our patient would always be very satisfied.” Apparently Hugh had a dry sense of humour: when his hat fell into the wound when operating, his assistants could hardly control their mirth. The surgeon merely raised his head and said “Another hat please, sister!” He married Shirley Peppitt, a general practitioner, in June 1961. Hugh and Shirley had a family of three: Jane, the elder daughter, became a personal assistant to the food critic Egon Ronay and later married; their son, Robert, became a GP and continues to practice in Ledbury, Hereford; the younger daughter, Katie, is a housewife. There are 11 grandchildren. Hugh Davies continued his sporting interests in any spare time by playing golf as a member of the local Worsley Golf Club and, in his earlier years in Hereford, was an active member of the Whitecross (Hereford) Tennis and Squash Club. He enjoyed collecting antiques and water colours and was knowledgeable in both. But above all he was a devoted family man. Shortly before his retirement Hugh he was involved in a road traffic accident and the injuries definitely stifled his latter years. His life continued to revolve around his immediate family, to whom he was very attached. William Hugh Davies died peacefully at Ledbury Cottage Hospital on 3 March 2008 and is survived by Shirley, their children and grandchildren. A service of thanksgiving was held at St Philip and St James Church, Tarrington, Herefordshire. One local general practitioner wrote of this final tribute to a much-loved man: “It was a lovely experience to come to the service and realise what a loving family he had, to hear the grandchildren read and run around the church, to hear of his exploits on the rugby field and to sing ‘Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah’ to the tune of Cwm Rhondda.”
Resource Identifier RCS: E000620
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dawson-Edwards, Paul (1919 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2009-06-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372804372804
Occupation Urologist
Details Paul Dawson-Edwards was appointed consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals in 1957 and became a well-regarded urologist based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a teacher at the University of Birmingham. His interest in urology was fired by Hugh Donovan, and he formed an excellent unit with his colleague Guy Baines and then, up to his own retirement in 1984, with Michael Hughes. Paul was born in Coventry on 28 October 1919. Albert John Edwards, his father, was an engineer who worked for many years with the ‘Alvis’ racing team and his mother, Gladys Dawson, was a milliner. He was educated at Centaur Road Junior School and then, from 1930 to 1938, at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. There he excelled at most sports and became the school’s leading sportsman. For his medical studies he entered Birmingham University, where he had a good academic record and obtained a clinical prize in surgery. Again he excelled in a wide variety of sports. As vice-captain of the University Rugby XV he played mainly as a wing-three quarter and was a valued member of the athletics team. He also played for both Coventry and Moseley first XV teams. After qualification and house appointments, Paul married (Elizabeth) Jean Button, a nurse, on 14 April 1944. For two years he was a resident surgical registrar at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he gained good general experience. At this time he became a flight-lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and later at RAF Northallerton, where he specialised in trauma and orthopaedics. He went abroad from 1946 to 1947 as a squadron leader (orthopaedic specialist) in charge of Surgical Unit No 10 General Hospital, Karachi. Returning to the UK, surgery was obviously his ambition and Paul Dawson-Edwards commenced higher training as a demonstrator of anatomy at Birmingham University for a year before returning to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as a surgical registrar. This was followed by a four year rotating appointment at senior registrar level in Birmingham. On becoming a consultant in 1957, he obtained study leave for a year in Boston, Massachusetts at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, where he was an assistant in surgery and carried out research at Harvard University. An interest in renal transplantation was fired by Francis D (Franny) Moore. He did animal research work with Joseph Murray, a pioneer in this field, who was awarded a Nobel prize in 1990. Paul was fortunate to be under the wing of Hartwell Harrison, who became a lifelong friend. Returning to Birmingham, the kidney unit was set up as an offshoot of the urology unit. By 1962 a minicoil artificial kidney had been developed by Denys Blainey and permission was given to start renal transplantation at the end of 1967. Paul carried out his first renal transplant in May 1968. He was associated with dialysis and transplantation for many years, before returning to full time ‘general’ urological practice. He amassed a large series of patients with benign and malignant retroperitoneal fibrosis, publishing on this subject, as well as the minicoil artificial kidney and the clinical aspects of renal transplantation. Although he was a fine surgical technician and natural teacher, he was regarded by some as a hard task-master. Certainly he did not suffer fools gladly, but was more than happy when all the ‘team’ pulled together. Paul and his wife, Jean, hosted regular ‘firm’ parties: at one of these he told students that they were more staid than those of his generation. The Dawson-Edwardses woke the next morning to find the entrance to their drive had been bricked up. He was a member of British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) and served on its council (from 1970 to 1974) and on that of the Urological Club of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a founder member of the Midlands Urological Group who met each year at different centres to learn what other urologists were doing. Sport and cars played an important part of his life, although he was not as adept at maintaining the latter as was his father. After giving up rugby, he took up squash and tennis seriously and also enjoyed sailing and mountain walking. All these activities were continued until his knees needed replacing. His love of mountain walking inspired him to set up the Vacancy Club: once a year a group of registrars persuaded their consultant bosses to climb a peak in Snowdonia, perhaps in the hope of creating a vacancy! Paul was a formidable mixed hockey player and always enjoyed the traditional Boxing Day match against the General Hospital. Retiring in 1984, Paul and Jean were able to spend more time at their cottage in north Wales. He was a keen photographer and took up painting late in life, no doubt tutored by his friend and colleague, Arnold Gourevitch. Predeceased by his wife, Jean, he lived in his old home until his health forced him to enter a nursing home. But he enjoyed hearing from his friends and chatting with them at length over the phone: his intellect and memory remained sound. Paul Dawson-Edwards died of heart failure on 6 December 2008 and is survived by his three children (Elizabeth ‘Liz’, a retired company director, John, a civil engineer, and Sarah, a consultant radiologist in Norwich) and by his four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000621
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mizbah, Geoffrey (1931 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Nohl-Oser, Herman Christian (1916 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Raymond Hurt
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372806372806
Occupation General surgeon
Details Herman Christian Nohl-Oser was a consultant surgeon at Harefield Hospital, where he specialised in pulmonary and oesophageal surgery, with a special interest in paediatric surgery. He was born Herman Christian Nohl (in the 1960s he add the ‘Oser’) in Jena, Germany, in April 1916, the son of Herman Nohl. His father originally intended to study medicine, but, finding anatomy not to his liking, switched to philosophy and in 1920 was appointed to a chair in Göttingen. In 1937 he was dismissed by the Nazis and sent to work in a factory. After the war, he was reinstated as professor and dean of the philosophy faculty. Despite his first name, Chris was considered one quarter Jewish, and in 1934 he went to England with Kurt Hahn, the founder of Gordonstoun School, who had a very great influence on his life and subsequently became a lifelong mentor and personal friend. Chris was a ‘late developer’, but despite this became head boy at Gordonstoun, where he had a classical education. In 1936 he entered St Peter’s Hall (now College) in Oxford to matriculate and then study medicine. He was interned on the Isle of Man for one year, won a prize for the best medical and surgical dissertation, and qualified at Oxford as a doctor in 1944. Because of his German background, he found it difficult to obtain junior hospital posts but nevertheless gained considerable general surgical experience and obtained his FRCS in 1951. Despite this higher qualification, his application for a senior registrar post at the Middlesex Hospital was rejected in favour of a much junior English doctor and, with the encouragement of Sir Thomas Holmes Sellors, whom he had first met in Oxford during the war, he decided to train in thoracic surgery. Junior posts at the London Chest and Brompton hospitals allowed him to study the lymphatic drainage of the lung and the value of scalene node biopsy in the assessment of bronchial carcinoma. He continued this research following his consultant appointment to Harefield Hospital in 1960 and this led to an Oxford DM the same year and to a Hunterian professorship in 1971. When he was appointed to Harefield Hospital open-heart surgery was just beginning and this he undertook with enthusiasm until the appointment of a specialist cardiac surgeon to the hospital in 1967. Thereafter he confined his work to pulmonary and oesophageal surgery, with a special interest in paediatric surgery. He published his research extensively, both in English and European journals, and lectured widely in England and also in Germany. His magnum opus was a textbook on surgery of the lung, published in Germany, printed in English and later translated into German and Spanish, but unfortunately the book was little known in the UK. His obvious erudition and ability were not always recognised by his colleagues. He was a founder member of Pete’s Club, a travelling surgical club which pioneered the informal discussion of mistakes and errors of judgement – the only rule of the club was that no member was allowed to report a case which reflected credit on himself. He was devoted to his surgical career and to his wife Inge, whom he married in the same week that he qualified and who later suffered increasing disability from multiple sclerosis which presented soon after the birth of their child. His only son died tragically after an accident in 1987 and his wife died in 1991. In 1975 Chris had two coronary vein graft operations which were only partially successful in relieving his angina; thereafter a regime of graduated exercise completely relieved his symptoms. He died from a myocardial infarction on 13 June 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000623
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jennett, William Bryan (1926 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2009-06-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372807372807
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Bryan Jennett, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Glasgow, devised, with colleagues, two key diagnostic tools – the Glasgow Coma Scale, used throughout the world to assess consciousness, and the Glasgow Outcome Scale, used for patients with head injury. His work led to the defining of persistent vegetative state and the establishment of criteria for brain death. He was born on 1 March 1926 in Twickenham, Middlesex, the son of Robert William Jennett, a civil servant, and Jessie née Loudon. His mother’s family had farmed in Lanarkshire, Scotland, though there was a tradition of medicine. His father, an Irish Protestant, worked in the offices of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Dublin, but after his marriage was transferred to the British Civil Service in London, an option offered after the Troubles of 1916 and the establishment of the Irish Free State. At the start of the Second World War, Jennett was evacuated to rural Scotland, and then to Southport, where he attended George V School. He went on to study medicine at Liverpool, qualifying at the top of his year, in 1949, having been president of the British Medical Students’ Association. During his period in Liverpool, he was influenced towards neurosurgery by the lectures of Lord Cohen of Birkenhead on neurology. A neurosurgical house appointment at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, with Sir Hugh Cairns and J B Pennybacker was followed by National Service at the Military Hospital, Wheatley, which confirmed him in a career in neurosurgery. At the suggestion of Walpole Lewin, who was responsible for the care of head injuries at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Jennett undertook a study of the incidence and features of epilepsy after blunt head injuries, work which later resulted in his important monograph on the subject (William Heinemann Books, 1962). From Wheatley and Oxford, he went to Cardiff and, in 1957, was appointed senior lecturer at Manchester, a post he held until 1962. During his period he was a Rockefeller travelling fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), with W Eugene Stern. There he carried out experimental work on the effects of brain compression on tentorial herniation and the pupil, from which came two papers. The experience in UCLA introduced him to experimental work and research, and he considered staying on in the States, but in 1962 he was recruited to a combined academic and NHS appointment at Killearn Hospital in the West of Scotland Neurological Unit, Glasgow. There he was influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth, who had established a tradition of clinical surgical research. He published, in 1964, the first of five editions of *An introduction to neurosurgery* (London, Heinemann Medical), a small textbook in which he showed his skill in exposition. In 1968, he was given a chair of neurosurgery and, two years later, moved to the new Institute of Neurological Sciences at the Southern General Hospital, which he made into an outstanding centre of neurosurgical research and education in the UK. British neurosurgery had not been orientated much towards research, especially the laboratory sort for which Jennett had become enthusiastic after his experience in Los Angeles. In his new appointment, he showed a gift for co-operation and for enlisting accomplished scientists from other disciplines. With Murray Harper, he set up a Medical Research Council group on cerebral circulation, which studied the effects of carotid ligation, raised intracranial pressure, the sympathetic nervous system and the effect of anaesthetic agents on cerebral blood flow in primates and humans. He continued his studies of post traumatic epilepsy and greatly advanced the study of the pathology and outcome of head injuries. Together with Graham Teasdale, his successor in the chair, he devised a method of quantifying a head injury by using simple clinical observations. This became the Glasgow Coma Scale, an essential instrument in grading the severity of a brain injury. He and Michael Bond, who later became professor of psychological medicine at Glasgow, also devised a simple categorisation of the outcome of head injuries. Jennett’s studies with Hume Adams on the pathology of fatal head injuries drew attention to neuropathological evidence that these brains showed ischaemic damage, presumably occurring in the period immediately following the injury and, therefore, due, at least in some cases, to avoidable factors. This offered the opportunity of improving the outcome by attending to ventilation and avoiding hypotension in the early period after injury and controlling, if possible, raised intracranial pressure. Another co-operative effort, this time with Fred Plum of Cornell University, New York, led to the separation of a group of patients following severe head injury in which lack of awareness and of willed movement was associated with cycles of waking and sleeping, which they termed ‘vegetative state’, usually, though not always, permanent. Jennett’s special and characteristic contribution to the management of head injuries was to look at the evidence or collect new evidence, rather than rely on general impressions and past assumptions. If this sometimes seemed slightly cold-blooded, it was very successful in his hands and greatly changed the position of this important if somewhat depressing branch of trauma surgery. Management now depended on rational knowledge, rather than hopeful expectancy. In 1981 he published, with Graham Teasdale, *Management of head injuries* (Philadelphia, F A Davis Co. 1981), which incorporated these studies. Comparison of this book with earlier publications on the same subject shows how greatly the study of head injuries had advanced in a decade. Jennett’s later work inclined towards more general ethical, legal or administrative problems. When the development of heart transplantation created a need for organs to be taken from patients whose heart and circulation were still functioning, there developed a desire to redefine the criteria for death. Artificial ventilation of patients with very severe brain injuries produced a group of patients who appeared eventually to have no cerebral activity or cerebral circulation, if they were investigated, and who would die if ventilation were to be stopped, since they could not breathe spontaneously. Their circulation, however, continued as the heart remained beating. Such patients, at the endpoint of an overwhelming injury, provided an indispensable source of material for heart transplants. After much discussion, criteria were laid down which pronounced them to be, in effect, dead and therefore available as organ donors. This translation of a prognosis into a ‘state’ was not accepted by everyone in the profession and there was some unease and agitation about it. Jennett successfully brought his skill in laying out an argument, and in public debate, to bear on the problem. A somewhat similar difficulty arose over patients in the permanent ‘vegetative state’ he had described. They could live for many years in this state, fed by tube but showing no signs of higher mental functions, often to the distress of their relatives. The question arose whether their lives could be terminated by ceasing tube feeding. In the end, a judgement of the House of Lords decided it could. Jennett wrote an extensive study *The vegetative state: medical facts, ethical and legal dilemmas* (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002), which examined all aspect of this difficult problem. The increasing expense of highly complex medical treatment, its effectiveness and its value for money was the subject of his Rock Carling fellowship and monograph (*High technology medicine: benefits and burdens*, London, The Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, 1984) in which, in his usual clear and even-handed way, he examined all aspects of the subject, admitting its failings, which he tended to attribute to misapplication by doctors, but generally defending it. His intellectual and organisational gifts made him sought-after as an administrator. He was on many committees in the UK, especially those concerned with head injuries, epilepsy, criteria of brain death and allocation of resources. He was dean of the faculty of medicine of Glasgow University from 1981 to 1986, visiting professor to universities in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a corresponding member of the American Neurological Association and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, an honorary member of the Society of Neurological Surgeons in America and the stroke council of the American Heart Association. He was president of the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care. Jennett was a small man with great energy. He had a sharp tongue, pen and wit, and could be harshly dismissive of people of whom he had little opinion, which sometimes produced enemies. He married Sheila Pope, a fellow medical student at Liverpool, who became a respiratory physiologist at Glasgow. There were three sons of the marriage and one daughter. He and his wife pursued outdoor activities and he was interested in flora and fauna. He was a keen sailor, owned a series of yachts and did much cruising around the coast of Scotland and England. Though tone deaf, he was a sponsor of musical activities. His daughter became a professional cellist. Jennett died on 26 January 2008, aged 81, from the effects of multiple myeloma.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000624
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Osborne, David Robert (1943 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2015-09-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372808372808
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details David Osborne was a consultant surgeon who established the first urological department in Basildon. He was born in Weston-super-Mare on 12 December 1943, the son of Alan John Osborne, a leading aircraftman, and his wife, Tilly Fleming née Straiton. He was educated at Hazelcroft Primary School and then Weston-super-Mare Grammar School. He studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School from 1963 to 1968, winning the Ruth Bowden anatomy prize and the George Quist surgery prize, and playing in the first XV rugby team. After qualifying, he was a house officer at Hampstead General Hospital and then at St Andrew's Hospital. In 1970 he was a casualty officer at the Royal Free. He then held senior house officer posts at Luton and Dunstable, and at Frenchay and Southmeads hospitals, Bristol. He was then a registrar in general surgery at Cheltenham and Gloucester. From 1976 to 1983 he was a lecturer in surgery at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1983 he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology to Basildon and Thurrock hospitals. In 1985 he became a consultant surgeon to South Ockendon Hospital and in 1991 became head of the department of urology with full-time responsibility for urology services. He established a specialist urology department with three surgeons, each with a subspecialty interest. He was interested in reading, gardening, walking and painting, and loved fine wines. In 1969 he married Brenda Mary Cornforth, a general practitioner and a fellow student at the Royal Free, who was the daughter of Sir J W Cornforth FRS KBE. They had one son, Andrew John (a GP in New Zealand), and a daughter, Catherine Jane (a marketing manager). He died on 17 October 2008. His love of surgery was so great that he continued seeing patients and operating until three weeks before he died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000625
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Rank, Sir Benjamin Keith (1911 - 2002)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2017-05-05
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/372810372810
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details Benjamin Rank was considered by many to be the father of plastic surgery in Australia. He was born on 14 January 1911 in Heidelberg, Victoria, where his father, Wreghitt Rank, owned a grain store and mill. His mother was Bessie née Smith. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, and Ormond College, University of Melbourne, graduating with many honours and prizes. He did a two-year residency in the Royal Melbourne Hospital before going to London to specialise in surgery. There he did junior posts at St James' Hospital, Balham, but soon became fascinated by the new specialty of plastic surgery and was appointed assistant plastic surgeon at Hill End (Bart's EMS unit). Joining the Royal Australasian Army Medical Corps in 1940, he commanded their plastic surgical unit in Egypt. In 1942, he returned to Australia to set up a plastic and maxillofacial unit at Heidelberg Military Hospital. Among the patients treated there was one Flight Lieutenant John Gorton, who went on to become Prime Minister of Australia. In 1946 he was the first honorary plastic surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He spent much time overseas and was instrumental in setting up the specialty of plastic surgery in India, for which he set up 'Interplast' - a charity supported by the Rotary Clubs to offer training and expertise to Asian and Pacific nations. He was the Sims Commonwealth Travelling Professor of the College in 1958, Moynihan lecturer in 1972, President of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in 1965 and President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons from 1966 to 1968. He made important contributions to the study of Marjolin's ulcer, radiation carcinoma, and the transition from benign to malignant melanoma. He also made a major contribution to hand surgery, and his textbook *Surgery of repair as applied to hand injuries* (Livingstone, 1953) ran to four editions. He wrote extensively, including an autobiography, and was a talented painter. He was a tireless campaigner for no-fault motor accident insurance and was President of the St John Ambulance Association. He married Barbara Lyle Facy in 1938. They had one son Andrew, and three daughters, Helen, Julie and Mary (one of whom became a nurse). He died on 26 January 2002.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000627
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Johnston, Ivan David Alexander (1929 - 2007)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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
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First Title value, for Searching Burgess, John Nigel (1935 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by John Blandy
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/372812372812
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Burgess was a consultant surgeon in Syracuse, New York state. He was born in Woodford Green, Essex, on 20 July 1935, the son of Phillip Stanley Douglas Burgess, a bank official, and Emily Mabel née Oliver. From Brookland’s Preparatory School he entered Bancroft’s School, Woodford Green, and then went on to receive his medical education at the London Hospital. After qualifying and junior posts, he spent two years, from 1960 to 1962, in the RAMC, reaching the rank of captain. On demobilisation he held posts at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and then at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith. From 1964 to 1969 he was a senior house officer and then a surgical registrar at St Helier Hospital, Carshalton. In 1969 he went to the Mayo Clinic as a research assistant, where he wrote a thesis on the denervation of the cat oesophagus. He was invited to stay on to do a surgical residency until 1972, when he became a general surgeon in Syracuse, New York state. There he remained until he partially retired in 1992, remaining as a consultant to the local prison service. Burgess married Marie Bradfield, a nurse, in 1962. They had two sons, Ashley and Guy, neither of whom went into medicine. A keen rugby football player at school and medical college, he took up ice hockey in Minnesota, and continued to cycle and play tennis. His chief interest was motor racing; he was a member of the Sports Car Club of America, surviving a major crash in 1988. He died on Christmas Day 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000629
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Bhansali, Shirish Kanchanlal (1929 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-07-10 2009-08-14
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372813372813
Occupation General surgeon
Details Shirish Bhansali was a consultant surgeon in Bombay, India. He was born on 21 September 1929 in Bombay into a medical family. His father was Kanchanlal Bhansali, a general practitioner, and his uncle was a gynaecologist. His mother was Kumud Vakil. He was educated at the Modern School and Elphinstone College, Bombay, from which he won a merit scholarship to the Royal Institute of Science, Bombay, in 1947. His medical education was at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, where he won several distinctions and prizes, culminating in the K N Bahadurji scholarship for surgery in 1952 and the G W Kane gold medal in surgery the following year. He completed house posts in general surgery, orthopaedics and ENT at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and held house surgeon and registrar appointments at the Tata Memorial Hospital, gaining his MS in 1957. He then went to England, where he passed the FRCS and became a registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital, where he was much influenced by Michael Harmer and David Wallace. In 1960, he returned to Bombay as an assistant surgeon at the Tata Memorial Hospital and two years later was appointed honorary surgeon at the Bhatia General Hospital. He was also an honorary assistant professor of surgery at the Topiwala National Medical College, the B Y L Nair Charitable Hospital and the Sir Hurkisondas Nurrottumdas Hospital from 1966 to 1977. In 1980 he became director of the department of general and gastrointestinal surgery at Jaslok Hospital and research centre and consultant surgeon at Breach Candy Hospital. He was a truly general surgeon. Although his special interests were in hepato-pancreo-biliary surgery, he included oncology, critical care and endocrine surgery and wrote a monograph on the surgery of the thyroid. His extensive publications included text books for students on surgery and medicine, minimal access surgery and acute pancreatitis. His early publications were on cancer of the buccal cavity, and he went on to write on the feasibility of resecting primary tumours of the liver and the treatment of cancer of the oesophagus and bladder. His interest was not confined to malignant disease: he published a very large series of cases of tuberculosis of the colon and the surgical complications of typhoid fever, based on his remarkable experience of these conditions, now so rare in the West. He contributed a number of chapters to Vakil’s *Medicine for postgraduate students* and the *Indian year book of medical science*. Bhansali was in demand as a visiting professor and as a moderator in international symposia on oncology and colorectal surgery. In 1970 the Danish government awarded him a fellowship to attend the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Copenhagen. A popular teacher, his students voted him best teacher in 2006 and his colleagues awarded him the Shushrut award in 2008 for excellence in surgery. He was a member of many prestigious surgical associations, both in India and overseas. His outside interests included the Rotary Club of Bombay, of which he was charter president, the Bombay Presidency Radio Club and the Willingdon Sports Club. In 1957 Bhansali married Shanta Borkar, also a doctor, who came from a longstanding medical family. He died on 27 April 2009, leaving his wife and two sons, Uday and Ameet. Uday is a chartered accountant and Ameet an engineer, working in California.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000630
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372230372230
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Norman Lloyd Crabtree was an ENT surgeon in Birmingham. He was born on 2 June 1916 in Birmingham, the only child of Herbert Crabtree, a clergyman and past president of the Unitarian Assembly, and Cissie Mabel née Taylor. He was educated at Alleyn’s School and then, following the advice of Sir Cecil Wakeley to take up medicine, went to King’s College Medical School on an entrance scholarship. During the second world war he was a Major in the RAMC, serving in India from 1942 to 1945 with the 17th General Hospital and the British Military Hospital, New Delhi. He was a house surgeon and then a registrar in ENT at King’s College Hospital, and then a registrar at Gray’s Inn Road. During his training he was influenced by Sir Victor Negus, Sir Terence Cawthorne and W I Daggett. He was appointed as a consultant at United Birmingham Hospitals. He was honorary treasurer of the Midland Institute of Otology and of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology, and President of the section of otology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was co-founder and President of the British Association of Otolaryngology. He married a Miss Airey in 1939 and they had two daughters and one son. He enjoyed yacht cruising and cinematography.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000043
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-20 2012-07-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372198372198
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Newbury, Berkshire, where his father, Osman Vincent, was a silk merchant and banker, living at Donnington. Captain Richard Budd Vincent, CB (1770?-1831), was John's elder brother. Vincent was apprenticed to William Long (d 1829), Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Bluecoat School, and as an apprentice he had occasion to attend Leigh Hunt, then a schoolboy. Hunt says of Long, "he was dark like a West Indian and I used to think him handsome, but the sight of Mr Long's probe was not so pleasant, I preferred to see it in the hands of Vincent". He was one of the last Members admitted by the Company of Surgeons on March 20th, 1800. Two days later, on March 22nd, 1800, the College Charter was granted and Vincent was again examined. There were thirty-nine candidates for the diploma, many of whom were 'referred'. John Smith Soden (qv) and Richard Spencer (qv) were amongst those who satisfied the examiners. Vincent was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on August 13th, 1807, on the resignation of his master, William Long, whose house he took in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the election he received 154 votes and his opponent, William Wadd, obtained 56. He became Surgeon on Jan 29th, 1816, and resigned on January 21st, 1847, when he was elected a Governor. At the Royal College of Surgeons Vincent was co-opted a Member of the Council in 1822 and held office till his death. He was a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1828-1851, Hunterian Orator in 1829, Vice-President in 1830, 1831, 1838, and 1839; and President in 1832 and 1840. He was not in favour of establishing an order of Fellows of the College. He married: (1) On May 28th, 1812, Maria, daughter of Samuel Parke, of Kensington and Lysonby Lodge, near Melton Mowbray, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons survived him. She died in October, 1824, and he then married (2) Elizabeth Mary Williams, who outlived him. He died of paralysis after several years of ill health at Woodlands Manor, near Sevenoaks, Kent, on July 17th, 1852, and was buried in the church he had built at Woodlands. A three-quarter-length portrait in oils, sitting, by E U Eddis hangs in the Great Hall at St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was painted by subscription for his pupils and represents Vincent as a frail-looking man. The likeness was said to be good. It was presented to the Hospital on Sept 10th, 1850, and an autographed engraving from it by Henry Cousins was issued to the subscribers. Sir James Paget, writing from personal knowledge, said that he remembered him, "as a very practical surgeon, shrewd in diagnosis and always prudent and watchful, but apparently shy and reserved and not at all given to teaching even in the wards. He never taught in the school - never even, I think, gave a clinical lecture." Luther Holden (qv), writing in greater detail on January 11th, 1897, tells of his recollections in the following words: "At last, after much delay, which I regret, here are a few items which I have gathered from the mouldy memories of my respected friend and teacher, John Painter Vincent. All that I tell you is limited to the estimation in which we students held him. "We used to call him 'Old Vinco'. He was very popular with us - always kind, always ready to help a fellow in distress, a man of few, but always gentle, words. He lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and always walked to the Hospital. His walk bespoke a character about which there was no mistake. He came shuffling along with short steps, his hands never in his pockets, never behind him, but always clasped in front, as if ready to do handy work. He was very careful of his hands, and well he might be, for they were his best instruments, not that we thought him a good operator in the usual sense of the word. He 'operated' best without instruments. He had a natural dexterity and fine surgical touch. This was best seen when he 'set' a fracture or reduced a dislocation or when he was examining the nature of a tumour, but best of all when he was reducing a hernia. Many a time I have seen him reduce a hernia which had baffled his house surgeon and dressers. 'Old Vinco' would come down, grasp the hernia with his magic hands, give it a bit of a shake, and tuck it up, much to the disappointment of the 'boys', who wanted an operation. In this matter of 'legerdemain' we all agreed that he was far more dexterous than his colleagues. Unfortunately for us, Vincent did not explain to us how to do the trick, for he was a man of very few words, and never, so far as I know, gave a clinical lecture. He was certainly a conservative surgeon, disposed to avoid operations, unless obviously necessary. His highly educated surgical teaching was probably appreciated by his colleagues. In doubtful cases it was their wont to instruct their respective house surgeons to request Mr Vincent to give his opinion. In his time there were no special days, as now, for surgical consultations. "As regards Vincent's personality, there is an admirable likeness of him in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was exceedingly modest, quiet, unobtrusive. I am not aware that he ever published much, if anything, but I believe there is a very good memoir of him by his son in our library. He wore a brown wig, which never altered in colour as he grew older. Eventually he died paralytic, after a very long confinement to bed, [still] Senior Surgeon to St Bartholomew's. "The above is all that I can fairly remember of 'old Vinco'. Even this little has given me pleasure to recall. Do what you like with it." "Always sincerely yours, "Luther Holden." PUBLICATIONS: - *The Hunterian Oration*, 8vo, London, 1829. *Observations on Some of the Parts of Surgical Practice*, 8vo, London, 1847. *An Address to the Council of the College of Surgeons,* 1841.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000011
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-28 2012-07-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372200372200
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Sept. 11th, 1781, the second of the sons of a merchant who had made a fortune in the West Indies. He was educated at Greenwich at the school kept by the Rev. Charles Burney, D.D., son of the historian of music, whose library was bought by the nation to be preserved in the British Museum as the 'Burney Library'. It was probably Burney's influence which rendered Cooper such a voluminous author that he has been called 'the surgical Johnson'. Samuel Cooper entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1800 and became a Surgeon's Mate in May, 1801, though he does not appear to have been attached to a regiment. He began to practise in Golden Square, and in 1805 he published a work on cataract. He gained the Jacksonian Prize at the College of Surgeons in 1806 with a dissertation on the "Diseases of the Joints, particularly of the Hip and Knee, and the best Mode of Treatment". The essay was published in 1807 in England, at Boston in 1808, and at Hanover, N.H., in 1811. In 1807 appeared his *First Lines of the Practice of Surgery: designed as an Introduction for Students and a Concise Book of Reference for Practitioners*. It had a large and continuous sale, the seventh edition being published in 1840. In 1809 the first edition of his great surgical dictionary appeared under the title *A Dictionary of Practical Surgery: containing a complete exhibition of the present state of the principles and practice of surgery, collected from the best and most original sources of information and illustrated by critical remarks.* It was instantly successful, and as *Cooper's Surgical Dictionary* it continued to be revised and issued until 1838, and was translated into French, German, and Italian, whilst several editions appeared in America, the one in 1810 being issued with notes and additions by John Syng Dorsey. Samuel Cooper married Miss Cranstoun in 1810; she died in the following year and left him with a daughter who afterwards married Thomas Morton, Surgeon to University College Hospital. In 1813 Cooper entered the Army and served as a surgeon in the Waterloo campaign. Retiring on the conclusion of peace, he devoted most of his attention to the editing of successive editions of his two principal works and of Mason Good's *Study of Medicine*, of which the fourth edition appeared in 1834. He was elected Surgeon to the North London (now University College) Hospital, London, in 1831, and became Professor of Surgery in University College. He resigned these posts in 1847 in consequence of a quarrel with the Council of the University as to a successor in the post of Professor of Clinical Surgery left vacant by the death of Robert Liston. Cooper objected to the post being offered to Professor James Syme of Edinburgh. The Council, led by William Sharpey, MD (1802-1880), and Jonas Quain MD (1796-1865), persisted. Syme was appointed in February, 1848, found the position impossible, and resigned in May of the same year. Cooper served as a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1827-1848 and of the Court of Examiners from 1835-1848. He was Hunterian Orator in 1832, Vice-President in 1843 and 1844, and President in 1845. He was elected FRS in 1846, was Surgeon to the Forces and to the King's Bench and Fleet prisons. He died of gout 2 Dec 1848. His bust by Timothy Butler is in the College, and his portrait by Andrew Morton hangs on the main staircase. A mezzotint of the portrait by Henry Cousins was published in 1840 by Messrs. Colnaghi. Cooper made his mark early in life by his writings; his *First Lines of the Practice of Surgery* is admirable, and his *Dictionary of Practical Surgery* a monument to his industry and knowledge; it was indeed a work of inconceivable labour, for Cooper had no assistance in its production. It presents an immense mass of surgical information, and during the thirty years preceding 1838 it was the text-book of every student of surgery. Cooper did good service to his hospital as a teacher, but his surgery was somewhat old-fashioned, and he was eclipsed in the operating theatre by Liston. During the seventeen years he was Surgeon to University College Hospital, his great surgical knowledge, and his kindness and urbanity of manners in the duties of Professor of Surgery, procured for him the warm attachment of the students.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000013
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Glaser, Sholem (1912 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-02-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372439372439
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ron Grimley was born in Birmingham on 21 February 1946 and was educated at grammar school in Small Health and Birmingham University. After junior posts, mainly at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he was a lecturer on the surgical unit under Sir Geoffrey Slaney. He was appointed vascular and general surgeon to the Dudley Health Authority in 1983, where he developed a busy vascular and endocrine practice, as well as a special interest in melanoma of the lower limb. He published extensively and was a keen teacher of young surgeons. He was an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Intercollegiate Board, and a member of the Specialist Accreditation Committee in General Surgery and the first clinical sub-dean. He was a prime mover in the foundation of the undergraduate teaching centre which was opened and named after him on 14 March 2006. He died from a myocardial infarct on 26 September 2005. He was married to Penny and they had three children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000252
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372440372440
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Herbert Johnston was a pioneer of paediatric urology, determined to make what had been a peripheral interest a specialty in its own right. Appointed first as a general surgeon to a leading children’s hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool, he soon saw that the urogenital problems required a much closer attention than had been accorded them, and by years of dedicated practice and research he built for himself an international reputation and inspired a succession of young disciples. James Herbert Johnston, known to his intimates as ‘Herbie’, was born on 26 February 1920 in Belfast. His father, Robert Johnston, was in the linen business, his mother, Mary née McCormack, a science teacher. He was always destined for a career in medicine and distinguished himself as an undergraduate by gaining several surgical prizes. He graduated from Queens University, Belfast, in 1943, and after a house job became assistant to the professor of surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital and at the Children’s Hospital. After military service, from 1946 to 1948, he returned to Belfast, taking the FRCS Ireland in 1949 and the English Fellowship in the following year. He then crossed the Irish Sea, theoretically for a short spell, but actually for the rest of his life, taking up senior registrar posts in Liverpool. There he came under the powerful influence of Charles Wells, who not only trained his registrars but directed them to their consultant posts. Thus it was that in 1956 Herbert was appointed surgeon to the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Although Charles Wells was much concerned with urology, Herbert had had no specialist training and, curiously, he was at first given responsibility for the management of burns. With this in mind he went to a famous burn unit in Baghdad, but this venture was abruptly ended by the Suez War. At Alder Hey Isabella Forshall and Peter Rickham were making great strides in neonatal surgery, but had no particular interest in urology and Herbert saw both the need and the opportunity to make that field his own. As Hunterian Professor in 1962 he lectured on vesico-ureteric reflux, the topic then exciting all paediatric urologists, and went on to produce a long series of papers illuminating important, or neglected, aspects of children’s disorders. He joined with Innes Williams in writing the standard British textbook on this subject and his published work soon brought him an international reputation, with invitations to deliver eponymous lectures in the USA and elsewhere. In 1980 he was awarded the St Peters medal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons in recognition of his many contributions. In spite of all this evidence of enthusiasm Herbert did not at first acquaintance give an impression of liveliness. Deliberate in speech, he could at times look positively lugubrious. However, he became a popular lecturer, making his points with logic and a clarity laced with dry wit and self deprecating humour. To those who knew him well he was a delightful companion who could make fun of all life’s problems. His hobbies were few, though he was a keen golfer if not an outstanding performer in this field. In 1945 he married Dorothy Dowling, who made a happy home for him and their son and daughter, who are now in the teaching profession. His retirement was marred by a stroke which left him with considerable disability, but he was lucky to have Dorothy to look after him so well. He died on 4 February 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000253
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Pitcairn, Sir James (1776 - 1859)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372637372637
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on July 18th, 1776, the eldest son of the Rev Robert Pitcairn, of Brasenose College, Oxford, Vicar of English Combe, Somerset, and Incumbent of Spring Chapel, London. The family originated in Pitcairn, Fifeshire, and to it belonged the two well-known physicians – William Pitcairn, MD (1711-1791), Physician and Treasurer to St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and President of the College of Physicians; and his nephew, David Pitcairn, MD (1749-1800), his successor as Physician to St Bartholomew’s. James Pitcairn went to school in London, and then was a pupil of Sir Everard Home at St George’s Hospital at the same time as Benjamin Brodie. Having graduated MD at Edinburgh, he returned to become house surgeon at St George’s Hospital. He was thereupon selected by Sir Everard Home for special service at the request of the Commander-in-Chief, was gazetted at once a Staff Surgeon on Aug 30th, 1799, and was sent in 1814 to Holland, where he served to the end of the campaign, and then with the Russian Contingent at Guernsey. In 1800 he went to Ireland to the charge of the 56th Regiment, which was soon dispatched to the Mediterranean under Sir Charles Stewart, and joined the Army under Sir Ralph Abercrombie on the expedition to Egypt where he served to the close of the campaign. He returned to Dublin in 1802 in charge of the Recruiting Staff, and organized arrangements in view of the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon. From 1804-1815 he supervised the encampments formed at the Curragh and in the Connaught District of Ireland. In 1816 his services were transferred to Munster, and at Cork during thirty-one years he personally superintended the arrangements for foreign service and the embarkation. The position was full of difficulties and obstacles which his good sense and affable nature tended to lessen and remove. He was knighted by Lord Normandy in 1837 for professional services. In 1847 he succeeded Dr George Renny as Director-General of the Medical Department for Ireland until 1852, when he retired with the rank of Inspector of Hospitals. The Medical Officers of the Army presented him with a service of plate and an address. It was said of him that he discouraged criticism of the absent with such interruptions as: “Never let your mouth be opened unless for good; if you cannot speak to the credit of a man, keep it shut. This has been my rule through life and I have never had cause to regret it.” He died at 3 Haddington Road, Dublin, on Jan 12th, 1859.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000453
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-02-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372638372638
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Coventry on March 29th, 1780; was educated at King Edward’s Grammar School. He was then apprenticed to George Freer, of Birmingham, the author of *Aneurysm and some Diseases of the Arterial System* (1807), who evidently inspired his pupils with higher aims that the mere routine of practice, for Soden was Jacksonian Prizeman in 1810 with an essay on “The Bite of Rabid Animal”. Moreover, Joseph Hodgson (q.v.), a fellow pupil with Soden, President of the College in 1864, was the author in the following year (1811) of the Jacksonian Prize Essay on “Wounds and Diseases of the Arteries and Veins” – an elaborate piece of work. Having qualified in 1800, Soden entered the Army as a Hospital Mate on June 13th, 1800, became Assistant Surgeon in the 79th Highlanders three days later, served in Egypt, and resigned before April 16th, 1803. After returning to London he settled in practice at Bath, where he was appointed Surgeon to the United Hospitals, the Eye Infirmary, the Penitentiary, and the Lock Hospital. He thus took up a position as a leading practitioner in Bath, a successful operator and eye surgeon. He was an original member of the British Medical Association. He practised at 101 Sydney Place, Bath, and died in retirement on March 19th, 1863. His son, John Soden (q.v.), succeeded to his practice. He was ambidextrous in operating for cataract, sitting facing the patient, the patient also sitting; he made the lower incision by means of Baer’s triangular knife. Puncturing the cornea almost vertically, he watched for the jet of aqueous humour, then carried the knife across the anterior chamber without touching the iris. Soden made an admirable collection of the Portraits of Medical Men – Ancient and Modern, British and Foreign. It was presented after his death to the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society by his son John Soden, of Bath. The collection consists of four folio volumes containing 872 mounted medical portraits, with two additional volumes, the one of caricatures and newspaper cuttings, the other of autograph letters and signatures of medical men. The six volumes are preserved at the Royal Society of Medicine, where they are known as ‘The Soden Collection’. Publications:- “On Inguinal Aneurysm, Cured by Tying the External Iliac Artery.” – *Med-Chir. Trans.*, 1816, vii, 536. “Of Poisoning by Arsenic” – *London Med Rev*, 1811. *Address* at the Third Anniversary of the Bath District Branch of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, 1839, 8vo, Bath, 1839. *Address* at the Annual Meeting of the Bath and Bristol District Branch of the above, 1854.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000454
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372448372448
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Herdman was born on 15 December 1921. He studied medicine at Oxford, qualifying in 1945. He completed house jobs at the United Oxford Hospitals and at Ancoats, Manchester, from which he passed the FRCS. He then returned to the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research for two years, before undergoing further registrar posts in Oxford. In 1953 he went to Canada and worked as a general surgeon at the St Joseph's Hospitals, Sarnia, Ontario, until 1973. He then studied health services planning under D O Anderson in the University of British Columbia, where he wrote a graduate thesis on patterns in surgical performance in the Province of British Columbia, and revealed a natural aptitude for epidemiological research. In 1976 he joined the staff of Riverview Hospital, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, becoming surgical consultant in June 1976, where his duties were administrative. By 1978 he was the chief physician of North Lawn in charge of the entire medical and surgical service. By 1985 he was involved in a successful application for re-accreditation of Riverview Hospital and its mental health services. He was also involved with the care of patients who developed megacolon as a side effect of their medication. He retired in 1991. He died on 4 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000261
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Halvorsen, Jan Frederik (1935 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-08-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372449372449
Occupation General surgeon
Details Jan Frederik Halvorsen was director of the department of surgery and professor of surgery at the University of Bergen, Norway. He graduated from the University of Bergen Medical School in 1960, becoming a general surgical specialist in 1968 with a special interest in intestinal surgery. He gained a PhD for his work on blood pressure within the liver. His first appointment was at Stavanger Hospital, followed by the Rikshopitalet in Oslo. He also worked at the United Nations Hospital in Gaza. In 1964 he was appointed to Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, where he remained until illness forced his retirement in 2001. He moved through the department of pathology and the gynaecology clinic, but his main focus was surgery. He initially specialised in endocrine surgery, but eventually developed his interest in GI surgery, particularly the diagnosis and treatment of bowel disorders. He published over 100 papers on diseases of the GI tract. He took a sabbatical, spending time at St Mark’s Hospital, London. He became professor of surgery at Bergen University and, as a result of his involvement with the Norwegian Medical Association, he was responsible for the coordination of postgraduate studies. His door was always open to students and colleagues. The organisation of training and the decentralising of courses were a demanding project. He organised the coordination of 1,100 courses involving 25,000 participants. In 1992 he was chosen to coordinate university exchanges between the Hanseatic towns of Lubeck in Germany and Bergen. His enormous experience, knowledge, friendly amiability and dynamism helped him to establish important international contacts and successful exchanges. He was a generous man and established great and permanent friendships with both the students and the specialists in both these cities. He also organised many visits of groups of surgeons from other countries, including the UK. He was a great communicator and spoke impeccable English. He was extremely interested in English literature. He belonged to a British surgical travelling club and was one of its most enthusiastic members. Even when he was suffering from serious cardiac problems he determinedly joined the group on a visit to Spain. In 1988 he was made an honorary Fellow of the College. This particular honour he cherished more than the other many honours he received. Jan Frederik Halvorsen was an extremely skilled surgeon, with vast theoretical knowledge and practical experience. In addition to the qualities he showed as a surgeon, his organisational skills in health management were used to great effect in improving postgraduate education in Norway. Patients and doctors benefited from these attributes. He left a great legacy. He was a strong family man. He leaves his wife Sissel and four children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000262
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2006-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372341372341
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Jamil Soomro was an orthopaedic surgeon at Orpington. He was born in Shikarpur, Sind, Pakistan, on 28 March 1948. His father, Haji Moula Bux Soomro, was a farmer. His mother was Fazlaan Soomro, a housewife. Jamil was educated at the Government High School, Shikarpur, where he gained a distinction in Islamic studies, and went on to the C&S College, Shikarpur, where he gained a first in intermediate science. He studied medicine at Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, passing with the highest marks of his year. After house posts in the Navy in Pakiston, he came to England in 1975. He was a senior house officer at Lewisham Hospital and then at Stoke-on-Trent. He then held a post in the accident and emergency department at Stockport for six months, before moving to Birmingham, where he carried out paediatric surgery for a year in the Children’s Hospital. He then worked in Hull, at the Royal Infirmary, as a paediatric surgeon. He then moved to Crawley, as a senior house officer, and embarked on his career in orthopaedics. He worked as an orthopaedic surgeon at Chelmsford, then Portsmouth, before joining Orpington Hospital, Bromley Hospital NHS Trust, in 1980. He became an associate specialist in 1990, and developed a special interest in knee surgery. He retired in 2003. He was an excellent surgeon and an active and enthusiastic teacher, teaching staff at all levels and regularly helping junior doctors prepare for their MRCS examinations. He had a warm bedside manner and is remembered not only for his surgical skills, but also for his politeness, kindness, sincerity and dedication to his work. In July 2006 a plaque was unveiled at Orpington Hospital to commemorate his service to the trust. He was married to Nigar. They had a daughter, Hibba, who is an ophthalmologist, and two sons, Omer, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, and Mohammed, a pharmacist. Jamil Soomro died on 12 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000154
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-08-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372841372841
Occupation General surgeon
Details Resident Surgeon to the Wakefield Dispensary from 1839-1841, when he became Medical Superintendent of the York Asylum, a post he held from 1841-1845, after which he acted as Superintendent of the General and County Lunatic Asylum of Nottinghamshire, and last of all of the West Riding Asylum at Wakefield. He died on Jan 2nd, 1858. His name appears as that of a Member of the College although he passed the Fellowship examination. It is probable, therefore, that he was never formally enrolled or given the diploma, perhaps because he never paid the additional fees.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000658
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Allard, William (1818 - 1894)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Allen (or Allan), James (1821 - 1892)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Allen, Robert Marshall (1818 - 1893)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Allen, William Edward (1834 - 1885)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18
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/372855372855
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born Sept 23rd, 1834; educated at University College. Entered the Bengal Army as Assistant Surgeon, Feb 10th, 1859; promoted Surgeon Feb 10th, 1871, and Surgeon Major July 1st, 1873. Retired Nov 5th, 1884, and died at Romford on May 15th, 1885.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000672
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Allingham, Herbert William (1862 - 1904)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-18 2016-01-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372857372857
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on April 17th, 1862, the eldest son of William Allingham, (qv); was educated at Chatham House, Ramsgate, and University College School in London. He entered St George's Hospital in 1879, where Timothy Holmes (qv) and Pickering Pick (qv) were surgeons. Here he rapidly developed a marked talent for teaching and for surgery; at school he had been undistinguished. Served as House Surgeon in 1883-1884, and at the end of his term of office was appointed Surgical Registrar and Demonstrator of Anatomy. Elected Assistant Surgeon to St Mark's Hospital in 1885, resigning in 1890, and in 1887 he became Surgeon to the Great (now the Royal) Northern Hospital, a post he held until 1896. Elected Assistant Surgeon to St George's Hospital in 1894. [1] He was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, now His Majesty King George V, having been previously Surgeon to the Household of King Edward VII. He also filled the offices of Surgeon to the Surgical Aid Society and to the Osborne Home for Officers. He practised at 25 Grosvenor Street, W. He married in 1889 Fraülein Alexandrina Von der Osten, who died in January, 1904, when her husband had become inoculated with syphilis whilst operating in 1903. After her death he became mentally depressed, started for a holiday to Egypt, and died at Marseilles on Nov 4th, 1904, from an overdose of morphia. Allingham was a fine surgeon who did not confine himself to his father's specialty. As an operator he was rapid, neat, and accurate; as a man he was handsome, courteous, and helpful to his juniors. His affectionate nature was shown by the utter prostration into which he was thrown by the death of his lively and charming wife. Publications: Colotomy, Inguinal, Lumbar and Transverse, for Cancer or Stricture with Ulceration of Large Intestine, 8vo, London, 1892. The Treatment of Internal Derangements of the Knee-joint by Operation, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1889. Jointly with his father, Allingham on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Rectum, 5th ed., London, 1888. Operative Surgery, 8vo, London, 1903. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] '1894' is deleted and '1895' put in its place, together with '[information from Sir Humphry Rolleston]'; Portrait in College Collection.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000674
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Allingham, William (1829 - 1908)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25 2016-01-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372858372858
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated for the profession of architecture at University College, where he gained prizes. He even practised as an architect, exhibited studies at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and obtained honourable mention for a design of a building to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. In this year, however, he decided to abandon architecture for medicine. Entering as a student at St Thomas's Hospital, he carried off prize after prize - the Descriptive Anatomy Prize, the Anatomy Prize (1854), the Medicine Prize, the Clinical Medicine President's Prize, and the Clinical Medicine Treasurer's Prize (1855). After qualifying in 1855 he volunteered as Surgeon in the Crimean War. He was in time to be present at the siege of Sebastopol and to see a vast amount of practical surgery in the most arduous circumstances at the hospitals at Scutari. During a large part of his war services he was attached to the French Army, which was extremely badly provided with surgical aid, and there is no doubt that under the strenuous nature of the duties which devolved upon him, Allingham gained the courage and sense of responsibility which marked him out as a successful operating surgeon from the beginning of his career. After his return home he was Surgical Tutor, Demonstrator of Anatomy, and then Surgical Registrar at St Thomas's Hospital. He set up in practice in 1863 as a consultant at 36 Finsbury Square, EC, but removed to Grosvenor Street, where he soon became a well-known authority on diseases of the rectum and enjoyed a large practice. In 1871 he published his classical book on Diseases of the Rectum. It was accepted at once as an authoritative and inclusive work, though some surgeons differed from the author on points of technique. William Allingham was not attached to the staff of any of the great London Hospitals possessing a medical school, but was for many years Surgeon to the Great Northern Central Hospital and to St Mark's Hospital for Fistula and Diseases of the Rectum. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the Farringdon General Dispensary and to the Surgical Aid Society, of which, together with some of his relatives and others, he was one of the founders in 1862. He was a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1884-1886, and retired from practice in 1894. Allingham was one of the first surgeons in England to specialize in the treatment of diseases of the rectum, out of which he made a considerable fortune. He was kindly, generous, and hospitable. After his retirement he lived for some time at St Leonards, and then at Worthing, where he died on Feb 4th, 1908. He married twice: (1) Miss Christiana Cooke, by whom he had six children - four sons and two daughters. The eldest son was Herbert William Allingham, (qv). Of his two daughters both married medical men; the elder, who afterwards became Mrs Chevallier Tayler, having been first the wife of Mr Charles Cotes, of St George's; the younger was married to Claud E Woakes. (2) Miss D H Hayles, [1] who, like Mr Herbert William Allingham, predeceased the subject of this memoir. William Allingham appears in the portrait group of the Council by Jamyn Brooks (1884). Publications: Fistula, Hæmorrhoids, Painful Ulcer, Stricture, Prolapsus, and other Diseases of the Rectum, their Diagnosis and Treatment, 8vo, London, 1871. The Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Rectum. Edited by Herbert William Allingham. 8vo, London, 1871. The final 1901 edition, a collaboration between father and son, was practically rewritten. The work was translated into several foreign languages. "On the Treatment of Fistula and other Sinuses by Means of the Elastic Ligature, being a Paper (with Additional Cases) read before the Medical Society of London, November, 1874." 8vo, London; reprinted again in 1875, etc. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] who had nursed him through a severe illness]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000675
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ambler, Edward Holland (1821 - 1879)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25 2016-01-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372859372859
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Starcross, South Devon, the second son of the Rev Richard Ambler, of Hardwick, in the parish of Norbury, Shropshire, which had been in the Ambler family for upwards of four centuries. Educated at Middlesex Hospital, and was for some years an assistant in a practice at Stalbridge, Dorset. He was greatly appreciated by his patients, who presented him with a handsome testimonial in 1852, when he left to practise at Hemel Hempstead, Herts, on his appointment as Surgeon to the West Herts Infirmary. In this position he succeeded Sir Astley Cooper. In 1876 he became High Bailiff of Hemel Hempstead, and served the district as Medical Officer and as Surgeon to the Old Manor Lodge, the Society of Foresters, and other clubs. In the course of his practice, but at different times, he sustained a fracture of the base of his skull, of the femur, the clavicle, and the nasal bones, and he was seriously wounded in the thigh by the kick of a horse. He died of apoplexy on Jan 11th, 1879, and was buried in the cemetery at Hemel Hempstead in the presence of two thousand persons. There is a portrait of him as a bluff Englishman in the Fellows Album at the Royal College of Surgeons. [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: WOLFE. - On 15th November, 1959, peacefully in her 89th year, MABEL FRANCES, widow of HENRY JOHN WOLFE, of Harpenden, and daughter of the late Edward Holland Ambler, F.R.C.S., of Hemel Hempstead. Funeral, Harpenden Parish Church, at 2.30 p.m., Wednesday, 18th November.]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000676
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Amphlett, Edward (1848 - 1880)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000600-E000699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372860372860
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Oct 20th, 1848, the second son of Samuel Holmden Amphlett (qv), by Mary Georgiana, his wife. He was nephew of Sir Richard Amphlett, of Wychbold Hall, near Droitwich, at one time Lord Justice of Appeal. Edward Amphlett was the grandson of George Edward Male, an early nineteenth century authority on medical jurisprudence. He was educated for the sea, and served as midshipman in the Royal Navy for several years, seeing many parts of the world and acquiring great interest in nautical matters. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to the Naval Artillery Volunteers, with whom he had recently been a cruise on board HMS *Esk*. He suffered so severely from asthma that he was invalided out of the service. Determining to enter the medical profession, he first graduated at Cambridge from Peterhouse as a Junior Optime in the Mathematical Tripos (his uncle, Sir Richard Amphlett, who died in 1883, had been Sixth Wrangler). He is thus one of the first Cambridge man on our record. Entering at Guy’s Hospital, he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetrician. After qualifying and passing the Fellowship examination he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to Charing Cross Hospital, and began to devote himself to practice and more particularly to diseases of the eye, which he had studied at Vienna. At the time of his death, besides being Assistant Surgeon, he was also Demonstrator of Surgical Pathology in Charing Cross Hospital Medical School and Assistant Surgeon at the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital. He practised at 40 Weymouth Street, Portland Place, W, and died there on Sept 9th, 1880. His elder brother was Richard Holmden Amphlett, QC, Recorder of Worcester.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000677
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Bonham, Dennis Geoffrey (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Katz, Gerson (1922 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Gray, John Gowan (1927 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Gilbert, Barton (1908 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2017-03-24
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/372457372457
Occupation Obstetric and gynaecological surgeon Obstetrician and gynaecologist
Details Barton Gilbert was a consultant in gynaecology and obstetrics. He was born in Wembley, London, on 28 October 1908. His father, Ernest Jesse Gilbert, was an accountant. His mother, Amy Louise (whose maiden name was also Gilbert), was the daughter of a leather-merchant. His family was descended from William Gilbert, president of the College of Physicians during the time of Queen Elizabeth I. During the First World War Barton went to school in Bordeaux, and later went to Middlesex County School, Isleworth, before going to study medicine at St Thomas's Hospital. At St Thomas's he was awarded the university entrance science scholarship in 1928. He also gained a BSc in physiology, the William Tite and Musgrove scholarships in anatomy and physiology, and the Haddon prize for pathology. After qualifying he completed junior posts at St Thomas's, working for Nitch and Mitchiner. He then went as RMO to the City of London Maternity Hospital and then the Chelsea Hospital for Women, where he was influenced by Victor Bonney and Sir Comyns Berkeley. In 1936 he returned to St Thomas's as registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology. He was subsequently appointed to the consultant staff of the Chelsea Hospital for Woman. During the Second World War he worked in the Emergency Medical Service, and later in the RAMC, serving mainly in Africa. At the end of the war he settled in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, in gynaecological practice, the first gynaecological surgeon in that country. He helped to set up its medical school and taught gynaecology and obstetrics there. He was consultant in gynaecology and obstetrics to the government and its armed forces. He retired in 1972. He published many papers and was co-author, with R Christie Brown, of the textbook *Midwifery: principles and practice for pupil midwives, teacher midwives and obstetric dressers* (London, Edward Arnold, 1940), which passed through many editions. Following his retirement he went to live in Orange County, California, where he died on 3 February 2006. He married Rosamund Marjorie Luff in 1941, by whom he had twin sons, Brian and Keith, who became scientific instrument makers. He married for a second time, to Anne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000270
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Evans, Ieuan Lynn (1927 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2014-06-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372458372458
Occupation General surgeon
Details Lynn Evans was a consultant surgeon to the Lewisham groups of hospitals in London. He was born in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, on 15 July 1927, the son of the Rev. Thomas John Evans and Jenny Lloyd Williams, daughter of a newspaper editor and publisher. His brother, Thomas Arwyn Evans, is also a surgeon and a Fellow of the College. Lynn was educated at Bradford Grammar School on a Nuttall scholarship, and then went on to Haverfordwest Grammar School. He studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital, where he won a prize for pathology, and, on qualifying, became house surgeon to Dickson Wright and John Goligher. He was then house surgeon to Seddon, Jackson Burrows and David Trevor at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Lynn Evans did his National Service in the RAMC, where he was new growth registrar at Millbank, a post which brought him into contact with Sir Stanford Cade. After National Service he returned to St Mary's as a senior registrar, spending a Fulbright year as a research fellow at Baylor University, Texas, under Michael De Bakey. On his return he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Lewisham group of hospitals and honorary tutor in surgery to Guy's Hospital. He practised as a general surgeon with a special interest in vascular surgery, at a time when this specialty was beginning to develop. He married in 1956 and had a son and daughter. His hobbies included skiing, book collecting and music. He died on 27 June 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000271
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chakrabarti, Ramakanta (1945 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Anderson, John Douglas Chalmers (1924 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Bradbury, Sir Eric Blackburn (1911 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-10-26 2009-01-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372461372461
Occupation General surgeon
Details Surgeon Vice Admiral Eric Blackburn Bradbury RN was the medical director general of the Royal Naval Medical Service from 1969 to 1972, a period when many changes were being made in the services. He was born on 2 March 1911, the son of A B Bradbury of Maze, County Antrim. His education was at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute and Queen’s University, Belfast. After qualifying in 1934, he decided on a career with the Royal Navy and was commissioned as a Surgeon Lieutenant. After basic training, he was soon at sea and from 1935 to 1936 served in HMS *Barham*, *Endeavour* and *Cumberland*. Essential hospital service was spent at the RN hospitals in Haslar, Chatham, Plymouth and Malta. His wartime sea service was spent in HMS *Charybdis* and HM Hospital Ship *Oxfordshire*. Promotion to flag rank arrived in 1966 when he became a Surgeon Rear Admiral and was appointed medical officer in charge of Haslar Hospital, the senior teaching hospital of the Royal Navy. He also became the command medical officer of Portsmouth and an honorary physician to HM the Queen. In 1968 he became a Companion of the Bath. He was soon selected as the medical director of the Royal Naval Medical Services and was appointed in 1969, serving until 1972. He was promoted Surgeon Vice Admiral in 1971 and appointed Knight Commander of the British Empire. In 1972 our College conferred the fellowship on him. In 1939 he married Elizabeth Constance Austin, daughter of J G Austin of Armagh. They had three daughters – Ann, Elizabeth and Valerie. After retirement he was chairman of the Tunbridge Wells DHA from 1981 to 1984, during which time advances were made in the accident and emergency services. He died on 6 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000274
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372578372578
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Henry Swan, Surgeon to the County Hospital at Lincoln, where his ancestors had been doctors for several generations. He was apprenticed to his father, and was sent to the United Borough Hospitals in 1810. He became a pupil of Henry Cline the younger, and gained the warm friendship of Astley Cooper, who sent him annually a Christmas present of a subject in a hamper labelled 'Glass with care', to enable him to continue his anatomical dissections of the nerves. Sir Astley's example was imitated by John Abernethy. He studied abroad for a short time after qualifying, and then settled at Lincoln, where he was elected Surgeon to the County Hospital on Jan 8th, 1814. He won the Jacksonian Prize at the College of Surgeons in 1817 with his essay, "On Deafness and Diseases and Injuries of the Organ of Hearing", and in 1819 he gained the prize a second time with a dissertation, "On the Treatment of Morbid Local Affections of Nerves". He was awarded in 1822-1824 the first College Triennial Prize for "A Minute Dissection of the Nerves of the Medulla Spinalis from their Origin to their Terminations and to their Conjunctions with the Cerebral and Visceral Nerves; authenticated by Preparations of the Dissected Parts”. The Triennial Prize was again awarded to him in 1825-1827 for "A Minute Dissection of the Cerebral Nerves from their Origin to their Termination and to the Conjunction with the Nerves of the Medulla Spinalis and Viscera, authenticated by Preparations of the Dissected Parts". Swan's success is the more remarkable when it is borne in mind that the Triennial Prize has only been given twelve times since it was first offered for competition in 1822. The College had so high an opinion of his merits that he was voted its honorary Gold Medal in 1825. Swan resigned his office of Surgeon to the Lincoln County Hospital on Feb 26th, 1827, moved to London and took a house at 6 Tavistock Square, where he converted the billiard-room into a dissecting-room. Here he continued his labours at leisure until the end of his life, never attaining any practice as a surgeon, but doing much for naked-eye anatomy. He was elected a life member of the Council of the College of Surgeons in 1831, but resigned after a severe attack of illness in 1870. He then retired to Filey, in Yorkshire, where he died on Oct 4th, 1874, and was buried in Filey Churchyard. He never married. Swan was a born anthropotomist, for there is but little to show that he was greatly interested in the anatomy of birds, beasts, or fish. He had a native genius for dissection, and the kindness of his friends kept him supplied with the necessary material. Of a retiring and modest disposition, he remained personally almost unknown, and the value of his work long remained unappreciated. Publications:- *A Demonstration of the Nerves of the Human Body* in twenty-five plates with explanations. Imperial fol., London, 1830; republished 1865. It is a clear exposition of the course and distribution of the cerebral, spinal, and sympathetic nerves of the human body. The plates are admirably drawn by E West and engraved by the Stewarts. The original copperplates and engravings on steel are in the possession of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, presented in 1865 by Mrs Machin, of Gateford Hill, Worksop, widow of the nephew and residuary legatee of Joseph Swan. A cheaper edition of this work was issued in 1884, with plates engraved by Finden. It was translated into French, Paris, 4to, 1838. *An Account of a New Method of Making Dried Anatomical Preparations*, 8vo, London, N.D.; 2nd ed., 1820; 3rd ed., 1833. *A Dissertation on the Treatment of Morbid Local Affections of the Nerves* (Jacksonian Prize Essay for 1819), 8vo, London, 1820; translated into German, 8vo, Leipzig, 1824. *Observations on Some Points relating to the Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the Nervous System*, 8vo, London, 1822. *A Treatise on Diseases and Injuries of the Nerves* (a new edition), 8vo, London, 1834; This seems to be a re-issue of the two previous works. *An Enquiry into the Action of Mercury on the Living Body*, 8vo, London, 1822; 3rd ed., 1847. *An Essay on Tetanus*, 8vo, London, 1825. *An Essay on the Connection between . . . the Heart . . . and . . . the Nervous System . . . particularly its Influence . . . on Respiration*, 8vo, London, 1822; reprinted, 1829. *Illustrations of the Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System*, 4to, plates, London, 1835. *The Principal Offices of the Brain and other Centres*, 8vo, London, 1844. *The Physiology of the Nerves of the Uterus and its Appendages*, 8vo, London, 1844. *The Nature and Faculties of the Sympathetic Nerve*, 8vo, London, 1847. *Plates of the Brain in Explanation of its Physical Faculties*, etc., 4to, London, 1853. *The Brain in its Relation to Mind*, 8vo, London, 1854. *On the Origin of the Visual Powers of the Optic Nerve*, 4to, London, 1856. *Papers on the Brain*, 8vo, London, 1862. *Delineation of the Brain in Relation to Voluntary Motion*, 4to, London, 1864.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000394
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Barker, Edward (1818 - 1885)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Barker, John ( - 1884)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-11 2013-08-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372939372939
Occupation General surgeon
Details Received his professional training at the London Hospital and was the sixth John Barker in direct succession who practised at Coleshill, near Birmingham. One of these, a John Barker (1708-1748?) published a controversial paper, printed at Salisbury in 1743, "On the Nature, Cause and Cure of the Present Epidemic Fever", and, in 1747, "An Essay on the Agreement betwixt Ancient and Modern Physicians". The essay was translated into French by Ralph Schomberg, and published at Amsterdam (12mo) in 1749. A revised edition by M Lorry appeared at Paris in 1768. His medical and miscellaneous works were afterwards published in two volumes. John Barker, FRCS, died on or after Nov 1st, 1884. His only son, John Barker, was thrown from his pony and killed on Sept 10th, 1874. The name died out and the practice was carried on by Dr Venn G Webb. The College possesses an enlarged photograph of John Barker, FRCS presented by Dr Webb in 1926.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000756
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Pennington, Robert Rainey (1766 - 1849)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372583372583
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied under Percivall Pott at St Bartholomew's Hospital, and Pott was one of his eight examiners for Membership of the Corporation. He practised in Lamb's Conduit Street, and was President of the National Institute of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery. For the last two years he practised in Portman Square, where he died on March 8th, 1849. The following by J F C appeared in the *Medical Times and Gazette*, 1869, i, 361;- “SOMETHING ABOUT ONE OF THE OLD SCHOOL “The late Mr Pennington, who was a fellow-student at St. Bartholomew's with Mr Abernethy, related to me the following anecdote in the course of a conversation at a very advanced period of his life. He and Abernethy were dressers at the same time to the celebrated Percivall Pott, and each claimed precedence. Pennington was certain that he was entitled to be first, but for some time, in order to avoid a quarrel, gave way to the ‘pretension’ of Abernethy. On one occasion, however, ‘Johnny’ carried his presumption a little too far. Pott was crossing the quadrangle of the Hospital, followed by the students. He was giving a kind of ‘running clinique’ on a case in which Pennington was deeply interested, and, anxious to hear all that was said, he stuck close to the teacher. Abernethy came up and absolutely elbowed me out of my position. I then found it was time to put a stop to his impertinence, particularly as the insult was given in the presence of so many of our fellows. I took no notice of it at the moment, though the circumstance did not escape the observation of Mr Pott. Immediately on the conclusion of “the round”, I made up my mind to act, and accordingly, in the presence of a number of students, I addressed Abernethy: “Jack, this won't do; I have given way to you too long, and for the future you must be content to play second fiddle.” Abernethy began to bluster, and said, “I'll be d—d if I do!” At that time disputes of the kind were settled in a summary way, and I immediately prepared to assert my right by an appeal to the fist. The place of combat was in the corner of the ground which is near to the anatomical theatre, and thither we repaired, followed by our anxious and admiring confrères. I took off my coat and prepared for action. Jack did not follow suit, and began, like Bob Acres, to show unmistakable symptoms of not coming to the scratch. In fact, he declined the ordeal of battle, and I was for the future first. We were closely associated for nearly fifty years afterwards, but we never had an angry word. Dining with him some forty years after in Bedford Row, the old quarrel between us accidentally cropped up. “Well,” said Abernethy, “the truth of the case was this – the moment I saw you uncover your biceps, I was certain I should be thrashed, and so, my boy, I surrendered at discretion.”’ “Pennington was a great physicker, and has often been called the originator of ‘homeopathy’. However this may be, he was in the habit of ordering three, four, or more draughts a day, to be ‘continued’ until further orders. These repetitions amounted, on an average, to one hundred a day, and his dispensary in Keppel Street, behind his house in Montagu Place, was a regular manufactory of physic. The boys who ‘took out the medicine’ were furnished with a string and hook, and the parcel was let down into the area by this simple mode. When orders were given by the patient that no more medicine was required, the fact was duly announced in a book kept for the purpose. ‘Ah,’ said Pennington, ‘I see I must change the medicine; I will call to-morrow.’ He did so, changed the colour of the dose, and the repetition was ordered for three weeks. In those days this was regarded as orthodox; but chiefly in respect to the ‘tip-top apothecary’. But then Pennington attended eleven out of the twelve judges, and could do pretty much as he liked. In proof of this I may mention a circumstance which was related to me by a gentleman who at one time was one of his dispensing assistants in Keppel Street. This gentleman some years since retired from general practice on account of ill health, and is now deservedly high in the profession as a dentist. “The late Lord Wynford, then Serjeant Best, was subject to severe attacks of the gout. The serjeant was irritable, and Mrs Best anxious and nervous. When she wished to see Pennington about her husband, she used to lie in wait for him in Keppel Street, and follow him into his dispensing establishment. Here she would stay with wonderful patience until he had finished his entries. On one occasion, says my informant, Mrs Best looked up imploringly to ‘the great man’. ‘The serjeant is very bad,’ said his wife, ‘in great pain.’ ‘Well,’ said Pennington, ‘what am I to do? I saw him yesterday; let him go on with his medicine.’ ‘But do tell me when you will kindly see him again.’ ‘Well,’ said he, ‘I will tell you to a minute. I will see him this day six weeks at 25 minutes to 12.’ But Pennington, however much he enjoyed a joke, did not carry this one out. He was at Best's house the next morning before breakfast. “Pennington boasted that he had never worn a great-coat in his life; nay, in the coldest weather you might see him in his pumps and silk stockings, for to the last he was proud of his ‘leg’. ‘Ah,’ said he to me on one occasion, ‘I am not such a fool as to neglect my creature comforts. I am clothed in flannel underneath, and have a pair of lamb's-wool stockings under the silk.’ I may mention here, en passant, that the late Dr Clutterbuck, who lived to nearly 90 years, and then succumbed to an accident, used to boast that nobody had ever seen him wear an outer coat, but he wrapped up almost like a mummy underneath. “Pennington's practice was large and laborious, and, in addition to seeing patients in town, he was frequently called upon to pay visits in the country. These he always managed to make at night. He would, after a hard day's work, take a warm bath, and travel in a post-chaise all the night, getting back in the morning sufficiently early to see his home patients. He had a vigorous constitution, and could sleep almost anywhere. It is said that Pennington made £10,000 a year for many years by physic. At all events he accumulated a very large fortune. He sold his practice to Mr Hillier, who, however, did not succeed in keeping it together. Pennington was a thorough man of business, and did not attend the societies. He was, however, very sociable and hospitable. When the National Association of General Practitioners was instituted, he was elected President, but he was then an octogenarian and did not display any of his former energy or ability. He was not a man of much acquirement, but he was possessed of a large amount of good common sense, had considerable power of diagnosis, and was most successful as a prescriber. He was a remarkably handsome man, with a fine presence and a manner which inspired confidence. He was in harness to the last.” A fine mezzotint in the College collection (Stone) represents Pennington as a quaint-looking old man with a humorous expression. It is from a painting by F R Say, and was engraved by W Walker in 1840.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000399
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ogilvy, Alexander (1769 - 1846)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Steel, Richard H H (1767 - 1856)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Nixon, Thomas ( - 1853)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Borland, James (1774 - 1863)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372587372587
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Ayr on April 1st, 1774, and entered the Army Medical Department as Surgeon's Mate in the 42nd Highlanders in 1792. He was promoted to the Staff in 1793, and made two campaigns in Flanders under the Duke of York. He then proceeded to the West Indies with the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers and did duty at St Domingo from 1796-1798. In 1799 he accompanied the expedition to the Helder, and was sent by the Duke of York with a flag of truce to the French General, Bruns, to arrange for the exchange of the wounded. He was promoted for this service to the newly-made rank of Deputy-Inspector of Army Hospitals. He was also attached to the Russian troops which had co-operated with the British in North Holland, and had been ordered to winter in the Channel Islands until they could return home when the ice broke up in the Baltic. He was thanked for his service, but declined the offer of imperial employment in Russia. He was Chief Medical Officer of the Army in the Southern Counties of England at the time of the threatened French invasion, and in 1807 he became Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. He volunteered with Dr Lemprière and Sir Gilbert Blane to inquire into the causes of the deaths and sicknesses in the unfortunate Walcheren expedition, and the report of these Commissioners was ordered to be printed in 1810. From 1810-1816 Borland was Principal Medical Officer in the Mediterranean; he retired on half pay in 1816. He was appointed Hon Physician to HRH the Duke of Kent and received the order of St Maurice and St Lazare of Savoy. He retired to Teddington, Middlesex, and died there on Feb 22nd, 1863. Borland was an excellent administrator and a man of sterling character. Many improvements in army hospital organization were tried whilst he was at headquarters in London in 1807. During his service in the Mediterranean he reconstituted the hospitals of the Anglo-Sicilian contingent with such efficiency and economy as earned him a special official minute. He received the highest praise from Admiral Lord Exmouth for his services during an outbreak of plague at Malta. He accompanied the force sent to assist the Austrians in expelling Murat from Naples, and he was with the troops which held Marseilles and blockaded Toulon during the Waterloo campaign.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000403
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Heward, Sir Simon (1769 - 1846)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Gunning, John (1773 - 1863)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2012-03-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372589372589
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon
Details The nephew of John Gunning, Master of the Surgeons' Company (1789-1790). He began a distinguished career as a military surgeon by being appointed Surgeon's Mate on the Hospital Staff, not attached to a regiment, and on Nov 20th, 1793, was commissioned Staff-Surgeon under the command of the Earl of Moira. He received permanent rank as Staff-Surgeon on Sept 12th, 1799, and on Aug 13th, 1805, was superseded, having asked leave to resign on being ordered on foreign service. He was reinstated on June 9th, 1808, and on Sept 17th, 1812, rose to the rank of Deputy Inspector of Hospitals. In February, 1816, he was promoted Inspector of Hospitals (Continent of Europe only), and was placed on half pay on Oct 1st, 1816. His war service included the campaigns of Holland and Flanders (1793-1795), the Peninsular War, and Waterloo. Towards the close of the day at the Battle of Waterloo, Lord Raglan, Military Secretary to Wellington, was standing by the Duke's side, when he was wounded in the right elbow by a bullet from the roof of La Haye Sainte. The arm had to be amputated, and Gunning performed the operation. Raglan bore it without a word, and when it was ended called to the orderly: "Hallo! don't carry away that arm till I have taken off my ring" - a ring which his wife had given him. Gunning went to Paris with Wellington's army, and practised there after the conclusion of peace to the end of his life. He was nominally Surgeon to St George's Hospital from 1800-1823. On New Year's Day, 1863, he was having a dinner party. An attack of bronchitis prevented his receiving his friends on the day expected. His medical attendant thought it serious; but he got better, and on the Saturday was thought to be out of danger. On Sunday morning, Jan 11th, 1863, however, he expired in his arm-chair, without pain, and with scarcely any previous symptoms to denote his approaching end. His daughter, Mrs Bagshawe, the wife of the Queen's Counsel, and two of his grand-daughters were with him at the time of his death. He was then 90 years old, and was the senior member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He is noted by Lieut-Colonel Crawford as being one of the seven officers of the Army Medical Department on whom the CB (Mil) was conferred when medical officers were first made eligible for that honour in 1850.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000405
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Cartwright, Richard ( - 1854)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-10-18 2016-01-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372595372595
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Honourable Marcus Annesley, born in County Down, Ireland, about 1774, and educated at Trinity College and the College of Surgeons in Dublin, also at the Windmill Street School in London. On April 29th, 1799, he received a nomination in the medical service of the HEIC on the Madras side from Sir Walter Farquhar, and arrived in India in December, 1800. He was at once appointed to the Trichinopoly Corps and saw hard fighting with the field force in Southern India during the whole of the year 1801. He served with a battalion of native infantry at various stations from 1802-1805, when he was invalided home. Two years later he returned from England and was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Masulipatam, where he made himself well acquainted with native diseases and their treatment. He took careful notes of every case which came under his care, recording the symptoms, the remedies used, and the results. Annesley was placed in medical charge of the 78th British Regiment during the Java expedition in 1811. He had the satisfaction of landing 1070 men fit for duty out of a strength of 1100, and the field hospital at Cornalis being in an unsatisfactory condition, Annesley, although the junior officer, was ordered to take command, and it is on record that in ten days he had the hospital in proper order, with its 1400 or 1500 patients clothed, victualled, and treated. He was soon ordered back to Madras to superintend a field hospital established by Government for the native troops who had lost their health in the expedition to the Isle of France and Java. His administration proved so successful that he was publicly thanked by the Commander-in-Chief for "the ability, exertion and humane attention displayed by Surgeon Annesley, equally honourable to his professional talents and public zeal, which His Excellency trusts will entitle him to the good opinion and favourable notice of government". Native troops had been employed upon foreign service, and as a result of Annesley's treatment the Madras Sepoys were said to be willing to volunteer for any service in any part of the world. In 1812 Annesley joined the Madras European Regiment, with which he remained until 1817, when the last Mahratta and Pindaree War began. Annesley was appointed Superintending Surgeon to the advanced divisions of the Army and served in the field until the end of 1818, being repeatedly mentioned in general orders for his zeal and ability. He was appointed Garrison Surgeon at Fort St George on his return to Madras, and placed in charge of the General Hospital, where he remained until he was invalided home in 1824. On leaving India on furlough the Admiralty presented him with a piece of plate of the value of one hundred guineas "as a mark of the sense their Lordships entertained of his gratuitous medical attendance on the officers and men of His Majesty's ships in Madras Roads, 1823". Annesley returned to India in 1829, and was immediately appointed to examine the Medical Reports of former years with the view to selecting such cases as might tend to throw light upon the diseases of India. He made a digest of the Reports from 1786 to 1829, and also reported upon the climate, healthiness, and production of the hills in the Madras presidency. The digest occupied twelve volumes and was accompanied by four volumes of medical observations, all of the highest value. The digest had been made without cost to the Government, but on its completion the Court of Directors of the HEIC voted Annesley an honorarium of 5000 rupees. He was appointed a member of the Medical Board in 1833, and in 1838 was permitted to retire from the Honourable Company's service on the pension of his rank, having served in India for the long period of thirty-seven years. On his return to England he received the honour of knighthood in [2] 1844; he was also elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. During his later years he lived at 6 Albany, Piccadilly. He died at Florence on Dec 14th, 1847. Annesley did good service to the medical profession by his zeal, tact, and administrative ability, for he founded the tradition upon which was built the high reputation afterwards gained by the Indian Medical Service both amongst the Europeans and the native population of India. Publications:- Sketches of the Most Prevalent Diseases of India, Comprising a Treatise on Epidemic Cholera of the East, London, 1825, 2nd ed., 1828 [3]. Annesley discusses cholera with extensive first-hand information and makes some inquiries on the historical side in regard to the disease. The sketches include "Topographical, and Statistical Reports of the Diseases most prevalent in the different stations and divisions of the Army under the Madras Presidency", and "Practical Observations on the Effects of Calomel on the Mucous Surface and Secretions of the Alimentary Canal; and on the Use of this Remedy in Disease, more Particularly in the Diseases of India". For these sketches he received the Monthyon Prize, and the section on cholera was translated into German by Gustav Himly, Hannover, in 1831. Researches into the Causes, Nature and Treatment of the more Prevalent Diseases of India, and of Warm Climates Generally, 4to, 2 vols., with 40 coloured engravings, London, 1828. The work is rendered unwieldy by its wealth of detail. [4] [Amendments from the annotated edition of *Plarr's Lives* at the Royal College of Surgeons: [1] The 'H' is deleted and the following added - *Crawford's Roll of I.M.S;* Madras list no 435; [2] Crawford says knighted 13 May 1844 'F.R.S. 1840'; [3] 3rd edition 1841; [4] *Digest of Madras Medical Reports* 1788-1829 (Crawford) & ? above p.29; Portrait in College Collection]
Resource Identifier RCS: E000411
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372350372350
Occupation Epidemiologist
Details Sir Richard Doll, the most distinguished epidemiologist of his generation, established that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. Born in Hampton, Middlesex, on 28 October 1912, he was the son of Henry William Doll, a general practitioner, and Amy Kathleen Shaboe. He was educated at Westminster and St Thomas’ Hospital, doing junior jobs as casualty officer, anaesthetist and house physician. He began his research career under Paul Wood at Hammersmith, while working as a resident medical officer at the London Clinic. When war broke out he was called up into the RAMC, where he served as a battalion medical officer at Dunkirk, was posted to a hospital ship, and served in the invasion of Sicily. He contracted tuberculosis of the kidney in 1944, underwent a nephrectomy, and was discharged in early 1945. He took a course on statistics under Sir Austin Bradford Hill, who was impressed by him, and in 1948 that he went to work with Bradford Hill at the Medical Research Council. They began to study the causes of the huge increase in deaths from cancer of the lung. It was a time when smoking was regarded as normal and harmless. Their preliminary study of hospital patients with cancer of the lung and other diseases showed, to their surprise, that those with lung cancer were smokers, those with other diseases were not. This was confirmed by a prospective study on doctors’ smoking habits. At this stage Doll himself gave up smoking. Immensely distinguished, honoured by innumerable institutions, Doll was a genial and likeable man whose juniors adored him. One of his last public speeches was to a meeting of the Oxford Medical Graduates Club, where to the relief of his audience he showed that there was no statistical harm done by wine. When asked how much, he replied: “enough”. Doll married Joan Mary Faulkner in 1949. They had a son and daughter. He died on 24 July 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000163
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Carter, Henry Freeland (1821 - 1894)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, James (1814 - 1895)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, John Collis ( - 1866)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Carter, Robert Brudenell (1828 - 1918)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373042373042
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Little Wittenham, Berkshire, on October 2nd, 1828, traced his descent from Thomas Carter, armiger, of Higham, Bedfordshire, who lived in the reign of Edward IV. When he had authenticated his descent to the satisfaction of the Heralds’ College, and established his right to armorial bearings, he became qualified in the Order of St John of Jerusalem to be promoted from a Knight of Grace to a Knight of Justice. A later ancestor, the Rev Nicolas Carter, preached before the Long Parliament. His grandfather, the Rev Henry Carter, was Rector of Lower Wittenham for fifty-seven years. The sister of his grandfather was Elizabeth Carter (*Dict. Nat. Biog.*), the Greek scholar who translated Epictetus, and was the friend of Johnson, Edmund Burke, and Horace Walpole. His father, Major Henry Carter, Royal Marines, and his wife were staying with the grandfather when he was born. He was christened Robert Brudenell, the name of his father’s neighbour and lifelong friend Robert, sixth Earl of Cardigan, the father of Lord Cardigan of the Light Brigade. Carter’s mother died soon after his birth, and he was brought up by Mrs Fearne. After serving an apprenticeship to a general practitioner, he entered the London Hospital at the age of 19, and qualified in 1851. He then acted as an assistant to a practitioner in Leytonstone, during which he made his first publication, *The Pathology and Treatment of Hysteria* (1853). In 1854 he moved to Putney and published a second book, on *The Influence of Education and Training in Preventing Diseases of the Nervous System*. One may smile at the subjects adopted by a young medical assistant, but his account of hysteria, which he based upon the teaching of Stephen Mackenzie, to whose memory he dedicated the book, shows remarkable literary talent together with much observation, apparently made during his apprenticeship in the country. The obituary in *The Times* noted this first evidence of his talent. With the Crimean War he volunteered and was appointed a staff surgeon in Turkey, where he came under the notice of W H Russell, correspondent of *The Times*; with this introduction he wrote letters to *The Times* from the front, which subsequently determined his future; also letters and contributions to the *Lancet*. He received both the English and Turkish War Medals. On his return he moved from Putney to Fulham, then to Nottingham for five years. There in 1859 he took part in founding the Nottingham Eye Infirmary, and at the same time began to direct special attention to ophthalmology. Once again, in 1862, he moved to Stroud to a partnership with George Samuel Gregory, and had a share in establishing the Gloucestershire Eye Institution. Meanwhile he published *The Physiological Influence of Certain Methods of Teaching, The Artificial Production of Stupidity, The Principle of Early Medical Education, The Marvellous*. In spite of all this, he said: “Nevertheless I was able to go up from my country practice for the FRCS examination without either rest for study or coaching – and to pass.” He married at the age of 40, and looking around for better opportunities he applied to *The Times*. Concerning this crisis he referred to himself in a letter to the *Lancet* as “a conspicuously unsuccessful general practitioner in the country.” His Crimean letters were looked up, and as a result he was put upon the editorial staff. This determined him to settle in London. In the following year, 1869, he was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Eye Hospital, Southwark, and held the post until 1877. He became Ophthalmic Surgeon to St George’s Hospital in 1870 in succession to Henry Power (qv), and was appointed Consulting Surgeon in 1893. His literary abilities gave distinction to his writing on ophthalmology, and his *Students’ Manual* was the most widely used of the day. Another of his appointments was that of Ophthalmic Surgeon to the National Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy. In addition to *The Times* Carter joined the staff of the *Lancet*, and at that time James Wakley (qv) was desirous of initiating the ‘Hospital Sunday’. Carter wrote on this and also in *The Times*. On the start of the Mansion House Fund Carter was elected a member of the first Council. He was Hunterian Professor at the College in 1876-1877; Orator in 1874; Lettsomian Lecturer in 1884, and President in 1886, of the Medical Society of London. From 1887-1900 he was the representative of the Apothecaries’ Society on the General Medical Council, and was instrumental in introducing a modification in the procedure of that body, whereby before deciding upon an offence an interval of probation might be afforded by postponing a definite decision until the following session. But it was his position on the staff of *The Times* which enabled him to place the views of the medical profession on subjects of the day before the general public, and the lucidity of his style always enabled him to do so with effect. Said the *Lancet*: “Eloquent, incisive, more than occasionally bitter, he was also a generous writer, and few members of the Medical Profession have wielded greater power with the pen, while he possessed the equally valuable gift of being able to speak in public with the same command of language and high level of literary style. Carter’s ‘leaders’ belong to an older day; he used the Latin ‘period’ and a rotund full-dress method; but any appearance of pomposity thus given to his writings was purely superficial; no writer of to-day is more fastidious than was Carter in his choice of language, or more resolutely averse from the use of ‘stale metaphors, trite tags and obvious morals’.” Although his handwriting was good, he was the first on *The Times* to use a typewriter. Carter sat on the first London County Council, and obtained a special committee to report upon the Care of the Insane. The Council did not accept the recommendations, and he was not re-elected. At the age of 87 he volunteered to write again for the *Lancet* whilst the staff were depleted by the War. He died at his house on Clapham Common on October 23rd, 1918, in his ninety-first year, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery. There is a portrait of him by ‘Stuff’ in the *Vanity Fair Album* wearing two pairs of spectacles, a habit also noted by ‘Jehu Junior’ in the biographical note, *Vanity Fair*, April 9th, 1892. There is also a portrait in the *Leicester Provincial Medical Journal*, 1890. Carter was twice married: (i) to Helen Ann Beauchamp, daughter of John Becher, and (ii) to Rachel Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Hallpike, and widow of Walter Browne. He had four sons. Publications:– *On the Pathology and Treatment of Hysteria*, London, 1853. *On the Influence of Education and Training in Preventing Diseases of the Nervous System*, London, 1855. “Hints on the Diagnosis of Eye Disease,” Dublin, 1865; reprinted from *Dublin Quart. Jour. Med. Sci.*, 1865. “The Training of the Mind for the Study of Medicine” (Address at St George’s Hospital), London, 1873. *A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye*, with plates, Philadelphia, 1875. Translations of Schaller on “Ocular Defects”, 1869, and of Zänder on “The Ophthalmoscope”, 1864. Contributions to Holmes’s *System of Surgery*, and to Quain’s *Dictionary of Medicine*. *Ophthalmic Surgery* (with W A Frost), 1887; 2nd ed. 1888. *On Defects of Vision remediable by Optical Appliances* (Hunterian Lecture RCS), London, 1877. *Eyesight Good and Bad.* A treatise on the exercise and preservation of vision, London, 1880; translated into German, Berlin, 1884. Cantor Lectures on “Colour Blindness” delivered at the Society of Arts, London, 1881. “Eyesight in Civilization,” London, 1884; reprinted from *The Times*, 1884. “The Modern Operations for Cataract” (Lettsomian Lectures, Medical Society of London), London, 1884. “Eyesight in Schools” (Lecture before the Medical Officers of Schools), London, 1885; reprinted from *Med. Times and Gaz.*, 1885. “On Retrobulbar Incision of the Optic Nerve in Cases of Swollen Disc.” – *Brain*, 1887, x, 199. “On the Management of Severe Injuries to the Eye.” – *Clin. Jour.*, 1894, iv, 317. *Sight and Hearing in Childhood* (with A H Cheatle), London, 1903. *Doctors and their Work; or Medicine, Quackery and Disease*, London, 1903. “Medical Ophthalmology” in Allbutt’s *System of Medicine*, vi.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000859
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-15 2014-08-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372352372352
Occupation Thoracic surgeon
Details William Glasgow Ferguson, or 'Fergie' as he was known, was a thoracic surgeon in Victoria, Australia. He was born in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, on 4 March 1919, the son of William and Sara Ferguson. He studied medicine at Durham, where he qualified in 1942. After four months as a house surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, he joined the RAMC and was posted to 144 Field Ambulance, Hull, and in the following March went to Accra, where he served in 2 (WA) Field Ambulance until April 1944, when he went with his field ambulance to Burma. There he was promoted to major and, in the following year, commanded 4 (WA) Field Ambulance with the rank of lieutenant colonel, being mentioned in despatches. At the end of the war he brought his field ambulance back to West Africa and was demobilised in 1946. On his return to the UK, he became a demonstrator of anatomy at the University of Durham, did general surgical training at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, completed the Guy's course and passed the final FRCS. He then decided to specialise in thoracic surgery, undergoing specialist registrar and senior registrar posts at the Royal Victoria Infirmary and the Shotley Bridge Regional Thoracic Surgical Centre. He was awarded the American Association for Thoracic Surgery travelling fellowship in 1953 as a post-doctoral first assistant. In 1958 he moved to Australia, as staff superintendent of Sydney Hospital. Two years later, he became a consultant at Goulburn Valley Base Hospital, Victoria, where he remained until he retired in 1985. He then continued in general practice in Omeo, Victoria, until 1992. He was previously married to Helen née Cowan. He had three children - two sons (Tim and Richard) and a daughter (Lisa). He died in Omeo, Victoria, on 20 July 2005, aged 86. He was also survived by a partner, Anne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000165
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2014-07-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372354372354
Occupation General practitioner
Details Rustom Jamshedji Jagose, known as 'Rusty', passed the fellowship in 1957 and emigrated to New Zealand, where he was a general practitioner in Cambridge, in the Waikato region of the North Island. Although he did not continue to practise surgery, he regularly attended grand rounds at Waikato Hospital. He died on 16 September 1991 and was survived by his wife Anne and their five children - Pheroze, Maki, Annamarie, Una and Fiona.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000167
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kathel, Babu Lal (1932 - 2002)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372355372355
Occupation General surgeon
Details Babu Lal Kathel, known as ‘Brij’, was a consultant surgeon at Grantham General Hospital. Born on 11 November 1932 in Jhansi, India, he was the son of Har Prasad Kathel and Durga Devi Kathel. He was educated at a Christian school and studied medicine at Lucknow University, where he qualified in 1955. He went to England in 1959 to specialise in surgery, doing junior jobs in Ipswich and elsewhere, and becoming a registrar at Whiston Hospital, Liverpool, where he completed a masters degree in surgery from Liverpool University and met his future wife, Cynthia Wigham, a hospital administrator. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Grantham Hospital in 1973, with administrative responsibility for the accident and emergency department. At that time there were only two general surgeons in Grantham and Brij was on call on alternate nights, and every night when his colleague was ill or absent. It was not long before he was chairman of the hospital management committee. Despite a heart attack in 1975, he continued to work with enthusiasm, building up the surgical service in Grantham. He married Cynthia in 1975 and they had two daughters (Kiran and Camilla) and a son (Neal). An enthusiastic gardener, he enjoyed visits to the Lake District, walks by the sea, freemasonry and Rotary. He died on 25 November 2002 in Grantham Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000168
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kelly, John Peter (1943 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372356372356
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details John Kelly was born in Ayr, Queensland, on 12 September 1943, the son of John Kelly, a general practitioner and superintendent of the Ayr District Hospital. He was educated at the Marist Brothers College in Ashgrove, Brisbane, and studied medicine at the University of Queensland. After junior posts at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, where he met his future wife Shelly Parer, he went to England to specialise in ENT surgery, and was a registrar at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, being on duty when the victims of the 1974 Guildford IRA bombing attack were admitted. Later, he was at the Royal Free Hospital under John Ballantyne and John Groves. On his return to Australia he set up in practice at Southport and Palm Beach, where, in addition to surgery, he developed a passion for windsurfing, gardening and classical music. Early in 2004 he was found to have metastatic colorectal cancer, and died on 23 May 2004, leaving his widow and three daughters (Caroline, Krissi and Georgie).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000169
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching O'Donoghue, Patrick Desmond (1922 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Hilary Keighley
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2015-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372357372357
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Patrick Desmond O'Donoghue was a surgeon in Kenya. He was born in Kaiapoi, New Zealand, on 12 May 1922, the second son of Michael and Eva O'Donoghue. His father was a teacher and later schools inspector. Pat attended Christchurch Boys' High School, where he excelled in classics, sciences, literature, languages and sport, particularly cricket and rugby. He had a formidable intellect and he loved to write poetry and prose. He went on to study medicine at the University of Otago. He spent two years in house jobs in Christchurch, where he developed his particular interest in urology, and then, in 1949, sailed to England as a ship's doctor to specialise in surgery. He did a number of junior posts, including one at the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, and then became a registrar to Sir Cecil Wakeley at King's College Hospital. There he met Brenda Davies, an anaesthetics registrar at King's, and they were married in 1952. He went on to be a surgical registrar to Neville Stidolph at the Whittington Hospital for two years, gaining extensive experience in genito-urinary surgery, before going on to be RSO at St Paul's under Winsbury-White, Howard Hanley and David Innes Williams. This was followed by six months at the Brompton Hospital under Sir Clement Price Thomas and Charles Drew, who, in 1955, supported him with enthusiasm when he considered applying for a vacancy at St Mary's. However, at the same time a vacancy came up in Nairobi, for which he opted after much deliberation. His first appointment there was as a locum for Sir Michael Wood with the East African Flying Doctor Association, which cemented his love for the country and its people, and his desire to make a life for himself and his family in Kenya. From this he went on to become a partner in the Nairobi Clinic, where he rapidly developed an outstanding reputation as a very professional, capable and compassionate surgeon. He developed free outreach clinics for the Flying Doctor Service, covering remote areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, where surgery was often difficult and performed under the most basic conditions. He described operating in Tanzania where the humidity was so great that the door of the room had to be kept open, despite the many onlookers. There were times when the throng of patients delayed the departure of the flying doctor and when the runway lights were switched off at the small airport in Nairobi they had to land unannounced at the international airport, pursued by a meteor of which they were unaware, which landed close behind them. Pat was also chief surgeon at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, doing pro bono surgery for missionaries and many others. The bulk of his work was at the Nairobi Hospital, where he was well respected and liked by colleagues and nursing staff. Although he specialised in urology, he remained a very general surgeon, dealing with a wide variety of injuries, including severe mauling by leopards, buffaloes, rhinos and elephants. People were also flown in with spear injuries from inter-tribal battles and he also treated casualties from the ANC (African National Congress) bombing of the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi. Occasionally he was asked to escort patients back to their homes in other countries, including a cardinal who needed to be taken back to Rome, where Pat had an audience with Pope John XXIII. In 1968 he became president of the East African Association of Surgeons, and was instrumental in setting up the equivalent of a coroner's court, essential to protect both surgeons and patients in the ever-increasing world of litigation, a move which was approved by the attorney general in 1969. Pat led a very full and productive working life. He loved his surgery. Even after retirement he continued to read his medical and surgical journals with great interest, and wanted to be up to date with the evidence emerging from recent research. Golf was among his many interests: he continued to play until he could no longer walk round the course (he scorned the use of buggies). He loved to learn, particularly poetry and literature. He would often quote, among others, Keats, Yeats, Manley Hopkins and Dylan Thomas. He remembered passages from Virgil - he loved Latin. Pat and Brenda raised their four daughters (Gillian, Jenny, Geraldine and Hilary) in Nairobi. In 2002 Brenda unexpectedly died whilst on holiday in England. This was a terrible blow for Pat. He had described Brenda as his 'life's navigator'. He returned to Kenya for one more year and then moved to be with his daughter Hilary in Cooma, Australia. Pat made Cooma his home for a further year, before he passed away on 22 December 2004, aged 82. He had a strong Christian faith throughout his life and he had a wonderful, quiet sense of humour that remained with him until the day he died. He was an inspirational person.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000170
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Organ, Claude H (1927 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2006-12-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372358372358
Occupation General surgeon
Details Claude Organ was a distinguished American surgeon and the second African-American President of the American College of Surgeons. He was born in 1927 in Marshall, Texas, and educated at Terrell High School, Denison, and then Xavier University, Louisiana. Denied acceptance to the University of Texas on account of his colour, he studied medicine at the Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha. After qualifying in 1952 he served in the US Navy, before returning to Creighton to complete his surgical training, rising to become chairman of his department in 1971. There he became famous for encouraging his trainees to pursue bio-molecular research. He then went on to be professor and chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Oklahoma, leaving in 1988 to establish the University of California Davis-East Bay department of surgery in Oakland, now UCSF East Bay department of surgery. He remained there as chairman until 2003. He was chairman of the American Board of Surgery and President of the American College of Surgeons, being honoured by the distinguished service award of that Association, in addition to gaining numerous honorary degrees from all over the world, including the honorary Fellowship of our College. The author of more than 250 papers and five books, he was for 15 years the editor of *Archives of Surgery*. He was a frequent visitor to the UK, and in 1999 was invited to tour the British Isles as the *British Journal of Surgery* travelling fellow to review our methods of surgical training and the role of women in surgery, as a result of which he presented a detailed and perceptive report to the Association of Surgeons in 2000. He died on 18 June 2005 in Berkeley, California, and is survived by his wife Elizabeth Lucille Mays, five sons (Brian, Paul, Gregory, David and Claude) and two daughters (Sandra and Rita). The Claude and Elizabeth Organ professorship at Xavier University has been endowed in his memory.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000171
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372359372359
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on 19 January 1935, Manohar Rajani qualified in Bombay and after junior posts went to England to specialise in surgery. After passing the FRCS he did a series of training posts, before going to Canada in 1965, where he passed the Canadian FRCS and settled down in practice in Toronto. He died on 13 April 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000172
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Williams, Robert Edward Duncan (1927 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-23 2006-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372360372360
Occupation Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Bob Williams was a distinguished urological surgeon based in Leeds. He was born on 18 December 1927 in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, the son of Robert Williams, a steelworker, and Janet McNeil. He was educated at Dalziel High School, Motherwell, and Glasgow Medical School. After house jobs in Glasgow he did his National Service in the RAMC, serving as resident medical officer to the Northumberland Fusiliers in Hong Kong. On his return, he received his general surgical training under Sir Charles Illingworth in Glasgow and John Goligher in Leeds, before deciding to specialise in urology, which in those days was emerging as a separate entity. He became senior registrar to Leslie Pyrah in Leeds, who had set up a pioneering stone clinic. There he carried out a painstaking and far-reaching study of the natural history of renal tract stone, which won him his MD. After this he went to work with Wyland Leadbetter at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, in 1964, where he carried out research on total body water and whole body potassium, which was to win him a commendation for his MCh thesis. On his return he was appointed to the consultant staff of the University of Leeds urological department in 1966. He had many interests which were shown in his numerous publications, most notably on urinary calculi, bladder cancer and lymphadenectomy. He followed Leslie Pyrah in the energetic pursuit of the establishment of urology as a separate discipline in the British Isles, which won him the admiration and respect of his colleagues. Bob was president of the section of urology of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1989 and a very active member of BAUS, of which he was president from 1990 to 1992. He was awarded the St Peter’s medal of the Association in 1993. He examined for the Edinburgh and English Colleges, and was an invited member of Council of our College from 1989 to 1992. In 1958 he married Lora Pratt, an Aberdeen graduate who was a GP and part-time anaesthetist. They had a son (Duncan) and two daughters (Bryony and Lesley), all of whom became doctors. A genial, cheerful and amusing colleague, Bob was struck down by renal failure caused by polycystic disease of the kidneys, but continued with great courage to work and publish and play an active part in BAUS, despite the need for regular dialysis. A renal transplant unfortunately underwent rejection, and he was, reluctantly, obliged to retire in 1991. He died on 26 August 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000173
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Gough, David Christopher Simmonds (1947 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372361372361
Occupation Paediatric urologist
Details David Gough was consultant paediatric urologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. He was born on 7 July 1947 in Almondsbury, near Bristol, to Alan Gough, an electrical engineer, and Gillian née Shellard. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Liverpool University, where he helped to build a magnificent steam engine float for rag week, and met his future wife, Elizabeth. After qualifying he completed junior appointments at Broadgreen, the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital, Addenbrooke’s and the Welsh National School of Medicine, during which time he was greatly influenced by Walpole Lewin and P P Rickham. He then spent two years at the Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital before being appointed to Manchester. At first he was a paediatric surgeon with a special interest in neonatal surgery, and gradually moved on to paediatric urology, where he was particularly interested in congenital abnormalities, including exstrophy (for which he set up the National Bladder Exstrophy Service) and spina bifida, for which he set up a special unit, the second in England. He was an enthusiastic proponent and founder-member of the British Association of Paediatric Urologists and of the European Society for Paediatric Urology. He inherited a passion for restoring old cars from his father, and in later life was interested in collecting art and enjoying good wine. A committed Christian, he worked tirelessly for the underprivileged in Manchester and Salford, for whom he established a refuge. He married Elizabeth Brice in 1970. They had three children, one of whom became a doctor. He died on 29 March 2005 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000174
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Green, Sydney Isaac (1915 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Sarah Green
Publication Date 2006-01-13 2015-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372362372362
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Sydney Green was a neurosurgeon based in Washington DC and Bethesda. He was born in Glasgow on 10 June 1915 and lived in a one bedroom apartment with his parents and four older siblings, Lionel, Fagah, Mae and Lillah. He often spoke lovingly about his parents Hymen Harry and Sarah Sayetta Green, and told many stories of life at Springhill Gardens. As he played in the courtyard, he would yell up to his mother, 'Ma, throw me a piece!' and his mother would fix him a bread, butter and sugar sandwich and lower it down to him on a pulley which she rigged up on the fourth floor. The family moved to London when Syd was 10. He decided to become a doctor like his brother Lionel and went on to study medicine at Guy's Hospital. He qualified in 1938. During the Second World War, he served as a captain in the RAMC and was aboard the *Dinard* when it was sunk after hitting a mine on D-Day. Later, he crossed the Rhine as surgeon in charge of the Glider Ambulance Unit, 6th Airborne Division, and was one of the first to liberate the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, an experience which profoundly shaped his feeling toward religion and his Jewish heritage. After the war he returned to specialise in neurosurgery under Hugh Cairns and Murray Falconer and in 1958 went to the United States, where he was in practice in Washington and then Bethesda, working mainly at the Sibley Memorial Hospital. He was much appreciated by his patients and admired by his peers, and was meticulous and incredibly thorough. Intensely devoted to each and every patient, he told how, during the war, he insisted on using more and more blood in an attempt to save one soldier. He was disciplined for his commitment to his patient. Throughout his career, his waiting room was often crowded. He simply wouldn't take shortcuts with any person, much less his patients - but he was well worth waiting for. In 1961 he met a widow, Phyllis Leon Brown. The story goes that she took him on a walk on their second date, and before he knew it they were in a jewellery store choosing rings. They married in 1962 and Syd instantly became a father to three boys, Stuart, Myles and Ken. A daughter, Sarah, was born in 1964. His pride in his family was transparent: family defined his life. He always tried to be home for dinner every night, even if it meant he would have to go back to work late into the evening. He didn't have many hobbies that would take him away from home, but he was passionate about his garden. He would drive up the driveway and, before going inside, he would take off his jacket and lie down in a patch of grass, painstakingly picking out the crabgrass. He would sometimes lose his glasses in the garden, only to find them crunched by the lawnmower weeks later or would come in the house frantically looking for them, only to realise that they were still on the top of his head. He loved to sing off key and tell jokes, good and bad, and to play games. He was intensely alive at every moment and took incredible pleasure in food, whether marmite on burnt toast, over ripe bananas and really crusty bread. Syd had the eccentric habit of grading every meal he ate. While his wife learned to accept a solid B with some satisfaction, other hostesses weren't so thrilled to accept that their meal was anything less than an A+. With Syd, there was no such thing as grade inflation. He was thrilled to see each of his children find his or her life partner, and was passionate about his grandchildren. As Sydney's family tree grew, so did his life force, it seemed. He was famous for travelling to new cities, finding phone books in hotel rooms and looking up anyone who had a name that vaguely resembled his mother's maiden name 'Sayetta'. If he found someone, he would call them and invite them for tea. Whether or not they were related, it was a new person to meet with the potential of connecting with them on some intellectual or emotional level: Syd was a people person to the very end. He saw a great deal during his long life, including two world wars and the horrors of the Holocaust. He was also around to see some of the most fantastic advances in technology and he made sure he kept up with the latest medical breakthroughs, even into his eighties. In 1996 he underwent a pneumonectomy and, after a prolonged battle with chest disease, he died on 14 September 2005. He was 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000175
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Harris, Walter Graham (1928 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372363372363
Occupation General surgeon
Details Graham Harris was a consultant surgeon at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with a particular interest and expertise in surgery of the breast. He was born in Swindon village, Gloucestershire, on 5 June 1928, the son of Walter Albert Harris and Sarah Anne née Pitman. He was educated at Wycliffe College before joining the RAF in 1946, where he served with the radar section. In 1948 he entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, where he completed the early part of his surgical training, becoming junior registrar. He was an assistant lecturer in anatomy at University College, where he published on degeneration in the cerebral cortex following experimental craniotomy. He went on to be senior registrar at Leeds, from which he obtained his consultant post in Huddersfield. There he led one of the then four breast screening units in the UK. An active member of the Moynihan Travelling Surgical Club, he was President of the Yorkshire Regional Cancer Research Group in the 1970s and 1980s. Outside medicine, he was President of the Honley Male Voice Choir. He took early retirement after a myocardial infarction, but continued with his music and his hobby as a caterer. He married Patricia Mary Tippet and they had five children. He died on 29 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000176
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Lowden, Thomas Geoffrey (1910 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372364372364
Occupation Casualty surgeon Accident and emergency surgeon
Details Thomas Lowden was a casualty surgeon in Sunderland. He was born in Leeds on 25 March 1910, where his father, Harold Lowden, was an engineer and his mother, Ethel Annie Lamb, a schoolteacher. From Leeds Grammar School he won a Holroyd scholarship to Keble College, Oxford, and went back to Leeds for his clinical training, qualifying in 1934. After junior posts in Leeds General Infirmary and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne (from which he passed the FRCS), he joined the RAMC as a surgical specialist in 1941. He served in India, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, North Africa and Egypt, before taking part in the Sicily landings and the invasion of Italy, rising to the rank of acting lieutenant colonel. He remained for a time in Germany, before returning to specialise in accident and emergency surgery, becoming consultant in that specialty in Sunderland in 1946 and establishing its casualty department. He published The casualty department (Edinburgh and London, E & S Livingstone, 1956), and developed a subspecialty of hand surgery and was an early member of the Hand Club (later the British Society for Surgeon of the Hand). After he retired in 1970 he continued to do locums at Hexham General Hospital. He married Margaret Purdie, a doctor, in 1945. They had a daughter, Catherine, who became a teacher, and a son, Richard, a lawyer. Among his hobbies were mountain walking, especially in Norway, 16 mm photography and the history of the Crusades. He died on 9 October 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000177
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First Title value, for Searching Barlow, William Frederick (1817 - 1853)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Barnard, Harold Leslie (1868 - 1908)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372945372945
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Jan, 1868, at Highbury, in the north of London, the son of James Barnard, engraver and designer in precious metals, and a great-nephew on his father’s side of Michael Faraday. After attending school in the neighbourhood he and his brother were sent three months before his sixteenth birthday to an uncle’s ranch in Oregon, Harold being under a promise that he would read for the Matriculation of the London University. He looked back with the keenest pleasure to these ten months spent on his uncle’s ranch, and the opportunities it afforded of adventure. On his return in the summer of 1884 he failed, however, to pass the examination, and for a time became a clerk in the office of a firm of wholesale timber merchants. He was not happy in this apprenticeship, and by close application he passed his Matriculation and Preliminary Scientific Examinations and entered the London Hospital in 1888. He gained in his first year a Scholarship in Anatomy and Physiology, and subsequently other scholarships and prizes. In 1893, at the end of his fourth year, he acted as Clinical Assistant in several positions; in 1894 he was Resident House Physician to Dr Samuel Fenwick and then House Surgeon to his son, E Hurry Fenwick, and became Demonstrator of Physiology under Dr Leonard Hill until March, 1897. Dr Leonard Hill wrote concerning their two years of co-operation, that Barnard exhibited the highest scientific ability in the researches carried out under his guidance. The influence of gravity on the circulation, through the brain in particular; the effects of venous pressure on the pulse; the effect of chloroform, also of morphia, ammonia, and hydrocyanic acid on the heart; the functions of the pericardium; as well as the invention of an improved sphygmomanometer – have all proved of scientific value, and show Barnard’s scientific genius in working. He obtained the post of Surgical Registrar in March, 1897, and then devoted himself wholly to surgery. Two years later he became Surgical Tutor, and, in 1900, Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital. He practised at 21 Wimpole Street. His surgical genius appeared when Surgical Registrar, in the paper published on “An Improved Method of Treating the Separated Lower Epiphysis of the Femur”, which he suggested to, and in which he assisted, Jonathan Hutchinson, junr. He showed by means of the newly discovered X rays the displacement forwards of the epiphysis, and the direction backwards of the femur, as well as the successful reduction by flexion in place of the previous treatment by extension. Barnard had collected 13 cases from the London Hospital Records, and stated that in 3 there had been a complete separation of the lower epiphysis of the femur. In 1902, he published a paper on “The Simulation of Acute Peritonitis by Pleuropneumonic Diseases”, and in so doing brought to the forefront a difficulty in diagnosis which must always be present to the mind. The three lectures “On Acute Appendicitis”, which he gave in 1903, were accompanied by diagrams illustrating the various positions occupied by suppuration, and his clock mnemonic of the positions of the appendix, is one which fixes itself in the student’s memory. Sir Frederick Treves had preceded him in developing the surgery of the appendix at the London Hospital, but had rather advocated delay in operating. It was not that there is often justification, but the crux remains that if the case for delay proves to be mistaken in the individual case the patient loses his life. Barnard put forward the reasons for the immediate operation, now the established one where children and young people are concerned. His article on “Intestinal Obstruction” in the second edition of Allbutt and Rolleston’s *System of Medicine*, reprinted and further enlarged with diagrams and bibliography in *Contributions to Abdominal Surgery*, is a brilliant exposition of a most difficult and even protean branch of surgery. There is much that is new in the sections on faecal obstruction, congenital dilatation of the colon, gallstone obstruction, strangulation by bands and by Meckel’s diverticulum, and obstruction by foreign bodies. But Barnard will be best remembered for his address on “Surgical Aspects of Subphrenic Abscess”, delivered before the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine on Jan 14th, 1907, but not printed until Feb 22nd, 1908, in the *British Medical Journal*. It is reprinted in the Contributions. Whatever the merits of previous descriptions, anatomical and pathological, subphrenic abscess had been described rather from the classical position of the man upright. Diagnosis by means of X-ray examination and the patient’s position at the operation are alike the horizontal one. It is in this position that the surgeon is called upon to approach and drain subphrenic suppurations. Barnard’s admirable drawings are the surgeon’s guide. He had served as Surgeon to the Poplar Hospital for Accidents, and in 1907 he became Surgeon to the London Hospital, when his health began to fail. A short cough was premonitory of aortic disease. He died at Highbury on Aug 13th, 1908, and was buried in Highgate Old Cemetery. Publications: *Jour. of Physiol. and Proc. Physiol. Soc.*, 1897, 1898; also Dr. L. Hill, *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1908, ii, 539. Jonathan Hutchinson, Junr., and H. L. Barnard, “On an Improved Method of Treating the Separated Lower Epiphysis of the Femur.” – *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1899, lxxxii, 77; also “H. L. Barnard, Colleague and Collaborator. An Appreciation.” – J. Hutchinson, *London Hosp. Gaz.*, 1908, 96, with portrait. *Contributions to Abdominal Surgery*, edited by James Sherren, with a Memoir by H. H. Bashford, 1910. Contents: Intestinal Obstruction, 1-254; A Lecture on Gastric Surgery, 255-68. The simulation of Acute Peritonitis by Pleuropneumonic Diseases, 269-80. Three Lectures on Acute Appendicitis, 281-333. Surgical Aspects of Subphrenic Abscess, 335-84. Besides these are his contributions on various subjects, 1901.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000762
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Barter, Clement Smith (1837 - 1876)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372956372956
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital; practised at Bath, after he had been House Surgeon and Resident Medical Officer of the Royal United Hospital and Surgeon to the Eastern Dispensary. At the time of his death he was Surgeon to St Catherine’s and Bellott’s Hospitals, Medical Registrar and Curator of the Museum of the Royal United Hospital, Surgeon to the Institute for Idiots, Medical Officer of Health for Bath and Bradford-on-Avon, and Assistant Surgeon of the 2nd Somerset Militia. He died at 13 Gay Street, Bath, on April 22nd, 1876. A Dr Richard Barter (1802-1870) was the first to set up hot-air baths and then Turkish baths in the British Dominions. Publication:- *A Report on the Sanitary Condition of the City and Borough of Bath, during the Years 1867 and 1868, with a Synopsis of that of Several Previous Years, together with a Geological, Meteorological, and General Topographical Sketch of the City and its Vicinity, in Relation to Matters connected with the Public Health*, 8vo, Bath, 1869.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000773
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Robson, Sir James Gordon (1921 - 2007)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372613372613
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Gordon Robson was a former director and professor of anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, and the first anaesthetist to be elected vice-president of the college. He was born in Stirling on 18 March 1921, the son of James Cyril Robson and Freda Elizabeth Howard. He was educated at the high school in Stirling, and then Glasgow University. After a six-month house job in obstetrics he joined the RAMC and served in East Africa, where he began his career in anaesthetics. Following demobilisation in 1948, he returned to Glasgow as senior registrar in anaesthetics. Four years later, he went to Newcastle, as first assistant in the department of anaesthetics, under Edgar Pask, where he wrote his first scientific papers. In 1954 he was appointed as a consultant anaesthetist at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and in 1956 went to McGill University, Montreal, as the Wellcome research professor of anaesthetics. There he carried out research on halothane and the neurophysiology of anaesthetic drugs. In 1964 he was appointed professor of anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith in 1964, remaining there until he retired in 1986. During this time his department attracted anaesthetists from all over the world, both as trainees and visitors. He was active in the college, as a member of the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, serving as dean from 1973 to 1976. He was elected vice-president of the college in 1977, the first anaesthetist to be appointed to that office. He was chairman of the committee of management of the Institute of Basic Sciences and later master of the Hunterian Institute. When the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges and their Faculties was established he became honorary secretary, serving from 1976 to 1982. During this period he published two reports, establishing the criteria for the diagnosis of brain death, which eliminated the requirement for electro-encephalography or neuroradiological investigations. These proved to be of great value to critical care and organ transplantation units. For a decade, from 1984 to 1994, he was chairman of the Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards. He held many other appointments, including that of consultant adviser in anaesthetics to the DHSS and honorary consultant to the Army. Among his many honours were the Joseph Clover medal and prize of the Faculty of Anaesthetists and the John Snow medal of the Association of Anaesthetists. He was president of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1986 to 1988. Gordon Robson married twice. His first wife was Martha Graham Kennedy, by whom he had one son. She died in 1975. He married Jenny Kilpatrick in 1984. He died on 23 February 2007.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000429
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bergmann, Ernst von (1836 - 1907)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-02-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373047373047
Occupation General surgeon
Details Came of a family of Lutheran Pastors, of long standing in East Prussia and Livonia, his father being Pastor of Rujen in Livonia; but his mother, having to take refuge from an epidemic, he was born at Riga, then the capital of the Russian Baltic Provinces, in December, 1836. On leaving school he failed to get permission from the Czar to enter the theological faculty, so he matriculated in the medical faculty of the Germano-Russian University of Dorpat in 1854. He graduated in 1860 with a “Dissertation on the Passage of the Balsams of Copaiba and Cubebs into the Urine”. After visits to German Hospitals he settled down in Dorpat as a Clinical Assistant and qualified as Dozent in Surgery in 1863. Inspired by the renown of Pirogoff, he volunteered for employment in the Prussian and Austrian War of 1866, and after the battle of Königgrätz, which ended the fighting, was appointed to a Prussian Lazaret. Later he returned to Dorpat for the autumn session. Similarly he served as Chef-Artz at Base Hospitals in Alsace, at Mannheim, and Carlsruhe during the Franco-German War of 1870-1871. Upon this in 1871 followed his appointment to the Professorship of Surgery at Dorpat in succession to Adelmann. When in April, 1877, Russia declared war upon Turkey, Bergmann became Surgeon Consultant to the Army of the Danube invading Roumania. During the campaign up to the battle of Plevna he had the additional advantage of treating wounded under the better conditions supplied by the Baltic Hospital of the Red Cross. He then made a name for himself in the History of Military Surgery by adopting Lister’s antiseptic methods for the first time, for Lister’s proposals had been ignored in the Franco-German War. Moreover, Larrey’s immediate amputation had dropped out of use, being rendered largely impracticable by the wider manoeuvres of war. Bergmann had learnt the principles of Listerian surgery through Nussbaum and Richard Volkmann, and thus replaced the vague ideas concerning putridity and fermentations, about which Bergmann himself had written in 1865. Statistics from the American Civil War stated that of 1000 gunshot wounds of the knee-joint 837 died, of 1000 gunshot wounds of the elbow 194 died. After the battle of Gorni-Dubnik Bergmann dressed 15 cases of gunshot fractures involving the knee-joint, and that for the first time, some thirty to sixty hours after the injury, by thoroughly exploring and cleaning the wound and joint, using as fluid 5 per cent carbolic acid; 8 healed without suppuration, or as good as none; in 7 cases there was suppuration, in 2 slight, in 5 severe and prolonged; 2 dressed forty-eight and sixty hours after wounding underwent secondary amputation through the thigh and recovered. One dressed forty-eight hours after the injury, suffered from pyaemia, underwent secondary amputation, and died. There was much limitation of movement in all the healed cases, in many ankylosis. Among a more inclusive number of 59, 30 healed, 2 after secondary amputations; 24 died, 9 of whom had been amputated; and 5 cases were lost sight of. Even so, this was an enormous advance both in respect to the saving of life, and avoidance of amputation. Bergmann’s service was cut short by severe dysentery complicated by pyaemia. Upon his recovery he accepted the call to become Professor of Surgery at Würzburg, the title of his inaugural lecture in October, 1878, being “The Treatment of Gunshot Wounds of the Knee-joint in War”. There he remained until 1882, when the call to become Professor of Surgery at the Universität’s Klinik in Berlin placed him in the highest rank of German surgeons. Later he was raised to Geheimrath. Bergmann’s second memorial in the history of surgery is the establishment of the aseptic method. Lister’s antiseptic method reached its acme of fame and of general use on the occasion of the 7th International Congress held in London in 1881. After Koch’s report upon the effect of sublimate in destroying anthrax bacilli, Bergmann substituted for carbolic acid the use of perchloride of mercury. The further work of Koch at the Gesundheit’s Amt in Berlin introduced the bacteriological apparatus necessary to produce sterilization by heat. Numbers of Koch’s pupils explored all possible modes of infection of wounds, through the surgeon and his assistants, through the patient’s skin, the dressings, the hospital, the operating theatre, instruments, and apparatus, also the means of sterilizing by steam under pressure, by boiling water, to which salt or bicarbonate of soda was added. Neuber began, at a special hospital in Kiel, to attain sterility in everything coming in contact with a wound. Bergmann in his Klinik, together with his Assistant, Schimmelbusch, and others, adapted bacteriological apparatus and methods to the purposes of surgery. Thus at the 10th International Medical Congress at Berlin in July, 1890, Bergmann and Schimmelbusch demonstrated the methods which ensured sterility of dressing and apparatus, using the bacillus of blue pus as the naked-eye indicator. The Preface by Bergmann to the book by Schimmelbusch begins: “During the 10th International Medical Congress the undersigned exhibited in the Klinik the apparatus for the sterilization of dressings, and entrusted his surgical Assistant, Dr C S Schimmelbusch, with the demonstration of their efficacy against the micro-organisms which affect the course of healing and the treatment of wounds”. The illness and death of Frederick, Crown Prince and Kaiser, was a severe trial and a grave misfortune to Bergmann. The Crown Prince began to suffer from hoarseness in January, 1887. At the beginning of the following March, Gerhardt saw an irregular projection of the left vocal cord and on the diagnosis of a polypoid thickening the galvano-cautery was applied. There followed a further growth and a diminution of movement of the cord. On May 15th epithelioma was definitely diagnosed, and in consultation on May 16th Bergmann recommended laryngofissure and the removal of the affected cord, also possibly part of the thyroid cartilage if involved. It was common knowledge that Hahn in Berlin had successfully operated upon Montague Williams (*Dict Nat Biog*) in that way for the same disease. On May 18th Tobold confirmed the recommendation, and to the proposed operation the Crown Prince agreed, using the words, “Fort muss die Schwellung auf jeden Fall” (Buchholtz, s 462). The operation was fixed for the morning of May 21st, the Crown Princess, the promoter of nursing in Germany, in full accord and supervising preparations. Throughout the operation of complete laryngectomy had been specifically excluded. However, by a telegram sent to Queen Victoria, Morrell Mackenzie had been summoned, and he arrived at 5 pm on the 20th. He brought no instruments with him, and if the use of strange instruments had anything to do with his primary mistakes, quite apart from his persistence in them subsequently, then upon him lay the responsibility. At the consultation held at 6 pm immediately upon his arrival Mackenzie gave the opinion that the growth was of a non-malignant polypous or fibromatous nature. Gerhardt objected on the ground of his previous observations of the fixation of the vocal cord. Mackenzie proposed to nip off a bit for examination, to which Bergmann objected as complicating the operation and its result. On the following day Mackenzie punched off what proved to be a bit of normal mucous membrane, and there was afterwards visible a wound of the *right* vocal cord which had previously been seen to be quite sound. On June 8th, in the absence of Gerhardt, Mackenzie removed two superficial bits of tissue which Virchow reported to be specimens of ‘pachydermia’. As to Virchow’s aloofness in using an indefinite term ‘pachydermia’ instead of ‘leukoplakia’, already defined as a precursor of epithelioma, there is to be noted that the galvano-cautery had already been applied, and there was the uncertainty as to what Mackenzie had actually removed. As far as it went it was claimed for Virchow’s report that it favoured the diagnosis of a non-cancerous growth. Mackenzie persisted in making optimistic assertions as regards prognosis, whilst attributing the fixation of the cord and the steady progress of the disease to perichondritis. Even when Bramann, Bergmann’s first assistant, had been compelled to perform tracheotomy at San Remo on Feb 9th, 1888, Mackenzie continued to make and publish what he afterwards printed in his *Frederick the Noble* about the diagnosis and the adoption of the tracheotomy. Bergmann was urged to go to San Remo, where he arrived on Feb 11th, and spent miserable days arguing with Mackenzie over tracheotomy tubes (*see* his Diary in Buchholtz). After the return to Berlin on March 10th a piece of necrosed cartilage was coughed up, attributed by Mackenzie to perichondritis, but on April 12th Mackenzie had to send to Bergmann for help. When he arrived with Bramann they found the patient nearly asphyxiated, but when another tube was skilfully inserted the asphyxia was relieved and life was prolonged for a further six weeks. A local post-mortem examination was made on June 30th which fully confirmed the correctness of the original diagnosis. Henry Butlin (qv) on November 21st, 1888, addressed a letter to Bergmann on behalf of himself and colleagues expressing sympathy and appreciation. The College conferred the Honorary Fellowship on Bergmann on July 25th, 1900. His speech on receiving the diploma, delivered in vigorous German, was an *apologia pro vita sua*. Bergmann, in conjunction with his assistants, made a great number of contributions to surgery, including articles in the *Deutsche Chirurgie*. He continued active as the Professor of Surgery to the age of 70; towards the end it was noticed that his hand was becoming shaky. His remarkable position at the head of German surgery of his day is shown by the Festschrift in commemoration of his 70th birthday which fills two volumes of the *Archiv für klinische Chirurgie* (1906, lxxxi, with portrait), the first composed of contributions by friends and colleagues, the second volume by assistants and pupils. A fine portrait is included. He died at Wiesbaden on March 25th, 1907, after undergoing two operations for intestinal obstruction, due, as was shown at the post-mortem examination, to an inflammatory stricture of the splenic flexure of the colon. There was a State Funeral at Potsdam. Publications:– *Das putride Gift und die putride Intoxication*, Dorpat, 1868. *Die Resultate des Gelenkresectionen*, Giessen, 1874. “Die Diagnose der traumatischen Meningitis.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung, klin. Vortr.*, 1876, No. 101, 837. “Kopfverletzüngen.” – *Pitha’s Handbuch*, 1873, Bd. iii, Abt. 1. *Die Behandlung der Schusswunden der Kniegelenks im Kriege*, Stuttgart, 1878, 274, 1. “Die Lehre von den Kopfverletzungen.” – Billroth und Leuke: *Deutsche Chirurgie*, 1880, Lief. 30. “Die Hirnverletzungen.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung*, 1881, No. 190. “Die Erkrankungen der Lymphdrüsen.” – Gerhardt’s *Kinderkrankheiten*, 1882, Bd. vi, Abt 1. “Die isolerten Unterbindungen der Vena femoralis communis.” –* Würzburg Universität Festschrift*, 1882, Bd. i. Von Bergmann, E, und O Angerer: “Das Verhältniss des Ferment-intoxication zur Septicæmie.” – *Würzburg Universität Festchrift*, 1882. *Die Schicksale der Transfusion im letzten Decennium*, Berlin, 1883. “Die chirurgische Behandlung von Hirnkrankheiten.” – *v. Langenbeck’s Arch.*, 1888, 36, 2 Auf., 1889; 3 Auf., 1899. “Die chirurgische Behandlung der Hirngeschwülste.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung*, N.F. 200, C 57. “Die Behandlung der Lupus mit dem Koch’schen Mittel.” – *Volkmann’s Sammlung*, N.F., 22, C 7. *Anleitung zur aseptischen Wundbehandlung von Dr. C. Schimmelbusch*. Mit einem Vorwort des Herrn Geheimrath Professor E. von Bergmann, Berlin, 1892. Von Bergmann, Von Bruns, und Von Mikulicz:– *Handbuch der praktischen Chirurgie*, 1902. *Arch. f. klin. Chir.*, 1906, Bd. lxxxi, Th. I, II.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000864
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Blacklock, Sir Norman James (1928 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-17
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372618372618
Occupation Urologist
Details Sir Norman Blacklock combined several careers; as a distinguished surgeon in the Navy, later as professor of urology at the University of Manchester, and as medical adviser to the Queen on her official trips abroad. He was born in Glasgow on 5 February 1928, the son of John William Stewart Blacklock, professor of pathology at Glasgow University and subsequently St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, and Isabella née Roger, a nursing sister. After the High School in Glasgow was bombed, Norman moved to the McLaren High School in Perthshire. He trained in Glasgow and was awarded the Rankine memorial prize and the Asher Asher gold medal. He graduated MB ChB in 1950. At the Western Infirmary he was influenced by Sir Charles Illingworth in surgery and William Snodgrass in medicine. At the Royal Infirmary professor of surgery, J A G Burton, and Arthur Jacobs awakened a lifetime interest in urology. National Service called and he volunteered for the Royal Navy, serving on HMS aircraft carriers *Theseus* and *Warrior*, where he dealt with injuries from flying training and crash landings. Back in civilian life, he became a surgical registrar and lecturer in surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He then moved to Ipswich, and subsequently the Royal Masonic and St Bartholomew’s hospitals in London. He was asked to rejoin the Royal Navy and was posted to the Royal Naval Hospital Chatham and then, in the true service pattern, to Royal Naval hospitals Plymouth, Malta and Haslar (the principal Navy teaching hospital). There he developed a department of urology with a keen interest in urinary tract stone disease. He was always happy to advise patients from the other services. In 1972 he was appointed the Royal Navy director of surgical research and was appointed OBE two years later. In 1976 the Queen’s honorary surgeon was unable to accompany her to Luxembourg, so Norman was nominated in his place. For the next 17 years he accompanied the Royal party on their trips overseas, duties which had to be fitted into his busy clinical and academic career. Norman carried his ‘black bag’, which contained a range of urgent remedies, pills and potions, first aid instruments and equipment, including a miniature resuscitator/defibrillator. Fortunately these were not required and, apart from mild gastric problems in the Far East, the Queen did not require medical advice, though her staff often did. The Duke of Edinburgh christened him ‘Dr Hemlock’, but never reported sick. Norman was knighted after his last trip with the Queen, to Hungary in 1993. In September 1978 he retired from the Royal Navy as a surgeon captain. Unusually for a service surgeon, he was appointed to an academic post, as professor of urology at the University of Manchester, working at the University Hospital of South Manchester. He developed lithotripsy in the north, obtaining the machine and training a team to use it. This pioneering enterprise reflected his long interest and experience of renal stone formation. Microanatomy of the prostate and causes of hyperplasia formed other research interests in his department. He published extensively in refereed journals from 1965 until his retirement. Outside medicine, he was interested in gardening, bread-making and cooking, and travelling in a motor caravan. He married Marjorie Reid in 1956. They had a son, Neil, and a daughter, Fiona. Both are medical graduates. Sir Norman died on his 50th wedding anniversary, after falling and hitting his head.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000434
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Helal, Basil (1927 - 2007)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372619372619
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Basil Helal was an orthopaedic surgeon at Enfield, as well as at the London and Royal National Orthopaedic hospitals. He was born in Cairo on 28 October 1927, the son of Ibrahim Helal, director general of the state railways, and Helena née Sommerville. He was educated at the English School in Cairo, where he won prizes for literature, science and mathematics, and then entered the London Hospital, where he swam for the hospital and the university. After house appointments at the London, he became orthopaedic registrar to the United Liverpool Hospitals and then at the London, where he came under the influence of Sir Reginald Watson-Jones and Sir Henry Osmond-Clarke. He completed his orthopaedic training as a senior registrar at St George’s Hospital and the Woking and Chertsey Group of Hospitals, before his appointment as consultant orthopaedic surgeon to the Enfield Group of Hospitals in 1965. He remained at Enfield until 1988, in the meantime becoming an honorary consultant to the London Hospital and, towards the end of his career, consultant hand surgeon to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Basil Helal’s orthopaedic interests were wide, but he was particularly interested in the surgery of the hand and foot, and the surgical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He also had a long standing interest in sports injuries and was orthopaedic adviser to the British Olympic Association over five Olympics. He was a member of innumerable medical societies at home and abroad, and a regular attendee at their meetings, holding high office in many of them, including the presidency of the orthopaedic section of the Royal Society of Medicine, the British Society for the Surgery of the Hand, and the Hunterian Society. He published extensively and contributed to several orthopaedic text books, and in retirement wrote a biography of the German surgeon Richard von Volkmann. Basil was a good all-round sportsman with a charming personality which made him a popular life member of the Savage Club. He married Stella Feldman, a fellow junior doctor in 1952, with whom he had two daughters (Dina and Amanda) and a son (Adam). They divorced shortly before her death in 1977 and he married Susan Livett, a theatre sister, whom he had known for many years, with whom he had two sons (Matthew and Simon). He died at his retirement home in Dornoch, Scotland, on 17 July 2007, after several years of declining health.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000435
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Welch, George Somerville (1935 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2008-01-24 2018-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372621372621
Occupation Colorectal surgeon
Details Nick Taffinder was widely considered to be one of the brightest and most able young consultants when, at the age of 39, he was diagnosed with metastatic malignancy, from which he died two years later. He showed academic talent as a schoolboy, being a scholar at King's College, Taunton, from where he won an exhibition to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His clinical training was undertaken at St Thomas' Hospital, London, where he won the Sutton Sams prize in obstetrics and gynaecology. Graduating in 1990, his first surgical house officer post was on the rectal firm and he retained this early interest in coloproctology throughout his career. Subsequent SHO jobs were in Southampton and Portsmouth, where he spent six months on the intensive care unit, before being appointed a specialist registrar to the training rotation of St Mary's Hospital, London. After a year on the academic surgical unit, he was seconded to Paris for a year, where he worked as a registrar in a world-renowned laparoscopic centre with Gérard Georges Champault and where he learned advanced laparoscopic skills. Returning to St Mary's he became a research fellow to Ara Darzi (later Lord Darzi), where he studied the quantification of manual dexterity in laparoscopic surgery, the effects of sleep deprivation on surgical dexterity and the impact of virtual reality on surgical training. His thesis on this subject was accepted for the MS degree and the work gained him two international prizes, one in the UK and one in the USA, as well as many publications. In the year 2000 he was awarded two travelling scholarships, both to European centres, to further enhance his laparoscopic skills and the following year he completed his colorectal training with an appointment as RSO at St Mark's and Northwick Park hospitals. He was then appointed consultant colorectal surgeon to William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, where he practiced and taught advanced laparoscopic surgery until his untimely death. Nick Taffinder contributed widely to surgery outside of clinical activity. He continued to publish regularly after his consultant appointment, his last paper appearing in print after his death. At the College, he taught on the care of the critically ill surgical patient course (CCRISP) and also trained the faculty for this course, a reflection of his own early experience in intensive care medicine. He was a faculty member on numerous laparoscopic courses, both basic and advanced. He was a council member of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Association of Endoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He was in constant demand as a lecturer at home and abroad. In private life he was equally talented. His first love was his family, Jane his wife and four children, Jacques, Louis, Max and Jessica. But outside of family life he was an enthusiastic pilot, a good games player (tennis and squash), a snowboarder, paraglider and oarsman, to say nothing of his ability as a conjurer. He was universally popular. In early 2004 he was diagnosed with malignant fibrohistiocytoma of the pelvis with lung metastases. He underwent multiple operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Throughout, he showed truly remarkable fortitude and wrote a moving personal view in the *British Medical Journal* (2005, 331, 463) of how he diagnosed a rectal cancer in a male nurse of his own age at four o'clock in the morning while he himself was an in-patient awaiting his third operation. Despite returning to work between operations and treatments his disease pursued a relentless course and deprived the profession of a much loved and greatly talented colleague before his full potential could be realised.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000437
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Forrest, Duncan Mouat (1922 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372622372622
Occupation Paediatric surgeon
Details Duncan Forrest was a distinguished member of that first generation of paediatric surgeons, most of whom trained at Great Ormond Street in the early years of the National Health Service, who pioneered specialist surgical units in children’s and in general hospitals across the country. Later in life he was to put the same enthusiasm and dedication into caring for the victims of torture. He was born on 19 December 1922 in New Zealand into a medical family. His father died when he was six and he was educated at a boarding school. He went on to Otago University, where he qualified in 1946 and then travelled to England to specialise in surgery, working his passage as a ship’s doctor. After junior posts at St George’s and gaining his fellowship in 1951, he went to Great Ormond Street as an able young surgeon whose faultless good manners barely concealed his passionate determination to develop and apply his surgical skills for the benefit of children with major congenital disorders. Unlike most of his contemporaries he was inspired not so much by the work of Denis Browne and his team, but by George Macnab, who was treating hydrocephalus by diversionary shunts, a treatment pioneered in the USA by Holter, which had so far been little employed by British neurosurgeons. Duncan soon developed considerable expertise in these procedures and when, following the completion of his training, he was appointed to the Westminster Children’s Hospital, to Sydenham Children’s Hospital and to Queen Mary’s Carshalton, although taking on a wide range of surgery with an interest in cleft palate in particular, he made hydrocephalus and spina bifida his main concern. It takes an element of idealism to pursue the management of some of these most severely disabled children, but this was a quality which Duncan possessed, fortunately modified by a shrewdness to perceive what was and what was not possible. He created at Carshalton a centre with an international reputation and contributed largely to the literature. He went on to distinguish himself as president of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and of the section of paediatrics of the Royal Society of Medicine. From early in life he had been deeply involved in human rights issues and had campaigned with Amnesty International against torture. He became a senior medical examiner for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, examining many survivors, and travelling all over the world seeking evidence of the cruel treatment of Sikhs in Punjab, Kurds in Iraq, and prisoners in Israel, Egypt and Guantanamo Bay. He wrote extensively on these and allied topics, culminating in the textbook *Guidelines for the examination of survivors of torture* (Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, 1995 and 2000). He was predeceased by his wife June, a former actress who became a nurse. He died on 2 December 2004, leaving a daughter (Alison) and three sons (Ian, William and Paul).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000438
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First Title value, for Searching Gun-Munro, Sir Sydney Douglas (1916 - 2007)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24 2009-02-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372623372623
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir Sydney Gun-Munro was a former Governor General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He was born on 29 November 1916, the eighth child of an extensive family of Scottish descent on the island of Grenada in the Windward Isles. His father, Barclay Justin Gun-Munro, died when Sydney was only seven. Sydney attended the Anglican Primary School in Grenada, from which he won a scholarship to the Grenada Boys’ Secondary School. On leaving, he gained the Grenada Island scholarship, which took him to London and King’s College Hospital, in the footsteps of his brother Cecil. Always an adaptable soul, Sydney fitted in well with life in London, as he did with his fellow students, despite being some four years their senior, showing one of the characteristics typical of him all throughout his life – his ability to mix comfortably with folk from the most varied backgrounds. As an accomplished raconteur, guitar player and competitive tennis player, he became a popular figure in the social life of his contemporaries. When the anatomy and physiology departments moved to Glasgow at the outbreak of the Second World War, he showed his adaptability by facing a harsh northern winter, always charming his Scottish landladies. When he eventually moved into a flat with three other students they rapidly learned another lifelong characteristic, his ability to organise those around him, in this case acting as kitchen hands and washers-up whilst Sydney presided over the cooking with the accomplishment of a professional chef. On returning to London to start clinical work, his group moved to Horton Emergency Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, with visits to King’s College Hospital for outpatients and special studies. He qualified MB BS with honours in medicine and a distinction in surgery. After qualifying he was house surgeon to the EMS Hospital in Horton throughout the Blitz, and was at his brother’s house when it was struck by a bomb. For four hours he lay buried in the debris and was almost given up for dead. Perhaps realising that the clinical material available at that time in the medical school was somewhat limited, he gained an appointment as medical officer to Lewisham Hospital, where he enjoyed the wide variety of clinical work, under the aegis of his medical director, Humphrey Nockolds, who became a lifelong friend. When Sydney returned to Grenada in 1946 he worked as a district medical officer until 1949, when he was appointed surgeon at the Colonial Hospital, Kingstown, Saint Vincent, continuing there until 1971, apart from a secondment to England to study for the diploma in ophthalmology. In 1963, he was joined by a second surgeon. Many of his contemporaries were surprised when he returned to the West Indies because, with his record, he could undoubtedly have gained prestigious appointments in this country. To those who had the good fortune to visit him there however the wisdom of his decision was soon explained. Apart from the charm of the Windward Islands, it was clear that Sydney had groomed himself for this task throughout his medical training. His wide knowledge of medicine and his skill as a surgeon made him completely fitted for his life on the island of Saint Vincent. The only surgeon to a population of about 90,000 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, he was able to give outstanding service in all branches of surgery and many of medicine. He dealt with general surgery, trauma, obstetrics and gynaecology, ear nose and throat surgery and ophthalmology, in which he was particularly interested, and continued to provide a clinic for many years after his retirement. After 20 years he had become known to virtually everybody on Saint Vincent and the neighbouring islands. He was respected for his own qualities and integrity, as well as for the work he had done as a surgeon, work which was recognised by our College, which granted him a fellowship *ad eundem*. It was not surprising therefore that he was appointed the first Governor of Saint Vincent in 1977, for which he was knighted. He became Governor General of the State of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines when independence came in 1979, becoming GCMG. As Governor General he always sought the welfare of the islands, established a successful arrowroot mill with Canadian assistance, a library, and a children’s charity for the welfare of the island’s young people. He married an English nurse, Joan Estelle Benjamin, and they became partners in a very happy marriage that lasted 60 years. Joan herself demonstrated remarkable adaptability in exchanging her life in the home counties for one in the West Indies, as the mother of a growing family, looking after a surgeon who was busy all hours of the day or night, and subsequently as wife of the Governor General, acting as hostess to members of the Royal Family and a broad spectrum of public figures from church and political life, as well as developing interests of her own, including distinguished service to the Red Cross. Apart from Sydney’s professional activities, his interests were in boating and tennis: he and Joan regularly won the mixed doubles at the island tennis club. He died on 1 March 2007, leaving his wife Joan, daughter Sandra and two sons, Rodney and Michael.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000439
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching MacFaul, Peter Alexander James Marsh (1935 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-01-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372625372625
Occupation General surgeon
Details John James McGhee, known as ‘Jack’, was a surgeon in the Canadian town of Prince Georgia, British Columbia (BC). He was born in Princeton, BC, on 6 December 1931 and raised in Trail. His parents, Thomas Doyle McGhee, a miner, and Agnes Wilson McGhee, both originally from Glasgow, agreed that Jack and his younger brother, Gordon, should try to avoid life in the mines. Jack subsequently enrolled in the University of British Columbia. Having played for the Trail Smoke Eaters as a junior, Jack was on the university hockey team, but quickly realised he wasn’t cut out for life as a professional sportsman. He concentrated on medicine and was in the third graduating class of the faculty of medicine, being licensed to practise in 1957. With a group of classmates he went to the UK, and gained much experience in orthopaedic and general surgery. When off duty he enjoyed all the cultural and sport opportunities offered in Europe. There were certain consultants who strongly influenced Jack’s decision to pursue general surgery. The first was Michael Reilly in Plymouth, who noted Jack’s ‘good hands’ and encouraged him by teaching him many skills. A strong negative influence was a position at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital where, in spite of encounters with many famous specialists, such as Seddon, and free tickets to the opera etc, he realised that the esoterica he was dealing with were not what he was really interested in. However, he continued with orthopaedics by taking a position at Nottingham General Hospital, before proceeding to Edinburgh to tackle the primary. He passed the Edinburgh FRCS exam in 1962, and returned to the Nottingham General to take a surgical registrar position. His chiefs were Tommy Field and John Swan, and the senior registrar was Ted Oliver. The experience of working with these three skilled surgeons was inspiring. It was an extremely busy hospital, and the call schedule involved each surgical firm being on call for a continuous week every month. Cold surgery was not set aside during this week, so the work was intense. Ted Oliver died on the golf course, much too young – he was 45. Jack completed the London fellowship during this period, in 1964. In November 1964 he married Carolyn Meetham, also a doctor, whom he had met in Nottingham. He had applied for one senior registrar position in Sheffield, but realised that it would be a very long haul before he achieved this promotion, and it was decided to return to British Columbia in 1965, after seven years in Britain. On returning to Canada, while Carolyn kept bread on the table with an assistant resident position in paediatrics in Vancouver, Jack studied for the Canadian Certification in General Surgery, which he achieved in 1965. On weekends off they travelled around the province looking for a town which wanted a specialist surgeon. Prince George was the only city where they were welcomed with open arms, so they settled there. Jack formed a dynamic and legendary partnership with Bob Ewert, who had earlier come back to his home town as the city’s first specialist general surgeon. Jack was a very skilled surgeon, much loved for his humour and courtesy, humanity towards patients, and scrupulous professionalism. He was an inspiring and enthusiastic mentor for a generation of medical students and surgical residents. Wanderlust led him to travel widely with his family. They volunteered their professional services in Belize, Dominica, Papua New Guinea and Somalia. Jack retired from active practice in 1996 after 30 years. He was honoured to be made an honorary member of the department of surgery of the University of British Columbia in 1995, and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia in 2000. During his working life, his many hobbies included mountaineering. He was a member of the Alpine Club of Canada for 25 years and an active member of the Prince George section, where another of his interests was indulged: he would enter the photographic competition with success. He was a wonderful skier, and undertook many traverses and climbs with and without guides in winter and summer. He loved fly fishing for trout and steelhead. He was also interested in beekeeping, at which he became an expert. With his family, he travelled to all the continents, for exploration, natural history and especially bird watching. He gave many beautiful slide shows based on these travels. He carried on with these pursuits after retirement, and added more, including cooking. His final remarkable trek, around Manaslu in central Nepal in April 2005, was undertaken in great pain from bone secondaries, before the diagnosis of lung cancer was made in August 2005. Nobody was surprised that he bore his illness with extraordinary courage. He died on 18 April 2006, at home, surrounded by his family. Posthumously he was inducted into the Northern Medical Hall of Fame in January 2007. He is survived by his wife Carolyn, three adult children (Alex Jane, a nurse, Rachel, a physician, and Dougal, a carpenter, whose wife is Kirsten) and two grandchildren, all of whom he was extremely proud.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000441
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First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Charles Graham (1924 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-11-09
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372471372471
Occupation General surgeon
Details Charles Wilson was a surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was born in Adelaide on 3 April 1924. His father, Sir George Wilson, was a founding fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and a foundation fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. His mother, Elsa May Cuzens, had been a nurse. He was educated at St Peter’s College, Adelaide, and Adelaide University, where he won a blue for golf. After qualifying in 1947 he was an intern at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 15 months before joining the RAMC, serving with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan for a year. He returned to Australia to spend a year as a resident at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. He then went to England to study for the FRCS, working at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith, and Kingston General Hospital. After passing the Edinburgh and English fellowships he returned to Australia in 1954. He was first a registrar and then a senior registrar at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 1959 he became an honorary assistant surgeon, becoming a full surgeon in 1969 and a senior visiting surgeon in 1970. He remained at the Royal Adelaide Hospital until 1988. In 1967 he led the South Australian Civilian Surgical Team to South Vietnam, and in 1969 was lieutenant colonel surgeon at the First Australian Field Hospital for three months, remaining as consulting general surgeon to Central Command from 1969 to 1979. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons he was chairman of the South Australia state committee, coordinator of surgical training from 1975 to 1980, and served on the Court of Examiners. He was a keen golfer, serving as captain and later president of the Royal Adelaide Golf Club. He married Lois Penelope Fox: they had two daughters, Susan and Philippa, and one son, Thomas Graham Wilson, who is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Charles Wilson died on 15 August 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000284
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Tjandra, Joe Janwar (1957 - 2007)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Bevan, William ( - 1856)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, Edward Robert (1828 - 1908)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, Robert Alexander (1862 - 1924)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373058373058
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Liverpool on October 4th, 1862, the son of Edward Robert Bickersteth (qv); was educated under Dr Hornby at Eton, which he entered in 1872. He was admitted a Pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on June 13th, 1881, and graduated BA with first-class honours in the Natural Science Tripos in 1884. He then entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he was House Surgeon. After being a Clinical Assistant at the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, and the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, he was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Liverpool Infirmary, representing the third generation of his family on the staff of that institution. In due course he became full Surgeon, and, on his resignation in 1921, Consulting Surgeon. His attention was specially directed to urology, and he was elected a Corresponding Member of L’Association française d’Urologie and a Member of L’Association Internationale d’Urologie. He was distinguished as a clinical teacher and lecturer on surgery, and was Examiner in Surgery at the Liverpool University. At the Liverpool Medical Institution he was Treasurer and Vice-President. At the Liverpool Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1912 he was President of the Section of Surgery. From 1914-1918 he served as Major RAMC(T) at the 1st Western General Hospital, and later at the 57th General Hospital in France. Whilst in practice he lived at 4 Rodney Street; on retirement he went to Outgate, Ambleside. He died at Bournemouth on February 28th, 1924, and was buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, where his great-grandfather had practised, leaving a widow, three sons, and two daughters. Dr George Luys in 1901 at the Laboisière Hospital of Paris had devised an instrument for separating in the bladder the urine from each kidney. Bickersteth visited Paris in October, 1903, and on February 4th, 1904, published his first communication on the intravesical separation of the urine1 at the Liverpool Medical Institution, which was followed by later accounts of further experience with the method. In his paper on kinked ureter2 he explained how the ureter immediately below a hydronephrotic kidney is found sharply kinked so that its lumen becomes obstructed. He gave three diagrams in illustration of this occurrence owing to an abnormal accessory renal artery, which may spring direct from the aorta below the level of the main renal artery. In a few cases he had divided this artery and relieved the hydronephrosis. Publications:- “Intravesical Separation of the Urines coming from the two Kidneys.” – *Lancet*, 1904, i, 437, 859. *Brit. Med. Jour.,* 1904, ii, 837. “Kinked Ureter.” – *Proc. Roy. Soc. Med.* (Surg. Sect.), 1913-14, vii, 259.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000875
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Connolly, Rainer Campbell (1919 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by T T King
Publication Date 2009-10-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372898372898
Occupation Neurosurgeon
Details Campbell Connolly was a consultant neurosurgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He was born on 15 July 1919, the elder son of George Connolly, a solicitor who had served in the First World War, and his wife, Margaret, née Edgell, of Brighton. His grandfather, Colonel Benjamin Bloomfield Connolly was a distinguished military surgeon who had been principal medical officer of the Cavalry Brigade at El Teb (Sudan) and was commander of the Camel Bearer Company on the expedition to relieve General Gordon. Connolly’s education was at Lancing College, Bedford School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, from which he graduated in 1941. Owing to the shortage of junior medical staff, he was immediately employed as a locum anaesthetic houseman and gave a number of anaesthetics for Sir James Paterson Ross who had, at the start of his career, an interest in neurosurgery. This position led to Connolly’s appointment as a house officer at the wartime hospital, Hill End, St Alban’s, to which the professorial surgical department of St Bartholomew’s had been evacuated. Though Paterson Ross was nominally in charge of neurosurgery, J E A O’Connell was the neurosurgeon within the professorial unit. While working at Hill End, Connolly was seconded to Sir Hugh Cairn’s head injury hospital at St Hugh’s, Oxford, to learn about electroencephalography, which it was thought might be useful in neurosurgical diagnosis. Oxford was one of the few places in the country where this new technique was being explored. This experience put him in contact with Cairns, who was responsible for the organisation of neurosurgery in the Army. Connolly eventually spent almost a year at St Hugh’s. Early in 1943 he found himself posted to an anti-aircraft battery in south London, where he had little to do until his commanding officer told him that he was to accompany the battery to a destination in West Africa. Alarmed, he wrote to Cairns and was almost immediately removed and placed in a holding post at Lancing. Connolly was one of the last survivors of the young neurosurgeons who staffed the mobile neurosurgical units that had been established by Hugh Cairns at the beginning of the Second World War. These saw action in France and Belgium in 1940, and the first one was captured at Dunkirk. Subsequently another six were formed and deployed in the Western Desert, Italy, Northern Europe and Burma. Through the influence of Cairns, Connolly was posted to mobile neurosurgical unit No 4 in Bari, Italy, when the senior neurosurgeon of the unit, Kenneth Eden died suddenly of poliomyelitis in October 1943. With its head, John Gilllingham, and John Potter, he accompanied the unit in the campaign up the east coast of Italy, ending at Ancona with the rank of major and with a mention in despatches. This unit treated over 900 head injuries from the battles at the Gothic Line and the Po Valley, as well as those from partisan activities in Yugoslavia. Many of the Yugoslavian patients had open head wounds for which treatment had been delayed by difficulties in transport, a subject on which Connolly contributed a paper to *War supplement No.1 on wounds of the head* published by the *British Journal of Surgery* in 1947 (*Br J Surg* 1947;55(suppl1):168-172). The results were surprisingly good, the mortality being 20 per cent. The use of penicillin, first clinically tested by Florey and Cairns, and then by Cairns in mobile neurosurgical unit No 4 in North Africa, was considered to be an important factor in these results. After VE day, Connolly returned to England in July. He was posted to the Far East, spending six unproductive months in India following the ending of the war in August. After demobilisation, he returned to Bart’s to a post created to accommodate ex-servicemen such as himself whose training and careers had been affected by war service. He obtained the FRCS in 1947. Cairns had plans for an organised training scheme for neurosurgeons, something not achieved until many years later, and he offered Connolly an appointment at Oxford to a training programme of some years’ duration, beginning as a house surgeon. At the same time Cecil Calvert, in Belfast, who had done much of the surgery at St Hugh’s during the war, invited him to the Royal Victoria Hospital as a consultant. The rigours of being a houseman at Oxford under Cairns were known to Connolly: he took the offer in Belfast and stayed there for four years. In 1952 he moved to the Midland Centre for Neurosurgery in Birmingham. In 1958 he was appointed as the second neurosurgeon to O’Connell at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and remained there until his retirement as senior neurosurgeon in 1984. He was also in private practice and established a reputation especially for judgement and skill in intervertebral disc surgery. He was on the staff of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers and was a civilian consultant to the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1984. In the College he was Hunterian Professor in 1961, speaking on cerebral ischaemia in subarachnoid haemorrhage. He was president of the section of neurology of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1980 to 1981, a Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. He married Elisabeth Fowler née Cullis, who was an anaesthetist at St Hugh’s. He died of cancer of the prostate on 14 August 2009, survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000715
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Glenn, James Francis (1927 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2009-10-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372900372900
Occupation Urologist
Details Jim Glenn was an internationally celebrated urologist, a former chief of urology at Duke University and dean of Emory University school of medicine. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at the University High School there, from which he went to Rochester University and afterwards to Duke University to study medicine, qualifying in 1952. He specialised in urology and completed a surgical residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and trained in urology at Duke University. He served briefly on the academic staff at Yale and at Wake Forest University, before returning to Duke in 1963 as a professor and later a chief of urology. He went on to Emory University in Atlanta as dean of the medical school and was later president of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He then returned to Kentucky, where he was director of the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky from 1989 to 1993 and chief of staff at the University of Kentucky Hospital from 1993 to 1996. He was acting chairman of surgery at the University of Kentucky from 1996 to 1998. He was a born organiser, becoming president of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons in 1993. A past president of the Société Internationale d’Urologie, in 2007 he received that organisation’s highest honour. He was a former governor of the American College of Surgeons and a former president of the American Urological Association. He received the Association’s lifetime achievement award in 1994. He was a frequent visitor to England, and always went out of his way to welcome visitors from the UK. He was made an honorary fellow of our College in 1987. He was awarded the St Paul’s medal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons in 1996. He died on 10 June 2009, leaving his widow Gay née Elste Darsie, two sons (Cambridge F Glenn II and James M Glenn), two daughters (Sarah Brooke Glenn and Nancy Carrick Glenn) and seven grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000717
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gray, Thomas Cecil (1913 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-10-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372901372901
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Thomas Cecil Gray was the first professor of anaesthesia at Liverpool University and undoubtedly one of the great British pioneers of modern anaesthesia. He was born in Liverpool on 11 March 1913, the son of Thomas Gray, a local publican, and Ethelreda Unwin. A devout Roman Catholic, Cecil was educated at the Convent of the Sacre Coeur in Bath and then Ampleforth. It had been his intention to enter the Monastery, but being caught smoking in the bushes within two months of becoming a novice monk made it clear to all except Cecil that this was not his vocation. To the dismay of his mother, he returned to Liverpool to study medicine. Graduating with distinction in anatomy in 1937, he became a trainee in general practice in the city, before purchasing a practice in Wallasey with the help of his father. He rapidly became fascinated by anaesthesia, which at that time was mostly practiced on a part-time basis by general practitioners. Under the tutelage of Robert Minnitt, he rapidly collected the 1,000 cases required for the diploma in anaesthesia, which he obtained in 1941, and shortly afterwards became a full-time anaesthetist to several hospitals in the city of Liverpool. His academic career began in 1942 with his appointment as demonstrator in anaesthesia in the University of Liverpool. Largely as the result of Minnitt’s mission to ensure proper teaching and training in anaesthesia, Cecil was appointed reader and head when the academic department was established in 1947. In 1959, he was awarded a personal chair in anaesthesia, which he held until his retirement from active practice in 1976. He was the first postgraduate dean of the faculty of medicine in Liverpool University from 1966 to 1970 and then dean of the faculty of medicine until 1976. Very early in his full-time career in anaesthesia Cecil Gray and John Halton set out to investigate the feasibility of inducing neuromuscular blockade by means of a derivative of wourali, the crude South American arrow poison which was eventually purified as d-tubocurarine chloride by Burroughs Wellcome. Within a year they had collected 1,200 surgical cases in which the drug had been used safely. Their first public dissertation ‘A milestone in anaesthesia – d-tubocurarine’ was delivered to the section of anaesthesia of the Royal Society of Medicine on 1 March 1946. Much often sceptical discussion about the safety of this potential poison took place at subsequent meetings of the section. In April 1948, Cecil Gray attempted to allay this scepticism with his detailed report on 8,500 patients anaesthetised by a group of enthusiastic colleagues across the Liverpool region who had willingly adopted the technique of hypnosis, muscle relaxation and controlled ventilation without serious morbidity or mortality, thereby confirming Cecil’s firm belief that one of the most potentially dangerous of drugs was one of the least toxic when used carefully. With modification this technique has survived nationally and internationally to the present day. He must also be remembered for his major contribution to education and standards of training in anaesthesia. Aware of the changes which would follow the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, he saw the need for a high standard of formal training and postgraduate education in anaesthesia and an examination structure similar to the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. On becoming reader and head of the new department of anaesthesia in the University of Liverpool in 1947, he persuaded the dean of the Liverpool Medical School and the board of clinical studies to support the establishment of a postgraduate course. The first enrolments took place in October 1948. Within a year the hospital authorities within the area accepted the proposals for a full-time course and empowered the academic department to recruit junior staff for the hospitals throughout the region. Most of the surgeons tacitly agreed to the presence of trainees in the operating theatres. All trainees would attend lectures until 11am each morning, including Saturday, and all were required to have had some anaesthetic experience prior to enrolment. This course was the first in the United Kingdom, and by 1952 had expanded its horizons, drawing students from the Indian sub-continent, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Australia. Cecil’s profound interest in medical education and his organisational skills led to his election as a foundation member of the board of the faculty of anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1948. He served as vice-dean from 1952 to 1954 and as dean from 1964 to 1967. He also played an active role in the foundation of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiology and the European Congress of Anaesthesiology. He was invited as either a visiting professor or lecturer to many university departments and anaesthetic societies overseas. In 1948 Cecil and Edward Faulkner Hill were appointed as joint editors of The British Journal of Anaesthesia and oversaw a gradual improvement in coverage, quality and circulation. He retired from this role in 1964. Cecil was invited to deliver numerous eponymous lectures. His many honours included the Clover medal, the James Young Simpson gold medal, the Henry Hill Hickman medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the George James Guthrie medal, the gold medal of the Royal College of Surgeons, the John Snow silver medal and the Magill gold medal of the Association of Anaesthetists. In 1982 he was awarded a gold medal by Pope John Paul II in recognition of the role which he had played in the organisation of the Pope’s visit to Liverpool. In 1961 he became the first anaesthetist to be awarded the Sims Commonwealth travelling professorship of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Surgeons and Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. This provided the opportunity for Cecil and his wife to travel to Australia, where they spent three months engaged in educational activities and valuable interchange of ideas. He wrote numerous papers and co-edited several editions of *General anaesthesia* (London, Butterworths), which became the ‘Liverpool Bible’ of anaesthesia. His last publication in 2003 was the biography of Richard Formby, the founder of the Liverpool Medical School at the Royal Institution, which subsequently moved to the Infirmary in 1844. Cecil was president of the section of anaesthesia of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Association of Anaesthetists, the Liverpool Society of Anaesthetists and the Liverpool Medical Institution. He was active in the British Medical Association and the Medical Defence Union, of which he was vice-president from 1954 to 1961 and again from 1983 to 1988, and served as honorary treasurer from 1976 to 1981. From 1966 to 1983 he was a much respected member of the Liverpool Bench. Cecil, a man of great charm, talent and boundless energy was a gifted teacher, inspiring students, trainees and colleagues with devotion and enthusiasm. His advice, either deliberately sought or volunteered, was always sound. No problem was insurmountable. Consequently he had a profound influence on the lives of many whose progress he followed assiduously and with considerable pride. A good friend and mentor of many, friendships made endured. Cecil was married twice. In 1937 he married Marjorie (Margot) Kathleen née Hely, a talented amateur actress and artist, by whom he had two children, David (who is a consultant anaesthetist in Liverpool) and Beverley. Marjorie (Margot) died in 1978. In 1979 he married Pamela Mary (Corning). Their son James Frederick was born in 1981. Cecil, a true native of Liverpool, was a generous, entertaining host with a wicked sense of humour. He had a passion for amateur dramatics, as both a player and producer of the Irish Players for over 20 years. An accomplished pianist and opera lover, he was a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Liverpool Welsh Choral Society and the Verdi Society. The night before he died he gave a faultless rendition of Debussy’s ‘Clair de lune’. He died on 5 January 2008.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000718
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Juby, Herbert Bernard (1925 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Neil Weir
Publication Date 2009-10-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372902372902
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details Bernard Juby was a consultant ENT surgeon at the Ipswich Hospital. He was born in Stowmarket, Suffolk, on 9 April 1925, the only son of L H Juby, a draper, and Ethel née Quinton. He was educated at Culford School. His early wish was to be a farmer, but was encouraged by his mother to read medicine. He attended St Bartholomew's Medical School from 1942 to 1947. As a house surgeon to F C W Capps he had an early experience of ENT surgery. After a surgical officer post at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, where he gained from the influence of Donald Barlow, Juby became an ENT registrar at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and was later a senior registrar at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. His training was interrupted by National Service in the RAMC in Berlin. There he rapidly learnt to cope with all surgical emergencies, including salvaging the one remaining upper limb of a brigadier involved in a road traffic accident. Bernard Juby’s interest in ENT must have been maintained during this period as in 1953 he published a paper entitled ‘The incidence of middle ear disease in serving soldiers’ in the *Journal of the RAMC* (*J R Army Med Corps*, 1953 Apr;99(3):115-7). In early 1958 he was appointed as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Dryburn Hospital and the following year to the Durham and Shotley Bridge General Hospital. He longed, though, to return to his native Suffolk and, in 1962, was appointed to the West Suffolk General Hospital in Bury St Edmunds. Three years later, on the retirement of Kenneth Mackenzie, he moved over to Ipswich Hospital, where he continued his ENT practice until his retirement in 1987. Juby’s was a general ENT practice, but he will be remembered for his review paper published in 1969 in the *Journal of Laryngology and Otology* entitled ‘The treatment of pharyngeal pouch’ (*J Laryngol Otol* 1969 Nov;83(11):1067-71)and for his chapters on the same subject in Rob & Smith's *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworth’s, 1986). Bernard Juby represented East Anglia on the council of the British Association of Otolaryngologists and served on council of the section of otology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was medical officer to Ipswich Town football club. Outside medicine, he built a dry stone wall whilst in Yorkshire. He was a keen golfer and a long-standing member of the Ipswich Philatelic Society. A charming man with a dapper demeanour, Bernard Juby married Elizabeth Birdwood (a Bart’s nurse) in 1949. They had two sons (one a solicitor) and two daughters (one a nurse who died of cancer of the spine at the age of 46 and the other an occupational therapist). Bernard Juby died peacefully in St Elizabeth Hospice, Ipswich, of hepatocellular carcinoma on 22 May 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000719
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Atkins, James Ramsey (1802 - 1869)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-11-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000700-E000799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372903372903
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in HM Dockyard at Devonport, where his father held an important office. Educated at a neighbouring Grammar School he was articled at the age of 17 to Dr James Bell, the surgeon to the dockyard. After four years’ apprenticeship, during which time there were opportunities of seeing casualties and attending operations, he came to London and became a student at Carpue’s School and was a pupil of Sir George Tuthill, working at the Middlesex Hospital under Dr Southey and Sir Charles Bell, and later attending obstetric lectures at Guy’s Hospital. He passed for the Navy Board and was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth, where he came under the notice of Sir Stephen Love Hammick. He retired from the Navy after uncomfortable experiences in HM Sloop Pelorus and became medical superintendent of a private lunatic asylum – Holly House, Hoxton – which he conducted successfully for twelve years before he removed to Stoke House, Newington Green, where, as a licensed proprietor, he received a limited number of mild cases. He died on Dec 24th, 1869, at 29 Lordship Road, Stoke Newington. Publications: Atkins published a work on Mania in 1849 and another on Organic and Animal Life in 1859. He also contributed to the Reports of the Commissioners of Lunacy in 1847 – “Observations on the Medical Treatment of Insanity”, and was the author of several statistical papers relative to insanity.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000720
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bradley, Richard Holland (1820 - 1897)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Bradley, Samuel Messenger (1841 - 1880)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373133373133
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Manchester and the Manchester Infirmary; soon after he was qualified he served as Resident House Physician. He then had a varied experience as locum tenens for six months of a general practice in Bowness, Windermere, and next for twelve months he made several voyages between Liverpool and New York in the Cunard Company’s service. He began general practice at Longsight, which involved him in a warm controversy with the Manchester Board of Guardians over the treatment of the sick. At an inquiry by the Poor Law Board he produced such strong evidence as to justify his statements, and his legal expenses were paid by a public subscription. For a time he acted as Surgeon to the Ancoats and Ardwick Dispensary and lectured on physiology at Stonyhurst College, for he was a successful and popular lecturer on natural history subjects, and a brilliant conversationalist. He published the first of numerous books, a *Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology*, in 1869, of which a third edition appeared in 1875. Having qualified as FRCS in 1869, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary and Lecturer on Anatomy at Owens College; later he lectured on practical surgery, and in 1879 became Surgeon to the infirmary. In 1870 he joined Walter Whitehead and edited the *Manchester Medical and Surgical Reports*, later amalgamated with the *Liverpool Reports*. He wrote much in a popular style on the “Shape of English Skulls”, “On Controversial Aspects of Syphilis”, “On the Relationship of Anatomy to the Fine Arts”. Besides he was so skilful a painter as to be elected an honorary member of the Manchester Limners’ Club and exhibited pictures. He was also a member of the Literary Club and a composer of casual verses. He had striking clear-cut features, a slightly aquiline nose, high forehead, and massive jaw; he was a good linguist and possessed of musical talents. His contributions to surgery appear to have been limited to the “Treatment of Hydrocele” (*Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1872), and *Injuries and Diseases of the Lymphatic System*, 1879. His health not being good he went to Ramsgate for rest, where after getting wet he was seized with acute pleurisy and pericarditis, from which he died on May 27th, 1880, and was buried at Ramsgate. Publications: *Retrospect of Advance of Modern Medicine: an Introductory Address, Manchester Royal School of Medicine*, 8vo, Manchester, 1869. “The Unity of the Syphilitic Virus.” – *Med. Press and Circ.*, 1871, ii, 269. *Notes on Syphilis, with an Appendix on the Unity of the Syphilitic Poison*, 8vo, London, 1872. “A New Method of Treating Hydrocele.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1872, i, 508. *Manual of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology*, 8vo, 1st ed., 1869; 3rd. ed., 1875. “Moral Responsibility,” 8vo, Lewes, n.d.; reprinted from *Jour. Ment. Sci.*, 1875-6, xxi, 251. *A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Art of Surgery: a Lecture*, 8vo, Manchester, 1876. *Injuries and Diseases of the Lymphatic System*, 8vo, London, 1879. “The Evolution of Disease.” – *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1871 ii, 19. *The Collateral Statistics of English Surgery in Public Medical Charities for* 1870 (with Walter Whitehead), 8vo, 1871. “Description of the Brain of an Idiot.” – *Jour. Anal. and Physiol.*, 1872, vi, 65. *The Relationship of Anatomy to the Fine Arts*. A Lecture delivered in the Royal Institution, Manchester, 8vo, Manchester and London, 1880, etc. *A List of S. M. Bradley’s Published Writings* (1863-1876), was issued from the press without date. Bradley was Editor, in conjunction with Walter Whitehead, of the *Manchester Medical and Surgical Reports* in 1870-1871, and remained as an Editor for some time after the amalgamation of the publication with a similar one at Liverpool, when it became the *Liverpool and Manchester Medical and Surgical Reports*. He contributed several papers to these *Reports*, including one on the “Shape of English Skulls”, his object being to show that the existing classification of crania was no longer accurate. With the same object in view he also wrote on Australian crania (1871-1872). His paper on the shape of English skulls was based upon his measurements of the heads of male prisoners in the Manchester Borough Gaol, and he concluded that the skull is greatly modified by civilization.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000950
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bradley, William Henry (1807 - 1881)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Sanderson, Christopher John (1947 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Sen, Adosh Kumar (1942 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372369372369
Occupation General surgeon
Details Adosh Sen was a surgeon based in New Delhi, India. He was born in Dalhousie, India, on 27 June 1942. His father, Santosh Kumar Sen, a surgeon, and his mother, Sita Sen, a gynaecologist, had founded the celebrated Dr Sen’s Nursing Home, in New Delhi. He was educated at the Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, where he excelled in sport, particularly swimming. He did his premedical studies at the Hindu College, before going on to study medicine at the Maulana Azad Medicel College, where he continued to swim, representing his state in the All India championship. After house jobs he went to England to specialise in surgery, and completed training posts at Rowley Bristow Orthopaedic Hospital, Pyrford, St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, and Barking General Hospital. He returned to India as a general surgeon in his father’s clinic in New Delhi. He married Rehana Tasadduq Hosain in 1969 in London, who had a masters degree in English and taught that subject in New Delhi. They had three sons, Ashish, Nikhil and Shirish, none of whom went into medicine. Sen continued to be a keen sportsman, his main sport being swimming, but he was also a keen follower of cricket. Among his many interests was education, and he was vice president of the Magic Years Educational Society, which promotes Montessori education, and served on the board of trustees of the Modern School and its many branches. He died on 18 April 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000182
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bickersteth, William Henry (1813 - 1862)

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First Title value, for Searching Bidwell, Leonard Arthur (1865 - 1912)

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-04-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372674372674
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Aug 1st, 1778, and entered the service of the HEIC. He was appointed Regimental Mate to the 89th Foot on April 1st, 1797, and a month later, May 1st, became Assistant Surgeon to the same regiment. He was transferred to the 5th Dragoon Guards on Aug 10th, 1799, and was gazetted Surgeon to the 95th Foot on Oct 3rd, 1805, being again transferred to the 15th Dragoons on July 20th, 1809. On May 28th, 1812, he was put on the Staff. He was appointed Deputy Inspector of Hospitals (Brevet) on July 17th, 1817. He retired on half pay on April 25th, 1819, and on Oct 20th, 1826, was gazetted full Deputy Inspector of Hospitals. He had been present at the Battle of Copenhagen, when the forts were bombarded by the English fleet in 1807, and had served in the Peninsular War, in 1809. After his retirement Knipe apparently lived in London, his address in 1843 being the United Service Club. He died on Jan 15th, 1850.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000490
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

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First Title value, for Searching Wyatt, Arthur Powell (1932 - 2009)

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by Christopher Russell
Publication Date 2010-10-14 2012-03-08
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373236373236
Occupation General surgeon
Details Arthur Powell Wyatt was a consultant surgeon in the Greenwich health district. He was born in Hornsey, Middlesex, on 14 October 1932. His father, Henry George Wyatt, a medical missionary in China, died as a neutral during the Sino-Japanese War in 1938. His mother, Edith Maud née Holden, also a missionary, was a teacher. Arthur spent his early childhood in China, before returning to England in 1940 to attend Eltham College, then the school for the sons of missionaries. During the war it was evacuated to Taunton School and afterwards returned to Eltham. Wyatt entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, qualifying in 1955 with the Walsham prize in surgical pathology. After junior posts, he passed the FRCS in 1960 and became a lecturer in surgery at St Bartholomew's for two years. He then became a senior registrar at King's College Hospital, from which he was seconded to the post of postgraduate research surgeon at Moffat Hospital, University of California, San Francisco (from 1965 to 1966). In 1967, he joined Austin Wheatley at the Brook General Hospital to establish a vascular service, his experience at St Bartholomew's under Taylor, in San Francisco and at King's making him almost uniquely qualified for such a position. Austin Wheatley died prematurely in 1969 and was replaced by Arthur Wyatt, Mervyn Rosenburg and Ellis Field in 1970. They soon established the Brook as one of the places in London in the 1970s for young surgeons to establish their credentials in surgery. The hospital provided a wide range of experience with a heavy emergency workload. Arthur proved a master at difficult and complex operations, having wide experience in pneumatosis coli, oxygen therapy, transhiatal oesophagectomy for carcinoma, thoracic sympathectomy for axillary hyperhidrosis and introducing new methods of fixation for rectal prolapse. He took a full and active part in hospital management, as well as being a regional adviser in general surgery for the South East Thames Region. He was an active member, secretary and president of the surgical and proctological sections of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a member of the Court of Examiners of our College. He was well recognised locally and became president of the West Kent Medico-Chirurgical Society. Like his parents, Arthur was a committed Christian, and was active in the Christian Medical Fellowship. After retirement, he retraced his Chinese experience to re-establish links with that country. He developed his long term interest in gardening. It was while establishing his new garden that he became aware of the tumour which eventually proved fatal. He accepted the diagnosis with calm bolstered by his Christian faith. He died on 11 October 2009 and was survived by his wife, Margaret Helen née Cox, whom he married in 1955, and their three sons, John, Robert and Andrew. A son, David, predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001053
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Branfoot, Sir Arthur Mudge (1848 - 1914)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Bratton, James (1813 - 1889)

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First Title value, for Searching Brendon, Peter (1798 - 1883)

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First Title value, for Searching Shapland, Sir William Arthur (1912 - 1997)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372370372370
Occupation Accountant Philanthropist
Details Sir William Shapland, an honorary fellow of the College, was born on 20 October 1912, the son of Arthur Frederick Shapland and Alice Maud née Jackson. Educated at Tollington School, he joined the firm of Allen Charlesworth & Co, chartered accountants. He was given the responsibility of dealing with the accounts of John Blackwood Hodge & Co and Bernard Sunley & Sons, and, later, of advising the chairman, Bernard Sunley, a construction magnate. So valuable was his advice that, in 1946, he was invited to join the group as a non-executive director. In 1954 he became an executive director, succeeding Sunley as chairman of Blackwood Hodge ten years later. In 1960 he helped set up the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation, which distributes almost £3 million a year to good causes. Charities and institutions as varied as the Scout movement, Charing Cross Hospital and the Wild Fowl Trust have benefited. Among his many honours he was a Waynflete fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and honorary fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford. He died on 1 October 1997, leaving his wife Madeleine and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000183
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

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First Title value, for Searching Chavasse, Sir Thomas Frederick (1854 - 1913)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Cheatle, Arthur Henry (1866 - 1929)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Chesshire, Edwin (1819 - 1903)

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-25 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372375372375
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details One of the ten children of the Rev. Edward Hawkins, grandson of Sir Caesar Hawkins, Bart. (1711-1786), Surgeon to St. George's Hospital and Serjeant-Surgeon to George II and George III, who was descended from Colonel Caesar Hawkins, commanding a regiment of horse for Charles I. Caesar Hawkins was born on Sept. 19th, 1798, at Bisley, Gloucestershire, and, his father having died whilst he was still young, he was sent to Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School), where he remained from 1807-1813, when he had to be withdrawn as he was not destined for either Oxford or Cambridge. He was apprenticed to Mr. Sheppard, of Hampton Court, then the medical attendant of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV, who lived at Bushey Park. At the end of his indentures in 1818 he was admitted a student at St. George's Hospital under Sir Everard Home and Benjamin Brodie, and attended the chemistry classes of Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution. As soon as he had qualified he began to teach anatomy at the Hunterian or Windmill Street School of Medicine, having Sir Charles Bell as his colleague. He was elected Surgeon to St. George's Hospital on February 13th, 1829, and resigned in 1861, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon. In 1862 he was gazetted Serjeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria, and was thus the fourth member of his family to hold a like office. He was a Member of the Council from 1846-1863, and of the Court of Examiners from 1849-1866; was Chairman of the Midwifery Board in 1860; delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1849, when H R H the Prince Consort honoured the College with his presence; was Vice-President in 1850, 1851, 1859, 1860; President in 1852 and again in 1861; and Representative of the College on the General Medical Council from 1865-1870. In 1871 he was elected a Trustee of the Hunterian Museum. He was elected FRS on June 9th, 1856. He married: (1) Miss Dolbel, and (2) Miss Ellen Rouse, but left no issue by either. He died on July 20th, 1884, at his house, 26 Grosvenor Street. As a surgeon Hawkins attained eminence and achieved success, his opinion being especially sought in complex cases. For long he was noted as the only surgeon who had succeeded in the operation of ovariotomy in a London hospital. This occurred in 1846, when anaesthetics were unknown. He did much to popularize colotomy. A successful operator, he nevertheless was attached to conservative surgery, and he was always more anxious to teach his pupils how to save a limb than how to remove it. Long after he had become Consulting Surgeon to his hospital he continued to be a familiar figure on the wards, where he gave his colleagues the benefit of his lifelong experience. Caesar Hawkins was a man of sterling worth and merit, as well as of great capacity. His family was, indeed, distinguished for talent, as evidenced by the fact, above alluded to, that four of them rose to the rank of Serjeant-Surgeon. Two of Caesar Hawkin's own brothers were men of mark - Edward (1794-1877) the well-known Provost of Oriel who played so great a part in the life of Oxford during the Tractarian Movement, and Dr. Francis Hawkins, the first Registrar of the General Medical Council, who was known as one of the best classical scholars among the physicians of his time. His nephew Sir John Caesar Hawkins (1837-1929), Canon of St. Albans, was the author of the well known *Horae Synopticae*. Hawkins was not remarkable for graciousness of demeanour on a first acquaintance - in fact, most men complained of him as somewhat dry and repellent under these circumstances. But this vanished on a closer acquaintance, when his genuine kindness of heart and sincerity became recognized. Everyone knew how firm a friend he was to those who had earned his friendship, and how trustworthy a counsellor, and he ended his days amid the universal respect and regard of the many who had been his colleagues and pupils. One of the latter, when addressing students of St. George's at the opening of the session of 1885, thus concluded a reference to the examples left them by their predecessors in the school:- "I would point out to you, as an example of what I mean, the great surgeon who has lately passed away from us, full of years and honours, endeared to those who had the happiness of being his pupils by every tie of gratitude and affection, and reverenced by all who can appreciate stainless honour. Caesar Hawkins was rich in friends, who watched and tended the peaceful close of his long and brilliant career. They can testify how well he bore Horace's test of a well-spent life, '*lenior et melior fis accedente senecta*' (Epist. ii. 211). The old words involuntarily occur to everyone who contemplates an old age so full of dignity and goodness: 'The path of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day'" (Proverbs v. 18). He has been described as one of the cleverest minds in the medical profession, a mind of unquestioned accuracy, unswayed by imagination, temper, or desire for renown. No one was more discreet and honest in council, or less influenced by self-interest. A bust by George Halse was presented to the College by Mrs Caesar Hawkins in June, 1855. Photographs are preserved in the College Collection. PUBLICATIONS:- Hawkins contributed largely to the medical journals, and reprinted his papers for private circulation under the title, *The Hunterian Oration, Presidential Addresses, and Pathological and Surgical Writings,* 2 vols., 8vo, 1874. Among these mention may be made of valuable lectures "On Tumours", and of papers on "Excision of the Ovum", "The Relative Claims of Sir Charles Bell and Magendie to the Discovery of the Functions of the Spinal Nerves", "Experiments on Hydrophobia and the Bites of Serpents", "Stricture of the Colon treated by Operation", etc.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000188
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chester, Arthur (1835 - 1870)

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First Title value, for Searching Chevers, Norman (1818 - 1886)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373340373340
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Greenhithe, Kent, on April 27th, 1818. He was the son of Dr Forbes Macbean Chevers, RN, who was Surgeon on the *Phaeton* under Admiral Howe at his famous victory on June 1st, 1794, and on the *Tonnant* at Trafalgar. His mother was Anne, daughter of Lance Talman, of Newhouse, Kent. During his boyhood at Portsmouth his father was Flag Surgeon to the *Victory*. He was educated at St George's School, Haslar, and Guy's Hospital, finally at Glasgow, where he became MD at the age of 21. He next worked at pathology in London, and was one of the original members of the Pathological Society. He wrote on the structure of the heart and blood-vessels, on the "Causes of Death after Operation", which received a favourable notice from Sir James Simpson. His papers were published in the *Guy's Hospital Reports*. At Guy's Hospital there was then a remarkable galaxy of famous men on the staff - Astley Cooper, Hodgkin, Addison, Bright, Gull, and Hilton. For nine years Chevers continued his pathological work at Guy's Hospital as well as private practice at 22 Upper Stamford Street, on the site of a previous marsh - Maze Pond, Borough. He entered the East India Company's service on the Bengal side as Assistant Surgeon on August 1st, 1848, served for a few months with the troops at Dum Dum, and was Civil Surgeon at the stations of Parulia, Chittagong, and Howrah until 1855. He next acted as Secretary to the Medical Board of India during the Mutiny, and after two years was promoted Secretary to the Director-General of the Medical Department. For two years he was Inspector-General of Jails in Bengal; in April, 1862, he was appointed Principal of the Calcutta Medical College, Professor of Medicine, and Physician to the Hospital attached to the College, and was promoted Surgeon on September 18th. He was a member of the Senate of Calcutta University and was Hon Physician to Queen Victoria. Students enrolled whilst he was Principal rose in number from 409 to 1441 per annum; paying students in 1861 numbered 33, in 1873 1076. After serving as Examiner in Medicine he was, before his retirement, President of the Faculty of Medicine. As an authority on sanitation he was a member of committees concerned with the drainage and water-supply of Calcutta, and of an inquiry as to the identity of a man claimed to be Nana Sahib responsible for the massacre at Cawnpore. Chevers was promoted Surgeon Major on August 1st, 1868, retired on March 31st, 1876, with the rank of Deputy Surgeon General, and on May 24th, 1881, was made a CIE. He took part in the work of the Epidemiological Society and was President from 1883-1885. In 1884 he was appointed a member of the Special Cholera Commission; he lectured on "Health in India", and was President of the Sanitary Branch of the Social Science Congress at Birmingham. At his house, 32 Tavistock Road, Westbourne Park, he received and gave help to Indian students, and occupied himself with the *Commentary on the Diseases of India*, completed a few months before his death. He had shown symptoms of debility before his death, attributed to cardiac failure, on December 2nd, 1886; he was buried at Kensal Green. Chevers led a blameless and noble life, in which a commanding intellect and vast stores of learning were devoted to the advance of knowledge, the relief of suffering, and the welfare of his fellow-men, especially those of the great Indian Empire in which his lot had been cast, his best work done, and his well-merited reputation acquired. Publications: Besides his early pathological papers Chevers made a number of communications in India and wrote two books: *A Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India, including the Outline of a History of Crime against the Person in India*, 3rd ed, 1870. This originated in a Report on Medical Jurisprudence published in the *Indian Ann. of Med. Sci.* It is his chief work, a classical book of reference, including information on "Unfavourable Aspects of Indian Civilization". It was awarded the Swiney Prize - a silver cup of the value of £100 - and also the sum of £100 given by the Society of Arts and by the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1879 for the best work on medical jurisprudence published during the preceding ten years. On the other hand - *A Commentary on Diseases in India*, 1886, was written when the whole field of tropical disease was becoming revolutionized by advances in parasitology and bacteriology. In his old age he clung to bygone ideas: "As I have already intimated, I have lived and practised and shall probably die firm in the belief that intermittents and remittents are caused by a specific poison or morbific entity which emanates from certain soils" (p.162). On the enteric fever of Jenner: "but I cannot abandon the belief, founded upon the observations of a life-time, that there occur every year in Bengal thousands of cases of what I recognize, by its history and symptoms, as paludal remittent with or without bowel complications, more or less amenable to quinine; and that there also occur, only at intervals, small groups of isolated cases of that which also by its history and characteristics I perceive to be enteric fever" (p.186). The comma bacillus of cholera: "That the comma-shaped bacilli ordinarily found in cholera do not induce that disease in the lower animals, and that there are no grounds for assuming that they do so in man" (p.816). *A Brief Review of the Means of Preserving the Health of European Soldiers in India*, 8vo, 4 parts, 2 tables, Calcutta, 1858-1860. It contains an article, "Did James the First of England die from the effects of Poison or from Natural Causes?" - *Indian Ann. Med. Sci.*, 1862, xv, 187. *On the Preservation of the Health of Seamen, especially of those frequenting Calcutta and the other Indian Ports*, 8vo, Calcutta, 1864.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001157
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cheyne, Robert Romley (1811 - 1886)

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First Title value, for Searching Chicken, Rupert Cecil (1850 - 1925)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373342373342
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Nottingham about the year 1850, and was educated at Guy's Hospital, where he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetric Assistant. He was afterwards Registrar at the Evelina Hospital for Children, and acted as Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. He then entered into partnership in Nottingham with Isaac Watchorn, who, dying in the early eighties, left Chicken in charge of a large and varied general practice. Much surgery came his way, and he was able to keep up his operative skill, for he was essentially a surgeon. He was elected to the staff of the Nottingham General Hospital in October, 1891. For a period of from ten to fifteen years he became a very active surgeon both at the hospital and in private. He was elected President of the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1892, and contributed a long succession of papers which demonstrate the wide range of his surgical interests. He was appointed Consulting Surgeon to the hospital in December, 1907, on his retirement from the staff and from practice on account of long-continued ill health. After leaving Nottingham he acted as a ship's surgeon for a year or more in the hope of regaining health. During the War (1914-1918) he was Surgeon to Whipps Cross War Hospital at Leytonstone. He resided also at Hemel Hempstead, Chichester, and lastly at Sunnybank, Sandgate, Kent. His death occurred on October 3rd, 1925, and he was survived by his wife, one son, and two daughters. Chicken was a sound and careful surgeon, well abreast of the knowledge and technique of his day. He did not adopt new methods without careful consideration and conviction of their utility. If he pinned his faith to sponges after the era of swabs had come in, he could claim with justice that his wounds remained free from sepsis. If he refused to treat his fractures along lines which at the time were new and revolutionary, he lived to see the day when some leading surgeons are advocating a return to older methods. He was a man of wide culture and reading, a collector of old oak and silver. He took much interest in local history and archaeology, as is witnessed by his published *Index to Deering's History of Nottingham* (1899), and by his booklet entitled, *Excavations at the Nottingham General Hospital during the Building of the New Wing* (1899). Publications: In addition to the works mentioned above, Chicken also wrote:- *The Treatment of Hernia: an address delivered to the Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Society*, Nov 2nd, 1892, 8vo, Nottingham, 1892. This was his Presidential Address. "Treatment of Advanced Cancer." - *Quart. Med. Jour.*, 1894-5, iii, 46. "Enterotomy." - *Ibid*., 1895-6, iv, 248.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001159
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Childe, Charles Plumley (1858 - 1926)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-04-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373343373343
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in South Africa, the eldest son of the Rev G F Childe, MA Oxon., Professor of Mathematics at the South African College and Assistant Astronomer of the Royal Observatory, Cape Town. He received his education at the University of the Cape of Good Hope, where he graduated with honours in Arts, and obtained the Maynard Scholarship and University Exhibition in 1877. He then entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, of which he was a Scholar. He received his medical training at King's College, London, where he gained a Warneford Scholarship. He started in general practice at Southsea early in 1886, being later joined in partnership by his former friend, John Lister Wright. He soon devoted himself entirely to surgery, and after taking the Fellowship, was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Portsmouth Hospital, where he rapidly made a reputation as one of the leading surgeons in the South of England. He was greatly instrumental in raising the hospital to its modern standard of efficiency, and when in obedience to the age regulations he retired in 1923, he was appointed Senior Hon Consulting Surgeon and Chairman of the Committee of Management. In addition to his brilliant and laborious work at the hospital, he was Surgeon to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight School for the Blind, and had been Surgeon to the Home for Sick Children, Southsea, Anaesthetist to the Portsmouth and South Hants Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Senior Surgeon to the South Hants Medical and Surgical Home for Women. In 1912 his medical colleagues pressed him to take part in municipal affairs, and he became representative of the Mile End Ward on the Town Council. In 1919 he was made Chairman of the Health Committee, and as such was able to influence the Council in the direction of greatly improving the housing conditions in Portsmouth. He was a most painstaking investigator of all questions which came before his committee and a most incisive speaker, and there is no doubt that Portsmouth owes much to his labours. During the Great War (1914-1918) Childe was for some time in charge of the 5th Southern General Hospital, and held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the RAMC (T). He was devoted to the interests of the British Medical Association, being President of the Southern Branch in 1912, and Chairman of the Portsmouth Division in 1914, having previously been Hon Secretary and Treasurer for three years and Clinical Secretary from 1910. At the Portsmouth Meeting in 1899 he was Secretary of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and at the meeting there in 1923 he was elected President of the Association. The meeting, greatly owing to his efforts, was a success, and in July, 1925, he was elected a Vice-President. He was much interested in the prevention and cure of cancer, and strongly advocated early diagnosis and removal. Slight of build, Childe was none the less a man of unbounded energy, a keen follower of cricket and tennis matches, an ardent golfer, founder of the Childe Challenge Cup for medical players of the game; a charming companion. In all his work thoroughness was his characteristic. He died at Monte Carlo on Jan 30th, 1926, from influenza and pneumonia, and was buried at Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea, on Feb 10th, 1926. He practised at Cranleigh, Kent Road, Southsea. Publications: *The Control of a Scourge, or How Cancer is Curable,* 8vo, London, 1907. The book was an attempt to substitute sound knowledge and hope for ignorance and despair. *Operative Nursing and Technique: A Book for Nurses, Dressers, House Surgeons, etc.*, 12mo, 9 plates, London, 1909; 2nd ed, 1916; 3rd ed, 1920. "Operative Treatment of Intra-Oral Cancer." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1909, i, 6. "Cancer, Public Authorities, and the Public." - *Ibid.*, 1914, i, 643. "The Area of Acute Abdominal Conflux, and the Incision of Incidence." - *Lancet*, 1907, i, 936. This is a notable paper. "Abdominal Panhysterectomy for Carcinoma of Cervix Uteri by Clamp and Cautery." - *Brit. Jour. Surg.*, 1914-15, ii, 119. Cancer leaflets, now (1926) often issued by Health authorities, doubtless originated with Childe, who caused the Portsmouth Health Department to issue the first educational leaflet on cancer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001160
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Childs, Archibald Prentice ( - 1881)

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First Title value, for Searching Humphreys, John (1925 - 2010)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373345373345
Occupation General surgeon
Details John Humphreys was a greatly respected consultant general surgeon in Southport from 1961 to 1990. His main interest was in gastro-intestinal surgery, but he was also a competent urologist. Fully committed to patients under his care, he visited them at weekends to check on their progress. In view of his popularity, it was inevitable that he was recognised by many families on the streets of Southport. He served the College as a surgical tutor, and was also a valued examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. During his time in the North Sefton Merseyside region, he was a lecturer in surgery at Liverpool University and a regional adviser to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was born in Liverpool on 25 November 1925, the son of William Ernest Humphreys, a pharmacist and lecturer, and Gladys née Monaghan, a housewife. His early education was at Dovedale Road Primary School, Liverpool, and, apart from six months when he was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War, he studied at Quarry Bank High School before entering Liverpool University for his medical training. Here he was awarded prizes in surgery. He recorded his admiration and gratitude to some memorable teachers, including Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, Sir Thomas Jeffcoate and Sir Cyril Clarke. As a student the lighter side of his life became apparent when he gained an enviable reputation for his skill in walking on upturned beer glasses. The final year as a medical student was in many ways a defining time in John's life and occurred towards the end of the Second World War. He was sent to Liverpool railway station to meet a train full of soldiers who had been injured in the Normandy landings and in the fighting in France. On the platform he saw a beautiful young nurse who was helping the wounded from the carriages. This was his first brief encounter with Marjorie, or 'Maggs', his future wife. On qualifying, John held house appointments in the Liverpool region, before entering National Service in the Army, having had previous cadet corps experience. He became a regimental medical officer in the West African Frontier Force in Ibadan, Nigeria, before the country gained independence. There was no major fighting other than inter-tribal 'scuffles'. With time on his hands, he was able to write several papers on topics relating to tropical medicine after careful field studies. Highly appropriate to his work was 'gaining' personal experience of a nasty bout of malaria. One of his medical consultations took place at the palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, chief of the Yoruba. The grateful ruler suggested that the young doctor might like to see a private collection of carved statues, recently put together for the British Museum. His visit to inspect the figurines was somewhat truncated when the hut holding these treasures was shaken by angry tribesmen. They needed strong reassurance from the Alaafin himself that John was a doctor and not a missionary, and therefore would not be burning these valuable objects! On the flight back to the UK, the engines failed and the pilot was forced to make an emergency crash landing in the North African desert. Fortunately there were no casualties. The main concern was that there was no water on board, but happily the nearby French Foreign Legion came to their aid. These escapades did not lessen John's enthusiasm for military service, as he continued in the Territorial Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. When settled in consultant life he enjoyed spells overseas in Germany and Hong Kong, and was awarded the Territorial Decoration for his services. John married Marjorie ('Maggs') Bromwell in 1953. When he came back from Africa after two years of National Service he had lost weight and had an extremely sallow complexion, and did not look at all like the handsome final year medical student she knew. She soon had his features and figure back to normal, and continued to work as a nurse during the early years of their marriage. His surgical mentors were giants in the profession. One was Charles Wells, who started the academic unit in Liverpool and was well known at home and abroad, having strong links with the Mayo Clinic, USA. Another was J B Oldham, who was a perfectionist in surgery, at times outspoken, but respected as an excellent clinical teacher of postgraduate students: he helped many studying for higher diplomas by his careful tuition. As a continuation of his surgical training, John Humphreys spent two years as a research assistant at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA (from 1957 to 1959), in gastro-intestinal work. He produced many publications on peptic ulcer and was stimulated by the vast array of clinical teaching sessions. Marjorie, and their two very young children, Lee and Jane, went with him, and she was able to help the finances by nursing at nights in the clinic. Returning to the UK, he continued his surgical training at the Walton Hospital until the time he was appointed to his definitive post in Southport. He continued his pursuit of excellence, regularly attending meetings of the Association of Surgeons, the British Association of Urological Surgeons, the Liverpool and North West Surgical Society and North West Urological Society. From his very early days John was fond of travel. Before embarking on definitive surgical training he crossed the Atlantic to New York as a ship's surgeon in a merchant vessel of the Cunard Line. Family holidays were spent travelling abroad in the family car. Embarking at Dover, they visited France, Germany, Austria and Italy, following an itinerary with selected hotels, all chosen in advance. The children did not necessarily share their parents' enthusiasm for visiting yet another cathedral, or seeing more architectural delights. Outside medicine, John enjoyed a wide range of interests. At home he was a good carpenter and, although not a sailor himself, he made a wooden dinghy for Lee and Jane to pursue and enjoy this out of doors activity. He was a keen photographer and in early years developed and printed his own films. He brewed his own beer and made enjoyable wines long before supermarkets sold cheap and reasonable quality wines. His enjoyment of various forms of art was very apparent and included abstract painting. He was a competent artist himself, particularly in line drawing. He created and tended a garden with the same care he lavished on his patients. He took occasional physical exercise in a game of golf, but enjoyed walking much more and was a keen fly-fisherman. More cultural interests were expressed in the Liverpool Medico-Literary Society and in the pursuit of local, medical and military history, and he was particularly interested in the connections between Liverpool and the slave trade. He was a knowledgeable medical philatelist and in retirement continued as a magistrate in Southport and Liverpool for a further five years. Although a quiet man by nature, he was an excellent raconteur with a marvellous sense of humour. Their son, Lee, gained a place at Oxford University and obtained a BA in philosophy and physiology: he works in Paris. Jane followed her father into medicine and studied at St George's Hospital. After working as a consultant paediatrician she moved to the Medical Protection Society for 13 years. When their children left home, John and Marjorie were able to travel further afield to the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt and to revisit the USA. A few of these trips were for scientific meetings with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. John always relied on his wife for everything outside his professional life. She planned home and social activities, family gatherings and entertaining friends and colleagues. As John aged he became increasingly dependent on Marjorie and their mutual affection and loyalty to each other was very apparent. They elected to move from Southport and settled in Handforth. Although this meant leaving many longstanding friends, it had the attraction of being near their married daughter, Jane, and her husband, Dick Cowan, and their family. John and Marjorie enjoyed seeing their grandchildren grow up. He died on 1 September 2010, predeceasing his wife of 57 years by a few weeks. They both requested small and quiet funeral services. They left a son, Lee, their married daughter, Jane Cowan, and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001162
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shepherd, Rolf Carter (1926 - 2010)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373346373346
Occupation General surgeon
Details Rolf Carter Shepherd was a general surgeon with an interest in vascular surgery. He established the peripheral vascular service for Bournemouth, Dorset and Jersey in the early 1960s and for 15 years ran this service single-handed. He was born in Cardiff on 8 June 1926, where his father, Charles Woolley Shepherd, was a general practitioner. Both his paternal and maternal grandfathers were also doctors. His mother, Augot Wishman, was Norwegian by birth. He was educated first at Brean House Preparatory School in Weston-super-Mare, and from there won a scholarship to Epsom College, where he excelled, winning a major open scholarship to read botany at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1944. At Caius he transferred to read natural sciences and then proceeded to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, London, for his clinical studies, graduating MB BChir in 1950. After house jobs at St Thomas' and the Rowley Bristow Hospital, Pyrford, he enlisted as a junior surgical specialist in the RAMC for his National Service. This was spent in Singapore and Malaya. Returning to civilian life, he worked at High Wycombe and Shoreham-by-Sea before passing his FRCS and obtaining a registrar post back at St Thomas'. He was soon spotted by John Kinmonth and was recruited to the surgical professorial unit, where peripheral vascular surgery was in its infancy. He was a lecturer in surgery for three years, before spending a year as a fellow in vascular surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, working with Richard Warren. On his return to St Thomas' he became a senior surgical registrar, during which time he passed the Cambridge MChir, and then was appointed as a resident assistant surgeon. This was a notoriously busy post, the incumbent being resident seven days a week and responsible for all emergency surgical admissions while acting independently as a consultant. In 1962, against strong competition, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon with an interest in peripheral vascular surgery to Bournemouth and East Dorset district, working principally at Poole Hospital. Before his appointment there was no vascular surgery in the area. Rolf quickly established a vascular service, which within a year encompassed Jersey, the whole of Dorset and parts of Wiltshire. As a single-handed vascular surgeon these were years of an enormous workload, with many night calls and long operating lists. In theatre he was tireless and exceedingly popular with the nursing staff, all of whom were keen to scrub for him such was his excellent technique and reputation for good results. In 1968 he established a dedicated varicose vein unit, which treated up to 1,000 patients in some years, many by injection sclerotherapy. For 10 years between 1972 and 1981 he was a College surgical tutor and in 1972 became a clinical teacher in surgery to the University of Southampton. He was an enthusiastic and charismatic teacher and much enjoyed this aspect of his work. He took his part in local hospital administration and also in the wider surgical world through his membership of the Vascular Surgical Society, the Peripheral Vascular Club, the South West Vascular Surgeons' Group and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also a keen member of the Grey Turner Surgical Club. In retirement he was able to spend more time pursuing the many interests he had outside of surgery. He was an accomplished pianist, playing in a trio and a quartet, a keen and proficient sailor of small boats, a highly skilled gardener with a special talent for garden design (he achieved a City and Guilds award in this subject) and was also a competent golfer and shot. Above all, he was a devoted family man, happily married to Joy, née Paterson, an artist, for 49 years. They had three sons, Charles (a submariner in the Royal Navy), Christian (a smallholder) and Dominic (an artist). Of relatively small stature but with a very big heart, Rolf Shepherd was a man with a zest for life, an enthusiast for everything he did and a true and much loved friend of so many. He died on 22 July 2010, aged 84, in Poole Hospital after a fall at home.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001163
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Watt, Sir James (1914 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373347373347
Occupation General surgeon
Details Sir James Watt was medical director general of the Royal Navy. During his long and distinguished career he was a delightful, scholarly contributor to the Travelling Surgical Society, with which he first went as a guest on the club's visit to Heidelberg in May 1965 when he was a surgeon commander. He was promoted to surgeon rear admiral and became the first dean of naval medicine and founder of the Institute of Naval Medicine based at Alverstoke, Gosport. By 1972, he had been promoted to surgeon vice admiral and became medical director general (naval), a post he held with distinction until 1977, being knighted in 1975. James Watt was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, on 19 August 1914. His parents were Sarah and Thomas Watt, a teacher and businessman respectively, the latter distantly related to the engineer James Watt. A great grandfather married a descendant of John Knox of Edinburgh and an uncle was a director of Eastman Kodak, USA, and was responsible for the early development of colour photography. James attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Morpeth and was awarded the governor's prize in two successive years for declamation, perhaps an augur for future lecturing. Qualifying in 1938 from Durham University, James was a house surgeon at Ashington Hospital and then a resident medical officer at the Princess Mary Maternity Hospital in Newcastle. He served during the Second World War with the Royal Navy. From January 1941 to September 1942, he was a surgeon lieutenant commander on the cruiser HMS *Emerald* in the Far East until the fall of Singapore. His next posting was on North Atlantic convoys aboard the destroyer HMS *Roxborough*, which had many casualties on which he operated, being held up by an orderly, during one of the worst storms in living memory. After a short respite in February 1944 on HMS *Asbury* at the Royal Navy base in New Jersey, USA, James returned to the Far East aboard the aircraft carrier HMS *Arbiter* from 1944 to 1947, during which time he was mentioned in despatches. Following his demobilisation, in 1947 he returned to the Royal Victoria Hospital as a surgical registrar. Two years later, he then returned to the Royal Navy and served on HM hospital ship *Maine* during the Korean War, and later as a surgical specialist to the Royal Naval Hospital in Hong Kong from 1953 to 1955, the year in which he obtained the FRCS. The next year he became a consultant in surgery to RN Hospital, Plymouth, then Malta (1961) and Haslar (1963), before being appointed the first joint professor of naval surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons of England and RN Hospital Haslar (1965 to 1969). He was made dean of naval medicine and medical officer in charge of the Institute of Naval Medicine from 1969 to 1972, and was then director general (naval) from 1972 to 1977. During his career, he published widely on subjects as diverse as burns, cancer chemotherapy, peptic ulceration and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Showing an early interest in the history of medicine, many articles and lectures followed in this field and involved much painstaking research, his scholarship being evident to many learned societies. These included a biography of James Ramsay (1733-1789), whom he described as a naval surgeon, naval chaplain and morning star of the Anti-Slavery Movement in his guest lecture to the Travelling Surgical Society in 1992 at RNH Haslar. In 1995, in Israel, he lectured on mediaeval pilgrims and Crusaders and their bequests to surgery in a presentation which was both erudite and humorous. He was a member of the British Society for Surgery of the Hand, the International Society for Burns Injuries and was a corresponding member of the Surgical Research Society from 1966 to 1977. He supported many other associations and societies, including the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. A fellow of the Medical Society of London, he became a member of the council from 1976 and was president in the year 1980 to 1981. He gave the Lettsomian lectures in 1979 and was elected a trustee. He was responsible for the re-organisation of the library and selling the valuable books to the Wellcome Institute, thereby guaranteeing the future of the Society. In 2009 he was elected an honorary fellow, a rare honour. James Watt was made an honorary freeman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers in 1978. He delivered the prestigious Thomas Vicary lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1974. A fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, he was president (its 91st) during the active rebuilding programme (1982 to 1984), and was made an honorary fellow in 1998 for his many major contributions. His administrative flair and commitment were recognised in several spheres, including the environmental medicine research committee. He was a governor of Epsom College from 2000, becoming its vice president. From 1983 he was vice-president of the Society for Nautical Research and in 1996 he was president of the Smeatonian Society of History at the University of Calgary, where he had been made an honorary member in 1978. His eclectic interests resulted in over 100 publications on surgery, burns and history, especially of nautical medicine. He edited and contributed to four books including *Starving sailors: the influence of nutrition upon naval and maritime history* (London, National Maritime Museum, 1981) and *Talking health: conventional and complementary approaches* (Royal Society of Medicine Services, 1988), wrote five articles in the *Dictionary of National Biography* and three chapters in a two volume book *Meta incognita, a discourse of discovery: Martin Frobisher's Arctic expedititions, 1576-1578* (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999), which won the Canadian prize for maritime history in 2000. He served on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Surgery* from 1966 to 1977. Researches on Nelson took him on regular trips to libraries in Paris and culminated in a lecture to the Worshipful Company of Barbers in 2005, on surgery at the Battle of Trafalgar - surely a major undertaking for a man approaching his 90th year, celebrated in due style by the section of history of the Royal Society of Medicine. The published version entitled 'Surgery at Trafalgar' makes fascinating reading in *The Mariner's Mirror* of May 2005 (Vol.91 No.2, pp.266-283). Over the years, James Watt was visiting professor in history to the University of Calgary (1985), visiting fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra (1986), and foundation lecturer to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (1990). His historical contributions earned him election as a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Throughout his long, full, life James Watt was an active practising Christian, supporting not only local church activities but also the council of reference of the Christian Medical Fellowship. Heavily involved with Christian activities in the Royal Navy, he was a founder member of the Naval Christian Fellowship, which has been extended to navies throughout the world, a lasting blessing to naval personnel and their families. His private devotional life remained paramount in his daily living. He was president of the Royal Naval Lay Readers Society (1974 to 1983), the Institute of Religion and Medicine (1989 to 1991), and ECHO International Health Services (1983 to 2003), which provides financial support to health care institutions and initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. He was vice-president of the Churches' Council of Healing from 1987 and a trustee of the Marylebone Centre Trust. His writings included *What is wrong with Christian healing?* (Churches' Council for Health & Healing, 1993), and also *The church, medicine and the New Age* (1995). He thought that the United Kingdom perhaps needed a Wesleyan revival. His many friends throughout the world crossed denominations, and he was widely admired by many Jewish thinkers. He remained unmarried. His relaxation came from music and walking, though age took its toll on the latter. He showed a keen interest in tennis and rugby. From his long-time home at Wimbledon, James retired to live on the Stockbridge Road in Winchester. Having found this too hilly for walking with his failing heart, in 2009 he moved to a flat in Otterbourne, also in Hampshire. He became unwell before Christmas 2009 and was admitted to hospital with a minor stroke, from which he made an initial recovery but died some 10 days later on 28 December 2009. He will be remembered fondly not merely for his high achievements, but also as a self-effacing somewhat ascetic scholar who devoted his life to his chosen commitments.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001164
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Young, George Ivan (1926 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Childs, George Borlase (1816 - 1888)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-05-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373349373349
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Liskeard, of parents of considerable standing and repute in the County of Cornwall. He received a classical education at the Liskeard Grammar School, and was then apprenticed to Philip Vincent, of Cranborne, where he had every opportunity to study mining accidents. He attended the lectures of the Graingers, Pereira, and others at the Aldersgate School of Medicine, as well as the practice of the Westminster Hospital. He was appointed House Surgeon of the Margate Sea-bathing Infirmary, where he remained eight years, and then settled in practice in London. He attracted the attention of Walter J Coulson (qv), and on many occasions assisted him in his more important operations. He soon became well known as a lithotomist. Appointed Surgeon to the Metropolitan Free Hospital, he was one of the earliest English surgeons to employ subcutaneous tenotomy for deformities of the foot, even suggesting the advisability of dividing the muscles for spinal curvature. Childs was connected with the Metropolitan Free Hospital for many years, but is perhaps best remembered as Surgeon-in-Chief to the City of London Police, and to the Great Northern Railway. He took, indeed, a large share in organizing the medical departments of these institutions, displaying on a wider field the characteristic forethought and ingenuity of his work as an operator. The sanitary and physical well-being of the City policeman was one of his prime interests. He devoted much thought and care to the process of selection of members of the force, to their housing and their dress. The last-mentioned is, in fact, his creation, for he introduced the helmet as we now know it, the gaiters, and so forth. He also established the City Police Hospital, which at first met with much opposition. Besides being an organizer, Childs was a leader, and would have made an excellent military officer, being, as it was, much devoted to his military duties. He took a keen interest in theatrical matters, was one of the founders of the Royal Dramatic College, and wrote some good plays for the students. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Great Northern Railway and to the Royal Dramatic College, and had been forty-one years Surgeon-in-Chief to the City Police Force, and for over thirty years Surgeon to the City of London Militia (4th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers). He had also been examining Medical Officer to the Cape Mounted Rifles and President of the Militia Surgeons' Society. Several years before he died a fall from his horse rendered him somewhat deaf, and, on accepting a pension, he retired into private life in 1886. His London residence was 1 Aldridge Road Villas, Cornwall Road, Westbourne Park, W, and his country address Lawn Cottage, Barnet. He died on November 8th, 1888, and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. He left a widow, a son in the Colonial Service, and two daughters. Publications: *On the Improvement and Preservation of the Female Figure; with a New Mode of Treatment of Lateral Curvature of the Spine*, 8vo, London, 1840. *A Practical Treatise on the New Operation for Lateral Curvature of the Spine*, 8vo, plates, London, 1841. "Ovariotomy with reference to its Introduction into Legitimate Surgery." (He had operated successfully on a case in 1858.) *Gonorrhoea and its Consequences, with a short Historical Sketch of the Venereal Disease*, 12mo, London, 1843. *Copy of the Examination and Returns of G. Borlase Childs, Esq., F.R.C.S., by Examination, on the Sanitary Condition of the City Police Force (evidence before Commission on Regulations affecting Sanitary Condition of the Army)*, 8vo, London, 1858. *Copy of the General Report of G. Borlase Childs...on the Dress of the City Police Force*, 8vo, London, 1801. *Copy of a Report on the Probable Duration of Life of the Men in the City Police Force, with General Observations on the Medical History of the Force*, 8vo, London, 1863. In 1858 he edited for the Medical Circular Joberts' "Plastic Surgery", translated from the *Gazetta Medica*, with remarks, *Lancet*, 1849-50. "New Operation for Lateral Curvature of Spine." - *Lond. Med. Gaz.*, 1840-1, n.s. i, 370, 505, 816. "Constriction of the Hamstring Tendons." - *Ibid.*, 1841-2, n.s. i, 420. "Spinal Curvature." - *Ibid.*, 621.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001166
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Chisholm, Alexander Bain (1804 - 1889)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Chisnall, George Henry (1886 - 1914)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Christie, William Ledingham ( - 1920)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Beddard, James ( - 1889)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Beddoe, David Morgan (1869 - 1921)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2009-12-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372988372988
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in December, 1869, the son of William Beddoe, solicitor, of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire. Educated at Brecon College and at Guy’s Hospital, where he was House Surgeon and Resident Obstetrician. He also won the Treasurer’s Prize Essay and the Prize of the Guy’s Physical Society. He specialized in diseases of the throat and was for a short period House Surgeon at the London Throat Hospital, but was soon appointed Resident Medical Officer at the Newport Hospital. Here he contracted a severe illness, which ultimately necessitated his removal to a warm climate. For a time, however, he practised at 1 Courtland Terrace, Merthyr Tydfil, or appears so to have done, for he retained his Welsh address after going abroad. He visited Egypt, and as the outbreak of the South African War had created a shortage of medical men in Cairo, he worked for some time for the Army at the citadel. He then settled in general practice in Cairo, and soon made his mark. He became eventually Surgeon to the Anglo-American Hospital, and for many years was Examiner in Surgery at the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital. Latterly he had been compelled to relinquish the last-mentioned post owing to the calls of a large practice. His address was at 34 Sharia Kasr-el-Nil, and he was a prominent member of the Cairo community. He died unmarried, on a Sunday in March, 1921. Publications: *A War Surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital*, Cairo. A number of short stories for English magazines, and two novels *The Honour of Henri de Valois* and *The Last of the Mamelukes*. At the time of his death two other novels had been accepted by the publishers.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000805
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372308372308
Occupation General surgeon
Details In the course of his career, Douglas Roy held appointments as a professor of surgery on three continents. He was born on 10 April 1925, the son of Arthur Roy and Edith Mary (née Brown). Educated at Paisley Grammar School, he went to Glasgow University to study medicine. After house appointments, he was joined the RAMC in 1948 for his National Service. From 1950 to 1954 he distinguished himself in registrar posts in Glasgow and Inverness. He then went south of the border, to become senior surgical registrar in Oxford and Aylesbury. Returning to Scotland in 1957, he became consultant surgeon, honorary lecturer and first assistant to Sir Charles Illingworth and subsequently to Sir Andrew Watt Kay in the department of surgery at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. In 1968, he was appointed foundation professor at the newly opened faculty of medicine at the University of Nairobi. As well as running a busy department, promoting both undergraduate and postgraduate education, he flew with the flying doctor service, visiting remote areas of the country. In 1973, he became head of Queen’s University department of surgery in Belfast, where he remained for 12 years. Here he stimulated, encouraged and wisely delegated responsibilities in administrative, clinical and research fields. A fine technical surgeon and a dedicated trainer, he was widely respected for his work in gastro-intestinal, breast and endocrine surgery, as well as the management of trauma. He was Chairman of the surgical training committee of the Northern Ireland Council for Postgraduate Medical Education for 11 years. He was on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1979 to 1985, as well as serving on many other committees and advisory bodies. In 1985, he moved to the Sultanate of Oman, where he was chief of surgical services to the Ministry of Health and professor of surgery at the Sultan Qaboos University for three years. In Oman Roy was instrumental in planning a surgical training programme in the newly opened university medical school. Roy published papers on gastro-enterology, endocrine surgery and also wrote a supplement on tropical medicine in *Lecture notes in surgery*. He retired to Honiton, Devon, where he was a non-executive director of a community health trust and President of the Devon and Exeter Medical Society from 1994 to 1995. He was able to enjoy sailing and gardening. He also took up gliding, sharing a glider with a local general practitioner. He went solo on his 65th birthday. He was married twice, first in 1954 to Monica Cecilia Mary Bowley, by whom he had three daughters, and secondly, in 1973, to Patricia Irene McColl. There are three grandchildren. He died from Parkinson’s disease on 21 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000121
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Rue, Dame Elsie Rosemary (1928 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-19 2012-03-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372310372310
Occupation Civil servant Physician
Details As regional medical officer for Oxford Regional Health Authority Rosemary Rue pioneered part-time specialist medical training for women doctors. She was born in Essex on 14 June 1928, the daughter of Harry and Daisy Laurence. The family moved to London when she was five, and during the Blitz she was sent for safety to stay with relatives in Devon, where she contracted tuberculosis and peritonitis, an experience which determined her to be a doctor. She was educated at Sydenham High School and entered the all-women Royal Free Hospital. In 1950 she married Roger Rue, an instructor in the RAF and was told by the dean that she could not stay on at the medical school if she were married. She was however accepted at Oxford, but took the examinations of London University. Her first job was at a long-stay hospital on the outskirts of Oxford, but was sacked when it was revealed that she was married and had a newborn son. She moved into general practice in 1952, and there contracted poliomyelitis from a patient in 1954, the last person in Oxford to catch the illness. This left her with one useless leg, which made it impossible to carry a medical bag. For a time she taught in a girls' school. By 1955 she and her husband had separated and she went to live in Hertfordshire with her parents, whose GP needed a partner. This was a success, and she combined the practice with being medical officer to the RAF, Bovingdon. In 1960 she became assistant county medical officer for Hertfordshire and five years later assistant senior medical officer for the Oxford region, proceeding to become regional medical officer in 1973 and regional general manager in 1984. She oversaw the building of new hospitals in Swindon, Reading and Milton Keynes, designing basic modules that could be incorporated into every hospital, so obviating architects' fees. Her most important contribution however was to set up a part-time training scheme for women doctors who wanted to become specialists. She discovered 150 women doctors in the Oxford region who were insufficiently employed. She sought them out, interviewed them and found jobs for 50 within a few months, and went on to set up a scheme for training part-time married women. This was a great success and spread from Oxford all over the country, and it was with Rosemary's active help that our College set up the Women in Surgical Training scheme. In 1972 she became one of the founders of the Faculty of Community Health (now the Faculty of Public Health). She was a founding fellow of Green College, Oxford, a President of the BMA and was awarded the Jenner medal of the Royal Society of Health. Small, birdlike, with an intense interest in everything and everybody, she had great charm as well as a formidable intellect. She died of bowel cancer on 24 December 2004, leaving two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000123
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373072373072
Occupation General surgeon
Details Was at one time in the HEICS and in the Government Emigration Service, where he was awarded a Gold Medal for his services. He was for ten years Surgeon Superintendent of HM’s General Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum, Cape of Good Hope. He was presented by the Royal Humane Society with their Silver Medal for saving life, how or when does not appear. He contributed various papers to the *Lancet*. After leaving the Cape he lived at Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, where William Birtwhistle, MRCS, also had his residence, as well as Richard Birtwhistle (qv). Another William Birtwhistle was then in practice at Pontefract, and two others of the same surname appear in “the College Examination Book” before 1785. John Birtwhistle died in retirement at Primrose Cottage, Rosebank Road, Bow, E, on April 11th, 1863.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000889
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching McGavin, Donald Burns (1906 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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/372499372499
Occupation General surgeon
Details Donald McGavin was a general surgeon at Leicester Royal Infirmary. He was born on 23 September 1906 in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Mary Allan née Chapple and Major General Sir Donald Johnstone McGavin, FRCS, who had been director general of the New Zealand Army Medical Services at the end of the First World War. Educated at Huntley School, Marton, New Zealand, he went first to the Royal Naval Colleges at Dartmouth and Osborne, before going up to Trinity College Cambridge with an exhibition in natural sciences. He did his clinical studies at St Bartholomew’s, where he gained the senior entrance scholarship in science. After house appointments at Bart’s, he demonstrated anatomy and pathology, was a registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Royal Cancer Hospital, where he was a pupil of Girling Ball, Basil Hume, Cecil Joll and Lawrence Abel. He was appointed consultant surgeon at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 1939, but left to join the RAMC, ending the war as major, commanding the surgical division of the New Zealand division in the army of occupation of Japan. He returned to his position at Leicester. He married Cynthia née Scott in 1937, who predeceased him in 1989. They had three sons, the second of whom became a physician. McGavin died on 26 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000312
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Laidlaw, Cecil D'Arcy (1921 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-19 2007-08-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372500372500
Occupation Radiologist
Details D’Arcy Laidlaw was a radiologist in Brisbane, Australia. He was born in Witbank, Transvaal, South Africa, on 12 November 1921. His father John was an inspector of railways. His mother was Caroline née Wilson. He was educated at Reading School, from which he went to Oxford for his preclinical studies, going on to St Bartholomew’s. With the advent of the Second World War, D’Arcy was keen to serve in the forces, a desire intensified by the death of his brother, Kenneth Wilson Laidlaw, during the retreat to Dunkirk in June 1941. As a consequence, D’Arcy chose to study for the conjoint, the shortest route to qualifying as a doctor, gaining the MRCS LRCP in 1943. After completing a surgical house job at Leicester City General Hospital he joined the RNVR and served on the aircraft carrier HMS *Formidable*, mainly in the Pacific. The *Formidable* was attacked three times by kamikaze planes, which gave him and his colleagues much experience of trauma and burns. After VE day *Formidable* repatriated prisoners of war from South East Asia to their homes in India and Australia. On being demobilised, he became a casualty officer at the Royal Free Hospital, then held RSO posts in Grantham and Leeds. He then held a series of registrar jobs in Wakefield and Hereford, and then worked as an orthopaedic registrar in Bath, before passing the FRCS after attending the course at Guy’s. He then held registrar posts at the City General Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent, St Chad’s Hospital Birmingham, and in Bristol, where he became private assistant to R V Cooke in 1957. In the same year he gained his MB BS by sitting the London University examination. In 1958 he was a temporary senior surgical registrar at Cardiff Royal Infirmary, and for the next two years he was a senior registrar in Bristol and Exeter, and did research into the cause of clubbing which was published in Clinical Science in 1963. In 1962 he developed widespread severe acute rheumatoid arthritis, which forced him to give up surgery. He retrained in radiology at Bristol Royal Infirmary, qualifying DMRD in 1966. He emigrated to Australia in 1966 to become director of radiology at the Wimmera Base Hospital, Victoria, and then joined a private radiology practice in Melbourne. D’Arcy then took the position of director of radiology at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Brisbane, in 1972, where he taught medical students and registrars. In 1981 he established his own private practice at Sherwood, subsequently expanding this to Strathpine in Brisbane. He had a lifelong passion for art, especially painting and sculpture, and underwent a formal training, which culminated in a degree in fine art in 1989. He exhibited in Brisbane and Noosa, Queensland. In 1951 D’Arcy married Florence Lois née Smith, a general practitioner, who predeceased him in 1976. They had three children: their daughter, Ailsa Mary Carole, is a general practitioner, one son, Phillip Kenneth D’Arcy, was a medical student who died before he could qualify, and a second son, Andrew Alistair Louis, is an electrical engineer. D’Arcy Laidlaw died on 7 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000313
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Smillie, Gavin Douglas (1926 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26 2022-09-14
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372316372316
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Gavin Smillie (formerly Smellie) was a consultant general and vascular surgeon and honorary clinical lecturer at the Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow. He was born in Glasgow in 1926, the son of William Smellie, a geologist, and Janet Smellie née Douglas, a school teacher. He spent his early years in Argentina, where his father was helping to develop an oilfield, but returned to Scotland at the age of seven to live in Cove on the Clyde coast. He was educated at Greenock Academy and Glasgow University, qualifying in 1949. After junior posts, he did his National Service in the Royal Air Force and then returned to specialise in surgery. He was a surgical registrar at the Victoria Infirmary in 1961 and a senior registrar in 1963. Interested in vascular surgery, he was awarded a travelling fellowship to the United States, where he trained in the vascular units of Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley. In 1966 he was the first to describe adding a gold weight to the eyelid of someone who could not blink naturally to reduce corneal exposure secondary to facial nerve paralysis (‘Restoration of the blinking reflex in facial palsy by a simple lid-loading operation’ *Br J Plast Surg*. 1966;19:279-83). In 1968, he was appointed to the Victoria Infirmary as their first vascular surgeon. He set up their intensive care unit, at a time when such units were in their infancy. His inventive streak led him to introduce, among other things, the use of a Fogarty catheter to clear biliary and salivary duct obstruction, and a rubber ring tourniquet for use in operations on the digits. He also worked with the regional neurosurgical unit on refining techniques of carotid endarterectomy. He was a respected clinical teacher and examiner, and a regional tutor for the Edinburgh College. He had a calm presence and enormous patience, which he combined with a pawky sense of humour. He had the unique ability of being able to create vivid pictures using concise but humorous prose, but few knew that he wrote short stories for the Glasgow Herald and the *Scots Magazine* under the nom-de-plume of Gavin Douglas. For years he was the editor of the hospital quarterly magazine *Viewsbeat*. He was also an accomplished painter and often used his artistic talents to illustrate his operative notes. He was interested in music and – in his younger days – a keen skier. He retired in 1987 and died on 6 November 2003, from Alzheimer’s disease. He married twice, firstly to Muriel (née Dawson), by whom he had two daughters, Valerie and Claire and, secondly, to Elizabeth (née Smith). He had one granddaughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000129
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2008-06-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372707372707
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on Dec 29th, 1788, the third son of the Rev James Mayo, MA, Head Master of Queen Elizabeth’s Free Grammar School, Wimborne, and Rector of Avebury in succession to his father and grandfather. The Mayos may be described as a Wiltshire family, members of it having flourished there as clergymen and schoolmasters. To this Wiltshire family also belonged Thomas Mayo, MD, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Herbert Mayo, the distinguished physiologist, and others well known in literature. Charles Mayo received a sound education at the Grammar School under his own father. He became a good Latinist and Grecian and was taught French carefully by a French *émigré*, M Leprince, a man of good family compelled by the exigencies of the French Revolution, which had ruined him, to earn his living as a schoolmaster in England. The *émigré* lived nine miles from Wimborne at Ringwood, and was lent a horse by the head master in order to ride home half-way. “Young Mayo was sent to some appointed spot, whence he had to ride the horse back whilst Monsieur dismounted and finished his journey on foot. But it so happened that, some short time before, a frightful murder had been committed at Parley, a desolate village a mile or two to the south of the road between Wimborne and Ringwood, and the bodies of the two murderers were hung in chains from a gibbet on a heath within a very short distance from Parley, where, although the gibbet has vanished, the memory of the affairs surives to the present day (1876). On one occasion young Charles Mayo, when he was sent as usual to take the horse from the Frenchman, was tempted to leave the high road and go and inspect the remains of the murderers, whose bones and rags swung and creaked horribly in the wind, but when he returned to the high road, the Frenchman, not seeing him at the accustomed spot, had gone on towards Ringwood, and the truant did not return to Wimborne with the horse till long after the appointed time, and with no small fear of the consequences, for his father, amongst other accomplishments, was thought to excel in the use of the birch. Whether or not, however, this anatomical pilgrimage was considered to mark out his future destiny, the profession of medicine was chosen for him, and he began, at the age of fifteen, by being apprenticed to Mr Brown, a city apothecary, who flourished and kept a shop at the corner of Raven Row, Bethnal Green, just on the east of Bishopsgate Street. Mr Brown was a Member of the Society of Apothecaries - a body of men at that time of good culture and social position, amongst whom were many good botanists. The Society kept up the ancient and decent custom of examining the pupils of all its members in Latin at the beginning of their apprenticeship and gave them the opportunity, by means of herborising excursions, of cultivating a practical acquaintance with botany, a taste for which was preserved by the subject of this sketch up to a late period in life. In truth, the change from the life of the Wimborne schoolboy to that of the apprentice in Bishopsgate required some compensation. The business of an apothecary was a kind of compound between a trade and a profession, in which the professional skill supplied dignity, but the trading element supplied the means of living. Remuneration was obtained by supplying draughts, mixtures, and other forms of drugs, which were supplied profusely, and formed the items in a long bill of charges sent in at Christmas. That a medical practitioner shall supply his patients with medicine is reasonable and convenient, but that he shall make the medicine supplied the basis of remuneration, instead of his time and skill, is derogatory to himself and injurious to his patients. We have heard Mr Mayo describe the weak parts of this system, which were - the multiplicity of bad debts which crowded the ledger of the Bishopsgate apothecary, and the heavy cost of drugs, and particularly of bottles, which were taxed, in proportion to the receipts. “Meanwhile, the young apprentice’s life was not a cheerful one. The errand-boy slept under the counter, the apprentice had a bed in an adjoining closet, and the family lived in a dingy back-parlour; whilst a drawing-room upstairs, where the carpet and furniture were covered with brown holland, was used only about twice a year. “The apprentice had the recreation, if he chose, of accompanying the mistress once a week in a hackney-coach to hear a Calvinistic preacher at Clerkenwell. He had a book called ‘Tyrocinium Medicum; or, the Duties of Apothecaries’ Apprentices’, which will give some idea of the trade element amongst the general practitioners of the time (by William Chamberlaine, 1812, in the College Library). The dusting of shelves and bottles was held to be the chiefest of duties, and the writer enforces it on the medical apprentice in the terms in which Ovid excites the young men of his day to brush away the dust of the amphitheatre from off the clothes of the young ladies ‘Et si nullus erit pulvis tamen excute nullum’.” After some three years of this melancholy life young Mayo joyfully became a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where, by contrast, the medical atmosphere was ‘elevated and dignified’ in a high degree. He studied anatomy with great ardour, and was for long dresser to Sir Charles Blicke, the founder of our College Library and at that time a leading London surgeon. He also came under the favourable notice of Abernethy, Lawrence, Stanley, and Wormald, as well as others on the high road to repute. After qualifying he went down to Winchester and was elected Surgeon to the County Hospital in 1811, and here till 1870 he gained a high professional reputation both in general surgery and as a lithotomist. Quite at first he met with some opposition at the hospital, and appealed to Abernethy to support him on the eve of his first operation for stone. The great Surgeon wrote as follows: “MY DEAR SIR, - If the Governors of any hospital entrusted me with the care of the patients, I would take care to do my duty to the best of my ability. I would not bleed and purge a patient repeatedly prior to an operation for lithotomy, to the extent you describe, at the suggestion of any man, if it did not appear to me proper. There is but one general rule for a man’s conduct: Do as you would be done unto. I would not defer the operation beyond that time when it seemed most conducive to the patient’s welfare to perform it. You know I use a gorget, which cuts as well as any knife that ever I tried, and has the advantage of being a conductor for the forceps. If I used a knife it should be such a one as Mr Cooper uses. I know not what to advise you to do. You represent your patient as much reduced, and if the subject were unfavourable for an operation, I would rather send him to a London Hospital than run the risk of his dying after an operation, however well you might perform it. This is the beginning of lectures; I have scarcely time to write. Had it happened at any other season I would have gone to Winchester. “Yours most sincerely, J ABERNETHY. *August*, 1812.” The operation was successful, and Mayo thereupon began a remarkable career. His success as a lithotomist reached a climax when he extracted without mishap, in December, 1818, one of the largest stones so far recorded, which weighed over 14 oz. In 1848 he performed two lithotomies in one day, but both proved fatal. His last was on a man of his own age (74) in 1861, which was successful. His procedure and implements, in imitation of Cheselden, were bold and simple. When he came to Winchester he found the best practice in the hands of long-established surgeons, who debarred him from ‘the Close’ and the ‘County’, but among lesser patients his vogue was very extensive. He exhibited in the strongest possible degree that incongruous combination of professional work which linked together Raven Row and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. At one time of the day he would be tying the subclavian artery or diagnosing an obscure fracture, whilst at another he would be busily superintending the dispensing of medicines for sick paupers or club patients, for he took all the practice that offered itself. He performed a number of capital operations for axillary and other aneurysms (some of which were published in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*), cases of complete transposition of the viscera, deep encysted tumours of the neck (*Lancet*), and epispadias. At the age of 84 we find him entering his last case, one of obturator hernia, with a youth’s carefulness and clearness. The practice of the Winchester County Hospital was ‘homely but effective’ under Mayo. He set fractures with rough wooden splints in a manner which it would have been hard to outrival. A contributor to the *Medical Times and Gazette* (1876, ii, 638) wrote: “There was one thing which comes to the remembrance of the writer pretty vividly - the air of the Hospital: a compound of bad breath, unwashed skin, and ulcerated legs, which could be tasted as well as smelt the moment anyone entered the hospital door. Thirty or forty years ago people lamented the frequent deaths after operations from pleurisy or other apparently eccentric causes; but it is easy to see now (1876) that, in a purer air, Mr Mayo would have had a much larger percentage of successful lithotomy cases, whilst many a life might have been spared which was sacrificed to puerperal fever and erysipelas in the hospital and town.” Mayo loved his work, though much of it was beneath his talent. Winchester in his day became a centre of professional education and Mayo’s many pupils were deeply attached to him. In manner he outdid the great Abernethy, whom he is supposed to have copied: he was blunt, outspoken, and testy to the greatest degree, and when made angry, as he often was, he relieved himself and amused his hearers by a stream of half-humorous vituperative epithets of the quaintest and most original description. He was a man of exuberant health and activity, up early and late, and never seeming to feel hunger or fatigue - so, at least, some of his pupils used to think when he summoned them to make post-mortem examinations, dress compound fractures, and to do other unsavoury work at the hospital before breakfast. In 1870 this grand old lion of the ancient school resented the honour done him at his hospital when he was removed from the active to the consulting staff: in 1874 he grew blind, but fully believed himself fit to continue in practice. Latterly he grew less restless and consoled his dark hours by listening to the music of the daily cathedral services. In 1851 his fellow-citizens gave him a grand entertainment in honour of the fortieth anniversary of his hospital appointment. He was elected Mayor of Winchester. His memory remained vigorous almost to the last, and he delighted in telling of his early days. At the, very end of his life he talked of ‘going home’, and died painlessly in great old age at his residence in St Peter Street, Winchester, on Nov 27th, 1876. He married in 1835 Miss Dennis, the daughter of a clergyman, and of his two sons one was Dr Charles Mayo of Fiji, Fellow of New College, Oxford, the other the Rev James Mayo. There were two daughters of the marriage. Mayo was one of the last of those who had been “in practice prior to 1815”. PUBLICATIONS: “Successful Case of Lithotomy.” - *Med.-Chir. Trans.*, 1820, xi, 54. “Case of Aneurism in which a Ligature was placed on the Subclavian Artery.” - *Ibid.*, 1823, xii, 12. “Case of Axillary Aneurism Successfully Treated by Tying the Subclavian Artery.” - *Ibid.*, 1830, xvi, 359. “A Report on Lithotomy.” - *Prov. Med. Jour.*, 1846, 439. “Case of Strangulated Femoral Hernia Successfully Treated by Opium.” - *Ibid.*, 1847, 319. “Lithotomy and Hernia.” - *Prov. Med. Jour*., 1846-7. “Cervical Encysted Tumour.” - *Lancet*, 1847, i, 667.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000523
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First Title value, for Searching Fonseka, Merrennage Neil Thomas (1940 - 2005)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-12-21
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URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372509372509
Occupation General surgeon
Details Neil Fonseka was foundation professor of surgery at the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. A twin, he was born in Colombo on 19 July 1940, the son of Merrennage Gilbert Thomas Fonseka, a clerical officer, and Eugene Wilta Fonseka a school teacher. He was educated at St Matthew’s College, Dematagoda, and Ananda College, where he was an excellent student and also won prizes for sports. He qualified with second class honours from the University of Colombo and won distinctions in microbiology, pathology and obstetrics and gynaecology, as well as the Loos gold medal for pathology. After junior posts he went to England, where he worked at St Peter’s, St Mark’s and St Bartholomew’s hospitals in London and was senior registrar at Charing Cross and King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor. In 1976 he was appointed surgeon to the prosthetic and vascular centre at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, and, in 1978, surgeon-in-charge at the prosthetic and vascular centre at Brighton Hospital. In 1980 he returned to Sri Lanka to become the foundation professor in surgery at the new University of Ruhuna. There he threw himself into the life of the university, taking a keen interest in student welfare, becoming a member of the senate and council of the university and dean of the faculty of medicine from 1988 to 1989, during horrifying days of terrorism. He founded the Ruhuna University Medical Students Alumni Association, the Galle branches of the Jaipur Foot Project and the Cancer Society, and was president of the Galle Medical Association in 1985. He was interested in cricket, tennis, chess, bridge, poker, singing, watching films, reading classics and fiction, and jokes. He owned an estate where he cultivated coconuts. He married Pushpa, a professor of community medicine at the University of Ruhuna, who cared for him devotedly during his long and disabling last illness. He died on 15 May 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000322
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Joseph, Laji (1930 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2006-12-21 2013-02-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372510372510
Occupation General surgeon
Details Laji Joseph became a professor in Bangalore. He passed the fellowship of the College in 1961 and returned to India where he practised in Bangalore. In June 2004 the College was informed of his death.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000323
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Godber, Sir George Edward (1908 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373431373431
Occupation Public health officer
Details Sir George Godber was one of the principal architects of the National Health Service. He was born on 4 August 1908, the son of Bessie and Isaac Godber, a nurseryman. From Bedford School he went up to New College, Oxford, where he won a blue for rowing, taking part in two losing boat races. He went on to the London Hospital and did junior jobs there and at Poplar, where he was confronted with large numbers of people who were too poor to go to their GP and too proud to accept charity. He attended the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, became a county medical officer in Surrey and joined the Ministry of Health as a medical officer in 1939, at a time when the outbreak of war forced hospitals to work together. His first task was to organise maternity services for Londoners who had been evacuated to the suburbs. During the Second World War Beveridge published his report and Godber was part of the team that planned the National Health Service. He was appointed deputy chief medical officer in 1950 and chief medical officer in 1960. He later campaigned against smoking and for vaccination against polio and diphtheria. A tall man with a shock of hair and a monocle, Godber had tremendous presence. He married Norma Hathorne Rainey in 1935. She predeceased him in 1999. They had four sons and three daughters, but sadly three of their children died in childhood. He was an honorary fellow of many institutions, including our own College. He died on 7 February 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001248
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Harper, William Michael (1955 - 2008)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-06-16 2013-09-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373432373432
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon Trauma surgeon
Details William Michael Harper was professor of orthopaedic trauma at the University of Leicester. Born in Jersey, 'Joe' Harper was proud of his roots in the Channel Islands and was equally fond of the years he spent in Bolton, Lancashire, where he went to school. Harper was one of the pioneering band of students that made up the first cohort at the Leicester Medical School in 1975. A gap year before commencing his studies was not spent trekking in the Himalayas, but in a factory in Bolton. Not one of the archetypal medical students of his day, 'Joe' Harper possessed a mop of unruly hair, generally had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and had a broad Lancastrian accent. He did not flaunt his academic ability, but never struggled with the course work and moved easily into his clinical studies. This period of undergraduate training was interrupted on two occasions. He apparently caught chicken pox from a patient and was banished from the wards. According to a colleague, he 'attempted to make an early comeback but he was, in more ways than one, "spotted"'. A fractured femur, under unknown circumstances, occasioned an even longer absence and may have stimulated his later interest in orthopaedics. Awarded his MB ChB in 1980, he undertook junior surgical training in Leicester, where he obtained his first true exposure to his chosen specialty in the trauma and orthopaedics unit. It was said by one of his classmates that: 'the odds on his becoming a professor would have been as long as on an Englishman winning Wimbledon!"' He moved around the country to obtain more experience in general surgery at senior training level, before returning to Leicester as a lecturer in orthopaedic surgery. His academic career blossomed in the department then run by Paul Gregg. From 1988 to 1990, he held the Smith and Nephew trauma research fellowship in the department of orthopaedic surgery. During this specialist training, Harper researched different questions in the management of fractures of the neck of the femur. In a randomised trial, he evaluated internal fixations and hemiarthroplasties. He assessed the results and attempted to find the best surgical option, also noting the modes of treatment failure. This work was submitted to the university for an MD thesis in 1995. Completion of his higher surgical training saw him appointed as a senior lecturer/honorary consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at the University of Leicester in 1993. His work on fractures of the neck of the femur continued and he established the renowned Trent regional arthroplasty study with Gregg in 1989. This was the inspiration for the National Joint Registry, now well established by the Department of Health. Much of this work continues, as does the new undergraduate musculoskeletal programme in the University. He fought hard to maintain trauma and orthopaedics as an independent department within the medical school. In the mid-nineties, Harper was appointed as clinical director of the trauma unit at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and was instrumental in changing clinical practice in several important ways. These included the appointment of a consulting physician to oversee the medical management of patients with fractures of the neck of the femur and nurse-led clinics for simple fractures. A framework of management for complex trauma was established and soft tissues were not ignored, and he set up and ran a multidisciplinary team for the management for bone and soft tissue tumours. As professor, he made a significant contribution to research and training, and in the Trent region area developed various aspects of his chosen specialty, particularly in the management of sarcoma. It took nobody by surprise at this later stage when 'Joe' Harper became professor of orthopaedic trauma at Leicester University in 1997 and, not long after that, head of the academic unit when Paul Clegg moved to Newcastle. He ran a busy research unit, publishing extensively on outcomes of arthroplasty of the hip and knee. Under his guidance many young doctors completed their MD dissertations on subjects ranging from cementation in hip arthroplasty to infection management. Increasingly senior roles in UK orthopaedics engaged his attention and he was the chairman of the Association of Professors of Orthopaedic Surgery from 2000 to 2003, a member of the Intercollegiate Specialty Board of Examiners for Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery from 2002, and of the Specialist Advisory Committee in the disciplines from 2005. With his publishing skills, he became a valued member of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery for two terms. These commitments were enough for a very full life, but he spent much time on local issues, being very supportive of his staff and colleagues, all of whom held him in the highest regard. Outside these commitments, he enjoyed a relaxed family life. With his wife Liz and daughter Alice he spent time in northern France, renovating a farm cottage over many years. He was a lifelong collector of stamps, Marvel comics and cards. Throughout a two-year illness leading to his death on the evening of 13 May 2008 he managed to maintain his optimism and showed great courage and independence, pursuing his clinical and academic work almost to the end. He was survived by his wife and daughter. Of his open-minded approach, it was recorded: 'There could be no doubt that, with "Joe" Harper, what you saw was what you got.'
Resource Identifier RCS: E001249
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ludlow, Joyce Rewcastle (1905 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2011-06-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373433373433
Occupation General surgeon
Details Joyce Rewcastle Ludlow was a surgeon who spent her working life in Nigeria. She was born Joyce Rewcastle Woods in Sidcup, Kent, on 24 July 1905, the daughter of James Rewcastle Woods, a minister, and Una Marion Pierce née Couch. Both parents were keen members of the Temperance Movement. Joyce studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital, where she qualified in 1930. She passed the FRCS the following year, the 22nd woman to become a fellow of the College. She went at once to Nigeria to work at Ilesha Hospital. There she met the Reverend Richard Nelson Ludlow, a Methodist missionary, whose training had included a three-month crash course in surgery. Nelson Ludlow's sister Elsie was working in that hospital as a nurse, and ultimately became its matron. Inevitably Joyce and Nelson found themselves working together. Eventually Nelson popped the question, to receive the answer 'Yes, provided you will see to the Tilley lamp'. They were married on his first leave in Dublin in April 1933 and, after a very brief honeymoon in Switzerland, returned to Nigeria to be 'partners in pioneering' for a lifetime. Nelson learned dispensing and how to give the anaesthetic while Joyce was operating: in exchange Joyce would take services and preach when needed. Joyce insisted on extending the work of the hospital into the districts in the hope of detecting remediable diseases at an earlier stage and for this purpose they devised a mobile operating theatre that could be towed behind their elderly Chevrolet, and set up a chain of village dispensaries. Together they built their own house of unbaked mud bricks, established some 25 schools for women, built their own looms, taught the local people how to weave, organised the building of new roads and made long treks into the country on foot, by canoe, and later by car. To support this activity on a salary of £3 per week from the Missionary Society, Nelson raised funds for new buildings by importing ancient harmoniums and organs that had been thrown out by churches in England, learned how to mend them, and sold them in Nigeria, eventually setting up a regular workshop for this. The tough and difficult life was later described in Nelson's moving book *Partners in pioneering*, which was privately published by his son. It was not without its hilarious incidents: their car was accidently shot by a hunter who mistook its headlights for the eyes of some giant jungle creature. They had no refrigerator until 1939. They had two sons and a daughter who went with them everywhere but, as with so many of that generation, they suffered agonies when it became necessary to send the children to England to be educated. During their first leave after the war they were given an ex-Army ambulance which they rebuilt as a better mobile operating theatre cum school, kitchen, cinema and dispensary, which was to serve them for the next 10 years. As well as a hunt for superannuated harmoniums, they obtained 90 church bells that had been preserved by the London Fire Service after the Blitz, together with 1,000 hand-bells formerly used by Air Raid Patrol wardens, for use in the new schools they planned to set up. Ancient brass instruments were begged for the new brass band they intended to set up. They organised the building of a chain of rural dispensaries and a new hospital, which was opened in 1945. They organised play schools for their own and local children, and were enthusiastic proponents of literacy campaigns. Joyce and Nelson retired from Nigeria in 1952. Their partnership went on: Nelson continued with his ministry, while Joyce did locums. They developed a method of 'duologues', taking turns to preach. These proved to be very popular and the team were much in demand. A member of the congregation told Nelson, 'My goodness your wife can talk!' It was no news to him. On their return to England Joyce was awarded the MBE in 1952 for her outstanding medical work in Nigeria. Nelson Ludlow died in 1998. Joyce died in Poole on 5 January 2006 at the age of 100.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001250
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hilton, John (1805 - 1878)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372380372380
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon
Details Born at Sible Hedingham, a small village on the River Colne in the heart of Essex, on September 22nd, 1805, the first son of John and Hannah Hilton. His parents were in humble circumstances when he was born, but his father afterwards made money in the straw-plaiting industry, became the owner of some brickfields, and built the house in Swan Street which is still called Hilton House. In addition to John, the Hilton family consisted of a brother, Charles, who inherited his father's property, and two sisters, one of whom, Anne, married Charles Fagge on December 27th, 1836. Hilton was educated at Chelmsford and afterwards at Boulogne, and became a student at Guy's Hospital about 1824. Guy's separated from St. Thomas's during his student career, and he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy under Bransby Cooper (q.v.), his fellow-demonstrator being Edward Cock (q.v.), in 1828. The two demonstrators worked together in friendly rivalry, and when Sir Astley Cooper proposed that they should investigate the origin and distribution of the superior laryngeal nerve, Cock undertook the comparative and Hilton the human anatomy side of the question. The results were largely instrumental in causing his election as F.R.S. in 1839. From 1828 Hilton devoted himself so assiduously to the dissecting-room as to acquire the sobriquet 'Anatomical John'. When he was not dissecting or teaching he was making post-mortem examinations, and after sixteen years of this work he had gained an unrivalled knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and had become a first-rate teacher and lecturer. About 1838 he was engaged in making those dissections which, modelled in wax by Joseph Towne, still remain as gems in the Museum of Guy's Hospital. For this purpose Hilton spent an hour or two every morning in making a most careful dissection of some very small part of the body - usually not more than an inch or two. He then left, and Towne copied the dissection in wax. Towne worked alone in a locked room, and the secrets of his art died with him. Hilton was elected Lecturer on Anatomy in 1845 and resigned in 1853. As a lecturer and teacher he was admirable, for he had the power of interesting students by putting the trite and oft-told facts of anatomy in a totally new light, the result of his own observation and experience. He combined, too, elementary physiology with anatomy, for the two subjects had not then been separated. He was, however, a confirmed teleologist and tried to prove that anatomical distribution was due to design rather than to development. He had neither the education nor the inclination to appreciate anatomy in its scientific aspects. Hilton was elected Assistant Surgeon to Guy's Hospital in 1844, Thomas Callaway and Edward Cock being his colleagues, whilst John Morgan, Aston Key, and Bransby Cooper were full Surgeons. He thus had the distinction of being the first surgeon at one of the large London hospitals who was appointed without having served an apprenticeship either to the hospital or to one of its Surgeons. In 1847 James Paget was elected to a similar position at St. Bartholomew's Hospital without either of these qualifications, and the rule previously looked upon as inviolate soon became more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Hilton's period of probation in the out-patient room was of short duration. Aston Key (q.v.) died of cholera after an illness of twenty hours in 1849, and Hilton as the Senior Assistant Surgeon was promoted to fill his place. The ordeal was trying, for he had been an anatomist all his life and had never had charge of beds, but he came well through it. He did not acquire the brilliancy or expertness of the older surgeons, but the very exactness of his anatomical knowledge made him a careful operator. His caution is still remembered by that method of opening deeply-seated abscesses with a probe and dressing forceps after making an incision through the skin, which is known as 'Hilton's method'. He shone especially in clinical lectures, where he brought out the importance of every detail in a case, and so linked them together as to form a continuous chain which interested even the idlest student. He attracted to himself the best type of men, and to be a dresser to Hilton was considered a blue ribbon at the hospital. Yet he was no easy master to serve, for he was rough in speech and was prone to indulge in personalities designed to hurt the *amour propre* of those to whom they were addressed. At the Royal College of Surgeons Hilton was chosen a life-member of the Council in 1854. He lectured as Hunterian Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery from 1859-1862, but it was not until 1865 that he became a Member of the Court of Examiners, a post he held for ten years. He served as Vice-President during the years 1865 and 1866, and was elected President in 1867, the year in which he delivered the Hunterian Oration. He resigned the Lectureship on Surgery at Guy's Hospital in 1870, though he continued to practise at 10 New Broad Street, E.C. In 1871 he was appointed Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, and in the same year he was President of the Pathological Society. He married twice, and his children survived him. He died at Clapham of cancer of the stomach on September 14th, 1878. Hilton's claim to remembrance rests upon his essay "On the Influence of Mechanical and Physiological Rest in the Treatment of Accidents and Surgical Disease and the Diagnostic Value of Pain". The essay was delivered as his course of Arris and Gale Lectures at the Royal College of Surgeons in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862, with the title "Pain and Therapeutic Influences of Mechanical and Physiological Rest in the Treatment of Surgical Diseases and Accidents". It was published as an octavo volume in 1863; the second edition, with the shortened title *On Rest and Pain*, edited by W. H. A. Jacobson (q.v.), appeared in 1877; the third in 1880; the fourth in 1887; and the fifth in 1892. All the issues except the first are duodecimos; the third, fourth, and fifth contain no material changes. *Rest and Pain* is interesting historically as showing the state of surgery in a large general hospital when its practice was based entirely upon anatomy and was devoid of the assistance it now derives from histology, bacteriology, and anaesthetics. It bears perhaps the same relation to modern surgery as Chambers's *Vestiges of Creation* bears to modern geology and biology. There is much morbid anatomy, and great common sense mingled with very crude speculation. It remains a fascinating work, written by one who, though a master of one side of his subject, was unable to see the whole, partly because he was insufficiently acquainted with advances of his contemporaries, and partly because the means for developing the scientific aspects of surgery were not in existence. The particular points upon which Hilton laid stress in his lectures were the blocking of the foramen of Magendie in some cases of internal hydrocephalus; the cautious opening of deep abscesses; the pain referred to the knee by patients with hip disease and its anatomical explanation; the cause of triple displacement in chronic tuberculous disease of the knee; and the importance of the early diagnosis and treatment of hip disease. All this and many other things which are now the commonplaces of surgery, Hilton set out in *Rest and Pain*, in which the naïve description of his cases and their treatment is by no means the least attractive feature. It was said that no one looking at Hilton would have taken him for a great surgeon: he appeared much more like a prosperous City man. Short, rather stout, and plodding in his walk; dapper in a plain frock-coat with a faultless shirt front, a black stock or bow-tie, a fancy waistcoat festooned with a long gold chain which was hung from the neck; always in boots irreproachably blackened at a time when Warren's and Day & Martn's blackings were at the height of their vogue - such was the picture of Hilton as he sat on the bed of a patient in one of his wards examining an inflamed ulcer with a probe to determine the position of any exposed nerve. A life-size half-length oval portrait of Hilton by Henry Barraud (1811-1874) hangs in the Conservator's room at the College. It was presented by Mrs. Hilton in 1879. There is a photograph in the New Sydenham Society's "Portraits by President" portfolio; and a medallion given by Mrs. Oldham to C. H. A. Golding-Bird, F.R.C.S., in 1894 hangs in the Librarian's room at the College.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000193
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First Title value, for Searching Quain, Richard (1800 - 1887)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-09
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372381372381
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Fermoy, Co. Cork, in July, 1800, the third son of Richard Quain, of Ratheahy, Co. Cork, by his first wife - a Miss Jones. Jones Quain (1796-1865), the anatomist, was his full brother, and Sir John Richard Quain (1816-1876), Judge of the Queen's Bench, was his half-brother. Sir Richard Quain, Bart. (1816-1898) was his cousin. Richard Quain was educated at Adair's School in Fermoy, and after apprenticeship to an Irish surgeon came to London and entered the Aldersgate School of Medicine under the supervision of Jones Quain, his brother, for whom he acted as prosector. He afterwards went to Paris and attended the lectures of Richard Bennett, who lectured privately on anatomy and was an Irish friend of his father. Bennett was appointed in 1828 a Demonstrator of Anatomy in the newly constituted School of the University of London - now University College - and Quain acted as his assistant. Bennett died in 1830 and Quain became Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, Sir Charles Bell being Professor of General Anatomy and Physiology. When Bell resigned the Chair Richard Quain was appointed Professor of Descriptive Anatomy in 1832, Erasmus Wilson (q.v.), Thomas Morton (q.v.), John Marshall (q.v.), and Victor Ellis (q.v.) acting successively as his demonstrators. He held office until 1850. Quain was elected the first Assistant Surgeon to University College - then called the North London - Hospital in 1834. He succeeded, after a stormy progress, to the office of full Surgeon and Special Professor of Clinical Surgery in 1848, resigning in 1866, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgery. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Member of the Council from 1854-1873; a Member of the Court of Examiners, 1865-1870; Chairman of the Midwifery Board, 1867; Vice-President, 1866 and 1867; President, 1868; Hunterian Orator, 1869; and Representative of the College at the General Medical Council, 1870-1876. He was elected F.R.S. on Feb. 29th, 1844, and was Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria. He married in 1859 Ellen, Viscountess Midleton, widow of the fifth Viscount, but had no children. She died before him. He died on Sept. 15th, 1887, and was buried at Finchley. The bulk of his fortune of £75,000 was left to University College to encourage and promote general education in modern languages (especially the English language and the composition of that language) and in natural science. The Quain Professorship of English Language and Literature and the Quain Studentship and Prizes were endowed from this bequest. Quain himself had received a liberal education, and one of his hobbies was to write and speak English correctly. Quain was a short and extremely pompous little man. He went round his wards with a slow and deliberate step, his hands deep in his pockets and his hat on his head. As a surgeon he was cautious rather than demonstrative, painstaking rather than brilliant, but in some measure he made up for his lack of enterprise with the knife by his insistence on an excellent clinical routine, and he was a careful teacher. He had a peculiar but intense dread of the occurrence of haemorrhage. He devoted especial attention to diseases of the rectum. "Even such a matter as clearing out the scybala had to be performed in his wards in a deliberate manner, under his own superintendence." He had certain stock clinical lectures which he delivered each year, and one of these was on the ill consequences attending badly fitting boots, which he illustrated profusely by the instruments of torture called boots devised by some shoemakers. He edited his brother's *Elements of Anatomy* (5th ed., 1843-8), and was author of a superbly illustrated work, *The Anatomy of the Arteries of the Human Body* (8vo, with folding atlas of plates, London, 1844), deduced from observations upon 1040 subjects. The splendid plates illustrating this were drawn by Joseph Maclise (q.v.), brother of the great artist, and the explanation of the plates is by his cousin Richard Quain, M.D. (afterwards Sir Richard). He also published *Diseases of the Rectum* (8vo, London, 1854; 2nd ed., 1855), and *Clinical Lectures* (8vo, London, 1884). He was an unamiable colleague, for he was of a jealous nature and prone to impute improper motives to all who differed from him. He quarrelled at one time or another with most of the staff of University College Hospital. In these quarrels he sided with Elliotson and Samuel Cooper against Liston and Anthony Todd Thomson. At the College of Surgeons he was strictly conservative, and apt to urge views on educational subjects which did not commend themselves to the majority of his colleagues. A life-size half-length portrait in oils painted by George Richmond, R.A., hangs in the Secretary's office at the Royal College of Surgeons, and in the Council Room is a bust by Thomas Woolner, R.A.; it was presented by Miss Dickinson in December, 1887.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000194
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372382372382
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of the Rev John Halton, MA, St Peter's, Chester; educated at the University of Edinburgh and at Guy's Hospital under Sir Astley Cooper. After Continental travel he settled in Liverpool, and in 1820 was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, an appointment he held until 1856, when he became Consulting Surgeon. In 1844 he published a pamphlet attacking the heavy mortality following operations at the Liverpool Northern Hospital, as compared with that at the Royal Infirmary during the previous twenty-two years. The reply by the Surgeons of the Northern Hospital as to the salubrity and ventilation of the building breathes a considerable spirit of deference to Halton. He caused a rule to be passed excluding the Surgeons at the Royal Infirmary from the practice of pharmacy, for a surgeon, he said, should restrict himself to cases in surgery. Further, he advocated education at universities and large centres of population. Thus, as a successor of Park and of Hanson, Halton did much to advance the reputation of surgery in Liverpool. He retired from practice in 1885 and died at Woodclose, Grasmere, Westmorland, on Jan 27th, 1873. He married in early life; his wife, a daughter of John Foster, of Liverpool, died in 1871.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000195
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fergusson, Sir William (1808 - 1877)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-02-01 2012-03-22
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372383372383
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Prestonpans on March 20th, 1808, the son of James Fergusson. He was educated at Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, at the High School, and at the University of Edinburgh. He was placed by his own desire in a lawyer's office at the age of 15, but finding the work uncongenial he changed law for medicine when he was 17. He became a pupil of Robert Knox, the anatomist, then at the height of his reputation, who appointed him demonstrator in 1828, when the class consisted of 504 students and the lectures had to be repeated thrice daily. Fergusson quickly became a skilled anatomist, and it is said that he often spent sixteen hours a day in the dissecting-room, and he soon began to lecture in association with Knox. He was elected Surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Dispensary in 1831, and in that year tied the third part of the right subclavian artery for an axillary aneurysm, an operation which had been published only twice previously in Scotland. He described the appearances seen at the post-mortem examination in the *London and Edinburgh Journal of Medical Science* (1841, i, 617). In 1855 he employed the dangerous method of direct compression of a subclavian aneurysm (*Lancet*, 1855, ii, 197). He married Helen Hamilton Ranken on Oct. 10th, 1833. She was the daughter and heiress of William Ranken, of Spittlehaugh, Peebleshire, and the marriage at once placed Fergusson in easy circumstances. He continued zealous in his profession, and in 1836, when he was elected Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he shared with James Syme (q.v.) the best surgical practice in Scotland. In 1840 Fergusson accepted the Professorship of Surgery at King's College, London, with the Surgeoncy to King's College Hospital, which was then situated in the slums of Clare Market. He settled at Dover Street, Piccadilly, whence he removed in 1847 to George Street, Hanover Square. His fame brought crowds of students to King's College Hospital to witness his operations. He became Member of the College of Surgeons in 1840, Fellow in 1844, was a Member of Council from 1861-1877, and of the Court of Examiners from 1867-1870, Vice-President in 1869, President in 1870, and Hunterian Orator in 1871. As Arris and Gale Lecturer he delivered two courses on "The Progress of Anatomy and Surgery during the Present Century", in 1864 and 1865. In these lectures Fergusson mentioned three hundred successful operations for hare-lip performed by himself. In 1849 he was appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Prince Albert, and in 1855 Surgeon Extraordinary to H. M. the Queen. He was made a baronet in 1866, and Serjeant-Surgeon in 1867. The occasion of his receiving a baronetcy was seized upon to make a presentation of a dessert service of silver plate which was subscribed for by three hundred of his old pupils. He was elected F.R.S. in 1848, President of the Pathological Society in 1859-1860, and of the British Medical Association in 1873, and Hon. LL.D of Edinburgh in 1875. He resigned the office of Professor of Surgery at King's College in 1870, but retained the post of Clinical Professor of Surgery and Surgeon to the hospital until his death. He invented the term 'conservative surgery', by which he meant the excision of a joint rather than the amputation of a limb. He introduced great improvements in the treatment of hare-lip and cleft palate, and his style of operating attracted general attention and admiration. As an operator, indeed, he is justly placed at the pinnacle of fame. Lizars said he had seen no one, not even Liston himself, surpass Fergusson in a trying and critical operation, and his biographer, Mr. Bettany, says in the *Dictionary of National Biography*: "His manipulative and mechanical skill was shown both in his mode of operating and in the new instruments which he devised. The bulldog forceps, the mouth-gag, and various bent knives for cleft palate, attest his ingenuity. A still higher mark of his ability consisted in his perfect planning of every detail of an operation beforehand; no emergency was unprovided for. Thus, when an operation had begun, he proceeded with remarkable speed and silence till the end, himself applying every bandage and plaster, and leaving, as far as possible, no traces of his operation. So silently were most of his operations conducted, that he was often imagined to be on bad terms with his assistants." Fergusson was celebrated as a lithotomist and lithoritist, and it was said that to *wink* during one of his cutting operations for stone might involve one's seeing no operation at all, so rapidly was the work performed by that master hand. On one occasion when performing a lithotomy the blade of the knife broke away from the handle. He at once seized the blade in his long deft fingers, finished the operation, and quietly told the class: "Gentlemen, you should be prepared for any emergency." He died in London of Bright's disease on Feb. 10th, 1877, and was buried at West Linton, Peebleshire, beside his wife, who died in 1860. He was succeeded in the title by his sons, James Ranken; a younger son, Charles Hamilton, entered the Army, and there were three daughters. Fergusson's personality was marked. Tall and of fine presence, with very large and powerful hands, he was genial and hospitable. He was beloved by hosts of students whom he had started in life, and of patients whom he had aided gratuitously. Those who could afford to pay sometimes gave him very large sums for an operation. Like John Hunter, he was a good carpenter, and had besides a number of social pursuits and accomplishments. He was a staunch friend, forgiving to those, such as Syme, who opposed him, and his best monument is the life and work of the many pupils whom he influenced and stimulated as few have ever done. He made many contributions to surgical literature, and wrote a *System of Practical Surgery*, of which a fifth edition appeared in 1870. An expressive and nearly full length oil painting of Fergusson by Rudolf Lehmann hangs in the Secretary's office at the College, and there are numbers of portraits in the College Collection. The portrait was painted in 1874, and a replica hangs in the Edinburgh College of Physicians. He was extremely social and given to kind and friendly hospitality in private life. He sometimes invited a small circle of friends to dine at a well-known city hostelry, The Albion Tavern. On one of these occasions he invited the then Editor of *Punch*, who responded in these terms: "Look out for me at seven, look after me at eleven. - Yours, Mark Lemon." PUBLICATIONS:- *A System of Practical Surgery*, of which the first edition in 18mo was published in London, 1842; 2nd ed., in 12mo, 1846; 3rd., 1852; 4th ed., 1857; 5th ed., 1870. The work deals with the art rather than the science of surgery, and was a good text-book for medical students. Paper on lithotrity in the *Edin. Med. and Surg. Jour.*, 1835, xliv, 80. Paper on cleft palate in the *Med.-Chir. Trans.,* 1845, xxviii, 273. The Hunterian Oration, 8vo, 1871, is chiefly remarkable for the generous eulogium of James Syme, his former colleague, with whom relations had been somewhat strained.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000196
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bottomley, George ( - 1868)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Boult, Edmund (1815 - 1863)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Boultbee, Henry ( - 1850)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Boulter, Harold Baxter (1853 - 1916)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Boutflower, John (1797 - 1889)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-03-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373105373105
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on November 1st, 1797, in Greengate, Salford, Manchester, and was the descendant of an old Northumbrian family. One of his ancestors was at Christ’s College, Cambridge, with John Milton, whose constant friend he remained. John Boutflower’s father was John Boutflower, surgeon, of Salford, and his brother, born in 1796, was Henry Crewe Boutflower, Hulsean Essayist and a well-known divine. John Boutflower was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, and then entered as a student at St George’s Hospital, London, afterwards completing his medical studies in Paris, where he was a pupil of Dupuytren and Boyer. In London he had also attended the lectures of Abernethy and Sir Astley Cooper. In 1820 he was House Surgeon to the Manchester Infirmary, and was for some years Lecturer on Surgery at the Chatham Street School. He was twice a candidate for the office of Surgeon of the Infirmary, but was defeated owing to adverse local influences, and refused to put up a third time. Most of' his work lay among the poor, in connection more particularly with the Salford Dispensary, which, largely owing to his fostering care, latterly developed into a large hospital. He served faithfully and ungrudgingly for forty-four years as Surgeon to the Dispensary, and, on his retirement in 1870, was presented with £200 in plate, while his portrait by Measham was placed in the board room of the institution. After his retirement Boutflower devoted himself to the wants of the poor. At the time of his death he was Consulting Surgeon to the Salford and Pendleton Royal Hospital and Dispensary, and Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He died at his residence, 118 Great Ducie Street, Strange-ways, Manchester, on March 20th, 1889, being then in his ninety-second year.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000922
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clark, William Gladstone (1868 - 1916)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Clayton, Sir Oscar Moore Passey (1816 - 1892)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Clement, William James (1804 - 1870)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373379373379
Occupation General surgeon
Details The eldest son of William Clement, a practitioner long established in Shrewsbury. He was educated at Shrewsbury School under Dr Butler, at the Middlesex Hospital under Sir Charles Bell, and at the University of Edinburgh. He settled in practice in his birthplace, Shrewsbury, where he acquired a large consulting practice as a surgeon, and became an important public character, being first an Alderman and twice Mayor (1854 and 1864). He was the first of the Fellows in point of time to sit in Parliament, having been elected MP for Shrewsbury in the Liberal interest in 1865, heading the poll again in the general election of 1868. He would doubtless have continued to represent the Liberal voters of Shrewsbury for years to come had not his health given way rather suddenly. He died at Shrewsbury, where his address was The Council House, on August 29th, 1870. At the time of his death he was also a Magistrate for Salop, Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Merionethshire, Surgeon to the 1st Battalion Shropshire Rifle Volunteers, and a FSA. He was greatly respected as a practitioner, a magistrate, and a Member of Parliament, and in 1864 was presented with a magnificent piece of plate weighing upwards of 1000 oz, which was subscribed for by all classes in Shropshire. His literary tastes were cultivated to a high degree, and he was on terms of intimacy with Dickens, Macaulay, and F Talfourd. He was a member of the British Medical Association, taking much interest in the Shropshire Ethical Branch, the members of which he entertained not long before his death. He married, in 1845, Tryphena, second daughter of W P Freme, of Wefere Hall, Flintshire. Clement claimed to have been the first surgeon in Great Britain who successfully opened the ascending colon for intestinal obstruction. Although never connected with a public hospital, he obtained the largest consulting practice in Shropshire, especially as an operating surgeon. He was the first medical man elected Member of Parliament who continued to practise his profession; and he often said that he particularly valued the honour as a compliment paid to the whole profession, in the choice falling on one of its working members. Publications: *Observations in Surgery and Pathology.* "An Essay on the Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology of the Urinary Organs," for which he obtained the Fothergillian Gold Medal in 1834. "Two Cases of Intestinal Obstruction, in which the Operation for Artificial Anus was successfully performed: one in the Ascending Colon (the first Operation of the kind in Great Britain); the other in the Descending Colon." - *Trans. Roy. Med.- Chir. Soc.*, 1852, xxxv, 209. The operation was performed on Oct 10th, 1841. "Account of Case of Successful Amputation at the Hip-joint for Tumour affecting the Upper Third of the Thigh." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1850, i, 4.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001196
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cleoburey, William (1793 - 1853)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373380373380
Occupation General surgeon
Details Son of the Rev John Cleoburey and Margaretta his wife, was baptized at St Helen's Church, Abingdon, on Aug 17th, 1793. He was educated at Abingdon School, for he recited there twice on Speech Day, 1805. He was apprenticed to Mr Short, one of the surgeons of the Bedford Infirmary, and completed his medical education at St Bartholomew's Hospital as dresser to Sir Charles Blicke. He was for a short time House Surgeon to the City Dispensary for Diseases of the Eye, and acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He settled in Oxford in 1814, became 'Chirurgus privilegiatus' of the University on June 16th, 1814, and was elected Surgeon to the Radcliffe Infirmary on May 13th, 1815, a post he held until 1853. During the whole of this time he was present and assisted at nearly all the operations performed in the Infirmary. As he lived in St John's Street close to the hospital he was generally asked by his colleagues to act for them when they were away. In ordinary practice he was favourably known as an oculist, but poor health and a private competence kept him from active competition with other surgeons in Oxford. He was also Consulting Surgeon to the Warneford and the Littlemore Asylums. He married on Nov 14th, 1820, Mary Ann Jones, of High Street, Oxford. He died on Feb 17th, 1853, and was buried in the churchyard of All Saints', Oxford. It is reported of Cleoburey that he was a skilful and beautiful operator, whose diagnosis was seldom wrong. He was wont to observe that "a good diagnosis is the most important element in success". His anatomical knowledge was of a high order, was held in great respect, and was frequently of use to his colleagues. He monopolized the ophthalmic practice both in the city and in the neighbouring counties - indeed, the Oxford Eye Hospital is the descendant of the large Eye Department which was part of Cleoburey's activity at the Radcliffe Infirmary. The two charities are independent, but the clinical relationship between them is cordial and intimate. In private life he lived much retired, but he kept himself abreast of medical knowledge, more especially in morbid anatomy, and he was widely read in subjects other than professional. His manner, especially to his hospital patients, was kind and benevolent, and no harsh or choleric word to them ever passed his lips. Publications: *System of Friction practised by John Grosvenor, Esq.*, Oxford, 1825. Grosvenor has the credit of being one of the earliest surgeons in England to apply massage to stiff joints and injured limbs. He was Surgeon to the Radcliffe Infirmary at Oxford from 1770-1817. He introduced 'a rubber nurse' into the infirmary in 1830, and the practice of massage as an aid to surgery has been carried on there continually since that date. *A Review of the Different Operations on the Eyes*, London, 1826.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001197
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Querci Della Rovere, Guidubaldo (1946 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Selvachandran, Prince Selvadurai (1938 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Crockett, David John (1923 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373437373437
Occupation Plastic surgeon Plastic and reconstructive surgeon
Details David Crockett contributed greatly to the specialty of plastic surgery in the Sudan and then in Bradford as a consultant surgeon from 1964 until he retired in 1987. A very gifted man, he enjoyed many hobbies during his very busy professional life and was above all a family man. He was born in Northampton on 5 August 1923, the son of Leonard Marshall Crockett, a dental surgeon, and his wife, Eleanor Carol née Baker. Educated first at Winchester House School, Northamptonshire, he completed his school education at Charterhouse. He then went to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before entering St Thomas' Hospital for his clinical training. In his undergraduate days at Cambridge David took up judo for recreation and this proved beneficial at a later date in the Sudan, where he instructed the Sudanese police in the art of self defence. Qualifying in 1946, he was a casualty officer and house surgeon at St Thomas' before becoming a senior house officer in orthopaedics at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in 1947. He then entered National Service in the RAMC for two years with the rank of captain. Deciding on a surgical career, he undertook a general surgical senior house officer post at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, and then demonstrated anatomy at St Thomas' whilst studying for the primary FRCS. Having passed this hurdle, he continued in general surgery as a surgical registrar, first at Tilbury and then Alton, and passed the final FRCS examination. An interest in trauma was kindled at the Birmingham Accident Unit, by which time he was veering towards a career in plastic surgery. No doubt influenced by Douglas Jackson, he studied many aspects of burns. Of his early joint publications, 'Bacteriology of burns treated by exposure', was published in the Lancet in 1954 (ii 1157). He then undertook a research project on oedema and colloid replacement at the Middlesex Hospital from 1955 to 1956. Definitive training in plastic surgery took place at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, from 1956 to 1959. David then accepted a post as a senior lecturer in general surgery at the University of Khartoum, working first with Julian Taylor. He remained in the Sudan for five years before returning to the UK. The time spent in Africa was a productive period, with publications on cancer, keloids and reconstructive procedures. His workload was enormous and his reputation amongst Sudan's medical fraternity was very high. He was an invited lecturer at many conferences of the Sudanese Association of Surgeons, including one held at the time of the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Kitchener Medical School in 1974, giving a lecture on keloids. Also taking part were three other fellows present as examiners for the overseas primary FRCS (G W Taylor, Ian McColl and N Alan Green) and two working for WHO (Adrian Marston and Ivan Johnston). In 1964 David Crockett and his family returned to the UK, and he became a consultant plastic surgeon at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke's Hospital and Airedale Hospital. He retired in 1987 after a very full professional life punctuated by conferences in the UK. At St Thomas' Hospital he had met Anne Chalmers, a nurse, whom he married on 7 August 1947 at Quinton, Northamptonshire. As both of Anne's parents had died, David's parents proved very supportive during their courtship and for many years of their happy married life. Anne later trained as a medical social worker at Leeds University and then practised in the Bradford area. They had a family of four: Carolyn Mary, Paul Jonathan Marshall, Georgina Jane and Thurstan David. David and Anne enjoyed many educational and social trips in mainland Europe, the Indian subcontinent and Australasia. For some 18 years they had a bungalow retreat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. They kept a small boat there and enjoyed family holidays sailing, walking in the countryside, bird watching and cataloguing the many orchids that grew in the area. David made a collage of the varieties of orchid he found in Ireland and was very knowledgeable in various facets of natural history. He was a talented landscape painter and, as a creative carpenter, he made tables and chairs to furnish their home and garden. In retirement, David and his brother Clifden Crockett played serious bridge on a regular basis in Northampton, but the more friendly and 'family' variety was played at home with his wife. Snooker with many friends at his house was another form of relaxation. David John Crockett died on 28 June 2009. He had suffered a stroke on 11 June and was nursed at home by Anne with superb help from the local nursing and social services, and also from his granddaughter, Naomi, who had trained as a doctor at Leeds University. He could not speak, but was able to smile and recognised his family until he passed away. He was survived by Anne, their four children and seven grandchildren, Naomi, Tamara, Thomas, Victoria, Hannah, Kathryn and Jonathan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001254
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clerke, (or Clerk) Jonathan ( - 1869)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02 2013-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373381373381
Occupation General surgeon
Details Practised first at Rathmines, and then at Castlemartyr, Co Cork, where he died June 29th, 1869.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001198
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clifton, Nathaniel Henry (1818 - 1881)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373382373382
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on November 29th, 1818, in the house in Cross Street, Islington, where his father and his grandfather had practised before him. He was educated at the Islington Proprietary School and at Charterhouse. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1837, and was made a Governor of the institution on Nov 26th, 1846, acted as Steward in 1852, as Auditor in 1853, and was put on the House Committee, in 1857. After qualifying in 1841 he took a week's holiday, and then joined his father in practice. Thereafter he went for thirty-seven years without twenty-four hours' holiday. His holiday, which consisted chiefly of a few hours' fishing, was always preceded by a day's work. Within these sharply defined limits he found time to dine with a friend or take part in public affairs. He made a point, in the late hours of the night, of making up his books and his list of patients for the morrow. If he were disturbed at night, as he was very often, he never went back to his bed, but took such rest as he could get in an easily extemporized position in his study. His practice was indeed very large and very arduous, and included many obstetric cases. At the time of his death Clifton was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex, Consulting Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary, and a cordial supporter of the Medical Benevolent College and kindred institutions. He founded the Islington Medical Society. His father was the founder of the Islington Savings Bank, and he was for many years its Treasurer. In politics a Conservative, and an active member of the party, he yet conducted his contests, political and even ecclesiastical, with a characteristic absence of acerbity. He was genial, kindly, and quietly benevolent, with an underlying strength of character that compelled the respect of men of all parties, and especially of members of his own profession, by whom he was looked up to as a guide and friend. He himself was a model of professional behaviour. A man of large and powerful frame, he showed signs of failing health for several years before the end. He was for long ill of diabetes and albuminuria, being affectionately nursed by his sisters, and died unmarried at the old family house, 20 Cross Street, Islington, on Friday, January 21st, 1881. For many years he was in partnership with his father, Nathaniel Clifton, and latterly with Frank Godfrey. His portrait is in the Fellows' Album. The following interesting note on the association of an old family practice is from the *Lancet*, 1881, i, 195: "Some practices are the creation of one man. A larger number represent a principle of continuity, not to say heredity. The name of Mr Clifton carries the people of Islington back more than a hundred years. And yet over all this time a large section of the people of Islington have enjoyed the privilege of being attended by Mr Clifton or his immediate ancestors. It is not the least credit of the family that for this more than century of work only three successive members of the family have been necessary. The subject of our present notice was wont to tell how his grandfather took up his abode, lodging with a worthy baker, in Cross Street, Islington, over a hundred years since. Mr Clifton's grandfather was born in 1751, and was in practice before 1778. He died in 1822 in Cross Street, and was succeeded by his son, Nathaniel Clifton, who was born in 1786 and died in 1861 - all in Cross Street. Here too Mr Nathaniel Henry Clifton was born. "There is an element of permanence, a faithfulness to groove and place, in most good families, which is not to be unnoted. Cross Street, as it exists now, may not seem to passers through a romantic spot to which to fix one's existence, but to a man of Mr Clifton's character, with its historical baker's shop - which, by the way, still, we believe, survives - it had a claim and a charm to which the new-built villa has no pretensions."
Resource Identifier RCS: E001199
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Clippingdale, Samuel Dodd ( - 1925)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-06-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373383373383
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Samuel D Clippingdale, who practised in Colet Place, Commercial Road East. He received his medical education at the University of Aberdeen and at the London Hospital, where he was Surgical Scholar and House Physician. He was at one time a candidate for the Surgical Registrarship in competition with Sir Frederick Treves. He was for a considerable period Surgeon to the Kensington Dispensary and Children's Hospital, and was at one time President of the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society and Vice-President of the Section of Balneology and Climatology of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was also Police Surgeon for Kensington, and came before the public in his official capacity in the sensational Kensington murder trial, when a jealous husband, an Army officer, shot his wife's lover, but was subsequently proved to be of unsound mind due to shell-shock. Clippingdale was a familiar and respected figure in London medical circles and in the College Library. He possessed much charm of manner, being sympathetic and courteous after the fashion of the old school. As a medical biographer and antiquarian he belonged to the small body of those who devote themselves, with very little hope of reward or recognition, to the history of the profession. As a biographer he went into minute detail, relying much upon pedigrees, inscriptions on tombstones, and wills. He was a diligent searcher among the registers at Kensal Green Cemetery, where numbers of medical men, including Fellows of the College, lie buried. Heraldry, particularly medical heraldry, especially interested him. On the occasion of the bicentenary of the death of Joseph Addison, Mr Victor G Plarr bethought him of an idea which would at once interest and gratify this most charming modern representative of eighteenth-century amenities. He obtained leave, through Miss Nauen, the Secretary and Librarian to Lord Ilchester at Holland House, to be present with Dr Clippingdale in Addison's death-chamber at the same hour and minute when 'Mr Spectator' passed from this world. Addison died in the afternoon of June 17th, 1719, and late in the afternoon of June 17th, 1919, Dr Clippingdale and Mr Victor G. Plarr sat in the room in Holland House where the death occurred. Clippingdale had resided during his active years at 36 Holland Park Avenue, W, but after his retirement went to live at 17 Malvern Road, Hornsey, N. He died of enlarged prostate in the wards of the London Hospital on June 6th, 1925. Publications: "The Clay and Gravel Soils of London and the Relative Advisability of Dwelling upon them." - *Jour. Balneol. and Climat. Soc.*, 1902, vi, 14, 38, etc. "West London Rivers Extant and Extinct, and their Influence upon the Fertility and Salubrity of the Districts through which they Pass or Passed." - *West Lond. Med. Jour.*, 1909, xiv, 1. "A Medical Roll of Honour - Physicians and Surgeons who remained in London during the Great Plague," 8vo, London, 1909; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1909, Feb. 6th. "Medical Parliamentary Roll (1558-1909)," 8vo, London, 1910; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.* "Medical Baronets, 1645-1911," 8vo, London, 1912; reprinted from *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1912, May 25th. "The Crest of Thomas Greenhill, Surgeon. An Heraldic Tribute to Human Fecundity," illustrated; reprinted from *West Lond. Med. Jour.*, 1914, xix, 286. "Heraldry and Medicine," original proof-sheets with illustrations of article in the *Antiquary*, 1915, Nov-Dec. (A printed copy of this is all that represents the author in the Surgeon-General's Library.) "Medical Court Roll, Physicians and Surgeons and some Apothecaries, who have attended the Sovereigns of England from William I to George V, with a Medical Note on Harold"; MS, 2 vols, fol. The two foregoing books were specially presented to the Library by the author. To the *London Hospital Gazette* he contributed a series of very careful biographies of former members of the Staff of the London Hospital, of whom a dozen were Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons. - *London Hosp. Gaz.*, xix, xx, xxii, 1912. In the College Scrap-Book is a portrait of Margaret Nicholson, who attempted to assassinate George III. This was presented by Clippingdale and is accompanied by one of his careful biographical notes. "Quackery in Hammersmith in the 18th Century." - *West Lond. Med. Jour.*, 1909, xiv, 74.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001200
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Close, Anthony William ( - 1863)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372317372317
Occupation General surgeon
Details Eric John Smith was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born on 31 March 1910 in Norwood, Surrey, the second son of Robert Percy and Edith Smith. His early life was overshadowed by the death from Hodgkin’s disease of his elder brother who had been a child prodigy, and Eric spent his schooldays trying to fulfill the promise of his brother. In this he was far from unsuccessful, winning prizes and commendations at all his schools – Paston’s in Norfolk, Haverford West Grammar and Sutton County Grammar (the moves being occasioned by his father’s work as a construction engineer). He went up to King’s College Hospital at the age of 17 and again distinguished himself, being rewarded with the Jelf medal and Huxley prize, as well as gaining four distinctions in his finals. A keen sportsman, he represented the college at cricket and rugby. He was proud of being the last house surgeon of Lord Lister’s last house surgeon (Arthur Edmunds) and was appointed as a surgical registrar at King’s, and later house surgeon at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. At the age of 29 he was appointed to consultant sessions at Brentford Hospital, thereby beginning an association with Brentford Football Club, one that lasted for the rest of his life, as he became in turn medical adviser, director and President. At the outbreak of the second world war he was appointed consultant general surgeon in the Emergency Medical Service at Horton Hospital, Epsom, in which over 60,000 patients were treated during the war. His special contribution was to act as triage officer at Epsom station when trainloads of casualties arrived, and with his quick assessment and remarkable memory he directed each one to the appropriate ward in the hospital. At the same time he was working at Hurstwood Park Neurological Hospital. When in 1946 he joined the Royal Air Force as a surgical specialist, he undertook further neurosurgical specialist duties. In 1948 he spent a year with Olivecrona in his neurosurgical unit in Sweden, one of the world’s pre-eminent centres. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, continuing his interest in neurosurgery by undertaking some of the earliest prefrontal leucotomies in the UK. He also pioneered hypophysectomy in the treatment of breast cancer. It is curious that this most conservative of men should have made his special contribution in two of its most radical fields. He was also surgeon to the Royal Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, and much valued the work he was called upon to undertake in close association with his colleagues there, especially in the area of intracranial sepsis. During his active years, and indeed long into retirement, his expert opinion was much sought in legal cases, due to his clarity of thought and expression. In 1937 he married a King’s sister, Eileen Radley, not only incorporating her name with his as ‘Radley Smith’, but being called ‘Radley’ thereafter by all his colleagues and acquaintances. They had a son, Nigel, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Rosemary, qualified in medicine and had a distinguished career as a paediatric cardiologist. Sadly his son predeceased him as a result of lung cancer. Despite the time he gave to football, almost never missing a Brentford match, Radley took a great interest in farming, specialising in raising dairy cattle. He died on 19 January 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000130
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Starr, Philip Alan John (1933 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Stell, Philip Michael (1934 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372319372319
Occupation Otolaryngologist ENT surgeon
Details Philip Stell had an outstanding career as a reconstructive surgeon, dealing with head and neck cancers, and went on to a successful second career in mediaeval history. He was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, on 14 August 1934, the son of Frank Law Stell, a tailor’s manager, and Ada née Davies. He was educated at Archbishop Holgate Grammar School, York, and Edinburgh University. After junior posts in Edinburgh and Liverpool, he won a fellowship to Washington University, St Louis, in 1956. He returned to Liverpool as a senior lecturer. In 1976 he wrote his masters thesis on skin grafting techniques, and in 1979 he became a professor. He dealt with all aspects of head and neck malignancies, and developed exceptional expertise in reconstruction, keeping detailed outcomes of his operations using a computerised database. He published some 346 articles in scientific journals, edited 12 books and contributed to a further 39. In 1975 he founded the journal *Clinical Otolaryngology* and set up the Otorhinolaryngological Research Society in 1978 (he was President from 1983 to 1986). He was President of the laryngological section of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Association of Head and Neck Oncologists of Great Britain and the Liverpool Medical Institution. He was Hunterian Professor of our College in 1976 and a regional adviser in ENT for the Mersey region. He was the recipient of numerous awards and medals, including the Yearsley gold medal, the Semon prize of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Harrison and the George Davey Howells prizes of the University of London, the Sir William Wilde gold medal of the Irish Otorhinolaryngolical Society in 1988, the Walter Jobson Horne prize of the British Medical Society in 1989, the gold medal of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and the Institute of Oncology, 1989, and the gold medal of the German ENT Society in 1991. An associate member of the Institute of Linguists, he was fluent in Dutch, German, French and Spanish, and made it his practise to deliver overseas lectures in the local language, though his size (he was 6 feet 7 inches) made air travel uncomfortable. He translated 11 foreign language textbooks into English. In 1992, when he was only 57, he took early retirement due to ill health. He moved to York, the city he had grown up in, and began a second career in mediaeval history. He enrolled for an MA at York University, writing a thesis on medical care in late mediaeval York. He taught a speech recognition computer programme to recognise Latin, and set up unique databases for mediaeval Yorkshire wills and other documents, some going back to the 13th century, more than 300 years before parish registers began. For his contribution to history he was made a fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Historical Society. He married Shirley Kathleen Mills in 1959, by whom he had four sons and a daughter. Shirley predeceased him in April 2004. He died on 29 May 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000132
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stirling, Leader Dominic (1906 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372320372320
Occupation General surgeon
Details Leader Stirling was an eminent missionary surgeon and a former minister for health in Tanzania. He was born on 19 January 1906 in Essex. Many of the family were doctors, although a cousin did found the SAS – the Special Air Service. Stirling was educated at Bishop’s Stortford and then went on to the London Hospital for his medical studies. His father lent him £1,000 for the five-year medical course. After house surgeon appointments and time spent in general practice, he was eventually able to pay him back. Not knowing the direction of his career, he prayed for guidance. Two days later a cable from the Universities Mission to Central Africa arrived, urgently requesting doctors for the Masasi region. When Stirling arrived the operating theatre was a bamboo building with a grass roof, every gust of wind filling it with dust and dead leaves. There was no running water and no lighting except for oil lamps. Cooking pots, stores of food, live hens, spears, bows and arrows were stowed under the beds in the mud huts that served as wards. A visit to an outlying hospital could mean a 24-mile walk through the bush. He built his own hospital in nearby Lulundi from scratch, borrowing a book from an engineer uncle, and roofing it with pantiles fashioned by his local Scout troop. He also started a nurse training school there, despite opposition from the medical establishment who believed that only white women could be trained as nurses. After 14 years at Lulundi he became a Catholic, took the name Dominic and joined the Benedictine Mission. They sent him to Mnero, where he built another hospital, this time with the help of a brother who had been an architect. There he started a school for rural medical assistants who were trained on a three-year resident course to diagnose and treat the 15 conditions that accounted for 80 per cent of visits to the doctor, and to send anything else to a doctor. Fifteen years later he was transferred to Kibosho, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. In his book *Africa: my surgery* (Worthing, Churchman, 1987) Stirling describes the conditions he encountered. These were as diverse as belly-ripping by a jealous husband, to crocodile and hippo bites. He devised instruments from simple materials. Screw-drivers made ideal supracondylar traction pins, sewing cotton became perfect ligatures. Thomas splints were contrived from bamboo, extension cord from plaited palm leaves with stones as traction weights. For intravenous infusions he used triple-distilled water, to which he added salt and glucose. When plaster of Paris ran out, he made his own from locally quarried gypsum. He was one of the first to operate on tuberculous abscesses of the spine causing paraplegia, draining them from the front. He devised a new bloodless operation for the giant swellings of the scrotum caused by filariasis. After the war he stood for the Tanganyika African National Union in the new legislative council, the forerunner of a parliament. When independence was agreed in 1961 Stirling became a Tanganyikan citizen. In 1973 Julius Nyerere made him minister for health and he strove to bring tuberculosis and leprosy under control, closing the obsolete leprosaria. He dealt with an outbreak of cholera and reformed the treatment of mental disease. His rural medical assistant scheme was adopted by many other developing countries. He retired from politics at 75, but continued to practise surgery. His last operation, at 85, was a favour to a friend who would trust no one else. In 1993 the College made him a Fellow by election – a rare honour. He married an African nurse, Regina Haule, in 1963, who died of septicaemia nine years later. He then married Anna Chilunda, a nurse (and also a princess), who was a widow with six children. He died in Dar-es-Salaam on 7 February 2003 at the age of 97.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000133
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stoner, Harry Berrington (1919 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372321372321
Occupation Trauma researcher
Details Harry Berrington ‘Berry’ Stoner was a world authority in the much-neglected field of trauma research. He was born in Sheffield on 1 February 1919, the son of Harry John Stoner, a dental surgeon, and Elizabeth née Spriggs. He graduated with many medals and honours from Sheffield University Medical School in 1942, and soon afterwards was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He joined the biological research staff pool of the War Office and was seconded to the department of pathology at Sheffield University to work under the direction of Harry Green who headed a Medical Research Council group investigating aspects of the response to injury. As the war progressed this group was incorporated into the Army and Stoner was promoted to the rank of Captain with the No. 2 traumatic shock team, which carried out field research on injured soldiers in north west Europe during campaigns such as the Rhine crossing. The work he undertook was of such quality that he was able to proceed to an MD in 1946, the year he was demobilised. He immediately returned to the department of pathology at Sheffield University as a member of the MRC external scientific staff. He continued his interest in injury, which had been stimulated by his war experiences, and from 1948 to 1949 held a Rockefeller travelling fellowship in medicine at Harvard University. In 1953 he was appointed as head of the MRC experimental pathology of trauma unit, which was part of the toxicology research unit at Carshalton. Here he further developed Cutherbertson’s theory of the ebb and flow responses to injury. During this time he was UK representative on the scientific sub-committee of the Council of Europe. The work on shock at Carshalton was of the highest quality and the focus of worldwide attention, but after 20 years was reaching its limits because it was confined to animal experimentation. For it to progress it was obviously necessary to transfer it to a clinical environment. The mid 1970s were years when a major expansion of UK medical schools was taking place. In 1977 the opportunity afforded by the establishment by the University of Manchester of a new university hospital at Hope Hospital, Salford, was taken to link Stoner’s unit with an academic department of surgery with an interest in surgical metabolism and trauma. As a consequence Manchester University gained its first MRC unit with the creation of the trauma unit, with laboratories in both the medical school and at Hope Hospital. The work of the unit thrived and it attracted medically qualified research fellows who studied the early responses to injury in the accident and emergency department, the intermediate metabolic and physiological consequences in the intensive care unit, and the late sequalae such as sepsis in a purpose-built surgical high dependency unit. This latter subsequently developed into the UK’s first clinical intestinal failure unit. The collaboration between a team of MRC-employed basic scientists and academic clinicians was an exemplar of how clinical research should be conducted, and many clinically relevant findings were produced. Amongst these were the demonstration of the case against the prevailing concept of injury and sepsis induced hyper-metabolism, which had resulted in injured and septic patients being given enormous calorie loads. The development of an acclaimed sepsis scoring system and the consequent demonstration of glucose intolerance in injury and sepsis with its associated hyperventilation and the necessity for the use of lipids as a source of energy provision in such cases were major clinical outcomes of Stoner’s work. It was no surprise that Stoner was awarded an honorary professorship in surgical science, a Fellowship of the College (which also made him a Hunterian professor) and numerous eponymous lectureships, including the Royal College of Pathologists’ Roy Cameron lecture in 1985. Berry Stroner inspired affection and fierce loyalty from everyone who worked for and with him. His trainees have continued his work on the physiological and metabolic responses to injury and, through his principal protégé and successor Roderick Little, have ensured that the developing specialty of emergency medicine has a sound scientific basis. He retired in 1984, but continued research work for many years, working in collaboration with vascular surgeons. He was a devout Catholic, a Francophile and a talented artist, a skill he pursued in retirement. This culminated in a one-man show in Manchester to celebrate 100 years of the Entente Cordiale, at which he delivered his speech in French. He leaves a daughter (Susan), two grandchildren (Amanda and Emma) and three great grandchildren (Hannah, Matthew and Daniel). He died on 9 July 2004 in Hope Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000134
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Taylor, Robert Murray Ross (1932 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Temple, Leslie Joseph (1915 - 2004)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Dixon, James William Theodore (1921 - 2003)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2009-05-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372523372523
Occupation ENT surgeon
Details James Dixon was an ENT surgeon in Glasgow and later Devon. He was born on 28 September 1921 in Trong, Perak, Malaya, where his father, William John Dixon, was working as a doctor. His mother was Grace Gertrude née Holmes. He was educated at St Peter’s, Exmouth, and Epsom College, from which he went to University College Hospital with an entrance scholarship. There he was much influenced by Gwynne Williams, Myles Formby, Gavin Livingstone and Ronald Macbeth. On qualifying he did his house jobs at University College Hospital, Hampstead General Hospital, the Postgraduate Medical School Hammersmith and the Royal Ear Hospital. He served in the RAMC from 1946 to 1948, reaching the rank of major. He returned to University College Hospital as a registrar and senior registrar, specialising in ENT. He was a senior registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, before being appointed surgeon in charge of the ENT department, at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, in 1959, with the honorary position of lecturer in otolaryngology. In 1970 he moved to Devon, as a consultant for the Devon and Exeter clinical area, based at Torbay Hospital. He published articles on acute otitis media in children, carcinoma of the larynx and solitary neurilemmomata. Dixon was honorary secretary of the section of laryngology of the Royal Society of Medicine from 1966 to 1968 and a member of the council of the British Association of Otolaryngologists from 1970. Whilst in Glasgow he examined for the final FRCS in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ireland. He married a Miss McCay in 1955, and had three sons and a daughter. He died suddenly on 6 April 2003. Neil Weir
Resource Identifier RCS: E000337
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Weekes, Richard (1812 - 1870)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Eastcott, Harry Hubert Grayson (1917 - 2009)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Averil Mansfield
Publication Date 2010-04-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373109373109
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Harry Hubert Grayson Eastcott, known as ‘Felix’, was the first man to perform carotid endarterectomy, thereby preventing strokes in countless patients. He was born in Montreal, Canada, on 17 October 1917, the son of Henry George Eastcott, a resident engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Gladys née Tozer. The family returned to England in 1920 and he was educated at Hoe Grammar School, Plymouth, the Latymer School, Edmonton, and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. When a student in the anatomy class, he was observed by Neil Pantin to walk along leaning forwards with his hands behind his back, like the cartoon cat, and henceforward became known as ‘Felix’. As a student he played the piano in a honky-tonk band, which included Harding Rains on trumpet. He qualified with honours in 1941 and without delay went on to sit and pass the primary FRCS. He was house surgeon at the Hammersmith Hospital under Grey Turner and Dick Franklin, where he met a theatre nurse, Doreen Joy (‘Bobbie’), the daughter of Brenchley Ernest and Muriel Mittell. They were married in 1941. He then joined the RNVR and served throughout the war, reaching the rank of surgeon lieutenant-commander, and during his service visited Australia for the first time. On demobilisation, he returned to St Mary’s to work for Dickson Wright and Sir Arthur (later Lord) Porritt, and passed the final FRCS at the sixth attempt. An exchange sponsored by Arthur Porritt took him in 1949 to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, where he came under the surgical mentorship of Charles Huffnagal and learned the latest techniques of vascular surgery. On his return, he passed his masters in surgery, gave a Hunterian Lecture on arterial replacement with grafts, and became assistant director (honorary consultant) of the surgical unit under Charles Rob. It was in 1954 that he performed the first operation to prevent strokes. The patient was Ada Tuckwell, who had had many transient ischaemic attacks. The decision was taken by Denis Brinton and Pickering to carry out arteriography – in those days a hazardous procedure. This revealed a short stenosis of the internal carotid artery, the source of the previous emboli. Charles Rob delegated the operation to Felix. He had grave concerns that this might induce a stroke during the operation, but Rob and Pickering took the view that without it this would happen inevitably. May 19th was a cold day. The operating theatre was chilled. Ice packs were placed over the patient to reduce the risk of brain damage. Felix remarked that you could almost hear the nurses’ teeth chattering. The operation was carried out in the presence of some members of the council of the American College of Surgeons who were visiting the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Happily, the operation was successful and the patient lived for another 20 years without neurological symptoms. It was a superb outcome for the patient, but even more for mankind as this opened the doors for stroke prevention surgery on a major scale. Felix always referred to it as ‘my little operation’, but its impact was anything other than little. In a later article he quoted Winston Churchill as saying: ‘We have reached the end of the beginning’. He remained anxious about its scientific credentials until the results of a large multicentre trial showed once and for all just how valuable it had been in preventing stroke. Eastcott’s vascular surgical practice grew steadily from then on and he attracted the complex and difficult cases to St Mary’s and the other hospitals with which he had a connection, the Royal Masonic Hospital and King Edward VII Hospital for Officers. His book *Arterial surgery* (London, Pitman Medical) was another major contribution. It had been suggested to him by Zachary Cope, but it took several years to prepare and was finally published in 1969. It was a big success. Two further editions followed, the third in 1992, almost 10 years after he retired. He published extensively and was the editorial secretary of the *British Journal of Surgery*. Felix received many invitations to lecture around the world, particularly in the USA and Australia. In 1973 he was the King’s Fund travelling fellow to Australia and New Zealand. He was honoured in many countries and by many colleges and received honorary fellowships from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He received the Fothergill gold medal of the Medical Society of London 1974 and the Galen medal of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1993. At the Royal College of Surgeons, he was an examiner from 1964 to 1970, a council member from 1971, vice-president from 1981 to 1982, and was acting president for a few weeks after the untimely death of Sir Alan Parks. He was a Hunterian professor and Bradshaw lecturer and was awarded the Cecil Joll prize. An enthusiastic Freemason, he ensured a continuous and major source of funding for the College from the Grand Lodge. He was later appointed to the Court of Patrons. Long after his retirement, Felix would attend early morning meetings in the vascular unit at St Mary’s, when he would recall in vivid detail some of his old patients and their problems. He loved his work: on one occasion in the middle of an operation he turned to his anaesthetist, Harry Thornton, and said, ‘Harry, I can’t believe they are paying us to do this’. Felix had many other interests. He always supported the music society at St Mary’s and sometimes participated. He loved to play the piano and did so most days after dinner: he called this ‘washing-up music’. Since his prep-school days he had been fascinated by flying and flew his own Tiger Moth. He was an elegant skier, an accomplished linguist, and a member of the Garrick Club. He had a few helpful encounters with the medical world. Once, in Australia, he choked on a piece of meat. He whispered hoarsely ‘Heimlich, Heimlich’. Sir Peter Bell responded with life-saving speed. Long before many of his contemporaries he appreciated the importance of non-invasive measurements in vascular disease, and so began the Irvine Laboratory, established by John Hobbs and W T Irvine. Felix supported Andrew Nicolaides and made sure that he combined vascular and cardiac surgical skills, at that time unique in the UK though common in the USA. At St Mary’s he worked closely with a wide group of colleagues, especially Ian Kenyon, Lance Bromley and Mike Snell. He also maintained close contact with other surgeons both in London, like Roger Greenhalgh at Charing Cross, and the USA, such as Michael de Bakey. He was president of the Vascular Surgical Society, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the Medical Society of London. He contributed to the design for the tie of the Vascular Surgeons, which was based on a postcard received from Dickson Wright showing an artery dancing with a vein. He was the college visitor to the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from 1972 to 1980. He was president of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1997. A romantic soul, he dearly loved his wife and family. He died on 25 October 2009. A memorial service in St Clement Danes was attended by the president and council of our college and the council of the Vascular Society of Great Britain.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000926
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

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First Title value, for Searching Bovill, Edward (1846 - 1908)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Bowden, Stephen ( - 1896)

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First Title value, for Searching Bowen, Essex (1829 - 1890)

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First Title value, for Searching Bowen, Robert (1817 - 1895)

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First Title value, for Searching Bower, Robert (1803 - 1873)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373185373185
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the Royal College of Surgeons and Trinity College, Dublin, and at the University of Glasgow. He was a Surgeon in the Navy, and died in retirement at his residence, Northland Row, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, in 1879 or 1880.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001002
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373186373186
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at the Borough Schools, and became a Surgeon in the Royal Navy, from which he retired as Staff Surgeon (2nd Class). He was then for a time Surgeon to Parkhurst Prison, Isle of Wight. He died at his residence, 12 Trentham Terrace, Grove Road, Bow Road, E, on March 27th, 1876.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001003
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bowker, Richard Ryther Steer (1815 - 1903)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Dover, Frederick ( - 1885)

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First Title value, for Searching Dalliwall, Kenneth Hayat Singh (1913 - 2010)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373438373438
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Kenneth Dalliwall was a much respected consultant orthopaedic surgeon who served many hospitals in the north east London area over the years. He worked at the Whipps Cross, Connaught and Wanstead hospitals, and at the Walthamstow and Loughton Children's hospitals. He was also an assistant surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital and practised privately in Harley Street. Retiring at the age of 65 in 1978, he continued in medico-legal practice for five years. He was born in Mussoorie, India, on 25 March 1913, the elder of two sons of Har (Harry) Bhajan Singh Dalliwall, a barrister, and his wife, Emma Elizabeth née Colville. The family went to England in 1915, but sadly the father died when Kenneth was a young boy. From Forest School, Snaresbrook, Kenneth went to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he studied natural science. He proceeded to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his clinical years. His brother also entered medicine and became a general practitioner in Southport. Kenneth's years as a student saw many structural changes at Bart's in West Smithfield. The surgical block with five operating theatres, one on each floor, had already been completed in 1930 with a complement of 250 beds. So dressers were allocated to clerk and look after patients allocated to them. A year before he qualified an equivalent medical block was built to the south of the square - the so-called 'King George V block' - that was opened by Queen Mary. Students had excellent tuition in surgery from George Gask and Sir James Paterson Ross, and one of the chief assistants, John P Hosford, a general surgeon, who at that time had an interest in orthopaedics. Respite from Ken's studies came by sailing with United Hospitals, at Burnham-on-Crouch, a form of exercise and relaxation that never deserted him throughout his years as a consultant and into retirement. After qualifying, he held house appointments at the Kent and Sussex hospitals. He volunteered to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps after a further post at the Seaman's Hospital, Greenwich. As a surgical specialist with the rank of major, he went to France shortly after D-Day and served in field hospitals during the Allies' advance in Normandy. An interest in trauma was ignited during these years and prepared him for his future specialist career in orthopaedics. Towards the end of the war he was sent to the Far East. Japan surrendered when he was on board a ship off Singapore. He went into prisoner of war camps to help poorly nourished Australian soldiers, and for the next few months accompanied many of them back to Australia. He remained with the troops in hospitals in Sydney until he returned to England. He was demobilised in 1947, but continued a strong connection with the Territorial Army as a colonel commanding the 57 Middlesex General Hospital at Harrow. For these services he was decorated with a TD and bar. Having gained the FRCS in 1943 during the war years, he continued registrar training in general surgery at the Dreadnought Hospital before specialising in orthopaedics at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street. Here he worked for, and was influenced by, H Jackson Burrows and Sidney Higgs. Burrows later became dean of the Institute of Orthopaedics, Postgraduate Medical Federation, University of London and Higgs was a great organiser, but very demanding of his trainees in his meticulous attention to detail. In 1953, and at the age of 40, he was enjoying a successful medical career and a thriving social life. Through an interest in drama he met Margaret Faulds, a personnel officer who worked in the City of London. At the New Lindsay Theatre Club in London's Notting Hill, they discovered a mutual interest in drama, a love of wining and dining and in conversation. In the early years of their friendship, Margaret needed a crash course in the art of sailing. On one of these occasions, after Margaret had cooked a superb meal in the tiny galley of a small sailing boat, Ken proposed. They married in Lancashire on 25 November 1957. Margaret retired from her City job in 1961 in order to support Ken and worked as an administrator and secretary in his private practice. After working all week, they dashed up to Norfolk for a period of rest and relaxation. Much of this time was spent sailing and with friends in the East Anglian Cruising Club. In 1962 they bought *Betty*, a 21 foot twin-berthed, wooden sailing cruiser. Before he retired he was a member of many yacht clubs: the Royal Burnham and Royal Corinthian at Burnham-on-Crouch, the Littleship Club, London, and the Cambridge Cruising Club. He was a life member of the Naval and Military Club. In 1984, when Hawthorn Cottage, Thurn, Norfolk, came on the market, they moved from Essex to enjoy Norfolk all year round. They moved Betty to a mooring at Boundary Farm, Oby, and became popular members of the local community: their zest for life contributed greatly to the village's social calendar. Kenneth Dalliwall remained a true gentleman, a wonderful husband, a man who enjoyed the company of friends. As a man of faith he believed that death was not the end of his existence. He died on 28 June 2010, and was survived by his wife of 53 years, Margaret. One Norfolk friend in a tribute at his funeral held at St Edmund's Church, Thurne, Norfolk described his long years of work as 'a long dedication to his practice and patients that is another testimony to one of Ken's greatest qualities - his sense of duty and loyalty'.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001255
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Welbank, Richard (1797 - 1870)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-01-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003400-E003499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375645375645
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in the Tower of London, where his father was an Ordnance Official. He was educated at the Charterhouse from 1809-1813, where he acquired a life-long taste for the Classics. He was articled to his uncle, John Welbank, practising in Chancery Lane, one of the old class of surgeons who dispensed their own drugs and surgical appliances, but did not attend cases of midwifery as in general practice. Richard Welbank then studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital as dresser to John Abernethy and House Surgeon to John Painter Vincent (qv), where he suggested to Vincent the application of fuming nitric acid to cases of sloughing phagedaena, as used in military hospitals for hospital gangrene. Previously, constitutional treatment had failed, and Abernethy had clasped his hands over a case and passed on to the next bed, exclaiming, "I don't know what to do!" Welbank described eight cases of sloughing phagedaena so treated. As a matter of fact, fuming nitric acid applied was less painful and more effectual in arresting the prevalent sloughing phagedaena in the hospital than the cautery. Welbank then joined his uncle in practice in Chancery Lane, refusing, so it was said, the offer to become a general assistant to Abernethy in his private practice. Welbank was the first Fellow elected by the Fellows to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843, and on taking his seat said, "I do value it extremely, as it may be the means of enabling me to extend to the younger members of the profession that encouragement which for thirty years of my professional life I have so much felt the disheartening want of myself". In the interests of the Surgeons on the staff of the large London Hospitals the College, by its regulations in 1826, had refused to recognize instruction given at County Hospitals and by private lecturers. Welbank supported Sir William Lawrence in an attempt to induce the Council to revise their regulations and was one of the signatories convening a meeting of Members of the College to consider the question. He retired from the Council in 1849 on account of failing health. He was an active Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, then meeting in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was a Vice-President. During later years he lived at Clarence Place, Kilburn, and died on August 20th, 1870. The sole photograph of him, taken by an amateur, is in the College Collection. Publications:- "Observations on Sloughing Phagedaena." - *Med-Chir Trans*, 1821, xi, 361. *Practical Commentaries on the Present Knowledge and Treatment of Syphilis*, 8vo, London, 1825. "Necessity of Investigating the Distinctions between Syphilis and other Varieties of Venereal Disease." - *Med-Chir Trans*, 1827, xiii, 563.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003462
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Welch, Francis (1810 - 1883)

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First Title value, for Searching Power, Sir D'Arcy (1855 - 1941)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-03-15 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000300-E000399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372526372526
Occupation Orthopaedic surgeon
Details David Harding-Jones was an orthopaedic surgeon in Carmarthen, Wales. He was born in Stratford, East London, on 3 August 1936, one of a pair of identical twins. His father, William, was a Presbyterian minister. His mother was Gertrude Alice née Roberts. He was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, and Charing Cross Hospital. After junior posts, he specialised in orthopaedics, becoming a registrar at the Westminster Hospital, rotating registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and Hereford General Hospital, and senior registrar at the United Cardiff Hospitals. He was appointed consultant orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the West Wales General Hospital, Carmarthen. At the College he was regional adviser in orthopaedics for south Wales. He died on 27 March 2005 after a short and sudden illness and is survived by his wife June née Hitchens, whom he married in 1960, and by his three sons (Andrew, Ian and Neil), two daughters (Alison and Fiona) and five grandchildren (Bethan, Thomas, Iestyn, Ella and Angus).
Resource Identifier RCS: E000340
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wells, George Lee (1856 - 1913)

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First Title value, for Searching Wells, John Robinson (1808 - 1904)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Graham, Norman Garrick (1932 - 2010)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-07-07 2011-07-20
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001200-E001299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373439373439
Occupation General surgeon
Details Garrick Graham was a consultant general surgeon in Huddersfield from 1967 to 1993 and chairman of the Huddersfield NHS Trust for many years after 1992 and into his retirement. He was born in Palmerson North, New Zealand, on 15 December 1932. His father, Cecil Davies Graham, worked in life insurance and his mother, Martha Berneice Isabel née Glass, was a housewife. Through his father he was proud of his lineage through 'Graham' of the 'House of Montrose'. Garrick Graham was a proud member of the Huddersfield St Andrew's Society from 1968 and became 'chief' in 1977 and again in the 1980s. His education commenced at the Central Primary School, New Plymouth, New Zealand, where he was 'dux' in 1945. This was followed by secondary education at King's College, Auckland, where he gained the Swale's memorial biology and the Moorhouse science prizes in 1950. In addition to these scholastic achievements he represented the school XI at cricket in 1950. Garrick went to Otago University medical school from 1951 to 1956 and was greatly influenced by D'Ath in pathology, who gave superb clinico-pathological tutorials and W E Adams, an anatomist, who had a great gift for imparting his knowledge. After qualification he was a houseman in the Auckland hospitals from 1958 to 1959 and then a surgical registrar up to 1962, when he passed the FRACS. During his years in New Zealand he led a very active life in sport. He had played cricket for the university first XI and was in the Waikato provincial team in 1955. He also kept himself fit as a member of the Otago Rugby Union Referees Association. In 1964 he went to the UK as a lecturer with senior registrar status at Leeds General Infirmary, where he was fortunate to work with John C Goligher. He was taught the importance of good clinical work underpinning all other areas of practice. During this period of training, Garrick Graham had many joint publications on ulcerative colitis, including 'Early surgery in the management of severe ulcerative colitis' (*Brit.med.J.*, 1967 2 193) and 'Reliability of physical signs in patients with severe ulcerative colitis' (*Brit.med.J.*, 1971 2 746). He also published on many aspects of bowel surgery, acute pancreatitis, the biliary tract and vagotomy. In 1967 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Huddersfield. He was widely respected as a busy and approachable general surgeon, who was also an examiner in surgery for the BDS at the University of Leeds and in the final MB BCh. He assumed managerial roles for several years leading up to his retirement and wrote an article 'Self-governing hospital: a hospital manager's assessment' (*Brit J Hosp Med* 1989 42, 438). This was from his experience in the years 1986 to 1991 as the part-time unit general manager at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. He became a membership councillor and was elected by the local population to help steer the Catherdale and Huddersfield Trust into the future. Passionate about health and health services, he assumed the role of chairman of Huddersfield NHS Trust from November 1992 and was involved for many years following his retirement. 'Huddersfield Royal Infirmary always occupied a special place in his heart: he was a great man and I miss him greatly,' wrote one colleague from the Trust. He married Joy Frances Bayly on his 24th birthday in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. They had three children: Michael Ian, born in New Zealand in 1958, became a research manager in the pharmaceutical industry and now works in finance; Kathryn Denise, also born in New Zealand, was a stewardess on cruise liners but more recently a primary school teacher; and Jacky Joy, who was born in the UK, is a former BBC journalist and now a vicar in the Anglican church. Relaxation in Garrick's consultant years came from playing golf to a high standard - he won the Moynihan cup (Leeds) in 1977. In his earlier years as a consultant he switched his allegiance to Association Football. From active participation as a referee in rugby union in New Zealand, in the UK he followed the 'round ball'. From 1970 to 1974 he was director of Huddersfield Town Football club. As early as 1990 Garrick developed a keen interest in wines and had an extensive cellar in his large Victorian house. For his last 10 to 15 years he had been particularly interested in wines from New Zealand. To accompany the wines, in retirement he also became very interested in cooking and became an accomplished chef. He and Joy hosted many fun dinner parties. Norman Garrick Graham died on 25 February 2010 and was survived by his wife of 54 years Joy, their three children and three grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001256
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bowring, George (1818 - 1902)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Curling, Thomas Blizard (1811 - 1888)

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First Title value, for Searching Jackson, William (1792 - 1867)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Jacobson, Walter Hamilton Acland (1847 - 1924)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-05-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002300-E002399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374522374522
Occupation General surgeon
Details The second son and sixth child of the Rev William Jacobson, sometime Scholar of Lincoln and Fellow of Exeter, then Public Orator and Vice-Principal of Magdalen Hall, soon afterwards Professor of Divinity, and later Bishop of Chester. He was born at the little red-brick house in New College Lane, Oxford. His mother was a daughter of Dawson Turner, banker, of Great Yarmouth. His eldest sister married Sir William Hooker, the botanist; and another, Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian. Walter Jacobson was the godson and namesake of Sir Henry Acland, then Regius Professor of Medicine, and the promoter of the study of Natural Science at Oxford. The classical atmosphere which surrounded him at Oxford was continued at Winchester and again on his entering Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He graduated with first class honours in the School of Natural Science in 1869, entered Guy's Hospital, qualified MRCS in 1872 and FRCS in 1875. Twelve years later, on the establishment of the MCh degree at Oxford, he considered it his duty to sit for it, and was the first to take the degree in March, 1887. At Guy's Hospital he became Demonstrator of Anatomy, Assistant Surgeon in 1876, and Teacher of Operative Surgery, but did not become full Surgeon until twenty-four years later, in 1900. He was then full Surgeon for five years and Consulting Surgeon for nearly twenty. It was as Assistant Surgeon that he rapidly developed into a wonderful and unrivalled teacher of anatomy and surgery. Much of his experience as an operator was gained as Surgeon to the Hospital for Women and Children in the Waterloo Road. From 1893-1898 he was Examiner in Anatomy, and from 1900-1905 a member of the Court of Examiners in Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, which he conscientiously resigned on ceasing active work at Guy's. He also examined in Surgery for the University of Oxford. His work at Guy's came before everything; living in Great Cumberland Place, near the Marble Arch, he was accustomed to walk the four miles to Guy's; he would visit as early as 7 o'clock new and urgent cases, and make long preparation by drawing on the blackboard before his lectures. He had a fascinating personality and a scintillating wit, linked with numerous oddities. 'Pom's' personal ascendancy permitted the exercise of blunt truth and sarcasm upon students, but he never meant harm, and natural kindness, sympathy, and generosity made his out-patient class attendances both instructive and amusing. He was the hero of numberless tales, retold whenever Guy's men met, some of which are related in his memorial notices. He retired to Lordine Court, Ewhurst, Sussex, where there was a large garden and a pond. He married in 1891 Miss Edith Mary Sturgis, of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, who survived him. They had one son, Burton, who in 1905, at the age of 4, fell into the pond and was drowned. This cast a shadow over Jacobson's later years and brought about complete retirement. "The loss of this never-failing sunshine, morning and evening, a solace and encouragement in my very hard work, has led me to lay it down. And I am not only fifty-eight, but fifty-eight plus many years of habitual want of sleep." This was in allusion to persistent insomnia. At Ewhurst he devoted himself to gardening, sending fruit and vegetables up to Guy's; to the poor of Ewhurst he also made weekly gifts of supplies. During the War he gave Ambulance Lectures in the neighbouring villages. On Sundays he taught the village children Scripture, and after Sunday School encouraged them to play games. His last illness began insidiously; for many months he passed blood at intervals from the bladder, he also passed a small fragment of a papilloma, but he considered himself too old for surgical intervention. He died on September 16th, 1924, at the age of 77. Publications: Jacobson's *Operations in Surgery* (1st ed, 1888) aimed at being more comprehensive in scope and fuller in detail than similar works, and at once became the textbook for all higher examinations in surgery. *Diseases of the Male Generative Organs*, 1883. He revised several editions of John Hilton's classic *Rest and Pain*. He contributed to Holmes's *System of Surgery* and Heath's *Dictionary of Surgery*. He was the English editor of the *Annals of Surgery* from 1896-1903.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002339
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jaffray, Francis (1861 - 1919)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Jalland, William Gibson (1813 - 1857)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Jalland, William Hamerton ( - 1918)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching James, David Philip ( - 1916)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching James, George Thomas Brooksbank (1867 - 1928)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching James, Henry (1817 - 1900)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching James, John (1825 - 1913)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Kock, Nils Gustav Johannes (1924 - 2011)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2012-09-07 2015-03-20
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/375031375031
Occupation Colorectal surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist
Details Nils Kock, professor of surgery and chief of the department of surgery II, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, was an eminent colorectal surgeon, widely known for his development of the 'Kock pouch', a continent pouch formed by using the terminal ileum after colectomy. Known as 'Nicke' to his friends, Nils Kock was born on 29 January 1924 in the Finnish town of Jakobstad ('Jacob's city'), to use its Swedish name, and Pietarsaari ('Peter's Island') in Finnish. This town in Ostrobothnia, western Finland, on the Gulf of Bothnia, is an important Finnish port and industrial centre with some 20,000 inhabitants. Nils Kock's family were Finnish-Swedish in origin. His father, Emil Kock, owned an equipment store in Jakobstad: his mother, Aili Kock née Lönnmark, was a housewife. Nils had one older brother, Sven, who became a professor of economics, and an older sister, Auda Andersson, a language teacher. The first four years of Nils' school life were spent in the Jakobstad Folkskola, or elementary school, followed by eight years at the Jakobstad Samlycéum or secondary school. His teenage years were interrupted by the Second World War. Drafted into the Finnish Army, he was involved in the confrontations between Russia, Germany and the Western Allies. Entering the Army as a private in the heavy artillery, by the end of the war he had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. His home town of Jakobstad was bombed by the Russians during the war years. Nils Kock was always modest about his war-time experiences, but these years remained important to him for the rest of his life: he was very proud of belonging to the Finnish Second World War veterans. Demobilised after the war, Nils applied for entrance to Helsinki University to study medicine. As his school grades were not all that outstanding, even after being given extra marks for exemplary military service, his first application was turned down. Clearly disappointed at the outcome, he entered what he felt was the second best option, the dental school. Within a year he re-applied for a place on the medical course at Helsinki University and was successful. He was further compensated for this early upset by meeting his future wife, Birgit Bretenstein (known as 'Bie'), a student of languages. She was born in Tampere in southern Finland. Their romance led to their wedding in 1950 at a small family ceremony. They had a very happy and successful life together. The first of two daughters, Anki, was born in Helsinki in May 1952. Nils graduated in 1951 and held post-qualification house appointments in Helsinki, but to realise his ambition of specialising in surgery, he decided to move to Sweden in the hope of gaining entrance to a residency programme. Travelling in the autumn of 1952 with his wife and daughter, he studied hard in order to pass the Swedish qualifying examination in the spring of 1955. By now the Kocks had another daughter, Maria, who was born in Gothenburg in January 1955. Having a Swedish licence to practice, he managed to get a foot on the first rung of the ladder as an assistant in surgery in the department of surgery I, Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The period of higher surgical training within the University Hospital was to last another five years or more. He was to remain in Gothenburg for the rest of his professional life: from 1974 to 1990, when he retired as professor of surgery and chief of the department of surgery II, Sahlgrenska University Hospital. He formed the opinion that to progress in his chosen career of surgery, basic science education must work hand-in-hand with clinical work. Supervised for two to three years by Bjorn Folkow, head of the department of physiology at Gothenburg, Nils worked towards a PhD thesis. Entitled 'An experimental analysis of mechanisms engaged in reflex inhibition of intestinal motility', he defended his thesis before the adjudicating panel, receiving his doctorate in 1959. At this early stage of his training he had established a laboratory for 'urodynamic' studies, and adapted the apparatus for pressure studies on intestinal segments as bladder substitutes on both canine and feline models. This was just the beginning of his future clinical research, with projects that led to innovations in continence-preserving urological and colo-rectal techniques in patients undergoing cystectomy and procto-colectomy. For years those patients with conditions requiring radical colectomy accepted the need for a permanent opening or ileostomy, for which external appliances/bags were required over the stoma to collect faecal waste. There was still a degree of patient satisfaction of 'conventional ileostomy', as popularised by Bryan Brooke of Birmingham, who had founded the Ileostomy Association in 1956 in the UK. Similarly, urine drainage bags were acceptable in patients after total cystectomy with ileal conduits, and continued to prove satisfactory. However, in 12% of patients the continuous flow of faecal material/urine over the abdominal wall caused skin erosion, and prolapse of the ileostomy and para-stomal hernias were also significant problems. Clearly, other approaches were needed. During his animal experiments that were part of the evolution of the 'continent ileostomy', Kock discovered that graded filling of the sigmoid colon as well as small bowel segments induced strong pressure waves, even when low volumes of fluid were introduced. Such pressures were sufficient to overcome sphincter tone and allow leakage of fluid. But by detubularising of the intestinal segments using a new double folding technique and suturing together the opened terminal ileum, a spherical 'reservoir' could be constructed virtually free of pressure on filling. A satisfactory 'bladder/reservoir' capacity with minimal leakage therefrom resulted after years of experimental work. This unique invention meant that patients whose colon and rectum had been removed could be offered an alternative to an external appliance. Stimulated by these promising experiments, in 1967 Kock began a clinical study using low-pressure reservoir continent ileostomy after procto-colectomy in patients with ulcerative colitis. The reservoir was constructed on a distal 15cm of ileum and the outlet or stoma from the pouch passed through the rectus abdominis muscle at an acute angle to form a flat cutaneous ileostomy. It was hoped that rectus muscle tone would be sufficient to gain continence. Sadly, in many cases it proved insufficient to stop leakage from the internal pouches, and alternatives were sought. In 1969, Nil Kock published a landmark article on this, the 'Kock pouch', or continent ileostomy ('Intra-abdominal "reservoir" in patients with permanent ileostomy. Preliminary observations on a procedure resulting in fecal "continence" in five ileostomy patients' *Arch Surg*. 1969 Aug;99[2]:223-31), describing a surgical method for achieving continence by creating an internal reservoir in the form of a sphere. Fashioned from the lower end of the patient's own small intestine it led to an opening or stoma on the patients' abdominal wall. Several times a day the patient would sit on the toilet, insert a catheter via the stoma and into the pouch and drain out waste material. It was only necessary to place a small dressing over the stoma to absorb mucus in between regular self-catheterisations. A 'nipple valve' constructed by intussuscepting a short outer segment of the efferent limb at the stoma achieved a greater degree of continence: some valves required stapling in order to increase stability. But evacuation difficulties, stenosis, slippage of the valve or leakage still remained the Achilles heel. None of these problems and complications were ignored by Kock and the many other investigators who were attracted to this revolutionary concept. Solutions were found whenever possible. Needless to say, long-term studies are being done on continent ileostomies, with or without valve mechanisms. The incidence of pouchitis, improvements on the nipple valve and, most important of all, pouch durability and need for revisions are being researched. Many studies were done by Nils Kock himself, assessing quality of life and patient satisfaction. Kock's method spread world-wide, and specialist centres in North America and other parts of Scandinavia began to report good or improved results. A Canadian devotee, Zane Cohen, set up a clinic at the University of Toronto after first visiting Kock at St Mark's Hospital, London, where he held a fellowship. He described him as 'an amazing individual who was kind, clever, committed and creative'. Cohen and his colleagues modified and worked on the Kock pouch procedure at the University of Toronto, and the Scandinavian experience has been shared and improved throughout other parts of the world. Nils was a charismatic tutor and skilled clinician who generously shared his skills and ideas with others: he also very much preferred to 'go his own way'. In so doing he expressed a slight distrust of hospital administration and bureaucracy in general. On joining the permanent staff of his old medical school, he set up a private clinical and experimental gastroenterological research unit with a staff of research nurses and graduate assistants, who constituted the cornerstone of his research activities. From this laboratory emanated a large number of original papers and academic theses in gastroenterology and urology. Over the years he himself had over 300 publications, including those detailing modifications necessary to overcome problems with the Kock pouch. As an early part of his own training, and to broaden his experience of other systems of healthcare, in 1968 he and his family went for a year to the USA. In Buffalo, New York, he worked with Bud Schenk in laboratories attached to the Edward J Meyer Memorial Hospital, doing research work on intestinal circulation. No doubt he imbibed the cut and thrust of discussions on 'grand rounds', so common in USA institutions. Nils had numerous invitations to lecture and demonstrate his techniques abroad. In 1973 he was asked by the thoracic surgeon, Ake Senning, to spend a sabattical year and to establish a new clinic for gastrointestinal surgery in Zürich, Switzerland. In 1986 he went to work in the urological department of the University of Mansoura, Egypt, for several short periods. A common problem in this country is the development of carcinoma in bladders infested with bilharzia. Working with Mohammed Ghoneim, who became a great friend, he developed a Kock reservoir which would avoid a stoma after cystectomy. They started a trial using the low pressure pouch provided with an anti-reflux valve that was anastomosed directly to the urethra, a technique which is now used widely. Nils Kock was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1978, at an annual general meeting held in Swansea. At the meeting he also gave a Moynihan lecture entitled 'A new look at faecal and urinary diversion procedures'. Throughout his career he was presented with numerous awards, including, in1988, the Söderberg prize in medicine - the so-called 'small Nobel prize' - for his ground-breaking research and clinical development of continence-preserving surgery. In 1997 he received the Société Internationale d'Urologie award in recognition of his great contributions to urology. Although he was in many ways a workaholic, Nils had many interests outside medicine. He was fond of sailing his yacht round the islands of southern Sweden. In 1969 he, with two other surgeons, bought properties and land on Ljusterö, an island located in the northern part of the Tjust archipelago on the east coast of Sweden. It became a favourite place to which he could escape with his closely-knit family. His original mind led him to carpentry for relaxation, befitting a surgeon who was a good technician. He was widely read on diverse subjects, and visited the library near his home in Gothenburg on a regular basis to borrow books to read at home. Following his retirement in 1990, he and his wife lived for part of the year in southern France, where they enjoyed the French cuisine and wine. In addition they and the members of the family were able to meet up more frequently on Lustjerö. Anki, the older of the two daughters, is married and has two children, My Ernevi and Jonas: she followed her mother into the study of languages. The second daughter, Maria, has followed her father into medicine. She is an anaesthetist and specialist in intensive care at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg. She is married and has three children - Björn, a trainee cardiologist, Olaf, an intern in medicine, and Tove, who is studying psychology. Nils Kock died as he would have wished, peacefully, on 24 August 2011, at his home in Gothenburg whilst waiting to go out for lunch. He was 87. He did not wish for any fuss at his memorial service, which was non-religious. He was known to have cardiac problems, so this was presumably the cause of his sudden death. He was survived by his wife of 61 years, their two daughters and five grandchildren. As the coloproctologist Sir Alan Parks described him at the time of his election to the honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, he was 'A giant of a man in all ways, a great Scandinavian, and a great European'. His colleagues, Leif Hultén and Helge Myrvold, end their tribute: 'We who had the privilege to work and interact with "Nicke" have a lot to thank him for and have great memories to look back on. We remember him for his dedication, his curiosity, his thoughtfulness and humour.'
Resource Identifier RCS: E002848
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mather, Barrington Sherwood (1932 - 2012)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Janet Mather
Publication Date 2012-09-07 2013-11-25
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/375032375032
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon
Details Barrington Sherwood Mather, known as 'Barrie', was a surgeon in Cairns and Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Birmingham on 15 February 1932, the eldest of three children of Cecil Aubrey Mather, a general practitioner, and Dorothy Collins Mather née Guest. His brother John also became a doctor and worked as an anaesthetist in Birmingham. Barrie was a 'wartime educational casualty' (as he noted on his CV), attending nine primary schools before settling at King Edward's School in Birmingham for his secondary education. He studied medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital. In July 1959 he married Janet Michelle Guenault, who was also a doctor. Barrie was keen to travel to Australia, and to possibly work there as a flying doctor. To this end, the couple sought to gain a range of skills that would be valuable in isolated areas. Barrie obtained his diploma in obstetrics in 1960 and his FRCS in 1961. In June 1962, with his wife and infant son, he flew to Australia to take up the position of superintendent at Dalby Hospital in Queensland. He soon realised there was little scope there for his surgical skills and, in February 1963, was granted a transfer to Cairns Base Hospital as a surgical registrar. Here he was able to gain valuable experience and take on much of the accident and orthopaedic load, as these cases were not favoured by the superintendent, who was a general surgeon. In 1964 he gained a position as a teaching registrar with the University of Queensland's department of surgery at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Their policy encouraged registrars to take on a research project and, following his interest in treating fractures, he embarked on the study of the mechanical properties of human long bones, work which had relevance to crash protection in transport design. His research was partly funded by a grant from the Australian Government's National Health and Medical Research Council, and became his MD thesis. The analysis of his research data involved complex calculations, requiring him to develop an interest and expertise in the use of early computers. This led him to join a team in the Department of Health in New South Wales which was developing clinical information systems. In 1971 he moved to Melbourne, to develop computer applications for the Royal Children's Hospital. He stayed in Melbourne for ten years, but left when the toxic atmosphere of hospital politics made his position untenable. As he had spent 13 years away from surgery, returning was not possible, so he decided to complete some refresher sessions to enable him to work as a GP. In practice in rural Victoria he discovered he had not lost his diagnostic skills or his ability to perform minor surgical procedures. He always valued his surgical qualifications and the rewarding experience of the work, particularly the wide range of surgery in Cairns. He often regretted leaving there. Barrie retired in late 1998 and devoted himself to his great passion, the production, preparation and consumption of good organic food and wine, living on his smallholding in rural Victoria. He was a keen gardener and enjoyed providing a bountiful table for his family as it expanded to include sons- and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. In 2004, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, but continued to live at home with Janet, until a fall in 2012, when he had to be admitted to the local hospital. He died peacefully a few weeks later, on 31 May 2012, aged 80. Despite his condition, his last years were happy and he made the most of his love of literature and poetry, his connections with his family and community, and retained his sense of humour and his dignity. He was survived by his wife Janet, his sons, Andrew and Jeremy, his daughters, Jenny and Kathleen, and eight grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002849
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching McMinn, Robert Matthew Hay (1923 - 2012)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Vishy Mahadevan
Publication Date 2012-09-07 2013-01-23
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/375033375033
Occupation Anatomist
Details Robert Matthew Hay McMinn was a leading anatomist, who will always be associated with the medical atlas that bears his name. Known to his friends and colleagues as 'Bob', he was born on 20 September 1923 in Auchinleck, Ayrshire, the only child of Robert Martin McMinn, a local general practitioner, and Elsie Selene McMinn née Kent. A few years later, the family moved to Brighton, where Bob McMinn completed his school education on a scholarship at Brighton College. Following in his father's footsteps, he then studied medicine at Glasgow University, qualifying in 1947. Bob was a keen and accomplished sportsman during his university years, distinguishing himself as a member of the university hockey team and by being crowned in 1944 as the Scottish universities champion in the 440 yards hurdles. Immediately after completing his house officer postings in Glasgow, Bob McMinn joined the RAF for this National Service. During this period he served in Iraq, as well as in East and West Africa. He returned to the UK in 1950 and promptly joined the anatomy department of Glasgow University as a demonstrator. This marked the beginning of his career as an anatomist. In 1953 he was appointed as a lecturer in anatomy at Sheffield University, where, three years later, he was awarded a PhD. In 1958, he was awarded an MD (with commendation) by Glasgow University for his research on wound healing. In 1959, while still at Sheffield, Bob was invited by the Royal College of Surgeons of England to give the Arris and Gale lecture. In 1960 Bob joined the department of anatomy at King's College on the Strand in London as a reader, becoming titular professor in the same department, a few years later. In 1970 he was appointed as the Sir William Collins professor of human and comparative anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the last but one person to occupy this eponymous chair before it was abolished in the 1980s. Alongside the professorship he was also conservator of the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy at the college. It was during his term of office at the Royal College of Surgeons that Bob McMinn conceived of the idea of producing a pictorial atlas of human anatomy based largely on the outstanding collection of exquisite dissections of the human body that were already on display in the College's Museum of Anatomy. Most of these dissections were the work of D H Tompsett, prosector to the College. In collaboration with Ralph Hutchings, a senior laboratory technical officer and accomplished photographer, Bob McMinn authored *A colour atlas of human anatomy* (London, Wolfe) in 1977. The atlas is now into its sixth edition. It has been translated into more than 30 languages and has sold several million copies worldwide. The fourth and subsequent editions of the atlas have borne the name *McMinn's atlas of clinical anatomy*, in recognition of Bob's great and lifelong contribution to the teaching of anatomy. In the late 1980s Bob McMinn accepted from his friend and erstwhile colleague, Raymond Jack Last, the editorship of the very popular textbook, *Anatomy - regional and applied* (Edinburgh, Churchill), a book that Last first wrote in 1954, and then updated periodically up to and including the seventh edition. Bob edited the eighth and ninth editions. The skilful revision and enrichment of the original text without any loss of the style and spirit of Last's prose was a matter of great pleasure and satisfaction to Jack Last, and ensured the continued popularity of the book. Bob McMinn was an active member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland and served, in an honorary capacity, successively as programme secretary and treasurer of the society. He was also a founding member of the British Association of Clinical Anatomists (BACA), which came into existence in July 1977, and served as the association's very first honorary secretary. In July 2000, during the third joint meeting of the British Association of Clinical Anatomists and the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) held at St John's College, Cambridge, Bob was awarded the BACA medal 'to recognise and honour his global contribution to the study of anatomy through his research and outstanding publications'. Bob was awarded a fellowship (by election) of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1978. In 1948, following his graduation from medical school, Bob married Margaret Grieve Kirkwood, a fellow medical student. In 1995, Bob and his wife Margaret returned to their native Scotland to set up home in the picturesque village of Ardfern on the banks of Loch Craignish in Argyll. They enjoyed their retirement in this small and close community, participating with much enthusiasm in various village activities. Bob died on 11 July 2012 at the age of 88, after a femoral fracture sustained in a fall. His wife Margaret predeceased him by a year. They were survived by a son and a daughter, and two grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002850
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mishrick, Abdullah Shukry (1928 - 2006)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

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/375034375034
Occupation General surgeon
Details Abdallah Shukry Mishrick was a senior consultant surgeon at Syosset and Plainview hospitals on Long Island, New York. He was born in Lebanon on 28 November 1928, the son of Shukry Abdallah Mishrick, a doctor, and Matilda Mishrick née Fernainy. He was educated at the English Mission College, Cairo, Egypt, where he won several prizes, including the Lord Killearn prize for science. He went on to study medicine at Kasr Al Einy Medical School in Cairo, where he won a gold medal in physiology. He gained a BSc in 1944 and his MB BCh in 1950. He emigrated to the United States, where he trained in surgery. During the late 1950s he carried out part of his training at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island. He remained on the island, and worked for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System for the rest of his career. In 1997 he became senior vice president for medical affairs at North Shore-LIJ Health System's Syosset Hospital, and subsequently at Plainview Hospital. In 2005 he was appointed to the North Shore-LIJ Health System's board of trustees. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the International College of Surgeons and the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons. He gained his FRCS in 1970. Outside medicine, he enjoyed tennis, upland and water fowl shooting and big game hunting. He also collected stamps; he was one of the leading specialists of Egyptian stamps in the world. He was a member of the Royal Philatelic Society of London and the Collectors Club of New York. In 1952 he married Ruth Ernestine Jamal. They had two daughters, Orianna and Shareen, and a son, Shukre. Abdallah Shukry Mishrick died on 26 February 2006, aged 77. He was survived by his second wife, Jacqueline, and his daughters and son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002851
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Langshaw, James Pearson (1814 - 1896)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Langton, John (1839 - 1910)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-20
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374663374663
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born on September 27th, 1839, the youngest of three sons of Henry John Langton, a wholesale chemist, and of Anne Earnshaw Ellis, the daughter of John Ellis. He was born at Denmark Hill, on the site now occupied by King's College Hospital, and was sent to the Church Hill School at Brighton, then kept by the Rev Dr Butler, where he remained from 1849-1852. From Brighton he went to Cassel, where he lived in the house of the Court Chaplain from 1853-1856, attending school and learning German. In 1857 he was articled to John Henry Hewer, his brother-in-law, who practised in Highbury New Park. In the same year he matriculated at the London University and entered as a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Here he dressed for Edward Stanley (qv), for whom he had a warm affection. In 1862 he passed the 1st MB examination for the University of London, but never completed the course. In 1861 he became a MRCS Eng, and then was appointed House Surgeon to Sir William Lawrence (qv). Shortly afterwards Langton began to coach in anatomy; he soon made his mark as a successful teacher, and in 1865 was appointed Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. In 1868 he was elected Assistant Surgeon to St Bartholomew's Hospital on the resignation of Thomas Wormald (qv). In addition to his work as Demonstrator of Anatomy, he was Demonstrator of Operative Surgery and Demonstrator of Diseases of the Eye in conjunction with George Callender (qv). In 1873 he became Joint Lecturer in Anatomy with Sir Thomas Smith, and Demonstrator of Diseases of the Ear and Surgeon in Charge of the Aural Department. In 1881, on the retirement of Luther Holden, he became full Surgeon, holding that office till 1904, when he retired on reaching the age limit of 65, and was made Consulting Surgeon and a Governor of the hospital. In 1864 Langton was appointed Surgeon to the City of London Truss Society and held that post for forty-three years, retiring from it only three years before his death. At first he was the junior colleague of John Abernethy Kingdon (qv), a godson of John Abernethy, for whom he had an immense admiration. Later he worked with Jonathan Macready, W McAdam Eccles, and G E Gask as his juniors. This work he never tired of: he attended the Truss Society at Finsbury Square six mornings a week, leaving his home at 8 am, travelling by the Metropolitan Railway from Portland Road to Moorgate Street Station. In this way he acquired an unrivalled experience of hernia, of which he said in 1908, at the Medical Society of London, that he had seen about 250,000 cases. In addition to these activities, Langton was also Consulting Surgeon to the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, to the City of London Lying-in Hospital, to the Prince of Wales's Hospital, to the Mildmay Mission Hospital, to the Friedenheim Home for the Dying, to the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, and to the London Female Guardian Society. At the Royal College of Surgeons he filled many positions. He was a Member of the Board of Examiners in Anatomy and Physiology from 1880-1884, and a Member of the Court of Examiners from 1884-1894. He was Hunterian Professor of Surgery and Pathology in 1889-1890 ; a Member of the Council from 1890-1906, a Junior Vice-President in 1896, and Senior Vice-President in the centenary year of 1900. He was Bradshaw Lecturer in 1900, when he took as his subject, "The Association of Inguinal Hernia with Descent of the Testis". Langton was an active member of the Medical Societies, filling many offices at the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, at the Medical Society, of which he was President in 1904 and later Treasurer, and at the Clinical Society. In 1871 he married Sophia, the second daughter of John Scott, JP, of Dulwich and afterwards of Bickley, by whom he had six children, of whom three sons and two daughters survived him. John Langton was a fine upstanding man, six feet in height, rather portly late in life, clean-shaven, with fine-cut features and a mobile mouth. His parents being evangelical puritans, he was brought up, in the manner of those times, to observe the Sabbath strictly and to regard the theatre with abhorrence. This early training coloured his life and led him to be regarded by those who knew little of him as hypocritical. This he was far from being, he enjoyed life to the full, and with his ready smile and generous help endeared himself to his friends and patients. As a teacher he was first-rate. He was at his best in the wards and out-patient department, where with question and answer, and many a jest and story, he would keep a large class of students interested for two to three hours at a time. When he entered the lecture theatre his manner changed, and he became pedantic and dull. He was an excellent surgeon, devoted to his work, and imbued with the principle that the patients of the hospital are individuals, each with his own body and soul and wants and cares, to be treated kindly as men and women and not as cases. Every day of the week he came to hospital, including Sundays, and if he could catch his house surgeon in bed on Sunday morning he was delighted. As a researcher, as a pioneer in advancing the knowledge of science and of surgery, and as an author Langton was not so successful. His knowledge of hernia was unrivalled - he probably saw more cases of hernia than any living man - and he had at his command a mass of notes and of information. He intended to write a book on the subject and to give the world something out of the store of his experience, but death came and the work had not been done. He died on September 4th, 1910, after some two years of failing health, and was buried at the East Finchley cemetery. Publications: Langton edited the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of Holden's *Manual of the Dissection of the Human Body*. *The Association of Inguinal Hernia with Descent of the Testis*.- Bradshaw Lecture, Dec 12th, 1900. Editor of *St Bart's Hosp Rep*, 1881-6, xvii-xxii. Articles on "Hernia" in Heath's *Dictionary of Surgery*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002480
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lannelongue, Odilon Marc (1840 - 1911)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374664374664
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Castéra-Verduzan (Gers) in Gascony, the son of a local practitioner. He studied medicine in Paris, becoming interne in 1863, and serving under Jarjavay, Denonvilliers, Gosselin, and Cusco. He graduated MD in 1867 with a thesis on the internal circulation of the heart. Based on his own researches, it became a classic. In 1869 he became Professeur Agrégé, and in that year was appointed Surgeon to the Hospitals. During the siege of Paris he took charge of the ambulance at the Luxembourg, organized by Madame Remusat, whom he afterwards married. While doing this patriotic work he met, and became intimate with, Gambetta, ultimately attending the great statesman in his last illness. His first hospital appointment was that of Surgeon to the Bicetre, where he studied the surgical diseases of old men. He was also on the staff of the Trousseau Hospital for Children, and remained there twenty-five years. He worked at the surgery of the bones and joints and congenital malformations. He was one of the early adherents of Pasteur and recognized the part microbic infection played in necrosis. His ambition was to reduce to order the chaos of different forms of necrosis ; lie classified them in three principal groups - namely, osteomyelitic, tuberculous, and syphilitic infections. Turning to the study of congenital malformations, he published, in collaboration with his favourite pupil, Achard, a volume on congenital cysts. Next, in collaboration with Ménard, he published in 1891 a book on congenital malformations of the head and neck. He was the first surgeon in France to open the skull for relief of compression of the brain. In the fifty-nine craniectomies done by him for this purpose there was only one death. His researches on bone procured him admission to the Academy of Medicine in 1883. In 1884 he became a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine; in 1895 he was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences. He was President of the Academy of Medicine in 1911, and founded a prize for the widows of doctors, also one at the Academy of Sciences and one at the Faculty of Medicine for the assistance of students from his own part of France. At the Society of Surgery, of which he was one time President, he founded a quinquennial prize for the surgeon who by his work had done most to advance the cause of science. This prize was first awarded to an Englishman, Sir Victor Horsley (qv), in 1911. Lannelongue was held in high esteem by his colleagues, and this is shown in his selection as President of the International Congress of Medicine held in Paris, and of the International Congress of Tuberculosis in 1905. At the age of 68 he made a voyage round the world, and published a book on his experiences. He died after an illness of three days on December 21st, 1911, having only just retired from the Presidency of the Academy of Medicine. The funeral was attended by the President of the Republic, and his body was afterwards taken to his native town, where it was buried. Lannelongue's portrait, with an autograph letter, is in the Honorary Fellows' Album; it is an engraving after a painting, probably by Carolus Duran, and in the letter the great surgeon modestly suggests to Sir William MacCormac, who had asked him for it on the occasion of the Centenary of 1900, that it may be cut down in size.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002481
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Larkin, Frederick George (1847 - 1927)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-06-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002400-E002499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374665374665
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at Hoath, near Canterbury, and was educated at Guy's Hospital. He was elected President of the Physical Society, and it was before this Society that, in 1869, he read the paper on "Nephrotomy and Excision of the Kidney" which is said to have led to the use at Guy's Hospital of operative measures for the treatment of renal calculus and other lesions of the kidney. Larkin first practised at Canterbury, and moved to London about the year 1875. For more than thirty years he practised at 44 Trinity Square, SE, and won widespread popularity as a general practitioner, taking a special interest in renal and general surgery and the treatment of fractures. He became widely spoken of in medico-legal circles through his connection with what was known as the Whitechapel tragedy, when he performed the post-mortem examination of Harriet Lane. In November of the same year (1875) Larkin's clear mind and confident judgement showed to advantage in the celebrated Wainwright trial, when his accurate evidence was largely responsible for the prisoner's final conviction, winning handsome recognition from the Lord Chief Justice. Larkin's evidence fills more than nine closely printed pages in H B Irving's *Trial of the Wainwrights*. At the end of the Library copy of this work Larkin has added a note to the effect that the learned judge, Cockburn, also expressed his high appreciation of the services of the two medical witnesses for the Crown, Thomas Bond (qv) and F G Larkin, and he ordered that both of them should receive a special fee of five guineas for each day's attendance at the Old Bailey. The care and thought which Larkin brought to the solution of a forensic problem was also applied to his treatment of fractures and to his surgical work in general. After his retirement he lived at Grove Park, Kent, and there continued his early interest in farming and gardening. His chief recreation during his long life was music; this enthusiasm dated from an early association with Canterbury Cathedral. In early days of practice he was choirmaster at Holy Trinity Church, Southwark, and later he held the same office at St Augustine's at Lee. For many years also he was intimately associated with Westminster Abbey, where his friend, Sir Frederick Bridge, was organist. As deputy also he sang in the choir of the Abbey at the Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria and at the Coronations of King Edward and King George, and he was himself the composer of a number of chants and other church music. He also composed a dramatic song, "The Shipwreck", and he was at one time Hon Medical Officer to the Choir Benevolent Fund. Larkin died at Craven House, Grove Park, Kent, on January 13th, 1927, and was buried at Hoath. He was survived by his widow. One of his sons, Reginald Larkin, MD, MRCS, was his successor in practice at 44 Trinity Square. In February, 1927, this son presented to the College Library the manuscript of the paper on "Nephrotomy and Excision of the Kidney", which is thus catalogued: "The notes and rough copy of an original paper entitled: 'Nephrotomy and Excision of the Kidney', which was read before the Pupils' Physical Society of Guy's Hospital, on Saturday evening, October 9th, 1869, and to which was awarded the honour of the first prize at the end of the Winter Session." The manuscript, within 44 glass slides, is contained in a wooden case, and is accompanied by a printed account of the origin of the article by F G Larkin. Larkin's portrait accompanies his biography in the Lancet and Guy's Hospital Gazette. Publication: "Report of Post-mortem Examination of the Remains of Harriet Lane in the White-chapel Tragedy." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1875, ii, 730.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002482
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Larkins, Thomas Brooks (1812 - 1882)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Lavies, John (1798 - 1867)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Loney, William ( - 1898)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

First Title value, for Searching Long, James (1810 - 1879)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374748374748
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of James Long, a Lancashire merchant. He was probably born at Poulton, and was apprenticed to Mr Halton, a Surgeon to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. To the apprenticeship system Long used often to attribute that thorough grasp of practical detail in medicine and surgery on which his success as a practitioner was based. He completed his professional training at University College, London, where his brother George was afterwards the distinguished Professor of Greek and Latin (d 1879). His first appointment was that of House Surgeon to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He then settled in practice and was appointed Surgeon to the Dispensaries, a position held by him until 1855, when he returned to the Infirmary as one of its Surgeons. In 1867 he resigned and was appointed Consulting Surgeon, retaining to the last his interest in the Infirmary. Long assisted in founding the School of Medicine of the Infirmary, and was actively connected with it during thirty-two years, both as an Hon Secretary and as teacher, lecturing successively on anatomy, physiology, and surgery. He was deeply interested in the education of the nurses of the Infirmary, and his lectures to them, since published, were remarkably sound as well as easy and engaging in style. As a practitioner he was conspicuous for his power of diagnosis. Not a brilliant operator, he yet often obtained brilliant results by a judicious selection of cases and scrupulous care in after-treatment. His practice was for many years very large, and he was constantly called in consultation. He was a great reader and a keen observer. Being possessed of much determination and disposed to be sanguine, it can well be understood how it was that the remark was so often made about him: "Long never gives a patient up". His brusqueness undoubtedly sometimes interfered with his professional success. It was almost Abernethian, both in character and manner. But he was not unkind, though he often made remarks out of due season, and his friends knew him to be warm-hearted under a somewhat rough exterior. Long had just celebrated the seventieth anniversary of his birthday, when he died somewhat unexpectedly at his residence, 15 Hardman Street, Liverpool, on Saturday, December 20th, 1879. He was survived by a widow, four sons, and a daughter. His eldest son was Surgeon Major Long. He was buried in Hedge Hill churchyard on Dec 24th, 1879, his funeral being numerously attended by the profession and by representatives of all classes. Publications: Long published his *Lectures to Nurses* shortly before his death, and to the last was a contributor to the medical journals. His contributions are described by the *Lancet* as essentially practical. He drew attention to the use of aconite in the treatment of rigors after catheterism.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002565
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Longmore, Sir Thomas (1816 - 1895)

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by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-07-04
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002500-E002599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374749374749
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born in Southwark on October 10th, 1816, the eldest son of Thomas Longmore, Surgeon RN, and of Maria, a daughter of John Elcum. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in June, 1828, and was afterwards educated at Guy's Hospital, where he proved an industrious student and was dresser to Bransby Cooper, subsequently assisting in his private practice and in writing Sir Astley Cooper's life. He became Assistant Surgeon in the 19th Regiment of Foot, being gazetted on February 3rd, 1843, and served with the headquarters of the regiment in the Ionian Islands, in the West Indies, and in North America. He was gazetted Regimental Surgeon on March 3rd, 1854, and then served with his regiment in the Light Division of the Eastern Army from the time of its first taking the field throughout the Crimean Campaign (1854-1855) until the termination of the siege of Sebastopol. During this period he was at his post every day, but suffered severely from the effects of frostbite. He was present at the affair of Buljanac on September 19th, at the Battle of the Alma, Inkerman, and Balaclava, at the sortie of October 26th, 1854, and at the assaults of the Redan on June 18th and September 8th, 1855. For his services he was awarded the Medal with three Clasps, the Turkish Medal, and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (4th Class). He returned to England on the declaration of peace, and passed the Fellowship. On the outbreak of the Mutiny he was sent with a detachment of his regiment to India, and served with the Army in Bengal, at first as a regimental officer, and after December 31st, 1858, as Deputy Inspector of Hospitals. He was appointed Sanitary Officer to the British Forces in Bengal in January, 1859, but on the reduction of the establishment in July was ordered home and received the appointment of Principal Medical Officer of the Camp, Colchester. His operative skill had attracted such attention in the Crimea that he was given the Professorship of Military Surgery in the Medical School, Netley, founded in 1860 by Sidney Herbert for the better instruction of the medical officers of the Army. He held this post for nearly thirty-one years. On October 19th, 1872, he was promoted to the rank of Inspector (Surgeon) General, and was appointed a member of the Committee on Field Hospital Equipment. On October 10th, 1876, he was placed on the retired list, but was allowed to continue holding his Professorship. He was knighted at Osborne in 1886. He represented the British Government on a number of epoch-making missions. As early as 1864 he was deputed to attend the Congress of Geneva, afterwards known as the Geneva Convention. In 1867 he was sent to Paris and took part in the International Conferences of the Societies for Aid to Wounded Soldiers in Time of War. In 1869 he was British Government Delegate in the Berlin International Conference on Aid to Sick and Wounded in War. The Secretary for War dispatched him to Vienna in 1873 to report on the field hospital equipment collected at the Sanitäts Pavillon of the World Exhibition. In 1874 he read a paper which was the starting-point of the St John Ambulance classes. At the Conference of Societies for Aid to Sick and Wounded in War, held at Geneva in September, 1884, he again represented the Government, and was present at the International Red Cross Meeting held at Carlsruhe in the autumn of 1887. In June, 1887, when the Southern Branch of the British Medical Association met at Netley, he was President and delivered the Annual Address. In 1888 he acted at Antwerp as British Representative and Member of the International Jury for assessing the prizes offered by the German Empress Augusta for the best forms for a movable hut-hospital. In October, 1889, he was sent by the Secretary of State for War to take part in the fourth session of the French Surgical Congress then held in Paris, and was elected a Vice-President. In 1862 he married Mary Rosalie Helen, second daughter of Captain W S Moorsom, 52nd Regiment, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. He died on September 30th, 1895, at his house at Woolston, Hampshire, and was buried at Hamble. The College Collections possess several portraits of Sir Thomas Longmore. Good portraits accompany the biographies in the *Lancet*, *British Medical Journal*, and Guy's Hospital Gazette. His presentation portrait by George Reid is at Netley in the ante-room of the Officers' Mess. Publications: *On the Geneva Convention of 1864, with some Account of the National Committees formed for Aiding in Ameliorating the Condition of the Sick and Wounded of Armies in Time of War*, 8vo, 1866. *Report on the Military Medical and Surgical Field Hospital Equipment at the Universal Exhibition at Paris, and on Certain other Matters connected therewith*, fol, London, 1868. *On the Geneva Convention of 1864, in Relation to the Aid afforded by Volunteer Societies to Sick and Wounded Soldiers during the late Franco-German War*. A Lecture, 8vo, 1872. *Ambulances and Ambulance Service*, 1875. *Gunshot Injuries; their History, Characteristic Features, Complications and General Treatment, with Statistics*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1877; 2nd ed., 1895. A classic. *Report on a Mission to Paris in October, 1889, to attend the 4th Session of the French Surgical Congress, together with Observations on the Military Medical Schools of France*, 8vo, London, 1890. *Richard Wiseman: A Biographical Study*, 8vo, London, 1891. This is the standard account of Wiseman.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002566
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Lonsdale, Edward F ( - 1857)

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First Title value, for Searching Mordey, William (1803 - 1863)

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by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-08-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002700-E002799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374932374932
Occupation General surgeon
Details The son of Thomas Mordey, shipowner; studied at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals and afterwards in Paris. He commenced practice in Sunderland in 1826, when he became well known during the cholera epidemic of 1831-1832. He had charge of the Cholera Hospital and was generally praised for the good service rendered. During a further epidemic of cholera in Sunderland in 1848-1849 he was again of service acting as Cholera Surgeon to Sunderland and Hartlepool, and as Quarantine Medical Officer. For twenty-five years he was Surgeon to the Sunderland Infirmary. He served as a Magistrate and Alderman, distinguishing himself by promoting sanitary improvements, and in forming the People's Park. A sufferer from gout, which ran in his family, he sustained a compound fracture of the leg, which impaired his health. He had an apoplectic seizure and died on the following day, September 15th, 1863, at 59 John Street, Sunderland. Publication: *History and Medical Treatment of Cholera, as it appeared in Sunderland in* 1831 (with W HASLEWOOD), 8vo, London, 1832.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002749
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harding, Thomas Massey (1825 - 1910)

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First Title value, for Searching Harding, William (1809 - 1890)

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First Title value, for Searching Harding, William Joshua (1874 - 1904)

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First Title value, for Searching Hardwicke, Junius (1820 - 1895)

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First Title value, for Searching Hare, Samuel (1783 - 1867)

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First Title value, for Searching Hargreaves, Isaac ( - 1856)

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First Title value, for Searching Harkin, Alexander (1818 - 1894)

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First Title value, for Searching Harper, Philip Harry (1822 - 1883)

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First Title value, for Searching Harrinson, Isaac (1810 - 1888)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374305374305
Occupation General surgeon
Details Educated at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals. He settled in practice at Reading in 1839 in partnership with George May (qv). He acquired an extensive practice, being specially skilled in midwifery, and from a large income devoted much to benefactions and charities. He erected the north aisle of St Mary's Church, and induced the Corporation to carry out important improvements at St Mary's Butts. He helped to rebuild the Town Hall with a subscription of £1000, and to restore the Almshouses. He was one of the founders and an enthusiastic supporter of the Reading Pathological Society, and was the first President in 1885. He was also a Fellow of the London Obstetrical Society. He died of pneumonia at his house in Castle Street, Reading, on June 26th, 1888, and his funeral was largely attended by his fellow-townsmen. His portrait in the Borough Council Chamber and a cross in St Mary's Churchyard keep alive the memory of a benefactor to Reading. There is also a photograph of him in old age in Dr Jamieson B Hurry's *History of Reading*. Publication: "Statistics of Fever in 2000 Consecutive Cases of Labour." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1875, ii, 39.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002122
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Clement Mears (1816 - 1889)

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First Title value, for Searching Harris, Henry (1810 - 1895)

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First Title value, for Searching Harris, Hetman Charles ( - 1870)

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First Title value, for Searching Harris, John (1782 - 1855)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374309374309
Occupation General surgeon
Details Came of a West Country family which held property in Cornwall and Devon and used coat-armour from the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was one of eight children, and in 1810 married Miss Delpratt, a Huguenot, by whom he had two sons. He was educated near Plymouth, was apprenticed to Samuel Luscombe from 1798-1802, and learned surgery afterwards under John Sheldon, who lived in Exeter after his retirement as a teacher in the Hunterian School in London. Harris was elected Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital on May 23rd, 1815, in succession to Peter Radford, and died at his house at Southernhay as Senior Surgeon on June 30th, 1855. He was in partnership with Mr Cornish, a well-known surgeon of Exeter, and was the first of the hospital surgeons to take part officially in the municipal affairs of the city. He was sheriff twice, mayor once, and was for many years the senior magistrate and deputy mayor. He was a member of the old 'Chamber' and was one of the Charity Trustees, as well as a Surgeon to the Exeter Dispensary and Lying-in Charity. Brought up as a Quaker, he became a staunch member of the Church of England. He passed for a wit, was an excellent draughtsman, and was a lover of the animals which Wombwell often brought to the city. He became a singularly graceful operator, with a vein of originality, both in carrying out operations and in planning treatment. He is described as "rather tall, of pink complexion, with comical eyes and a laughter-provoking expression". His portrait in oils hangs in the Hospital, having been given in 1889 by his grandson, J Delpratt Harris, Surgeon to the Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002126
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harris, James Penn (1817 - 1892)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374310374310
Occupation General surgeon
Details Born at West Cowes, Isle of Wight, on May 2nd, 1817. After an apprenticeship he studied at University College Hospital in Liston's time, John Marshall being a fellow-student and friend. He commenced in Liverpool as House Surgeon to the old Northern Hospital in Leeds Street; then he practised, first in Clarence Street, and afterwards in Rodney Street. He acted as Surgeon to St Anne's Dispensary, the Ear and Eye Institute, and the Asylum for Orphan Boys. At the St Anne's Dispensary, subsequently known as the Liverpool Eastern Dispen¬sary, he had as colleague John Nottingham, who became Surgeon to the Royal Southern Hospital. He was besides a member of the Medical Institute, a Fellow of the Liverpool Northern Medical Society, and a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute of London. In connection with these societies he published addresses which he had delivered. Some three years before his death he was seized with a severe illness in Naples, perhaps typhoid fever. He retired from practice and died on May 20th, 1892, after a long and painful illness. He was survived by his widow, but there was no issue of the marriage. There is a photograph of him in the Fellows' Album. He is described as a tall and handsome man, reserved and retiring in disposition, but courteous in manner and of much personal dignity.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002127
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Samuel (1794 - 1865)

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First Title value, for Searching Harris, William (1808 - 1896)

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First Title value, for Searching Harris, William ( - 1878)

2025-08-21T22:54:16Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-03-29 2012-04-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002100-E002199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374313374313
Occupation General surgeon
Details Studied at University College Hospital; was Surgeon to the Surrey House of Correction; served as Assistant Surgeon to the 88th Regiment in the Crimean War, and was awarded the Medjidie Medal and Crimean War Medals. He later practised at Truro, and died between November 2nd, 1878, and 1879.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002130
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Harris, Wintour (1807 - 1889)

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