Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Breast surgeon

First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Ann Elizabeth (1923 - 2018)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2019-08-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation Breast surgeon Radiologist
Details Ann Elizabeth Johnson studied medicine at London University and graduated MB, BS in 1965. She passed the fellowship of the college in 1960. In 1965 she obtained the diploma in medical radiology technology from University College Hospital Medical School and, ten years later, became a fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists. She was an honorary consultant surgical oncologist at the Breast Study Centre, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood and a member of a research sub-committee of the UK Breast Cancer Coalition. She was also a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. She died on 1 January 2018 aged 94.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009634
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Sinha, Prakash (1962 - 2020)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2020-11-25
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Prakash Sinha was a surgeon who worked at the Princess Royal University Hospital, Bromley. 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: E009892
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Daly, David William ( - 2016)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-07-26 2019-09-30
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009100-E009199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381344381344
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details David William Daly was a consultant surgeon in Nottingham. He qualified in 1955 and gained his FRCS in 1958. He was a Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. In February 1968, he was appointed to the General and Children’s hospitals in Nottingham. Six years later, when two paediatric surgeons were appointed, he was asked to start a clinic for breast diseases, where he worked with W D Fraser, a consultant radiotherapist. The clinic was one of the earliest places in the country where a surgeon and radiotherapist worked jointly. He was elected as a consultant representative on the hospital management committee, serving two periods of three years, first on the Nottingham no 1 committee, then on the newly-formed University Hospital management committee. During his career, he witnessed how the hospital service in Nottingham changed with the development of the school of medicine. David William Daly died on 10 May 2016.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009161
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching George, William David (1943 - 2023)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-10-11
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010400-E010499
Occupation Breast surgeon General surgeon
Details William David George held the regis chair of surgery at the University of Glasgow. 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: E010474
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching De, Kshiti Ranjan (1930 - 2020)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2021-08-12
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation Breast surgeon General surgeon
Details Kshiti ‘Kit’ De was a consultant surgeon at Jersey General Hospital, Channel Islands. 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: E009995
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First Title value, for Searching Harland, Richard Nigel Leetall (1952 - 2016)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2017-01-25 2018-11-22
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/381477381477
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Richard Nigel Leetall Harland was a consultant general surgeon in Wigan. He was born on 1 April 1952 in York. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London and qualified with the MB BS in 1974. He gained his FRCS in 1979 and an MD in 1985. Prior to his consultant appointment in Wigan, he was a surgical registrar in Manchester and a lecturer at Manchester University. His subspecialty was breast surgery. He was a fellow of Manchester Medical Society and a member of the British Association of Surgical Oncology. Richard Harland died in 2016.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009294
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Berstock, David Anthony (1946 - 2021)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2022-07-28
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details David Anthony Berstock was born in Manchester on 14 September 1946. He was the only son of Ellia Berstock, a general practitioner, and his wife Rene née Hall. Educated at Stockport Grammar School, he trained in medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and London University, graduating MB, BS in 1970. He did house jobs at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and passed the fellowship of the college in 1975. After working for a while as a lecturer and senior registrar at King’s College Hospital in London, he moved to Merseyside where he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Wirral Hospitals NHS Trust and was also a part-time clinical lecturer in surgery at Liverpool University. Later in his career he worked at the BUPA Murrayfield Hospital in Thingwall and was a consultant surgeon at the Wirral Breast Care Service. The game of cricket was one of his main enthusiasms. He retired in 2010 and died on 23 December 2021 aged 75.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010141
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Elton, Sir Arnold (1920 - 2018)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-12-13 2021-11-11
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Sir Arnold Elton was born on 14 February 1920. He trained at University College Hospital and qualified MB, BS in 1943. After house jobs at Charing Cross Hospital (where he was Gosse research scholar), St Peter’s Hospital for Stone and University College Hospital, he passed the fellowship of the college in 1946 and became a consultant at Northwick Park Hospital. A surgical tutor at the college, he was on the Court of Examiners. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of the Hunterian Society. A founder member of the Conservative Medical Society (now Conservative Health) in 1975, he served as its first and most long serving chairman. To make an impact on political policy he worked closely with government health ministers and shadow ministers. He earned his knighthood largely through his contributions to the national breast cancer screening programme. A highly successful fundraiser, he supported many health charities, especially those dedicated to diabetes research. President Emeritus of Conservative Health, he was still active until his death on 3 October 2018 at the age of 98. He was survived by his partner June Mitchell.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009548
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Martin John (1947 - 2018)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2019-02-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon Gastrointestinal surgeon
Details Martin Cooper was medical director of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, and a consultant general surgeon. He was born in 1947. At 14, having had his appendix removed, he decided he wanted to become a surgeon. Three years later, at Forest Grammar School in Winnersh, Berkshire, his biology teacher told him he wasn’t good enough to become a doctor and the deputy head said his Latin wasn’t up to scratch. He persevered, gained a place at the Royal Free Hospital school of medicine and qualified in 1971. He trained in surgery in London, Bristol and Plymouth, and spent 18 months at the University of Chicago, researching pancreatic and biliary disease. On his return to the UK, he was appointed as a lecturer and senior registrar at the University of Bristol and was promoted to senior lecturer and honorary consultant in 1984. In 1988 he joined the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital as a consultant general surgeon with an interest in upper gastrointestinal and breast disease. Four years later he became clinical director of surgery and, in 1995, led the successful process of cancer centre registration. He also established the breast service. From 2009 to 2013 he was joint medical director of the hospital and was subsequently full-time medical director from September 2013 until his retirement in March 2015. He was also medical director of the Peninsula Cancer Network and clinical director of cancer services. He was the patron of FORCE (Friends of the Radiotherapy and Oncology Centre Exeter) from 2014. He enjoyed walking, skiing, sailing, rock climbing, DIY, gardening and travel. He married Joan Mcdonagh in 1974. She became the first cancer nurse specialist to be appointed to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. They had a daughter Hatty and two grandchildren. Martin Cooper died after slipping on concrete cellar stairs and sustaining a head injury. He was 71.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009569
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Cooling, Cyril Ivor (1923 - 2018)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Richard Cooling
Publication Date 2018-12-13 2019-09-30
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon Oncology surgeon
Details Cyril Cooling was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital and then medical superintendent of Benenden Hospital in Kent. The second son of Frank Cooling, a newsagent, and Lilian M Cooling née Waygood, he won the coveted Bucknill scholarship to enter University College Hospital in 1941, the first pupil from his village school to gain entry to medical school. The headmaster was so excited that he gave the whole school a day off. He started his training through the London Blitz, using his free time to teach himself the saxophone so he could play in a jazz band to self-fund his way through medical school when not on fire warden duties. After qualifying in 1946, he served for two years in the RAF in Stranraer, kick-starting a lifelong love of Scotland with many subsequent holidays and eventual residence in his latter years. After training posts in Ipswich and London, Cyril was appointed as a consultant oncology surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital and was part of the team that opened the Sutton branch in 1963, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the renowned breast surgery unit there, pioneering less invasive forms of surgery than the radical mastectomies that were then the standard treatment. He was revered and respected by both patients and colleagues, always making time for anyone, ever-mindful of his own humble background. At the peak of his career in London, in 1977 he moved to the Kent countryside to become the medical superintendent of Benenden Hospital, where he oversaw the construction of a new surgical wing and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into general surgery again. Retirement in 1985 gave him the opportunity to further develop his love of Latin-American dancing with his wife Phyllis, whom he adored, and together they enjoyed many years of village life in Kent actively involved in amateur dramatics and other pursuits. Sadly, the latter part of his retirement was devoted to caring for Phyllis who lost her eyesight. Predeceased by Phyllis just a few months after they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2016, Cyril Cooling died on 18 August 2018 at the age of 95 from cerebrovascular disease and dementia. He was survived by four children, 12 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009546
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Rhodes, Alan (1936 - 2018)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Clare Marx
Publication Date 2018-11-19 2018-11-21
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
Occupation General surgeon Paediatric surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Alan Rhodes was a consultant in general and paediatric surgery in Coventry. He was born in Wolverhampton on 1 April 1936 to Florence Rhodes née Levers, a secretary, and Wilfred Rhodes, a clerk. After a stellar performance at Wolverhampton Grammar School, he entered Birmingham Medical School in 1953. He obtained a BSc in anatomy with a distinction in 1956, and then qualified in 1959 with another distinction, winning prizes in surgery, neuroanatomy and social medicine, together with the Queen’s scholarship for the best performing student in parts one and two of the final examinations. His early interest was in anatomy, and after house jobs he became an anatomy demonstrator in Birmingham before his love of the subject took him to the USA in November 1961 as an instructor in neuroanatomy at the State University of New York. He returned to the UK and Birmingham in 1963. He published scientific papers on nervous pathways involved in the ferret’s response to added light and the influence of thyroid state of C14 lysine in normal and regenerated neurons of rats, among other subjects. He rapidly completed his surgical training and became a consultant in Coventry at the very early age of 32. He loved teaching and did so throughout his training. Shortly after taking up his consultant appointment, he took on the organisation of the fellowship course, which he directed and taught for six years, eventually becoming the RCS tutor to Coventry. After his retirement, he even returned to teaching anatomy, this time to mature medical students at Warwick University. At a local level, he chaired the department of general surgery and later the Coventry hospitals’ medical staff committee for five years. At a national level, he was a member of the junior medical staff committee of the British Medical Association as a trainee and later a member of the central committee for hospital medical services of the British Medical Association from 1969 to 1977 and the central negotiating committee. Any of his colleagues would tell you that life was rarely dull when he was around. George Bentley, who worked with him in the very early years, described him as the most intelligent and entertaining man he could recall in all his training years. Surgery was where Alan felt in command; as a natural anatomist he was deft and meticulous in his surgical approach, and his accompanying commentary made the anatomy come to life for those he was teaching. Alan taught so much more than surgery. His leadership, hard work, dogged determination to get what was right for his patients, humanity and kindness made him a fantastic role model. He was always interested in and eager to forward the careers of those who had worked with him and encouraged and mentored both men and women, including Dame Fiona Caldicott, who became president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and Dame Clare Marx, who became president of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was an enthusiastic Rotarian and also helped found the Snowball Trust, which looks after sick and needy children in Coventry. His wealth of stories and his entertaining and masterful delivery meant that he was in constant demand on radio and as an after-dinner speaker. Although he hated flying, he was an enthusiastic traveller and a member of the 1921 Surgical Travelling Club. Alan was married twice and had four children, two boys and two girls. When his first son died in 2001, he was very deeply affected. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2013. Over time Alan’s physical and mental skills were stripped from him whilst he retained to the end the knowledge of how many abilities he had lost. He was survived by Caroline, his wife for the last 38 years and a general practitioner, three sons and a grandchild.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009484
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Mitchell, Robert Mervyn (1925 - 2019)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Chris Mitchell
Publication Date 2021-07-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation General surgeon Thyroid surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Robert Mitchell qualified in Medicine at the University of Otago gaining the Gold Medal in Anatomy and the Senior Scholarship in Medicine. He undertook the BMedSci and his degree thesis, postnatal development in the rat adrenal, was published in 1948 and attracted interest. This demonstrated his early enthusiasm and aptitude for research. He was awarded a New Zealand Universities Travelling Scholarship to the United Kingdom and worked his passage over as a ship’s doctor in early 1952. He was employed as a Registrar at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Whilst in England, he obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. On returning to New Zealand in 1953 he worked as a Senior Surgical Registrar, later Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery, University of Otago. During this time he developed an interest in renal research demonstrated through publications with Michael Woodruff. In 1959 he became Reader in Surgery at the University of Queensland and surgeon in the Royal Brisbane Hospital. His enthusiasm for medical research led him in 1964 to be awarded a Carnegie Travel Grant to study surgical techniques and the teaching of surgery in medical schools in the United States and Canada. This he combined with a sabbatical year as Research Fellow in Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Harvey Cushing Fellow in the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. In the Peter Bent Brigham, with Joseph Murray’s team, he was amongst the international vanguard of the rapidly developing research into preventing rejection in renal transplantation. This work included early study of whether antilymphocyte serum was effective as an immunosuppressive agent for homografts. The work he did in Boston resulted in papers published with Joseph Murray (subsequently 1990 Nobel 1 prizewinner for the development of kidney and bone-marrow transplants) and focused much of his subsequent surgical career. Following his return to Brisbane in 1965 he worked in the Princess Alexandra Hospital and was Acting Professor of Surgery University of Queensland. In 1967 he was appointed to the Foundation Chair of Surgery at the University of Tasmania, a position he held until 1977. During this time he undertook responsibility for setting up the new Department of Surgery in Hobart. He performed the first renal transplantations in Tasmania. In 1977 he moved to a Chair of Surgery at the University of New South Wales where, at St George Hospital, he specialised in thyroid and breast surgery. His other roles included Director of the Australian Kidney Foundation, Chairman of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Australian Kidney Foundation, Member of the Examinations Committee of the Australian Medical Council, Chairman of the Cancer Care Committee at St George Hospital, Member of the National Health & Medical Research Council Scientific Committee and President of the Surgical Research Society. Following his retirement from surgery in 1987, he was Visiting Surgeon and Chairman of the Quality Committee of the Division of Surgery at St George Hospital. In 2001 he became Emeritus Professor, University of New South Wales. He undertook medico-legal consultant work in Sydney from 1988 until he moved to his retirement home in Ballina in 2002. He retained his life-long interest and devotion to medical research but was then also able to more fully enjoy his oil painting, boating and international travel. Robert Mitchell was born in Thames, New Zealand on 6th December 1925, to parents Jack and Florence (née Hockenhull). He was the eldest of three children. Through hard work and a love of learning he became Dux of Thames High School and won a scholarship to study in Auckland from where he was successful in getting into the University of Otago. His father Jack was a school woodwork teacher and Robert became the first member of his family to study at university. A love of woodworking and appreciation of practical skills was his inheritance from his father and remained with him throughout his life. Robert Mitchell was widely regarded as a concerned and caring practitioner and by his students as a fine teacher. His wife Ruth (née Adams) was his contemporary at medical school and an accomplished mountaineer who had been one of the four who had climbed the South Ridge of Mt Cook for the first time in 1948. She later excelled in the field of Pathology and electron microscopy. She pre-deceased him in 1990. They had three children. Robert Mitchell passed away peacefully on 20th September 2019 in Ballina.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009986
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Melville, Robert Pope (1913 - 2003)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Robert Melville
Publication Date 2011-11-03 2020-01-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373680373680
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Robert Pope Melville was a consultant general and breast surgeon in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was born at Wollongong, New South Wales on 23 May 1913. One of five children, his father, Hector Pope Melville, a school principal and advocate for education, encouraged his sons and daughters to learn. His mother was Beatrice Lillian Melville née Arey. From an early age, Bob always wanted to be a doctor. From country New South Wales townships, the family moved to Sydney, where Bob gained a bursary to Fort Street Boys’ High School, from which he gained entry to Sydney University’s school of medicine. He graduated with second class honours in 1938, and also represented the university at tennis. His first postings were as a resident medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney and as a junior fellow at the postgraduate school of medicine. With the start of the Second World War he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), in the medical corps attached to the 2/6th battalion. They sailed on the *Queen Mary* to Palestine, where he was a doctor assigned to the jail in Tel Aviv. He spoke little of the war, except the evacuation from Greece, when he was in charge of the walking wounded, bringing up the rear. He returned to Australia and was then assigned to an AIF field hospital in Lae, Papua New Guinea, where he and his 1938 classmate, Doug Sturrock, an orthopaedic surgeon, worked their magic. Straight after the war, Bob sailed to England, to study for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was awarded the Hallet prize and the Nuffield travelling fellowship in 1946. He gained his FRCS in 1947. From 1947 to 1949, he was a surgical registrar at Southend Hospital, where he worked under the senior surgeon Rodney Maingot. In 1949, he returned to Australia to be with his father before his death. He became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1950, where he was on the council of examiners from 1968 to 1973. He was an assistant to Sir Benjamin Edye at the Scottish Hospital in Paddington, Sydney. He later became the senior surgeon there, with the matron Marg Barry and sister Webb presiding. He was also an honorary surgeon at St George Hospital, Kogerah from 1950 to 1973 . Here he was on call for many nights, operating on car crash victims ‘for whatever time it took’. He also operated at many other hospitals, including the Sutherland, the Masonic, Wolper, St Luke’s and Quirindi hospitals. From 1957 to 1961 he was a lecturer at Sydney University. In the mid 1950's he was a founding member of the Prince of Wales Hospital’s special unit for cancer. After his mother died from breast cancer, this became his branch of investigation within that unit. His enquiry into breast cancer took him to America where, in the early 1960's, he met George ‘Barney’ Crile, the pioneering breast surgeon. They were of the same opinion that breast cancer should be treated by removing lumps rather carrying out full mastectomies. As well as general surgery, diagnosing and removing breast lumps, became his specialist field. He was chairman of the management committee during the establishment of the Sydney-Square Breast Clinic (from 1977 to 1978), and surgeon at the clinic from 1978 until the mid 1980's. He was a member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, where he was chairman of the breast oncology group (from 1973 to 1976), vice president (from 1977 to 1979) and president (from 1979 to 1981). He was also vice president of the Medico-Legal Society of New South Wales in 1980. In the 1960's he travelled behind the Iron Curtain, to Moscow, to visit hospitals there. In return, two Russian doctors visited Sydney. From 1968 to 1973 Bob served on the World Health Organization’s international reference center for the evaluation of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Bob was made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1962. In his old age, at over 80, he continued to attend at the Prince of Wales Hospital for a morning a week, assisting the younger brigade and looking on as they negotiated new key hole methods and techniques. He was a great surgeon and was much liked and admired by theatre staff and fellow doctors alike. In 1952, he married Judy Gainford (who had been Miss Australia 1947). She supported his efforts while looking after their three children – Robert, Fiona and Douglas. Home was a place where visiting and local doctors enjoyed parties given in their honour. Bob died on 7 July 2003 at the age of 90. This Aussie boy from humble beginnings did his family and country proud. His life of achievement, saving and extending people’s lives, was a mighty, noble effort.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001497
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching McKinna, James Alan (1932 - 2020)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Fiona McKinna
Publication Date 2021-03-22 2021-06-04
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/384495384495
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Alan McKinna was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. He was born on 13 August 1932 in Nottinghamshire, the youngest son of two GPs, Eva McKinna née Young and Henry Drummond McKinna. His father died suddenly at the age of 40, leaving his mother to bring up her sons while she continued as a doctor. He was educated at West Bridgford Grammar School, Nottinghamshire, and then studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1956. His brother also studied medicine and became a GP in Canada. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospitals in 1972 and also became an honorary surgeon to the Chelsea Hospital for Women, where he spent the next 20 years. His major interest was in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer and he became a Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1989 with a lecture entitled ‘The earlier diagnosis of breast cancer – a 20-year experience at the Royal Marsden’. His busy private practice was in Kensington and at the Cromwell Hospital. He felt privileged to have his appointments, and enjoyed the national and international contacts and opportunities in his field that this enabled, for example supporting the now renowned tamoxifen prevention trial. He also strongly championed the early diagnostic breast unit at the Royal Marsden, a forerunner of today’s fast track diagnostic clinics. His team, his friends and family knew and respected his strong sense of duty and care to his patients. Many of these patients kept in contact with him long after his retirement, as did his junior staff. A close medical oncology colleague said of him that: ‘He was one of the kindest and most gentle colleagues I ever knew, always putting his patients first, and of course they all adored him. He was a wonderful and favourite colleague to work with – he wasn’t just caring, but he was enthusiastic and supportive of new ideas and a dedicated collaborator in all our trials. He was particularly instrumental in advocating our neoadjuvant programme at the start, when most of his colleagues were aggressively critical and we could never have made the progress we did without him.’ He was a notoriously poor timekeeper, with most outpatient clinics and theatre sessions finishing late, particularly on a Friday evening, which would often cause considerable but predictable stress all round, only to be quelled by an invitation to the local pub. Despite his poor relationship with the clock, he felt strongly about supporting his whole team, and loved to find an excuse for a good party at a good venue, be it a restaurant, art gallery or the Chelsea Physic Garden, inviting as many as he could as a ‘thank you’ for going above and beyond with him. He was a remarkable mentor and fine example and embodied all that is good about the doctor-patient relationship. Surgically he had a wide repertoire, favouring conservation in breast cancer, but well able to perform staging laparotomies, thyroidectomies and whatever was directed his way at the Marsden, and indeed at the Chelsea next door. He was an active member of the Chelsea Clinical Society and the British Breast Group, and a mover and shaker in writing guidelines in the management of breast cancer for the Marsden. In many ways he was ahead of his time, although he would not have considered himself a trail blazer. He trained numerous junior surgical oncologists, many now senior or retired, and many remember him fondly for his great interest in their own careers, which he would support and develop, for instance by sending them overseas to visit the great cancer centres in the USA or by setting them projects for presentation and publication. After retirement, having been pre-deceased by his youngest daughter Lucy, he and his wife Marilyn, whom he had met at Barts, moved to Winchelsea, which they made their home for the next 25 years. Alan embraced retirement and became a keen gardener, as well as being actively involved in the local art group, the literary and historical societies, and devoted to the local church. He was mayor of Winchelsea in 2007 and relished being an active member of the parish. He was a loving father to his three remaining children Andrew, Fiona and James, and grandfather to his three grandsons Tom, James and Nick. One daughter and one grandson have followed him in medical careers. In his later years, he cared selflessly for his wife with severe dementia, who survives him. He collapsed and died suddenly, on 12 December 2020, on his way to church with his wife. He was 88.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009945
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Rothnie, Neil David (1957 - 2020)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Roger Watkins
Publication Date 2020-08-12 2021-11-19
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/383746383746
Occupation Breast surgeon General surgeon
Details Neil Rothnie was a consultant breast surgeon and medical director of Southend Hospital. He was born into a family with a well-known name in the world of surgery: his father Norman Rothnie, who trained at Barts, was a vascular surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading and was also chairman of the specialty advisory committee at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Norman and his wife Peggy (Margaret née Deane) had four sons – Neil, Iain and twin brothers, Bruce and Stuart. Neil attended Reading School, where he developed a strong interest in rugby; an interest that he was to follow keenly for the rest of his life. Whilst still at school he attended trials for the English Colts XV. He lost his mother Peggy to breast cancer in 1985 and possibly that pointed Neil to his future career as a breast surgical specialist. Neil entered St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School in 1979, where he shone not only as a student but also on the rugby field. As a house surgeon to Martin Birnstingl, he won the Bentley prize awarded to the house officer in surgery considered to be best of that year. After junior surgical posts, he became a surgical registrar at Southend Hospital. The hospital was already well known to the Rothnie family as Norman’s sister Helen was married to Tony Dingley, another Barts man who was previously senior surgeon at Southend. After registrar training, the time came for Neil to undertake research and he gained a masters degree, having worked at the Royal Free Hospital and Bristol Royal Infirmary. His thesis (1991) was entitled ‘Some new monoclonal antibodies to colorectal tumour antigens’. Following his thesis, Neil became a senior registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, after which the time was ripe for him to apply for a consultant post. Neil was keen to return to Southend and the hospital was keen to have him back. At that time outside influences by way of College and university interests could sway an appointment against the declared wishes of the hospital concerned. Neil’s slight problem in this case was that he appeared rather junior for this appointment. No side was willing to give way and finally the appointment rested with the views of the president of the College. Good sense prevailed and Neil became a very popular and accomplished contributor to a busy surgical unit with a very illustrious forebear, namely Rodney Maingot. When appointed to Southend in 1994 the service for breast disease was somewhat fragmented, with each surgeon contributing in a way which nowadays would seem rather out of place and uncoordinated. As Neil declared an interest in breast disease and in particular breast cancer, things began to change. The hospital was already blessed with a successful radiotherapy unit and this set Neil on a path to creating a service which did not keep patients waiting for weeks on end. His idea was to get through all the basic diagnostic tests in one day. This would include consultation, imaging and fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology. Most patients would agree that uncertainty is the most frightening thing about any diagnostic service and Neil’s aim was to contract those weeks of waiting into a single day. Gradually, Neil’s concept of a dedicated breast service coalesced to the extent that a dedicated building was erected within the grounds of Southend Hospital part funded by the NHS, but also by the charity that Neil helped to set up called Bosom Pals. This contributed £750,000 to new breast services in Southend. Neil was also the Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) screening representative for the east of England region from 2006 to 2013. In addition, he was the chair of the multidisciplinary NHS breast screening programme (BSP) and ABS audit steering group from 2009 to 2013, having taken over that role from Hugh Bishop. In this role he ensured that new audit standards were adopted to take account of the updated ABS guidelines introduced in 2009. The annual audit was also expanded to examine additional aspects such as HER2 testing (testing for a growth-promoting protein on the outside of breast cells) and neoadjuvant therapies and provide more detailed information about newer techniques such as sentinel lymph node biopsy and preoperative axillary ultrasound. Due to the additional data being collected and analysed, the annual ABS/NHS BSP breast screening audit document increased in size from 155 to over 210 pages. Neil set up a weekly breast multidisciplinary team meeting at Southend and woe betide anybody who appeared not to have a full grasp of all the necessary facts. Away from breast cancer care, Neil proved to be a popular, reliable and competent colleague, as well as being much in demand by patients. He became medical director in 2011. His attention to detail and his inability to accept anything that was not absolutely correct was a great asset to the hospital, although those same attributes can make a directorship a very onerous job. Notwithstanding, his three year medical director contract was renewed to cover almost nine years of diligent work. His untimely and sudden death attributed to cardiac causes occurred whilst he was still director. In July 2020, on what would have been Neil’s 63rd birthday, the breast unit at Southend Hospital was renamed in his honour. The occasion provided an opportunity for colleagues to reflect on the enormous contribution Neil had made as a warm, generous and compassionate surgeon, who had been so enthusiastic, dedicated and hard working. These comments have been echoed by many of the thousands of patients that Neil had treated in his surgical career. In 1985 Neil married Rosalind (née Carr), a Barts graduate and subsequently a local GP, and they enjoyed a very happy marriage. They had a daughter Chrissie, a lawyer in London, and a son Alex, a specialist surgical registrar at the Royal Free Hospital. The baton of surgery in the Rothnie family passes on.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009793
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kay, Ronald Geoffrey (1929 - 2020)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Allan Panting
Publication Date 2021-01-07 2021-12-02
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/384137384137
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Ronald Geoffrey Kay was a caring, compassionate surgeon of considerable humility who set high standards of clinical excellence, demonstrating insight and respect for his patients. He was a trusted, respected and valued colleague sought out as a mentor and teacher by many New Zealand surgeons and trainees. He was also a leader and major contributor to surgical research and education. Ron Kay was a modest man who quietly contributed much to academia and the health of all New Zealanders, but especially that of women. Ron Kay was born in Upland Road, Auckland, one of three children born to mother, Claira, and father, Morty Kay. He was the youngest, with sister Norma and older brother Colin (who would later become Mayor of Auckland). He started school at Kings Prep, quickly revealing his sporting prowess and proceeded to win a highly sought-after scholarship to Kings College. There, he expanded his academic capabilities and became the quintessential all-rounder! With a love of animals and having spent considerable time on the family farm he was passionate about farming, but as Ron excelled in science subjects his housemaster suggested medicine as a career. Ron commenced at Auckland University, gaining sufficient grades to win a place at Medical School – this was a period when many places at Medical School were held for returning servicemen. In Dunedin he resided at Knox College and the period was marked by constant work with only limited time for relaxation. Ron obtained his MB ChB from Otago University in 1953. Following graduation Ron commenced two years as house and senior house officer in Auckland hospitals. In 1956 he headed for the UK as ship’s doctor on a freighter – it was suggested that he was the only patient treated as he suffered on-going bouts of seasickness. One year later, in 1957, he become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. After working in a number of surgical posts, he spent 1960-62 as registrar to the Post-Graduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital in London. During this time he met Gillian Dawson, a nurse, who in a written invitation on a noticeboard invited Ron to partner her to the upcoming Nurses Ball – this the result of a bet for five pounds that she couldn’t get the “dashingly handsome kiwi doctor” to accompany her. A strong relationship resulted and they married in 1959. In 1962 Ron and Gillian returned to New Zealand with a son, Timothy (born 1961), Ron commencing as Surgical Tutor Specialist in Auckland Hospital. Two more children, Peter (1963) and Susannah (1965) completed the family. In 1967 Ron commenced three years at the Harvard Medical School and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital as a U.S. Public Health Service Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. He returned to Auckland in 1969 and three years later was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery at the newly formed Auckland School of Medicine. Tasked with establishing an academic surgical unit with a major research section, Ron completed this work with conscientious attention to detail, considerable flair and superb judgement. He was able to secure the cooperation of colleagues in respect to undergraduate and graduate teaching. Ron subsequently developed an innovative program for the surgery examination. During the late 1960s Ron was a pioneer in the use of intravenous nutrition in New Zealand. His extensive research in the field of Zinc and Selenium deficiency, revolutionary Gastic-band surgery, and his tireless devotion to the field of Breast surgery have all had a major impact on the advancements and successes in these fields we see today. His leadership resulted in a number of seminal papers and contributed to the saving of numerous lives. He gained widespread recognition reflecting his unique and sustained contribution over more than 30 years to breast cancer research through his collaboration in international trials involving surgical and general management of breast cancer. He was a member of the first group undertaking clinical trials of breast cancer treatment in New Zealand and a foundation member of the Board of the Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group. He was also a foundation member of the International Ludwig Institute Breast Cancer Trials Group, subsequently the world leading International Breast Cancer Study Group. These groups were at the forefront of clinical trials of chemotherapy for breast cancer during the 1980s and Auckland was extensively involved. In addition to his research, Ron devoted much of his practicing career to the improvement of standards in the management of breast cancer, founded upon evidence-based practice. This included promoting breast conserving surgery instead of simple or radical mastectomy. He was the founding chairman of the Auckland Breast Cancer study group which in 1976, with great foresight, established a detailed breast cancer register, this data promoting beneficial change in the management of breast cancer. Unfortunately, the introduction of the Privacy Bill led to its cessation, but approximately 10 years ago, assisted with funding from the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, Ron restarted this register and it is once again an increasingly valuable resource. In addition to publishing an impressive array of research papers Ron served on numerous advisory committees and medical boards. His mana was recognised in the invitation to provide The Hunterian lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1978. The RACS acknowledged Ron’s significant contributions to surgery in making him the recipient of the ESR Hughes Award in 2012. Teal Bay played a massive part in the family’s lives. Many summer and winter holidays were spent at the bach there. With the bach along came a boat, now named Dr Ron in recognition of its builder and prime sailor. Boating represented water-skiing, picnics, fishing, snorkelling and discovering new places. Skiing was another family passion with many holidays spent with the Gillman family on the slopes of Ruapehu. Throughout his life Ron maintained a love for sport and travel. Even more important than his medical successes, Ronald was a loving, and caring husband. He was a devoted father, and a family man who cared deeply about others and frankly was an all-round good guy. Gentle smiling, warmly benign and generous with his opinions, it must however be noted that Ronald was known, at times, to be a little stubborn, resulting in a loud admonishment from his wife ‘Oh Ronald, you really take the cake!’. Ron Kay, loved husband of Gill for 61 years, passed away peacefully at Edmund Hillary Village. He was the dearly loved father of Tim, Peter and Soozie, and grandfather to four children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009905
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching McBrien, Michael Patrick (1935 - 2021)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by Rowan McBrien
Publication Date 2022-01-11
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385293385293
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon Urological surgeon
Details Michael McBrien was a general surgeon with an interest in urology at the West Suffolk and Newmarket hospitals. He was born on 4 July 1935 in Maidstone, Kent to Leo Patrick McBrien, a general practitioner, and Elizabeth Rosemary McBrien née Phillips, the daughter of a farmer, and had three sisters. Michael started as an exhibition scholar at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire in 1948, where he would go on to become head boy and captain of rugby, as well as a notable gymnast and athlete. On leaving Stonyhurst, Michael started an agriculture course at Wye College in Kent, but then decided to study medicine. This would require an A level in physics, which he passed with a distinction in six months, allowing him to go to St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London. As well as studying he played lots of rugby during this period, for (at different times) St Thomas’, United Hospitals, Rosslyn Park, London Irish, Kent and the Stonyhurst Wanderers. He also enjoyed athletics and cricket, as well as acting in various hospital variety shows. He maintained a strong affection for St Thomas’ throughout his career. He qualified in 1960 and did three six-month house jobs at St Thomas’, involving 132-hour weeks. Following the encouragement of his future wife Tessa Freeland, whom he met around this time, he decided to become a surgeon rather than join his father’s general practice in Kent. A year’s anatomy prosection followed – his prosected anterior triangle of the neck was copied in *Gray’s anatomy*. Whilst studying for the FRCS exams he took on general practice locum posts in London, Canterbury and Norwich. Michael moved on to registrar training in Kingston (where he performed an appendicectomy in a record 12 minutes), Chertsey, Southampton and Portsmouth. Back at St Thomas’, he learnt about urology, including the transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). Michael passed both parts of the FRCS in 1967. Michael and Tessa were married in 1964 and had three children: Emma, James and Rowan. The family moved to Suffolk when Michael took a consultant in general surgery job at the new West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds. By coincidence, the surgeon Woodward Mudd lived in the McBrien family home 160 years previously, being apprenticed to Benjamin Lane Clayton who owned the house at that time. Notable professional influences for Michael included working with Ronald Furlong, Dickie Battle, John Skrimshire, Bob Nevin, Hugh Lockhart-Mummery, John Kinmonth and T Mimpriss. In the 1970s Michael published academic papers in the *Lancet*, the *British Medical Journal*, the *British Journal of Surgery* and the *British Journal of Urology*, including ‘The technique of peritoneoscopy’ *Br J Surg* 1971 Jun;58(6):433-6, ‘Leiomyosarcoma of the duodenum’ *Br J Surg* 1971 Sep;58(9):685-9, ‘Lymphography of the testis and its adnexa in the normal and in idiopathic hydrocele’ *Arch Surg* 1972 Jun;104(6):820-5 and ‘Transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis presenting with peripheral neuropathy’ *Br J Urol* 1977 Jun;49(3):202. During the early 1970s a consultant was a generalist who covered all branches of surgery, including urology, which Michael was appointed to introduce. He ran a busy NHS practice in Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket, with outpatient clinics in Thetford and Sudbury as well as a private practice clinic from home. In one particularly noteworthy incident Michael carried out emergency operations on two teenage girls who were severely injured in an attack using a ceremonial sword and left for dead on a country road. Both survived thanks to his cool-headed professional treatment through the night, and he was commended by the judge in the subsequent criminal proceedings. He introduced innovative procedures during his time in Bury St Edmunds, including endoscopic prostate surgery and laparoscopic ‘keyhole’ surgery, as well as a one stop clinic for the diagnosis and management of breast cancer. In later years Michael took up contemporary reconstructive breast surgery using new techniques. Due to the lack of private medical facilities in the area, Michael and his colleagues raised money with local businesses to build a private hospital in Bury St Edmunds, which was opened in 1979 by the Duchess of Gloucester and is now run by the Circle Health Group. Michael served as a governor of this hospital for eight years. Michael was very interested in teaching and training juniors, especially surgical skills and new techniques (for example TURP, laparoscopic cholecystectomy). He was described as ‘an exceptional teacher and trainer’ with an enquiring and questioning approach to surgery, not content simply to accept received dogma. He was a surgical and clinical tutor at the West Suffolk Hospital Postgraduate Centre as well as a university clinical teacher at Cambridge, running local and regional courses for students. He was awarded a Hunterian professorship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1973 and elected to the Court of Examiners, serving on regional and national committees for 10 years (five years as secretary), assessing and organising training in UK hospitals. He was also a visiting Royal College of Surgeons of England examiner in Sri Lanka, Cairo and Edinburgh. In 1986 he published *Postgraduate surgery: the candidate’s guide* (London, Heinemann Medical) in collaboration with M A R Al-Fallouji – a comprehensive text for higher surgical examinations and a practical guide for surgical trainees. Michael also co-wrote the step module for the MRCS exam and served on several postgraduate committees at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He also lectured on surgical skills courses run by St Thomas’ and the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London, Cambridge and Norwich. He served six years on the General Medical Council’s professional linguistic assessment board, setting exams for and validating foreign medical graduates. For 10 years he was a medical member of the pensions appeal tribunal in the Lord Chancellor’s department, assessing war veterans for appropriate pensions. He retired from NHS work in 1999 and from private practice two years later. In retirement Michael volunteered at the Wellcome Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, where he taught, lectured and demonstrated to school leavers and students, as well as cataloguing and archiving the exhibits. Michael supported the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the Cheselden Club, a forum for St Thomas’ trained surgeons. He and Tessa were also enthusiastic members of the Surgical Sixty Club, a travelling club which visits both UK and overseas hospitals, hosting their own meeting at Bury St Edmunds in 1996. In retirement he enjoyed golf and socialising at the Royal Worlington and Newmarket Golf Club, as well as cricket at Lord’s, shooting, fly fishing, bridge, and a new-found skill of watercolour painting. Over time he was content simply to work in his garden and spend time with his children and grandchildren. Michael and Tessa were married for 57 years and had happy times together, regularly entertaining at home in Suffolk and often travelling to the US, Italy and Switzerland in particular. Michael was a generous host and a charming, enthusiastic, cheerful and positive all-rounder, with an ever-present wit. At the same time, he was not afraid to be different and do his own thing. He could be contrarian at times, often arguing an opposing view, always in pursuit of perfection. He would readily admit that he could not have achieved anything without his devoted wife Tessa, who ran the family home and made everything possible behind the scenes. Michael died on 10 September 2021 at the age of 86.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010046
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Forrest, Sir Andrew Patrick McEwen (1923 - 2021)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by James Garden
Publication Date 2022-01-18 2022-03-03
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385310385310
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Sir Patrick McEwen Forrest was regius professor of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Pat, as he was known to all, was a giant of British and international surgery, and his contributions to the management of breast cancer were immense. He was born in Lanarkshire, the son of Andrew James Forrest and Isabella Forrest née Pearson, and educated at Dundee High School before studying medicine at the University of St Andrews (University College, Dundee). Following his graduation in 1945, he served as a house surgeon at Dundee Royal Infirmary before being called up for military service as a surgeon lieutenant and medical officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, which included foreign service in Singapore. He returned to junior training posts in Dundee before undertaking a Foundation fellowship at the Mayo Clinic (from 1952 to 1953). His resulting experimental research into gastric secretion secured him a masters in surgery with honours. His intellect was recognised by many and his dedicated approach to research led to his being recruited to Sir Charles Illingworth’s distinguished surgical unit in Glasgow where, as a lecturer and later senior lecturer, he completed an MD, again with honours, on pituitary implantation on advanced breast cancer. He was appointed to the chair of surgery at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff in 1962, where he established a strong department with productive research programmes in the management of both gastrointestinal and breast disease but with increasing focus on the latter area. He succeeded Sir John Bruce to the regius chair of clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh in 1970 and embarked on a highly successful period of research leading seminal clinical trials on the treatment of breast disease. He founded the British Breast Group in 1965, recognising the importance of collaborative research and conducted many key multicentre trials, which established the evidence base for much of modern breast cancer management. He also appreciated the value of a multidisciplinary approach to the management of breast cancer as well as the benefit to patients of site-specific specialisation in cancer treatment, which has remained the philosophy of Edinburgh surgery. Through his research, his chairmanship of the working group on breast cancer screening for the UK Health Departments, and through the subsequent publication of the Forrest Report (*Breast cancer screening: report to the health ministers of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland*, London, HMSO, 1986), he was responsible for the introduction of breast cancer screening in the United Kingdom by the time of his retirement from the chair in 1988. His report estimated that the introduction of breast screening would save about 4,000 lives each year and the programme, which he defended strongly, continues with the number of deaths having fallen by a third in the UK, while 75% of women with the disease now expect to live for ten years or more. Having transformed the outcomes for women with breast cancer, he was in great demand as a lecturer and visiting professor internationally. Pat served as president of the Surgical Research Society (from 1974 to 1976) and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1988 to 1989), but he also had significant international impact and enjoyed productive relationships with academic surgical groups in the United States, where he was an honorary fellow of the American Surgical Association. He enjoyed close links with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, having helped guide the establishment of its medical faculty in 1981, the same year as he was appointed as chief scientist for Scotland, a post that he held until 1987. Following his retirement, he was recognised by being appointed professor emeritus by the University of Edinburgh. He spent three years at the International Medical College in Kuala Lumpur, where he introduced breast screening and served as associate dean. He also enjoyed a productive year at the National Cancer Institute at Bethesda. His achievements were recognised by the award of the McKeown and Lister medals by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of England respectively and he was knighted in 1986 for his services to surgery. Over 20 of his departmental staff and fellows went on the secure professorial appointments worldwide. He edited many books including the first edition of *Principles and practice of surgery: a surgical supplement to Davidson’s principles and practice of medicine* (Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone, 1985). Pat’s father had been a minister with the Church of Scotland and, following his retirement, he continued his longstanding association with St Giles’ Cathedral, serving as an elder. He played golf enthusiastically although this often served as second best as he committed to sailing regularly on to the Firth of Forth on his boat which was maintained at Port Edgar. Colleagues, trainees and fellows were often recruited to crew his boat but thoroughly enjoyed his warm and generous hospitality. He had married on his return to Scotland in 1955 but sadly his wife Margaret (née Hall) died in childbirth in 1961. In 1964, he married Margaret Steward, an Australian dietitian whom he met on a visit to the metabolic unit in Cleveland, Ohio. Up until Pat’s health declined, he and Margaret were always prepared to welcome friends to their home and extend their hospitality generously. He died on 7 August 2021 at the age of 98 and was survived by Margaret and his three children Susan, David and Anne.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010049
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Gilmore, Owen Jeremy Adrian (1941 - 2019)

2024-05-06T10:40:47Z

by David Badenoch
Publication Date 2021-05-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation General surgeon Breast surgeon
Details Jerry Gilmore was a consultant general surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, where he established the pioneering breast unit. He was born on 27 December 1941, a much-loved son of Owen Dermot Gilmore and Carmel Gilmore née Cantwell. His father was a respected and successful family doctor and ophthalmic physician in Highworth, north Wiltshire, and his mother was a housewife and magistrate. He, together with his younger sisters Clare and Sarah, were brought up in a strong and supportive family. Tragically his youngest sister Katherine died aged three with cerebral palsy. It was always evident how much Jerry appreciated his luck in being part of such a nurturing, close knit family: educated, stimulated and, above all, loved. After prep school in Buckinghamshire, Jerry attended Beaumont College. At Beaumont he flourished on the sports field, excelling as a rugby player and oarsman and also as a county tennis player. He was always proud to have rowed at Henley and continued to attend the royal regatta annually in grand style. Jerry’s great passion was for rugby, both as a player but also later as an administrator and supporter of the game: this remained with him throughout his life. Jerry entered Barts in 1961 after an interview with Denis Ellison Nash, then dean, who noted that Jerry had listed one of his hobbies as architecture and enquired about which particular aspects interested him most. Having spent his childhood with his parents on numerous tours of European cathedrals, Jerry replied without hesitation ‘ecclesiastical sir’. He was offered a place. At Barts initially his focus was not surprisingly the rugby field in his preclinical years, where he played for the first team and United Hospitals. There Jerry made many friends; friendships which remained throughout his life. It was there that he met Hilary McCrudden, a young Barts nurse, who shortly after qualifying became his wife. As a clinical student Jerry put his head down and clearly impressed: on qualifying he was offered a house surgeon’s post at Barts with Alan Hunt and Martin Birnstingl. Both were highly acclaimed surgeons with international reputations, who positively influenced Jerry’s decision to pursue a career in surgery and continued to support Jerry’s progress. Indeed Jerry’s postgraduate career was spectacularly successful, and his intellect, hard work and imagination really took hold. He won the Begley prize at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and this was a springboard to junior posts at Barts and then Reading, where he came under the influence particularly of Gordon Bone, Norman Rothnie and Conrad Latto, three exceptional surgeons and clinicians. He then returned to Barts as a senior registrar to Edward Tuckwell, James Robinson, Ian Todd, John Griffiths and Martin Birnstingl. He took time out to perform research into antisepsis in surgery, for which he gained a master of surgery degree by thesis, a sheaf of publications and presentations, plus a Hunterian professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Jerry was appointed to the permanent consulting staff of Barts against strong opposition at the relatively young age of 36. He was also on the staff of Hackney Hospital, where he, alongside James Thomson, combined to form the ‘Tom and Jerry’ firm, providing exceptional care to the local community. In parallel he also managed to build up a very successful private practice based in Harley Street. Jerry continued to carry out clinical research, lectured extensively, teaching undergraduates and postgraduates and giving enormous support and guidance to his juniors. This included being a very active president of the hospital rugby club and then of United Hospitals, but also at that time raising six young children with Hilary (Anna, Emma, Inigo, Laura, Natasha and Rod). To say he was busy is an understatement. He had easy rapport with everyone: patients, medical and nursing staff and all supporting healthcare staff whatever their position or rank. These qualities led him to be able to cut through unnecessary obstacles and to undertake a massive amount of work effectively, efficiently and safely with excellent results. This was of great benefit not just to the individual patient but streamlined the care of a much larger number of patients. It was at this time that he was given the task of developing the breast unit at Barts with the formation of a one-stop breast cancer diagnosis and treatment programme with the collaboration of excellent radiologists – Audrey Tucker, Nick Perry and later Shirley Bradbrook. Of pivotal importance was the novel and innovative introduction of fine-needle aspiration cytology: Jerry realised its potential and, harnessing the expertise of great pathologists Marigold Curling and George Canti, was the first to introduce this into clinical practice. Until that time this had not been undertaken as an outpatient procedure. There was further collaboration in oncology and radiotherapy with Nick Plowman and Len Price. What resulted through Jerry’s streamlined organisation and leadership was one of the first, if not the first, one-stop breast clinics in the country. This was then copied by many other hospitals, becoming the template for what is now considered standard practice. It succeeded because Jerry had looked at the detail of how to process the various problems, leading to rapid diagnosis and best treatment. This strategy he also developed in the private sector, which was again highly successful and much copied by others. At around the same time as developing this rapid breast service, Jerry described ‘Gilmore’s groin’, a severe musculotendinous injury of the groin, leading to him having a large practice predominately of athletic young men from the football, rugby and athletic worlds. His approach was different to what had gone on before, with early surgical repair resulting in a more rapid recovery and successful earlier return to the sport for professional sportsmen – a vital improvement. As well as the loyalty that he gained from his trainees and staff, Jerry had a loyal cohort of referring doctors and in consequence a large number of very loyal patients. Of course Jerry had a fantastic sense of humour and had a strong belief that humour could be used positively in medicine to help patients In 1991 Jerry resigned from his NHS posts at Barts and Hackney: this certainly came as a huge blow to both institutions but was brought on by his frustration with the workings of the NHS and the demands of his huge practice that he had developed in Harley Street. Jerry’s success in the private sector continued and his workload both with outpatients and also in the operating theatre was massive. He was *the* man to go to for breast, groin and general surgery. Within the medical world Jerry was much in demand for every club, association or society one can imagine: his contribution to the Chelsea Clinical Society was significant, where he was president and a trustee. Likewise his attendance and presidencies of the St Albans Club and the Fountain Club ensured that that all present were in for an engaging and amusing evening. Jerry, on his resignation from Barts and Hackney, founded the Smithfield Surgical Research Society, again centred on Jerry’s fellowship and humour and formed of his former trainees. The above has touched on many of Jerry’s qualities – his intellect, his drive, his enthusiasm, his humour, his extraordinary generosity and his great loyalty to family and friends. He also had courage. He was never afraid to challenge the established way of performing medicine or surgery, or to innovate. But, above all, over his last five years was his phenomenal personal courage for the difficulties he faced in his prolonged series of illnesses. He was diagnosed as having an adenocarcinoma of the appendix in 2014, which had spread to his liver. Post operatively one would have thought he had just recovered from an ingrown toenail procedure. He knew exactly what he was in for and faced up to all the vicissitudes with the utmost bravery and always with humour. Throughout his long and difficult illnesses Jerry remained upbeat, committed to life and his large and loving family, but also to his friends and colleagues. There was never one ounce of self-pity during this very difficult time, which was full of troughs rather than peaks. This would not prevent him from attending overseas rugby internationals, parties, dinners and flying off with his family to the Caribbean, despite on occasion being very frail. Jane Gant, who had been working with him as a breast nurse, became Jerry’s second wife and they were to raise three daughters – Georgia, Octavia and Chiara. Jerry died on 13 November 2019 at the age of 77. Hilary, Jane and his nine children survived him. He is much missed by his family and by all those who had the good fortune to know him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009975
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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