Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Anaesthetist

First Title value, for Searching Rosen, Michael (1927 - 2018)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-01-18
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Professor Michael Rosen was a pioneering anaesthetist and former president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. 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: E010053
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Boulton, Thomas Babington (1925 - 2016)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-07-06
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010300-E010399
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Thomas Babington ‘Tom’ Boulton was a consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. 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: E010310
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Gonsalves, Alexander James (1935 - 2001)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008600-E008699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380813380813
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Unfortunately the College lost touch with Alexander Gonsalves. He was born on 8 December 1935. After passing the FRCS he emigrated to Sacramento, California, where he was in practice as an anaesthetist at the Kaiser Permante Medical Centre. He died on 1 November 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008630
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Ball, Pamela Margaret (1926 - 2019)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Douglas Murray
Publication Date 2020-03-19 2020-12-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/383049383049
Occupation Plastic surgeon General surgeon Anaesthetist General practitioner
Details Pamela Ball was a surgeon at Kidderminster General Hospital and at the West Midlands regional plastic surgery centre at Wordsley Hospital. She was born Pamela Margaret Moody on 28 November 1926 in Half Way Tree, a neighbourhood of Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother was Vera Holme Moody née Manley, sister of Norman Washington Manley, statesman, lawyer and Jamaican prime minister. Her father, Ludlow Murcott Moody, a government bacteriologist and then a general practitioner, had trained at King’s College in London and, in 1919, became the first Jamaican to gain the membership of the Royal College of Physicians. Her paternal uncles included Harold Moody, also a physician, who in 1931 set up and led the first black civil rights group in the UK – the League of Coloured Peoples, and Ronald Moody, an eminent sculptor. She qualified in medicine from Birmingham University in 1950. She was a house surgeon to Jimmy Leather at Birmingham General Hospital, and then held posts in casualty and orthopaedics. She gained her FRCS in 1954. She was a resident surgical officer at Kidderminster General Hospital and a clinical assistant in plastic surgery at the West Midlands regionals plastic surgery centre, where she was a busy and efficient surgeon of great experience who did many local anaesthetic lists. However, her medical talents were not confined to surgery as she gave general anaesthetics to obstetric and plastic surgery patients, as well as being a well-respected part-time general practitioner in a large Kidderminster practice. Pamela also did sessions in the accident and emergency department at Kidderminster General Hospital from 1970 to 1985. She married John Ball, an eminent general practitioner and medical politician, in 1957 and by 1960 had given birth to three children – Margaret, David and Jonathan. She played the viola to a high standard and enjoyed playing chamber music. She obtained a first-class honours degree and then a masters’ degree in mathematics from the Open University whilst working in general practice and at Wordsley Hospital. She looked after a well-stocked and exotic garden, and spent many hours salmon fishing in the Scottish Angus Glens. Latterly she did much charity work for Kidderminster General Hospital and was president of the League of Hospital Friends. She was awarded an MBE in 2019. Predeceased by her husband, she died of bone cancer on 16 September 2019.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009714
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Spence, Alistair Andrew (1936 - 2015)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2016-07-27 2017-12-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381386381386
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Alistair Spence was professor of anaesthesia at the University of Edinburgh and honorary consultant anesthetist to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He was president of the College of Anaesthetists within the Royal College of Surgeons at the time of its attaining Royal status in 1992 and oversaw its departure from the RCS to independent premises. After qualifying in 1960 and filling junior hospital posts in Glasgow and Leeds, he was appointed as a senior lecturer in anaesthesia at the University of Glasgow at the Western Infirmary in 1969, promoted to reader in 1976 and professor in 1980. In 1984, he was recruited to the chair of anaesthesia in Edinburgh, where he remained until his retirement in 1996. His principal academic interests were the possible adverse effects of anaesthetic agents and postoperative respiratory dysfunction, publishing widely on these topics. He was editor of the *British Journal of Anaesthesia* from 1973 to 1983. Spence was long involved with the Faculty of Anaesthesia (later the College and then Royal College), being an examiner, educational adviser, board/council member and president from 1991 to 1994. During his term as the first president of the new Royal College he was privileged to accompany The Queen when she officially opened the new college building in 1993. He was appointed CBE in 1994. He was a Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons and gave many other named lectures both at home and overseas. Unsurprisingly, he received numerous honorary awards from anaesthetic societies and faculties throughout the world. A modest quietly spoken man with an exceptional dry wit which made him in demand as an after-dinner speaker, his main interest outside anaesthesia was golf. But as befits his origin, he was also a connoisseur of malt whisky. Married to Maureen (née Aitchison), he had two sons, Andrew and Stuart. Alistair Spence died on 30 November 2015 aged 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009203
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Daly, Ashley Skeffington (1882 - 1977)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006400-E006499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378585378585
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Ashley Skeffington Daly was born on 12 July 1882, his father being an MD in practice in Hackney. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors School and the London Hospital and qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1905. He obtained the DA England in 1935 and was one of the first to practise anaesthetics as a speciality. Appointments followed as senior casualty anaesthetist to the London Hospital, to the Royal Marine Hospital and casualty anaesthetist to the Army in the second world war with the rank of Brigadier. He was President of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1944 he obtained the FRCS and the FFARCS in 1948. He published many articles on anaesthesia and wrote *The house surgeon's vade mecum* and *The manual of war surgery*. Daly married Maude, née James, and they had a son and a daughter. He moved to Devon on his retirement and died there on 15 September 1977 aged 95 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006402
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Rowell, George (1864 - 1918)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-11-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003100-E003199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375345375345
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Studied at Guy's Hospital, where he won prizes. He acted as House Surgeon in 1888, and then served as Surgeon on a Royal Mail Steamship. In 1891 he was appointed Assistant Anaesthetist at the Royal Dental Hospital, Leicester Square, becoming full Anaesthetist from 1898-1905, when he resigned. In 1893 he was Anaesthetist to Guy's Hospital, in 1896 Demonstrator, and later Lecturer on Anaesthetics. For a time he was also Anaesthetist to the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases and to the National Orthopaedic Hospital. The British Medical Association appointed a special committee on the clinical effects of anaesthetics, and Rowell was made Hon Assistant Secretary. Ten years later the Association appointed a Special Chloroform Committee of which Rowell was a member. He practised at 6 Cavendish Place, London, W, and on the outbreak of the War in 1914 became Anaesthetist to the King George Hospital and to the Royal Flying Corps Hospital. He died on April 18th, 1918, being survived by his widow and son. At the time of his death he was President of the Section of Anaesthetics at the Royal Society of Medicine. Publications: Rowell contributed a large amount of literature on anaesthetics, aiming to replace the everyday use of chloroform by ether given by the open method, and by nitrous-oxide gas in combination with oxygen. "Accidents of Anaesthesia." - *Guy's Hosp Rep*, 1892, xlix, 433.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003162
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Page, Harry Marmaduke (1860 - 1942)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-09-11
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004400-E004499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376591376591
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born 30 June 1860, the second son of William Emanuel Page, MD, FRCP, and his wife, a daughter of Robert Keate, PRCS 1831 and 1839. W E Page, who had been a Faculty Student of Christ Church, Oxford, was physician to St George's Hospital and died on 2 January 1868, aged 59. H M Page was educated at Charterhouse (Verities, Gownboys, Girdlestoneites) 1872-76 and at St George's, where he served as house surgeon, 1885, and obstetric assistant 1887. As a student he played Rugby football for St George's and for the United Hospitals in 1882. After serving as registrar at the Lock Hospital, he was for a time resident medical officer at the Atkinson Morley Convalescent Hospital at Wimbledon. He then specialized in anaesthetics and became anaesthetist to Guy's Hospital and Dental School, to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, and to the King George V and other Red Cross Hospitals, and consulting anaesthetist to the West London Hospital. He practised at first at 26 Ashley Gardens, SW, then at 53 Welbeck Street, and finally at 65 Blandford Street, W. He was a vice-president of the West London Medico-chirurgical Society. Page died at 5 Hurlingham Court, Fulham on 2 June 1942, aged 81.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004408
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Bernard Richard Miller (1905 - 1959)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-03-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005000-E005099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377281377281
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born on 25 April 1905 he was educated at Brighton College and the Middlesex Hospital, qualifying with the Conjoint diploma in 1927. He was appointed anaesthetist at the Middlesex Hospital, and in 1938 took the diploma in anaesthetics. In the second world war he served in the RAMC in the Central Mediterranean Force, and in 1944 was mentioned in dispatches. In 1948 he became an original fellow of the newly formed Faculty of Anaesthetists and became the second Dean of the Faculty. He was largely instrumental in interesting the pharmaceutical industry in the work and potential of the Faculty and obtained large benefactions as a result, in particular the Professorship of Anaesthesia, supported by the British Oxygen Company. He married Barbara Grace Scriven in 1933 by whom he had a daughter. Johnson died suddenly on Whit Monday 18 May 1959 at his country home in Sussex. He was very interested in sport, particularly cricket, and in wild life and was an accomplished gardener and smallholder.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005098
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First Title value, for Searching Jarman, Ronald (1898 - 1972)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-08-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005800-E005899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378031378031
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Ronald Jarman was born on 7 August 1898. At the commencement of the first world war, while still a schoolboy in the north of England and an active member of the Officers' Training Corps, he became attached to the Army Staff as a dispatch rider. Very soon, while still under age, he became attached to the Royal Naval Air Service, in which he trained as a bomber pilot. In 1917 he became a Flight Lieutenant and his duties included patrolling the Western approaches. On four occasions his plane was shot down into the sea, and there he had to wait patiently sitting on his plane up to his knees in water until he was rescued. Once he was not spotted until four days and nights had passed. Late in 1917 he received honourable mention in both British and French dispatches and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for sinking a German submarine lying in wait for a troopship carrying American soldiers to the Western Front. When the RNAS and Royal Flying Corps were amalgamated he became a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF and was then acting Flight Commander until the end of the war. Jarman entered Guy's Hospital Medical School in 1920 and qualified MRCS LRCP in 1926. He held several resident appointments at Guy's. He served as assistant anaesthetist to the dental school for over two years. Soon after this he became anaesthetist to the Royal Marsden, Princess Beatrice, Gordon and the Woolwich War Memorial Hospitals. He obtained the DA RCS in 1935 and the FFARCS in 1948. He became FRCS in 1964. He was awarded the John Snow Medal in 1969, this was the highest honour the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland can award. He travelled widely to the United States and Canada and Australia and New Zealand lecturing on his specialty and often giving demonstrations of his own techniques. At the Royal Marsden Hospital and in private Jarman gave anaesthetics for A Lawrence Abel for over 15 years. These sessions were often long and a large number of major operations were performed. Jarman died on the 15 December 1972 and was survived by his wife and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005848
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Riding, John Edmund (1924 - 2018)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by John Norman
Publication Date 2018-11-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details John Edmund Riding was a distinguished anaesthetist who became dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists at the Royal College of Surgeons and a member of the RCS Council in 1976. He grew up in Ormskirk in Lancashire and attended King George V Grammar School in Southport. It was there that he probably acquired the nickname ‘Dinge’: apparently, he appeared in the register as ‘Riding, E’ (he lost the first syllable). He entered medical school in Liverpool in 1941 at the time when the city had just gone through the most intensive bombing of any provincial city in the United Kingdom. He qualified in 1947. His first house job was in Wigan, where he was introduced to the arts of anaesthesia, including the use of peripheral nerve blocks. His medical post was in the Stanley Hospital in Liverpool. He returned to Wigan as an anaesthetic registrar and was encouraged to join the newly-created postgraduate training course founded in Liverpool by T Cecil Gray – a future dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists and an honorary FRCS. With clinical attachments in Liverpool, Riding passed the examinations for the diploma in anaesthesia and, in 1954, became a fellow of the Faculty of Anaesthetists. His research leading to his MD was into the problems of nausea and sickness following anaesthesia especially in relation to what became known as the Liverpool anaesthetic technique – a combination of light general anaesthesia, neuromuscular block and artificial ventilation to lower blood carbon dioxide tensions. In 1956, he became a demonstrator in the newly-created university anaesthetic department in Liverpool led by the then Professor Gray. He kept that post until his retirement in 1986. Gray was one of the two editors of the *British Journal of Anaesthesia*. That journal was the second English language journal in the world devoted solely to anaesthesia. It had been founded in 1923. It had gone through hard times in the war and was rescued in 1949 with the appointments of Gray and Falkner Hill from Manchester as editors. They changed it from two issues a year to the first monthly publication in the specialty. In 1959, Riding became an assistant editor in Liverpool. That small office dealt with all matters relating to acceptance and publication. In 1961, Gray was awarded a Sims travelling fellowship to allow him to visit Australasia for several months. He ‘asked’ Riding to undertake all the editorial duties in his absence. On his return, Gray’s comment was that Riding was doing so well, he should continue as editor. This post he filled with distinction up to the end of 1972. In this time, the *Journal* doubled in size, in numbers of papers published, subscribers and in price. As an editor, he was always most courteous and helpful to young and especially to overseas authors, who may not have had English as their first language. He did have high standards: jargon was not permitted – ‘tracheas’ were intubated, not ‘patients’. Throughout his time as editor, the journal was published on a shoestring with often a relatively large overdraft. It was run from a small office with the aid of a part-time secretary, Emmeline Lloyd, who eventually acquired an electric typewriter and a dictating machine. She occasionally had to make a heart-felt plea to the treasurer for money to buy postage stamps! At the end of his editorship, Riding became the honorary treasurer for the next decade, when the finances were rescued following a change in publishers. In 1970, he was elected to the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists and four years later became the chairman of its examinations committee. The examinations were changing in format, with more emphasis on the developments in technology, in the physics, pharmacology and physiology relevant to anaesthesia. Multiple choice questions were in vogue, but needed much attention to ensure adequate comparisons with the Faculty examinations in Dublin. His second major problem was that the examinations committee undertook the assessment of hospitals as places where trainees would receive adequate experience and teaching for the examinations. Originally the assessments were for the district hospitals, but to ensure that the teaching hospitals were also assessed a newer hospital recognition committee was created. Riding ensured that high standards were created. In 1976, he was elected as dean of the Faculty. Of the many problems he faced, two stand out. Firstly, many women could only manage part-time training in the specialty. Indeed, his wife, Joyce, had suffered earlier because she could not continue as a full-time anaesthetic trainee and bring up her two children. Only later could she complete a training in psychiatry, which led to her becoming an outstanding leader in that specialty. Riding was a strong supporter for the recognition of schemes for part-time trainees. A second problem was the role of the Faculty within the Royal College of Surgeons. From its inception, its powers were limited by the need for formal approval by the Council of the RCS. Many fellows resented this and were in favour of a full break and the creation of an independent college. Others, of a more conservative view, were aware of the many resources available for the Faculty with the staffing, space, general facilities and the finance present at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The immediate solution was to amend the charter of the RCS to increase the participation of all faculties in the Council (with voting rights) and to delegate many matters directly to the boards. Riding carried these through. He also became the representative of the RCS and the Faculty on the General Medical Council – one of the few jobs he found somewhat onerous. All through this time, he maintained his clinical practice in Liverpool. He ran a pain clinic for patients with chronic problems. They regarded him as a friend as well as a doctor. It was not unknown for them to arrive with gifts of fruit, flowers or vegetables from their gardens. His surgical colleagues also appreciated him – he was fast and efficient, not infrequently coping with three patients at once, one in the anaesthetic room, one on the table and one in recovery. On his retirement his surgical colleagues, uniquely, held a gala dinner for him. In retirement, a major interest for both Dinge and Joyce was gardening. They were experts in cultivating rhododendrons and both members of the Royal Horticultural Society. They eventually had to sell their house. I met the purchasers at his funeral. They introduced themselves as the ‘purchasers of his garden’. They had been novices; Dinge came back to help and guide them with the estate. Joyce and he travelled widely and had a great love for music. Sadly, Joyce died in December 2017 and Dinge was left with deteriorating eyesight. But, with the help of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, he kept up with the latest books. One last touch: in his last years, he was regularly visited by a retired member of the local church. His comment at the funeral was that, after an hour of so with Dinge and tea, he always went home feeling much better. Dinge died on 17 June 2018. He was 94. He was survived by a son, a daughter and a grandson. He was one of the true gentlemen and is missed by all of us.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009485
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Stock, William Stuart Vernon (1873 - 1952)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-06-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005500-E005599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377761377761
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born about 1873 he was educated at Bristol medical school, held house appointments at the General Hospital and the Royal Infirmary, Bristol and at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and was for a time demonstrator of anatomy in the Bristol medical school. During the war of 1914-18 he served in the RAMC with the rank of Major. Stuart Stock's career was spent as an anaesthetist at Bristol. He was at first anaesthetist to the Eye Hospital and the gynaecological department of the Royal Infirmary and later to the Homoeopathic Hospital; ultimately he became consulting anaesthetist to the Royal Infirmary and to the Ministry of Pensions hospital at Bath. He was lecturer with charge of the department of anaesthetics in the university, and was elected an Associate of University College, Bristol. Stock was an excellent mechanic and cabinet-maker, ingenious in devising new anaesthetic machines and mixtures. He was imbued with curiosity and enthusiasm. As a clinician he was slow, but could be brilliant in emergency. For recreation he turned his skill of hand to the building and racing of model yachts. He was an active Freemason, and his courtesy, charm, and cheerfulness endeared him to a wide circle. While practising he lived at 1 Mortimer Road, Clifton, but his wife Ella Christine died and he retired to Dorrington, Porthill, Stoke-on-Trent, where he died on 30 May 1952 after a short illness aged 79. The funeral was at Odd Rode Church, Scholar Green, Cheshire. Publication: Anaesthetising patients for operations on throat, nose, and accessory sinuses. *Brit med J* 1910, 2, 736 and 768.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005578
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First Title value, for Searching Evans, Frankis Tilney (1900 - 1974)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-12-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006400-E006499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378673378673
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Frankis Tilney Evans was born on 9 March 1900. He trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital but in the first world war was seconded to the RNVR during his clinical course, serving in destroyers on convoy duty and in minesweepers. Thus began a lifelong love of the sea and ships. Returning to Bart's he graduated MB BS in 1922 and at the early age of 24 was appointed anaesthetist in which capacity he remained until he was 65. In 1932 he was appointed to St Mark's Hospital and in 1944 to the Royal Masonic Hospital but he also spent periods at the Brompton, King George and Gerrards Cross Hospitals. President of the Section of Anaesthetics of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1945, he later examined in England for the FFARCS Diploma and in England and Ireland for the Diploma in Anaesthetics. An industrious writer, he regularly contributed to the contemporary journals and acted as editor and contributor to *Modern practice in anaesthesia* 1949 and 1954, *Modern trends in anaesthesia* in 1958 and *General anaesthesia* in 1959. He was admired for his teaching of techniques in spinal and epidural anaesthesia and the needle cannula that he invented was almost universally adopted. During the years 1955-1958 he was Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists and a member of Council of the College. An ardent Freemason he rose to grand rank in three categories and enjoyed honorary membership of four lodges and membership of six others. He was a member of the Savage Club, and, through his love of sailing, the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the Royal Cruising Club. Long membership of the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers was rewarded by his becoming master in the year of his retirement. He was a generous and gregarious host. He had married Viola Quennell in 1931 and they had a son and a daughter who became a paediatrician. His wife died in 1960 and he died on 26 August 1974 aged 74 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006490
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First Title value, for Searching Braine, Charles Carter (1860 - 1937)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-04-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003900-E003999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376083376083
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born 13 February 1860 in Hertford Street, Mayfair, the son of John Carter of Elmlawn, civil servant, who had been in the Navy, and Hannah Elizabeth Miller, who came from Lincolnshire. The marriage took place at St George's, Hanover Square, in 1859. John Carter died, and in March 1871 Mrs Carter married Francis Woodhouse Braine, FRCS; Charles Carter took the name of his stepfather and was known for the rest of his life as Charles Carter Braine. He was educated at the upper school of Alleyns College of God's Gift at Dulwich from April to July 1873 and subsequently at University College. He was a student at Charing Cross Hospital, where he filled the post of house surgeon, and was anaesthetist from 1890 to 1919. He was also anaesthetist to the Royal Dental Hospital and to St Peter's Hospital for stone, positions which had been held by his stepfather. During the war of 1914-18 he was anaesthetist to the King George Hospital. He married on 16 January 1892 Harriet Jane Evans. She survived him with two sons, John Francis Carter Braine, FRCS, assistant surgeon to the actino-therapeutic department at Guy's Hospital at the time of his father's death, and Eric Carter Braine. He died at 200 Grove End Gardens, NW8 on 1 September 1937. Charles Carter Braine was a first-rate anaesthetist, beloved by all who knew him. He was president of the Society of Anaesthetists 1903-5; and made improvements in the Ormsby and Junker inhalers. Like his stepfather he was interested in freemasonry and was Past Junior Grand Deacon and Past Assistant Grand Sojourner in 1922. Publications:- *Notes on anaesthetics in dental surgery*, by A S Underwood, 2nd ed by Underwood and Braine. London, 1893. Artificial Respiration. Quain's *Dictionary of Medicine*, 3rd ed p 193. A safety Junker inhaler. *Brit med J*. 1892, 1, 1364. Position in kidney operations. *Ibid*. 1900, 2, 1715. Experiences of anaesthetics in 200 consecutive cases of prostatectomy. *Trans Soc Anaesth Lond*. 1906, 8, 54.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003900
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Willett, Edgar William (1856 - 1928)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-02-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003500-E003599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375717375717
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Second son of Henry Willett, brewer, of Brighton, well known as a collector and antiquarian; cousin of Alfred Willett (qv). Educated at Wellington College, he matriculated in the University of Oxford from New College on Oct 15th, 1875, graduated BA with 1st class honours in the School of Natural Science in 1879; took the degree of MA and BM in 1885, and the DM in 1904. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in October, 1879, served as House Surgeon to Sir William Savory (qv) for the year 1883-1884, and was appointed Assistant Chloroformist to the Hospital in October, 1884, acting at the same time as Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical School. From 1888-1893 he occupied the post of Curator of the Museum, and from 1897-1906 he was Administrator of Anaesthetics both at St Bartholomew's Hospital and at the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. In 1905 he was chosen President of the Society of Anaesthetists. He had learnt from Joseph Mills, the chief administrator of anaesthetics at St Bartholomew's Hospital, the admirable sequence of nitrous oxide-ether-chloroform, which he always used. Willett served for a few years as Assistant Surgeon to the Metropolitan Hospital, as Surgeon to the Belgrave Hospital for Children, and as Surgeon to the British Orphan Institution; but finding surgery uncongenial and becoming a wealthy man on the death of his father, he retired to a country life at Worth Park, in Sussex, where he became proficient in croquet and in sport. Entering the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps as a private, he rose to the rank of Captain, and during the European War acted as Registrar at the Croydon General Hospital with a Commission as Major RAMC (T). He retired at the end of the War to Hartfield, near Forest Row, Sussex, and died there unmarried on April 12th, 1928.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003534
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Wyman, John Bernard (1916 - 1994)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008400-E008499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380607380607
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details John Wyman, known to his friends as 'Jabe' or 'JB', was born in London on 24 May 1916, the son of Louis Wyman, who was in the clothing business, and his wife Bertha. He was educated at Davenant Foundation School and King's College London, going on to the Westminster Hospital Medical School for his clinical work. He qualified in 1941 and joined the RAMC in the following year, serving in North Africa , Italy and India, reaching the rank of major and being awarded the MBE in 1945. During the war he gained some experience of anaesthetics and took the DA soon after he was demobilised in 1945. He was appointed consultant anaesthetist at the Woolwich Memorial Hospital and then in 1948 he joined the staff of the Westminster Hospital, where he was to spend the rest of his career. He was particularly interested in hypotensive anaesthesia, using the recently introduced hexamethonium, and as the first anaesthetist to be appointed a Hunterian professor he delivered a lecture on the subject in 1953. In the same year he was elected FFARCS. He subsequently became an expert in epidural anaesthesia for childbirth, using a catheter to maintain appropriate levels over the course of some hours. In 1964 he was appointed dean of the Westminster Medical School and held that post through eighteen taxing years. He oversaw many changes in medical education and spent an inordinate amount of time discussing the various proposals for amalgamations of medical schools in London. Happily he was endowed with a wit and humour which enabled him to withstand the stress of endless committee meetings. His work was recognized by the award of the FRCS by election in 1981. In June 1949 he married Joan Beighton, by whom he had three sons, Peter, Michael and Christopher, and a daughter, Susan. He retired in 1981 to cultivate his Sussex garden and died on 21 September 1994.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008424
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Alexander (1860 - 1931)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-12-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004800-E004899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376983376983
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born 6 August 1860, the son of Alexander Wilson, MD Aberdeen, who was then practising at 223 Lincoln Terrace, Stretford New Road, Manchester. A delicate child, he was sent at an early age to live with Scottish relatives at Lockerbie, Dumfriesshire, where he was taught in the Dryfesdale parish school until 1872. He then returned home and was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, afterwards entering the Owens College for his medical training. He served as house physician and house surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and as resident medical officer to its Convalescent Hospital and afterwards to the Children's Hospital, Pendlebury. He married Mary Louisa Raymond Barker in 1884 and went with her to Toronto intending to practise in Canada, but returned to England in 1886 and lived for a short time at Winchester. He was appointed administrator of anaesthetics to the Manchester Royal Infirmary and to the Victoria Dental Hospital in 1887, posts which he held for twenty years. In 1890 he was elected surgeon to St Luke's Hospital for Venereal Diseases and remained on the active staff until a few months before his death. In 1917 he was placed in charge of the venereal department at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, when it was opened as part of a national scheme organized by the Local Government Board. During the war he was attached to the 2nd Western General Hospital with the rank of major on, 9 July 1915, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel, RAMC (T), 12 December 1918. He was given charge of the venereal clinic at first, but acted later as officer in charge of the Hospital and was rewarded for his services by the appointment of Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Lancaster. When the British Medical Association met in London in 1900 Wilson was a vice-president of the section of anaesthetics, and he filled a similar position during the Manchester meeting in 1929. He was twice married, and died on 23 October 1931 at Victoria Park, Manchester, survived by a daughter. As an anaesthetist Wilson was skilful, safe, reliable, and gentle. He worked much for Walter Whitehead, when he was doing extensive operations upon the tongue, and for his friend William Thorburn, a pioneer in the surgery of the spinal cord. Wilson was, too, an excellent teacher and trained many successful anaesthetists. In person he was a dapper, well-turned-out man who inspired confidence even in the most nervous patient. He treated his venereal patients merely as sufferers from an infectious disease and quickly gained their confidence, so that they continued to attend until they were cured. Publications: Anaesthetics for children, in Ashby and Wright's *Diseases of Children*, London, 1889; 5th edition, 1905. Mechanism of death from chloroform. *Lancet*, 1894, 2, 1148; 1897, 2, 656; 1898, 1, 123, and 2, 260. Resuscitation in emergencies under anaesthetics. *Lancet*, 1898, 1, 369.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004800
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marston, Archibald Daniel (1891 - 1962)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-03-21 2015-11-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005100-E005199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377324377324
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born on 28 March 1891, the son of Daniel Marston and Annie Bell, he was educated privately and entered Guy's Hospital in January 1909 as a dental student and the following year as a medical student also. Qualifying in 1915 he held a house appointment at Guy's and then entered the Royal Navy as a temporary surgeon. He had originally intended to become a surgeon and had passed the Primary examination in 1913 but, stimulated by Sir Alfred Fripp, he took up anaesthesia and in 1919 was appointed to the staff of Guy's as a consultant anaesthetist, and as a teacher of anaesthesia he was known to generations of Guy's men over a period of thirty-seven years. In 1934 he was appointed to the staff of the Royal Masonic Hospital. Although always remaining a clinical anaesthetist, his greatest interest and achievement was the raising of the status of anaesthesia, and in 1948 he became the first Director of the Department of Anaesthetics at Guy's and, at the College, the first Dean of the Faculty. He had been previously in 1941 President of the Section of Anaesthetics of the Royal Society of Medicine and in 1944 President of the Association of Anaesthetists. He was awarded the Hickman medal by the Faculty in 1957 and the John Snow medal by the Association in 1958. While Dean of the Faculty he delivered the first Clover Lecture on 16 March 1949 on "The Life and achievements of Thomas Clover". He examined first for the Diploma of Anaesthetics and later for the Fellowship of the Faculty, and he acted as consultant in anaesthesia for the Ministry of Health. He retired from the staff of Guy's in 1956, his relaxation being gardening and billiards, and he was a member of the Bath, National Sporting, and Surrey County Cricket Clubs. In 1923 he married Emily Phyllis Irene, daughter of Henry Cox, who died in 1961 without issue. He died at Brighton on 14 January 1962, and a memorial service was held in Guy's Chapel on 6 February 1962.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005141
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Scurr, Cyril Frederick (1920 - 2012)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Aileen K Adams
Publication Date 2012-09-07 2013-10-18
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/375037375037
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Anaesthesia was introduced into surgery in 1846 and for the first 100 years little progress was made. It remained essentially a craft learned by experience rather than a science. Full-time anaesthetists were rare, anaesthetics being administered by general practitioners or any hospital doctors. The 1940s were to change all this. The introduction of the muscle-paralysing drug curare not only altered the whole approach to anaesthesia, but demanded a knowledge of respiratory and circulatory physiology that scarcely existed at the time. It was the good fortune for anaesthesia that Cyril Scurr was one of those who entered the specialty at this time: over his lifetime he made a large contribution to its development from a craft to a science. Cyril Frederick Scurr was born on 14 July 1920 in Hampstead, London, the eldest son of Cyril Albert Scurr, a pharmacist who also practised as an optician, and Mabel Rose Scurr. He was educated at Finchley Grammar School and then the North London Polytechnic College, where he took a BSc before starting medical studies in London at King's College and Westminster Medical School. As a student he won the Abrahams pathology prize and the paediatric class prize, and, after passing his qualifying examination, he had to wait until his 21st birthday to become registered as a doctor in 1941. The following year he was called into the Royal Army Medical Corps, where he served as an anaesthetist in North Africa, Greece and Italy. He was demobilised in 1947 and returned to the Westminster as a registrar. In 1949 was appointed as a consultant. Variously described by family and colleagues as austere, shy and taciturn, he could on occasion reveal a somewhat quirky sense of humour. He was immensely far-sighted and hard-working, seeing clearly what needed to be done to bring anaesthesia into the forefront of medical specialties. At the Westminster he met others with the same passion, particularly Stanley Feldman, with whom he established a close collaboration. He enjoyed clinical research and had a phenomenal memory for everything he had read. Surgery was becoming increasing complex and in particular the introduction of cardiac surgery demanded careful research. Scurr was instrumental in setting up the department of clinical measurement at the Westminster. Here under Percy Cliffe new technologies and drugs were introduced, including new neuromuscular blocking agents, and drugs to induce hypotension and respiratory homeostasis. Scurr was fully involved with this, whilst he also collaborated with Charles Drew in the use of profound hypothermia for cardiac surgery. He was an expert anaesthetist who formed a close and warm relationship with many of the surgeons with whom he worked. He was intolerant of those trainees who did not meet his exacting standards, and they sometimes found themselves at the receiving end of some witty, barbed invective. With Stanley Feldman he published *Scientific foundations of anaesthesia* (London, Heinemann Medical, 1970) a textbook that became a classic. It was translated into five languages and ran to four editions. This was followed by *Mechanism of drugs in anaesthesia* (London, E Arnold, 1987), co-edited with W D Paton. Scurr was also on the staff of the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, and played a major role in raising funds to rebuild it as a private Roman Catholic hospital in London. In 1951, with Robert Machray, he attended King George VI for his lung resection, carried out at Buckingham Palace by Sir Clement Price-Thomas. Scurr was passionate that anaesthetists should respond to the challenge of becoming scientists and it was no doubt his conviction that prompted him to extend his activities into medical politics. From 1961 to 1977 he served on the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (later to become the Royal College of Anaesthetists) and was elected dean from 1970 to 1973. As dean he served on the council of the Royal College of Surgeons. On committees he was noted for a dry laconic manner that 'wouldn't put up with any chit-chat'. From 1976 to 1978 he was president of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI) and from 1978 to 1979 he was president of the anaesthesia section of the Royal Society of Medicine. During this period Scurr became involved in several important initiatives. These included the original Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths in 1982, that led on to the present National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, to which all those involved in operative and perioperative care contribute. With AAGBI he took part in the development of a scheme whereby sick doctors may obtain confidential advice about their problems in a non-threatening way. And, with the General Medical Council, he helped to establish a means of assessing the language qualifications of foreign doctors. He served on numerous national committees and was awarded many medals, prizes and lectureships. Scurr's personal interests were photography and gardening. He was very much a 'home' man who seldom went far afield, not even to visit local places of interest. His refusal to travel meant that he was not as well-known on the international circuit as he should have been. On demobilisation in 1947 he had married Isabel Jean Spiller, the daughter of Leonard Spiller of New Barnett. They had four children - Judith Ann, a cytopathologist in Swindon, Martin John, a general practitioner in London and adviser to the *Dr Martin* TV series and the *Daily Mail*, David, a retired architect, and Andrew James, an anaesthetist and intensive care specialist in Ealing. Cyril Scurr had a long retirement and died on 6 July 2012 aged 91.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002854
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wylie, William Derek (1918 - 1998)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009000-E009099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381187381187
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details William Derek Wylie was one of the leading anaesthetists of his generation. Born in Huddersfield in 1918, he was educated at Uppingham, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and St Thomas's Hospital, where he qualified in 1943. Initially he intended to become a physician and held junior appointments as casualty officer, house physician and resident anaesthetist, during which time he passed the MRCP. In 1945, he joined the RAFVR and served in Palestine and Aden before demobilisation in 1947. Two vacancies for honorary anaesthetists at St Thomas's were advertised in 1946 and Wylie was encouraged to apply for one of these. It meant giving up his physician's training, but there was no financial security for a young physician in those days, and Wylie, who had recently married and with a child on the way, decided to accept the post, even though his experience of the specialty was minimal. He returned to St Thomas's and started work in 1948. He realised that it was vital to train young doctors to become the new anaesthetists for the emerging NHS. Developing surgical techniques called for more advanced anaesthesia than could be provided part-time by GPs. At St Thomas's, together with Harry Churchill-Davidson, he built up the department of anaesthetics, notable for its research work into muscle relaxant drugs (many of their experiments being carried out on themselves) and for their textbook *A practice of anaesthesia* (London, Lloyd-Luke Medical Books, 1960), which became the standard work. He was Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists, for which the College elected him FRCS in 1972. He was President of his section of the Royal Society of Medicine and later of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, at a time when the move towards an independent college of anaesthetists was under way - a move which he strongly supported. He was one of the steering group of the confidential enquiry into perioperative deaths associated with anaesthesia. He was Dean of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, deeply involved in the selection and training of students. His other interest was in medico-legal matters: he served the Council of the Medical Defence Union for 30 years and was President for six. Many honorary degrees and prestigious medals came his way. A quiet, friendly and approachable man, his firmly-held views derived from careful thought and long experience were always courteously expressed. There can be few people who have held so many high offices of whom it can be said that they made no enemies and offended few. He married Margaret Toms, a Nightingale nurse, by whom he had two sons, David and Anthony (who predeceased him in 1984) and two daughters, Janet and Sheila. There are six grandchildren - Duncan, Alex, David, Joanna, Antonia and Charlie. He died on 30 September 1998.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009004
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372221372221
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Sir Donald Campbell was a former professor of anaesthesia at the University of Glasgow and President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow from 1992 to 1994. He was born on 8 March 1930 at Rutherglen, near Glasgow, the son of Archibald Peter and Mary Campbell. He attended Hutcheson’s Boys’ Grammar School and then went on to the University of Glasgow, where he studied medicine. After completing resident posts, he left for Canada to begin his training in anaesthesia, working in Edmonton and in Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1956 he returned to Glasgow to complete his training at the Royal Infirmary and Stobhill. From 1959 to 1960, he was a lecturer in anaesthetics at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In 1960 he transferred to the health service department as a consultant anaesthetist, a post he held for the next 16 years. While training in Canada he had developed an interest in anaesthesia for heart surgery and also noted the early development of intensive care units. Using his diplomatic skills, he succeeded in persuading his colleagues that this was the way forward for their patients. The respiratory intensive care unit was opened in 1966, with Campbell as its first director. His research interests covered the development of ventilators, the pharmacology of new analgesic drugs, and the effects of smoke inhalation on the lungs. His published works included over 100 papers on anaesthesia, intensive care, and related subjects in peer-reviewed journals. He was the author of two textbooks. In 1976 he was appointed to the chair of anaesthesia in Glasgow. In this post he was able to develop his interest in medical education. For a period of four years from 1987 he was dean of the medical school. From 1985 to 1990 he was Chairman of the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical Education. As a member of the medical advisory committee of the British Council he was involved in arranging attachments to UK departments for many young trainee anaesthetists from overseas and also from the Royal Navy. On the national stage, he was vice-president of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland in 1977, and President of the Scottish Society of Anaesthetists in 1979. He was an examiner and board member of the Faculty of Anaesthetists (the forerunner of the Royal College of Anaesthetists), and was elected dean of the faculty for three years from 1982. He went on to become vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1985 to 1987. Before he retired, he was elected President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the first anaesthetist to hold this post. He was awarded the CBE in 1987 and he received his knighthood in 1994, in recognition of his contribution to medicine. He suffered a stroke soon after his retirement, and this limited his ability to enjoy his favourite sports of fishing, curling and shooting. It did not, however, suppress his enjoyment of people and his skill as a raconteur. He married twice. His first wife was Nancy Rebecca McKintosh, ‘Nan’. They married in 1954 and had a son and a daughter. After her death in 1974 he married Catherine Conway Braeburn. They had two daughters. He died on 14 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000034
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Magill, Sir Ivan Whiteside (1888 - 1986)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007400-E007499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379660379660
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Ivan Magill was born at Larne, Northern Ireland on 23 July 1888 the son of Samuel, a draper and Sara (née Whiteside). He was educated at Larne Grammar School and Queen's University, Belfast, a strong young man of "enviable physique" being a rugby forward and a heavy-weight boxer for the university. After qualifying in 1913 and resident appointments in Liverpool he served in the RAMC as Captain and was medical officer to the Irish Guards at the Battle of Loos, 1915. A postwar posting to Barnet War Hospital was followed by another in 1919 to Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, a 600 bed hospital for soldiers wounded in the face and jaws. Here, working as anaesthetist to Harold Gillies and with his contemporary Stanley Rowbotham, the necessity of being able safely to anaesthetise for faciomaxillary injuries became the mother of invention and for this Ivan was the right person at the right place at the right time; it was from this point in time that Ivan's innate ability and inventiveness gave rise to the many pieces of anaesthetic equipment that bore his name. In 1930 he introduced Evipan to British anaesthesia. He was appointed consultant anaesthetist to the Brompton Hospital in 1923 and to the Westminster Hospital in 1924. He served the Royal Family, being awarded the CVO in 1946 and KCVO in 1960, the fourth anaesthetist to be knighted. He once wrote "When I took up anaesthetics I felt the importance of the service would never be realised until it became recognised as a specialty with a Diploma entailing the necessary training and study" indeed the words of the founding fathers of the DA (RCS and RCP) which began 8 November 1935, the Association of Anaesthetists, July 1932 and the Faculty of Anaesthetists RCS, and when he died at the age of 98, the College of Anaesthetists (RCS) had been formed. He was awarded many honours in recognition of his contribution to the practice of anaesthesia and to the emerging specialty; the FRCS by election 1951; Honorary FFARCSI; Honorary Fellow, Faculty of Anaesthetists RCS; Honorary Fellow, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the Henry Hill Hickman Medal (RSM) among others. In 1945 Belfast University made him DSc, having rejected his MD thesis on blind nasal intubation many years earlier. Outside medicine he was a keen trout fisherman and caught his last trout (51b) on his 97th birthday. In 1916 he married Dr Edith Banbridge. There were no children of the marriage and she died in 1973. Ian died on 25 November 1986.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007477
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mortimer, John Desmond Ernest (1856 - 1942)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-11-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004600-E004699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376877376877
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born in 1856 the son of Captain Charles Edward Mortimer, 4th Middlesex Militia, and his wife Mary Jane Fanstone. He was educated at Bristol and at the Westminster Hospital and St Bartholomew's. He served for a period as prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. He first intended to practise as an alienist, and held the appointments of resident house physician and resident clinical assistant at the Royal Bethlehem Hospital and assistant medical officer at Portsmouth Borough Asylum. He won the certificate of the Medico-Psychological Association in 1887 and was awarded the Gaskell prize and gold medal. He published papers on general paralysis of the insane in *The Lancet*, 1889, the year in which he took the Fellowship, and in the *Journal of Mental Science*, 1895. He served as resident obstetrician at the Westminster Hospital and surgical registrar at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and was clinical assistant at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. He then decided to specialize as an anaesthetist and was appointed in that capacity to the staff of the West End Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System and the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women. He was ultimately consulting anaesthetist to St Peter's Hospital for Stone, to the Central London and the Golden Square Throat Hospital and to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. Mortimer lived at different times at 23 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, with consulting rooms 23 Fenchurch Street in the City, at 20 Balcombe Street, SW, and 15 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea. He was a member of the West London Medico-Chirurgical Society and a vice-president of the Chelsea Clinical Society. Mortimer married in 1882 Katharine Crowe, who died before him. After retirement he lived at the Gray Bungalow, Stodmarsh Road Canterbury, where he died on 16 March 1942, aged 86, survived by his two daughters. Publications: Is general paralysis of the insane necessarily an anomalous and hopeless disease? *Lancet*, 1889, 1, 524. On the treatment of intussusception by injection or inflation, and its dangers. *Lancet*, 1891, 1, 1144. On the non-specific nature of general paralysis of the insane. *J ment Sci* 1895, 41, 759. *Home nursing of sick children* London, 1900 82 pp. Remarks on 1,000 anaesthetizations. *West Lond med J* 1902, 7, 178. The anaesthetization of children. *Med Mag* 1905, 14, 113. On post-anaesthetic vomiting. Lancet, 1911, 1, 1634. Anaesthetics in intestinal obstruction; the value of gastric lavage. *Ibid* 2, 123. *Anaesthesia and analgesia*. London, 1911 276 pp. On the need for choosing the anaesthetic. *West Lond med J* 1911, 16, 28.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004694
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching van Besouw, Jean-Pierre William Gerard (1957 - 2017)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Jeremy Cashman
Publication Date 2017-11-02 2018-07-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381548381548
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Jean-Pierre van Besouw, known to most simply as 'J-P', was a consultant anaesthetist and honorary senior lecturer at St George's Hospital, London and president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists from 2012 to 2015. He was born on 20 April 1957 in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Jos and Anne van Besouw. The family moved to England in 1958 and he attended Wyggeston Boys' Grammar School in Leicester. He went on to study medicine at the St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School in London, qualifying in 1981. After house jobs, he began his training in anaesthesia at St Bartholomew's and the Whittington hospitals. Subsequently he was a registrar in anaesthesia at the St George's Hospital group, during which time he spent six months at the Royal Perth Hospital in Australia, before returning to a senior registrar rotation at Great Ormond Street, Whipps Cross, Homerton and St Bartholomew's hospitals. In 1990, he was appointed as a consultant anaesthetist with a special interest in cardiothoracic anaesthesia at St George's Hospital in London, where he remained until his retirement through ill health in 2016. In this post he was able to develop his interest in medical education culminating in appointments as head of the St George's school of anaesthesia from 2002 to 2008, regional adviser (South Thames West) for the Royal College of Anaesthetists from 2003 to 2006, and chair of the specialist training committee in anaesthesia for London South, and Kent, Surrey and Sussex from 2004 to 2006. He had a long association with the Royal College of Anaesthetists, being an educational adviser, an examiner for 13 years and chair of the examinations committee for the last three years of that tenure. He was a visiting examiner for anaesthetist fellowship examinations in Hong Kong, Ireland and Sri Lanka. He was also an examiner for the University of London MB BS examination. He was a council member of the Royal College of Anaesthetists for seven years from 2008 to 2015, became vice president in 2010 and president in 2012. During his time on council, he was responsible for the development of college policies on examinations, recruitment and workforce. He also championed the Royal College's anaesthesia clinical services accreditation (ACSA) scheme for departments of anaesthesia to achieve quality improvement through peer review and was particularly proud when St George's became the first major trauma centre in London to be recognised by ACSA for the excellence of its anaesthetic service. In addition to his association with the Royal College of Anaesthetists, he was also president of the Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthetists from 2007 to 2009, and a member of a number of national working parties on cardiothoracic related issues including the National Cardiac Benchmarking Collaborative steering group from 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Department of Health cardiac workforce review team and an external reviewer for the Health Inspectorate for Wales. He was vice chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges from 2013 to 2015. It was a measure of the esteem in which he was held by his consultant colleagues that he was elected by them to be one of the governors of St George's Hospital in 2014. Throughout his career he maintained a strong interest in medical training and politics. He liked to challenge established dogma and to make people think about what they did and the way they did it. He was a sociable man with an extensive circle of friends. He enjoyed sarcasm, irony (he was a lifelong subscriber to the satirical magazine *Private Eye*), gardening, rugby (Leicester Tigers) and travel, particularly in south west France. He was married to Liliane (née Field), a medico-legal adviser with the Medical Protection Society and a former consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, and had three children, including twin daughters. Sadly, he was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2015 and, despite treatment, died on 17 July 2017. He was 60. The fortitude with which he bore his final illness was an inspiration to all who came in contact with him during this time.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009365
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

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

First Title value, for Searching Boyle, Henry Edmund Gaskin (1875 - 1941)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-04-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003800-E003899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376080376080
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born on 2 April 1875 at Bannatyne, Barbados, only child of Henry Eudolphus Boyle, sugar-planter, and his wife, *née* Law. He was educated at Harrison College, Barbados, and at St Bartholomew's Hospital. As a student he was president of the Abernethian Society. After a short time as casualty officer at the Bristol Royal Infirmary he was appointed junior resident assistant anaesthetist, with W Foster Cross, at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1902. He continued to serve the hospital throughout his career, being eventually (1913) senior anaesthetist, and lecturer on anaesthetics in the medical college from 1905. He retired as consulting anaesthetist in 1939. He was also anaesthetist to the St Andrew's Hospital, Dollis Hill; Lady Carnarvon's Hospital; Queen Alexandra Hospital for Officers, Highgate, and Paddington Green Children's Hospital. During the four years' war he was commissioned captain, RAMC(T) on 5 September 1914, and served in various London hospitals, being created OBE in 1920 for his services. Boyle did much for the practical development of anaesthetic administration. About 1912 the gas - oxygen - ether method began to be popular, largely through his example. He brought the first Gwathmey apparatus from America, and Boyle's own nitrous-oxide/oxygen/ether apparatus became well known. During the war of 1914-18 it was usefully employed in casualty clearing stations in France, and he successfully impressed the authorities with the importance of this form of anaesthesia in shock cases. Later he introduced the Davis gag for dissection tonsillectomy from America, and was a pioneer in endotracheal anaesthesia, and also improved the anaesthesia of midwifery. He was on the editorial board of the *British Journal of Anaesthesia* from its foundation in 1923, and was president of the section of anaesthetics at the Royal Society of Medicine in 1924. He was an original member of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland and influenced the Royal Colleges in the establishment of the Diploma in Anaesthetics, to which he was himself admitted in the first group in 1935. The same year he was appointed the first examiner for this Diploma, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons as a Member of twenty years' standing. He was an excellent practical teacher. Boyle was a man of rotund figure and genial nature, popular with his colleagues and students as "Cocky" Boyle. He was a keen cricketer and a supporter of the Bart's rugby football club, and as a member of the senior staff had been president of the Students' Union. He married in 1910 Mildred Ethel, daughter of J W Widdy and widow of Leslie Greene, FRI, BA, who survived him but without children. Boyle died after a long illness at 4 Cliffe Road, Godalming, Surrey on 15 October 1941. Publications:- *Practical anaesthetics*. London, 1907; 2nd ed, 1911; 3rd ed, with C Langton Hewer, 1923. Nitrous-oxide: history and development. *Brit med J*. 1934, 1, 153.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003897
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shirley, Herbert John (1868 - 1943)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-11-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004500-E004599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376773376773
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Herbert Johann Scharlieb, he changed his name by deed poll in 1914, was born at Madras on 22 July 1868, the younger son and second of the three children of William Mason Scharlieb (died 1891), barrister of the Middle Temple, and Mary Ann Dacomb Bird, his wife, afterwards Dame Mary Scharlieb (1845-1930) DBE, MD, MS London, gynaecologist to the Royal Free Hospital, for whom see the *Dictionary of National Biography*. He was educated at Lancing College and at University College, London. He qualified from University College Hospital in 1894, and took honours at the London BS examination in 1896. He served as house surgeon, house physician, and gynaecological assistant at University College Hospital, and as clinical assistant at the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. He then volunteered for the South African War, serving as physician and adjutant to Langman's Hospital with the South African Field Force. He was mentioned in despatches, and created CMG on his return to England. His interest now turning to anaesthesia he carried out some valuable research on the physiological action of chloroform in collaboration with Edward Sharpey-Schafer (1850-1935) FRS. They concluded that vagal stimulation by too high a concentration of chloroform vapour caused inhibition of the heart, and that atropine given before the administration afforded protection; these conclusions were generally accepted; but later investigators suggested that ventricular fibrillation is the more probable cause of such sudden catastrophes. He then set up in practice in London as an anaesthetist, and was appointed to the staff of University College Hospital, becoming consulting anaesthetist when he retired in 1932. He took a keen interest in the Territorial Army, serving in the 1st Artists Rifles, of which he was for a time colour-sergeant and later commanding officer. In fact his heart was more in soldiering than in medicine. In 1914, having changed his name from Scharlieb to Shirley, he served as a combatant in the British Expeditionary Force in France, was lieutenant-colonel in command 2/5 Lancashire Fusiliers, and was mentioned in despatches. He was invalided in 1916 and transferred to the RAMC, receiving the rank of lieutenant-colonel, RAMC on 21 July 1917. He was in command of the Military Hospital of Manoel at Malta, and was consulting anaesthetist to Malta Hospitals; later he became senior medical officer to a transport division of the Royal Army Service Corps. He retained at the same time his combatant rank of brevet colonel commanding the Artists Rifles. He had been awarded the Volunteer and Territorial Decorations, and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of London. After the war he resumed his practice as an anaesthetist, living at 19 York Terrace, Regent's Park, and later in a flat at 13 New Cavendish Street, W. His mother, who was still practising in her eighty-fifth year, died at his house in 1930. He was an active member of the British Medical Association, and served as secretary of the section of anaesthetics in 1910 and vice-president of the section of pharmacy and therapeutics with anaesthetics in 1936. Shirley married on 14 September 1899 Edith Mabel, daughter of Charles Tweedy of Redruth. He was survived by his only son, John, a commander in the Royal Navy. He died suddenly at 13 New Cavendish Street on 14 May 1943. Publications: Action of chloroform on the heart and blood vessels, with E Sharpey-Schafer. *J Physiol* 1903, 28, xvii. Chloroform. *Practitioner's Encyclopaedia of Medicine and Surgery*, edited by J K Murphy. London, 1912, p 556.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004590
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gill, Richard (1856 - 1933)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-06-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004100-E004199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376348376348
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Born 3 August 1856 at 2 Soho Street, Liverpool, the ninth child and sixth son of George Gill, MD JP, of Abercromby Square, Liverpool, and Mary Ann Hinchclife, his wife. He was educated at the Royal Institution, Colquit Street, Liverpool, and entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in October 1874, after gaining the preliminary scientific exhibition. At the Hospital he took the junior scholarship in 1875 and the senior scholarship in 1879. At the University of London in 1877 he was placed in the first class honour list at the preliminary scientific examination in organic chemistry, zoology, and physics and obtained 1st class honours in logic and chemistry at the first BSc examination 1878. He was awarded the exhibition and gold medal in chemistry and was placed first in the honours list in anatomy at the first MB examination in 1878, and obtained first class honours in the following year at the final examination. In 1880 he took the degree of Bachelor of Surgery. He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons England in 1881, having passed the necessary examinations before he had attained the legal age of 25 and without presenting himself for the diploma of MRCS as is usual. He was elected house physician at the Great Northern Central Hospital 1880, and in October of the same year was nominated house surgeon to Sir William Savory at St Bartholomew's Hospital. This office he served for a year, being the last of those who had no assistant house surgeon and whose "take in" lasted a whole week. In 1881 he was appointed assistant chloroformist to St Bartholomew's Hospital, his chief being Joseph Mills, the first whole time anaesthetist to the Hospital, and retained the office until 1893, when he was appointed chief chloroformist, a title afterwards changed to administrator of anaesthetics to the Hospital and demonstrator of anaesthetics in the Medical School. He resigned both positions in 1916, when he was complimented on his retirement by being elected a governor of the Hospital, but he never became consulting anaesthetist. He married on 3 June 1913 Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Deputy Surgeon-General John Ashton Bostock, of the Scots Guards, CB Hon Surgeon to Queen Victoria, and Chevalier of the Legion of Honour; Mrs Gill died in June 1939. He had died suddenly at Shaftesbury on 13 January 1933. In early life Gill had a remarkable power of assimilating facts which he could rapidly reproduce on paper, and he thus made an admirable examinee; of this faculty he made little use in after life. He was wholly without ambition, and was content to lead the placid life of a philosopher when he might have enjoyed the stirring existence of a surgeon in the active practice of his profession. Averse to society and somewhat of a recluse, he married rather late in life, and was but little known even to the men of his own generation. The few who knew him became his staunch friends, for they recognized his strict integrity and his entire absence of self-assertion. From the technical side he was an extremely fine anaesthetist, having learnt the art from Joseph Mills, who had set the tradition at St Bartholomew's Hospital. It was an education in itself to see Gill administer chloroform in a long and difficult abdominal operation. Requiring only a drop bottle and chloroform and a small square of lint, he would produce perfect anaesthesia and relaxation with a minimum quantity of the drug. He was equally successful with administration of gas and ether with Clover's apparatus or by means of a small bag. As an anaesthetist he insisted that the patient should be carefully watched during the whole period of administration, and emphasized the necessity of considering him as an individual rather than as a machine to be kept in a state of insensibility. As a practical teacher he was excellent; as a lecturer he was difficult to follow and was unable to hold his audience, for his brain worked faster than his tongue. It happened from time to time when he was lecturing that he would pause and, after a longer or shorter interval, would continue some sentences ahead of where he had stopped, leaving his hearers to fill up the gap for themselves. He taught as an axiom that "automatic breathing is the true sign of anaesthesia". As an anaesthetist he may be said to have devoted his whole working life to St Bartholomew's Hospital. For many years he was in the Surgery from 11 to 1 and in the operating theatres from 1.30 until late in the afternoon. During the war he was attached as anaesthetist to the First London General Hospital with the rank of captain RAMC(T) but, being unable to adapt himself to military discipline, it was found necessary to invite his resignation. In 1887 he published in Blackwood "An enquiry into the nature of the operation of free trade", which was afterwards reprinted as a pamphlet. In 1894 he wrote "Notes on chloroform anaesthesia", *St Bartholomew's Hospital Reports*, 30, 17; in 1895 "The mechanical factor in anaesthesia", *Ibid* 31, 155; in 1896 "On variation of the pupil during chloroform anaesthesia in the normal subject", *Ibid* 33, 56; and in 1898 "The stomachic phenomena during chloroform anaesthesia", *Ibid* 34, 107, 1906 he published in two volumes *The CHCl3 problem*, the first volume being entitled "Analysis" and the second "The physiological action of chloroform"; the work is highly metaphysical.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004165
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mushin, William Woolf (1910 - 1993)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008200-E008299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380401380401
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details William Mushin was born in London on 29 September 1910, the younger son of Moses Mushin and Jesse, née Kalmenson. He received his early education at Davenant School and his medical education was at the London Hospital Medical College, where he won the Buxton Prize in anatomy and the Anderson Prize in clinical medicine. He qualified MB BS London in 1933. After several resident posts he was appointed anaesthetist to the Royal Dental Hospital, London. At the outbreak of the second world war he joined the Emergency Medical Service and in 1942 was appointed first assistant to Sir Robert Macintosh at the Nuffield department of anaesthetics of the University of Oxford. In 1947 he was invited to become director of the department of anaesthetics at Cardiff Royal Infirmary and six years later was given the chair of anaesthetics of the Welsh National School of Medicine at the University of Wales. He developed this department from its basic roots into a world-renowned unit by the time of his retirement in 1975. Much of his success stemmed from his administrative abilities, and his department was able to provide a service to complement and support the surgical work of the Cardiff hospitals in addition to the training and research which produced many fine anaesthetists and important publications. Bill Mushin served on the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1954 to 1971 and was dean of the Faculty and a member of the College Council from 1961 to 1964. He was a member of the board of management and consulting editor of the *British Journal of Anaesthesia* from 1947 until 1975. He was a member of Council of the Association of Anaesthetists and also its President from 1953 to 1956. In Wales he sat on the Board of Governors of the United Cardiff Hospitals, the Court of the University of Wales and the Senate and Council of the Welsh National School of Medicine between 1956 and 1960. His contributions to committee work were considerable, and he served as adviser in anaesthetics to the Welsh Regional Hospital Board for over twenty five years, in addition to membership of various other bodies such as the Safety of Drugs Committee and its successor the Medicines Commission from 1964 to 1983 and the Commonwealth Scholarships Committee, from 1969 to 1978. Although he gave many eponymous lectures worldwide, perhaps the most notable were the Joseph Clover lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1955 and the John Snow lecture in 1964. He was also much in demand as a visiting professor or consultant to many universities in the USA and elsewhere. He had a reputation for writing in a clear, direct style and his early publications with Sir Robert Macintosh - *Local anaesthesia, brachial plexus* (1944) and *Physics for the anaesthetist* (1947), as well as *Anaesthesia for the poor risk and other essays* (1948) and *Automatic ventilation of the lungs* (1959) were essential reading for all anaesthetists. In the 1960s he led studies to measure accurately the safe dosage of halothane in closed circuit anaesthesia in order to avoid repetition of fatalities which had occurred elsewhere. Before and after his retirement in 1975 there were several distinguished tributes to Bill Mushin acknowledging his contributions to British anaesthesia. From the British Association of Anaesthetists he received the John Snow Silver Medal in 1974 and honorary membership of the society. The Royal Society of Medicine awarded him the Henry Hill Hickman Medal in 1978 and its honorary Fellowship in 1987. In 1982 he received an honorary DSc from the University of Wales. However, it was his staff in Cardiff who, on his retirement from the Welsh National School of Medicine in 1975, set up the Mushin lecture as a tribute to his many services to anaesthesia. Bill Mushin had a strong personality that led naturally to leadership in his field, both nationally and in Wales. However, he also had a private side, and enjoyed gardening, watercolour painting, photography and, latterly, computers. In 1939 he married Betty Hannah Goldberg and they had one son and three daughters. He died on 22 January 1993, aged 82. His widow died in July 1996.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008218
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sheppard, Charles Edward (1856 - 1891)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-01-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003300-E003399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375576375576
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details In 1873 gained the Exhibition in Zoology at the University of London Preliminary Scientific Examination, and then entered St Thomas's Hospital, where his student career was most brilliant. He carried off prize after prize, and at the end of his fourth year was awarded the Treasurer's Gold Medal, and next year the Solly Medal and Prize. He filled all the house appointments and was appointed Resident Assistant Physician and Medical Registrar. The two appointments, now separated, involved too great a strain on a man as conscientious as Charles Sheppard. He kept his register with meticulous neatness, did his duties to the full, overtaxed himself, and had to retire from professional work. The death of his mother told very severely on his sensitive spirit, and he remained outside the medical world for several years, during which he employed himself in literary pursuits. Returning to work, he spent a year or two in active clinical duties at St Thomas's, the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond Street, where he was Clinical Assistant, and the Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, Blackfriars. He then turned his whole attention to anaesthetics, in which he had always taken an interest. He soon obtained several hospital appointments, and, when he died in early life, was Anaesthetist at Guy's Hospital Dental School, the Middlesex Hospital (second chloroformist), the National Orthopaedic Hospital, the Victoria Hospital for Children, and the St. Thomas's Hospital Dental Department. He became greatly in request during the two years of his practice as an anaesthetist, and was building up a leading position when he died suddenly on June 30th, 1891. His address was 13 Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square. He was constantly busy in devising improvements in methods of administering anaesthetics and in apparatus, but he published little on the subject save a few papers in the medical journals, of which one, on "The Administration of Ether in Operations requiring the Lateral or the Prone Position", appeared with illustrations in the *British Medical Journal* (1891, ii, 68) soon after his death. His only other paper of importance was the Solly Medal Prize Essay, published in the *St Thomas's Hospital Reports* (1878, viii, 411). "He was an accomplished draughtsman, as the two plates published with his essay testify. But brilliant as Charles Sheppard was in his profession, he had the most surprising all-round knowledge. He seemed to know everything. It was no ordinary superficial knowledge, but one extending to the most abstruse and technical details. It would have occasioned no surprise to be told that he could read Chinese, or decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics. His mind was a complete encyclopedia. His knowledge of literature was wide. He was a great book collector, and probably knew as much about rare books as many professed bibliophiles. During the time when he had given up professional work he made a complete glossary to Burns, and for this purpose he studied very thoroughly the early Scottish poetry. His wonderful versatility was, however, nowhere more apparent than in music. Few professional pianists could excel him in brilliancy of execution, in lightness of touch, or in depth of feeling. Of late he frequently played at private concerts, but he was always at his best when he had only a friend or two to listen to him. His impromptus were then sometimes marvellous. His fantasias on popular airs will always live in the memory of those who heard them. How many instruments (including the bagpipes) he could play probably no one but himself knew. "He was not satisfied with being able to play on instruments, but he learnt the principles of their construction. He built an organ at one time entirely with his own hands. No evening passed for him without music, and generally an hour after dinner was devoted to it. Chopin was probably his favourite composer, and his interpretation of his works was wonderfully sympathetic and original. He had a most thorough knowledge of harmony, counterpoint and composition, and it was surprising how quick he was to detect the smallest error in printed scores. He often used to say that his musical talent was not to him an unmixed good. It made the discords of the world more jarring and more obtrusive, and increased his natural sensibility."
Resource Identifier RCS: E003393
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Macintosh, Sir Robert Reynolds (1897 - 1989)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007400-E007499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379625379625
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Robert Reynolds Macintosh was born in Timaru, New Zealand, on 17 October 1897 the son of Charles N Macintosh, a surveyor who had been a member of the first rugby football team representing New Zealand abroad in 1893, and his wife Beatrice, née Thompson. He was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School and in 1916 volunteered for war service, initially taking a commission in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and later transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. He was mentioned in despatches but towards the end of the war he was shot down over France and taken prisoner. Although he made a number of attempts to escape none of these was successful and he was not repatriated until the end of the war. He entered Guy's Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1924. His early house appointments included one in Montevideo where he perfected his Spanish and initially he intended to be a surgeon. He passed the FRCS Edinburgh three years after qualification but found that his skills in anaesthesia were too much in demand and he settled in London, where in conjunction with W S McConnell he developed a group practice in private anaesthetics largely concerned with dental work. At this stage in his life he and other consultants from Guy's used to play golf at Huntercombe where they frequently dined with Lord Nuffield and his wife. They were able to give him informal advice on a number of Lord Nuffield's proposed benefactions to medicine. He had on one occasion anaesthetised Lord Nuffield who had unpleasant recollections of previous anaesthetics and who found an intravenous barbiturate induction a pleasant surprise. Lord Nuffield originally proposed to found chairs in medicine, surgery and obstetrics and gynaecology, but when Macintosh commented light-heartedly that anaesthesia was not included, Lord Nuffield took up the point and proposed to endow a chair of anaesthesia. The University said that there was inadequate academic status in anaesthesia to justify a chair but Lord Nuffield insisted on its creation making his other lavish donations conditional on this development. He increased his benefaction to £2 million and the University fell in with his suggestion. Macintosh took up the chair in February 1937 with two main ambitions; firstly to make anaesthesia more safe and secondly to enable anaesthesia to extend the limits of surgery. Macintosh embarked on his academic appointments with great enthusiasm as he loved teaching, although he was not a great speaker and was not always comfortable when lecturing or presenting papers. Within two years he enlisted the support of Dr Kurt Mendelssohn and Dr H G Epstein from the Oxford University physics department and with their help created the Oxford Vaporiser which would deliver a known concentration of ether. Two prototypes had been developed by 1941 and thereafter production was started at the Morris motor works in Cowley. By the end of the war over four thousand had been supplied to service and civilian hospitals and a modification of this vaporiser was used in the Falklands campaign of 1982. His new department also advised Lord Nuffield on the development of a tank ventilator for patients with poliomyelitis. During the war he was consultant in anaesthesia to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force holding the rank of Air Commodore. He continued to run the department of anaesthesia at the Radcliffe Infirmary. The war research undertaken in his department included assessment of various methods of artificial ventilation, the provision of respirable atmosphere in submarines, the design of life-jackets and the determination of the maximum altitude at which airmen could bale out without oxygen. He ran regular short courses to train young doctors in the skills and techniques of anaesthesia and persuaded the hospital to provide nurses to assist the anaesthetist. He developed the laryngoscope blade which bears his name and in conjunction with Freda Bannister wrote a standard textbook of anaesthesia. At the end of the war he was awarded the Order of Liberty by Norway. Macintosh believed that most anaesthetic deaths were caused by the incompetence of anaesthetists and did much to debunk the then fashionable concept of attributing many of them to "status thymo-lymphaticus". Dr William Mushin joined his department in 1943 and together they undertook an investigation into anaesthetic deaths. In 1949 he persuaded the Association of Anaesthetists to appoint a committee to investigate deaths associated with anaesthesia and this was the precursor of the detailed audit system established later. After the war the anaesthetic department was not given the promised accommodation and many developments were hampered. He continued to receive many invitations to travel abroad where his achievements were recognised by numerous honorary degrees and diplomas. Throughout his life he taught simple but safe methods of anaesthesia which were appropriate even in under-developed countries. He was created a knight in 1955 and retired from his chair in 1965 but maintained his interest in the specialty of anaesthesia, attending meetings up to the age of 90. He was made an honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1965 and of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1966. The award of an honorary FRCS in 1989 gave him especial pleasure. He enjoyed swimming and a good game of tennis. In 1925 he married Rosa Marjorie Henderson and her death in 1956 left him desolate. In 1962 he married Dorothy Ann Manning who survived him and to whom he attributed the happiness of his retirement years. He died on 23 August 1989 aged 91.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007442
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
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/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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Howat, Douglas Donald Currie (1920 - 2006)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-08-23 2008-12-05
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/372568372568
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Douglas Donald Currie Howat was a consultant anaesthetist at St George’s Hospital, London. He was born on 10 January 1920, in Denholm in Roxburghshire on the Scottish borders. His grandfather ran a muslin factory in Glasgow, but his father, Reginald Douglas Howat, preferred the life of a country gentleman and had become a general practitioner. His mother, Christine Evelyn née Ireland, came from a long line of Church of Scotland ministers. His father soon left Scotland for Bradford, where he was an assistant medical officer of health. When Douglas was six years old the family moved to London, and, at the age of eight, he gained a scholarship to Dulwich College. An only child, Douglas’ childhood was, by his own admission, lonely, but rather than dwelling on his solitude, he developed considerable self-sufficiency, exploring London on long cycle rides and reading voraciously. He greatly enjoyed being sent to Scotland for his holidays. At the age of 16 he was expected to choose a profession. He thought of becoming a barrister, but his father claimed he could not afford this and suggested he do medicine, as he knew the dean of St George’s Medical School who would accept him. Douglas switched to science and took his first MB from school, won a scholarship, and was accepted by King’s College to study medicine. At King’s, he met Joan Overstall, then secretary to the University Conservative Society. She was from Lancashire, reading French, Italian and law. They kept in touch during his clinical years at St George's Hospital and in 1943, after Douglas qualified, they married. After he qualified, he had a short flirtation with medicine and gained the MRCP, but changed to surgery. He completed a resident surgical officer post in Slough, before accepting an anaesthetist post at St George’s, having enjoyed his student experience in this field under the inspiration of Joseph Blomfield, who was noted for supervising his students administering ether whilst holding a cup of tea and a cigarette in his hands. Douglas passed the diploma in anaesthetics, was called up into the RAF and served at Cosford, being demobilized in 1948. By this time his three children had been born, Catherine (1944), David (1946) and Michael (1947). Joan always fully shared in Douglas’ professional life. Douglas continued his anaesthetic training at St George’s, working half his time at the Brompton Hospital with anaesthetists Ruth Mansfield and Bernard Lucas and surgeons Brock, Cleland, Price Thomas, Barrett and Tubbs. He was appointed as a consultant anaesthetist in Nottingham in a tuberculosis unit, but did not settle there and soon returned to London, to a post where he worked at Woolwich, Lewisham and Maidstone, until appointed to St George’s, where he started cardiac anaesthesia, working with Charles Drew. Later he worked extensively with Rodney (later Lord) Smith in pancreatico-biliary surgery. Meanwhile, Douglas was extending his horizons, attending the Royal Society of Medicine regularly, and he started travelling overseas, reading papers at the Second World Congress of Societies of Anaesthesiologists in Toronto and visiting hospitals and lecturing in Europe and USA. At home he served as vice-dean at St George’s and chaired the regional postgraduate advisory committee and became examiner for the fellowship at the Faculty of Anaesthetists. In 1965 he took on the highly responsible task of organising secretary for the Fourth World Congress of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, held in 1968 in London. Douglas subsequently held office in all the important anaesthetic organisations in the UK. He was president of the section of anaesthetics of the Royal Society of Medicine (from 1976 to 1977) and its international affairs secretary. In the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland he was honorary treasurer (from 1969 to 1974), vice-president (1974 to 1976) and an honorary member (1986). He became regional adviser to the Faculty of Anaesthetists, served on the board of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons, becoming vice-dean, quietly revolutionising this rather vaguely defined post. His contribution to the College was noted by his being elected FRCS in 1984. In 1979 he delivered the biennial Frederic Hewitt memorial lecture. Douglas became extensively involved in international affairs. Not only his linguistic skill but even more his wise counsel was immensely valuable. He had an ability to establish rapport with all sorts of people and where diplomacy was needed, he was asked to go. From 1976 to 1980 he was consecutively chairman of the executive committee of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiology and its vice-president, but it is as a European figure that he is best known. As early as 1966 he was, with members of the Royal College of Physicians, one of the UK representatives considering the implications of Britain joining the European Economic Community. When Britain eventually joined in 1973 he continued to represent British anaesthesia on the council of the European Union of Medical Specialists and chaired its anaesthetic monospecialist committee. He was involved with the foundation of the European Academy of Anaesthesia that notably strengthened the links with our overseas colleagues and established anaesthesia as a major specialty in countries where this had not before been the case. Douglas’ childhood interests continued throughout his life. He was always a great reader, though long solitary walks in the Chilterns succeeded long cycle rides in London and these he meticulously recorded in a diary. The Times crossword, chess, history of anaesthesia and the music of Beethoven were added. In 1984 Douglas retired from St George’s and this gave him more time to pursue his interest in the history of medicine. A steady stream of small research projects were reported at professional meetings, always in an entertaining way. He was president of the History of Anaesthesia Society during 1993. Douglas died on 15 November 2006, following gall-bladder surgery, a year and nine months after Joan. He had achieved much. He worked in an unobtrusive yet effective way, never losing his sense of humour, however provoked. He was just as happy carrying out the mundane chores as the most prestigious ones, indeed he said he enjoyed being given a job to do, but not becoming a figurehead. Although a national and international figure, he never forgot that the prime responsibility of a clinician is to serve his patients with skill and knowledge, and to support his surgeons and his trainees in all their endeavours.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000384
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Organe, Sir Geoffrey Stephen William (1908 - 1989)

2024-05-12T22:00:37Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-07-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007500-E007599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379739379739
Occupation Anaesthetist
Details Geoffrey Organe was born in Madras on 25 December 1908, the elder son of the Reverend William E H Organe KiH, a missionary, and his wife Alice, née Williams, the daughter of a mining engineer. His early education was at Taunton School before going to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he was honorary secretary and later president of the College Athletic Club. His clinical studies were at the Westminster Hospital and having joined the United Hospitals Athletic Club he was honorary secretary and later captain of the club. This interest persisted throughout his life and in later years he was appointed president. He qualified in 1933 and after house appointments at his teaching hospital spent some time in general practice before deciding to embark on a career in anaesthesia. His first appointment was as resident anaesthetist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and he passed the DA in 1937; subsequently he was house anaesthetist and the first anaesthetic registrar at the Westminster Hospital in 1938-1939. At about this time, aged 28, he underwent a Paul-Mikulicz operation for cancer of the colon and although this operation would now be considered inadequate he survived for over 50 years. After the operation Sir Ivan Magill gave him £100 and sent him on a holiday to recover. He and his wife went to the Canary Islands on a banana boat and on his return the fistula was almost healed. He was appointed honorary anaesthetist to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in 1938 and after the outbreak of war was appointed consultant anaesthetist to the Westminster Hospital. He was considered unfit for the armed forces but throughout the war years served in the Emergency Medical Service and at Westminster Hospital. There he remained throughout his professional life, later in 1964 becoming foundation Professor of Anaesthesia. He had a great interest in research and passed the MD Cambridge in 1941 for a thesis on the value of nitrous oxide, oxygen and intermittent intravenous thiopentone for operations not requiring much muscle relaxation. He was appointed honorary secretary of the Medical Research Council's anaesthetics sub-committee of the committee on traumatic shock, serving from 1941 until 1947 and was also honorary secretary of the anaesthetics section of the committee of analgesia in midwifery. When the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons was formed in 1948 he was a member of the Board and continued in office until 1972. He was Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists from 1958 to 1961 and during these years served on the Council of the College. He examined for both the DA and FFARCS and although he had a reputation for expecting a high standard from candidates he had a friendly and courteous approach. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1965. He was President of the Section of Anaesthesia at the Royal Society of Medicine from 1949 to 1950 and was made an honorary Fellow of the Society in 1974. He was President of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland from 1954 to 1957 and in 1972 was awarded the John Snow Silver Medal of the Association; he was also President of the South West Metropolitan Society of Anaesthetists from 1957 to 1959 and Joseph Clover Lecturer. Shortly after the war he studied the use of tubocurarine in anaesthesia and in 1946 published an important paper in the *Lancet* describing his experiences with this drug, which he had received himself on several occasions. Other publications were on the occurrence of convulsions after the administration of local anaesthesia and the use of decamethonium iodide as a muscle relaxant. He was appointed civilian consultant in anaesthesia to the Royal Navy and later consultant in anaesthesia to the Ministry of Health. He played an important role in the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists and having served as its first secretary and treasurer from 1955 to 1964 was elected President from 1964 to 1968, presiding over the World Congress of Anaesthesiology in London in 1968, the year in which he received his Knighthood - only the third anaesthetist to be so honoured. In later life he travelled extensively, lecturing overseas for both the British Council and the World Health Organisation. Altogether he visited over 40 countries, many of them in the developing world. He retired to Seaton in Devon and continued to enjoy his hobbies of photography and gardening. He is remembered for his unfailing kindness, courtesy and willingness to help those in need. He married Margaret (Peggy) Davies in 1935 and they had one son, Michael and two daughters, Janet who has qualified as a doctor and Sally who is a physiotherapist. He died on 7 January 1989, aged 80.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007556
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset