Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Gastrointestinal surgeon

First Title value, for Searching Cooper, Martin John (1947 - 2018)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

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
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Henley, Francis Austin (1914 - 2009)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-12-13 2022-06-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001700-E001799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373911373911
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Francis Henley was a consultant gastrointestinal surgeon at the Central Middlesex Hospital, London. He was born in Liverpool on 23 May 1914, the son of Francis Henley, a director of a sports business, and Julia Virginia Henley née Kowrach, a housewife. He was educated at several Catholic schools, and then studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1939, just before the beginning of the Second World War. He was a house surgeon at Middlesex Hospital under Gordon Gordon-Taylor and Rupert Vaughan Hudson, and then joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He initially served in Norway, and was subsequently involved in establishing the Royal Navy's blood transfusion service. He was then assigned to HMS *Argonaut* in the Mediterranean, landing troops in North Africa. The ship was torpedoed twice, in the Mediterranean and in the Bay of Biscay, in a convoy heading back to the UK in February 1943. On the second occasion, the crew, including casualties, had to be transferred in an open boat at night. Henley eventually returned to Gibraltar and travelled to Algiers and then Tunisia, where he set up a naval hospital at Ferryville by requisitioning a school. He returned to the UK in June 1944 and spent two years at HMS *Vernon*, a 'shore' establishment, based at Eastbourne College. He was demobilised in 1946 with the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. From 1947 to 1948 he was a house surgeon and then neurological house surgeon to Douglas Northfield at the London Hospital. He then returned to Middlesex Hospital, where he was registrar and senior registrar. He gained his FRCS in 1949 and from 1952 to 1953 he was a Hunterian professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, and also held a Fulbright scholarship to the USA, working in Chicago. He was appointed as a consultant and then a senior consultant surgeon at Central Middlesex Hospital. He wrote papers on gastrointestinal topics, including blood supply of the bile duct, jejunal replacement of the stomach in gastrectomy, and carcinoma of the liver treated with hemi-hepatectomy. He retired in 1979. He was also an honorary professor of surgery at Firouzabadi Hospital, Teheran, Iran, and a visiting surgeon to the Libyan government and a visiting professor in Benghazi. In 1944 he married Ann Mumby. They had a son, Raymond Alan. In 1960 he married for a second time, to Elizabeth McDonald Sellars, a RADA-trained stage and film actress. Francis Austin Henley died on 31 January 2009, aged 94.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001728
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Mercadier, Maurice Paul (1917 - 2002)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2013-06-12 2015-06-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004000-E004099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376271376271
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Maurice Mercadier was a leading French gastrointestinal surgeon and a former president of l'Académie nationale de médecine. He was born in the small village of Pradelle in the Aveyron region of France on 21 January 1917. His family background was modest and his father died when he was eight years old. Mercadier thought about a career in the French Navy, but his sight was not good enough for him to enter the Naval Academy and he enrolled in the faculty of medicine at Paris University. In 1939 he was drafted into the Second Army as a medical assistant and was assigned to the Lyon region. After the defeat, he resumed his studies and was appointed to work in Paris hospitals. In 1944, after the Allied landings, he interrupted his internship and, with some friends, joined the French Red Cross and travelled to the Normandy frontline. During the battle of Avranches he was wounded by a mine. Luckily, his injuries were not serious and after he had recovered he was seconded as a medical lieutenant and chief of a surgical team in the United States Seventh Army, and remained with them until August 1945. Following his demobilisation, he returned to Paris, to the Salpêtrière Hospital. He developed an interest in gastrointestinal surgery. He became an assistant to Jacques Hepp at the Bichat Hospital and was appointed as an assistant surgeon (1950), hospital surgeon (1955), associate professor in the faculty of medicine (1958) and then professor (1970). In 1966 he became head of the department of surgery at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, taking over from Cordier Gaston. Here Mercadier set up a small cardiac surgery unit and developed gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery. He specialised in biliary surgery and surgery of the pancreas and liver. He retired in 1982. For more than ten years he was co-editor of the *World Journal of Surgery* and was a member of the editorial board of the *American Journal of Surgery*. From 1982 to 1983 he was president of the International Society of Surgery. He was much in demand as a visiting professor, particularly in the United States and established many links with surgeons in South America, including in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. He was a member of dozens of scientific societies around the world. In 1986 he was elected to the l'Académie nationale de médecine and in 1995 served as president. He was made an Officier de la Légion d'Honneur and was an honorary fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons. Outside medicine, he enjoyed good food and wine, and relaxing at his country house. In 1947 he married a doctor, Liliane Junot. They had two sons, Jean-Jacques and Jean-François. Maurice Mercadier died on 9 April 2002. He was 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004088
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Hobsley, Michael (1929 - 2016)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Paul Boulos
Publication Date 2017-02-17 2017-04-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381493381493
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Michael Hobsley was a professor of surgery at University College London and at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, before it merged with University College Hospital Medical School in 1987. He was born on 18 January 1929 in Calcutta, where his father worked, and attended St Saviour's College, Calcutta during the war years from 1939. In 1944, aged 15, he won the Commonwealth essay competition for an essay entitled 'Radio as a link between peoples of the British Empire' and the prize was presented to him by Princess Elizabeth. In 1945, aged 16, Hobsley travelled to England to attend Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences and then medicine. He was not overstretched with his studies and found time to write a musical for piano and voices called *Arabia*. He composed and played by ear, and only later learned how to write songs in standard notation. In 1951 he started as a houseman in surgery at Chase Farm Hospital, where he met a medical registrar, Jane Campbell, and kept in touch with daily letters while he did his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. They married in the Higher Presbyterian Church in Manchester in 1953 while Michael was still serving and Jane joined him for a period in Belgium. During five years of surgical training and research at the Middlesex Hospital, he was awarded a PhD for his work on respiration and its effect on gastric secretion and a MChir degree by Cambridge University. In 1965 he spent a sabbatical year in the USA. In 1969 he was promoted to senior lecturer and consultant surgeon, and in 1975 to a professor of surgical science in the department of surgical studies that had been led by David Patey and in 1964 by Leslie Le Quesne, with whom he gave the department its international fame. He took over the headship when Leslie Le Quesne retired in 1984. Michael Hobsley maintained the legacy of his predecessors as a distinguished surgeon, an inspirational teacher and a scientist until he retired in 1994. Michael Hobsley was director at the Institute of Sports and Exercise Medicine, a fellow of the Indian Surgical Association and the American Surgical Association, and president of the British Society of Gastroenterology. His clinical and research interests were diverse. He inherited David Patey's parotid surgery practice and provided a similar standard of expertise, but his great surgical love was in gastroenterology. His research interests included the acute abdomen, surgical anatomy of the liver, surgical vagotomy, the dumping syndrome, the physiology of gastric acid secretion and the aetiology of peptic ulcer. He carried out collaborative studies on diet in relation to peptic ulcer in northern compared with southern India. He considered his most important discovery was that all samples of aspirated gastric secretion, no matter how widely different in electrolyte concentrations, can be shown to consist of pure gastric secretion, with fixed electrolyte concentrations, admixed with swallowed saliva and refluxed duodenal juice. He was only one member of a large team that established this over a period of 20 years. While the biggest mistake he made was unearthing evidence that *Helicobacter pylori* was unlikely to be the primary cause of duodenal ulceration, which he thought made him not popular with his gastroenterological colleagues. Michael Hobsley was a true surgical scientist with a most active and critical mind. He was a great thinker and a most generous person, gentle and sympathetic, whom patients, students and colleagues liked and respected. He was as passionate about his undergraduate as his postgraduate students. He was keen to relate basic sciences to clinical teaching, and devoted time to his research students, discussing their work, editing their written articles or their thesis manuscripts. Several in the surgical community owe him great respect and admiration for his support in their careers. Michael Hobsley published widely and wrote articles and textbooks on education, parotid and gastrointestinal surgery, surgical physiology and pathology. He was chairman of the core group of the examination board of the Royal College of Surgeons for many years, as well as an examiner in physiology. The MCQ (multiple choice question) bank was enlarged enormously by many questions written by him. Even long after retirement, between 2003 and 2010, he collaborated with another retired academic friend in the exchange of letters on the nature of time. These were published as *Totteridge Institute letters* (London, Little Knoll Press, 2011). The letters showed a great depth and breadth of knowledge of scientific, mathematical and philosophical principles. Michael Hobsley loved cricket. In his youth he was a talented cricketer and played at least once every year in his team of slashers (surgeons) against the gasers (anaesthetists). He was a member of Middlesex Cricket Club and attended test matches at Lords regularly. Michael Hobsley was an accomplished pianist and composer. He died on 19 November 2016, aged 87.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009310
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching De Vernejoul, Robert (1890 - 1992)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Tom Treasure
Publication Date 2012-09-07 2012-12-21
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/375029375029
Occupation Cardiac surgeon Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Robert de Vernejoul was a prominent French cardiac surgeon. He was born on 19 March 1890 at Montcaret in the Dordogne. His father was a pastor. He came from a noble family, originally from the village of Vernajoul near Foix. His ancestors can be traced back to 16th century. He was educated at the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand and studied medicine in Marseilles. He deferred his internship, having decided to do military service. In 1914 Robert de Vernejoul was mobilised in Toulon and went to the front with the 8th Régiment de Marche de Zouaves. His heroic action at Verdun in 1916 earned him la croix de L'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur. The citation noted that he was the only doctor and worked day and night with tireless devotion. It recounted that, although he was wounded himself, he continued to treat the injured under heavy fire. In the trenches he decided to convert to Catholicism. He warned his father, who simply responded: do what your conscience tells you. After being demobilised, he married Madeleine Hotz, the daughter of Florent Hotz from Alsace. He resumed his internship in Marseilles, was appointed hospital surgeon in 1923 and head of the department in 1934. He became one of the masters of gastrointestinal surgery in France. In 1939, when the Second World War was declared, he recognised neither the defeat of France nor the Vichy government. He joined the resistance and the medical committee presided over by Louis Pasteur Vallery-Radot. He was elevated to commandeur de L'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur, which he received personally from General de Gaulle in recognition of his actions in the resistance. In 1951, aged 61, he turned down an invitation to become Minister of Health so that he could continue his hospital and university work, but nevertheless maintained a friendly relationship with General de Gaulle. He could have continued to quietly accumulate more experience in general surgery but, sensing the direction that surgery was taking, in 1947 he introduced experimental surgery to Marseilles, and from 1948 held top clinical and research appointments at Hôpital de la Conception and Hôpital de la Timone. Following several visits to the United States, he introduced cardiac surgery and a second career began for Robert de Vernejoul. Working with Francois d'Allaines and Paul Santy, surgery for persistent ductus arteriosus, coarctation and mitral stenosis was added to the operating lists. At the same time, in his research laboratory, he was experimenting with hypothermia and cardiopulmonary bypass, work which he presented to the L'Académie Nationale de Chirurgie in 1952. In 1956 Robert de Vernejoul was elected president of the national council of L'Ordre des Médecins, a position he held for 14 years. Throughout the 1960s he remained active and influential in matters concerning the organisation of hospitals, medical training and the ethical implications of medical innovation. At 73 he chaired the 65th French Congress of Surgery and, in the same year, 1963, he was elected to the Académie Nationale de Médecine. Jean-Paul Binet writes that, at the age of 90, he was still '…overflowing with vitality, ideas, [and] desire for change'. Robert de Vernejoul died on 15 October 1992.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002846
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Siegenberg, Joe (1927 - 2015)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Anne Siegenberg
Publication Date 2015-09-15 2019-03-27
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008000-E008099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380266380266
Occupation General surgeon Gastrointestinal surgeon Physician
Details Joe Siegenberg was a surgeon in British Columbia, Canada. He was born on 3 January 1927 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the son of Lewis (Lou) Siegenberg and Sarah Siegenberg née Bernstein. He was a self-starter, an individual who, even though he came from a challenging, difficult background, managed to become a charismatic, caring human being. Even though he lost his father at the age of seven and his mother had to put him and his brother in an orphanage so she could work, against all the odds he became a prefect at school and was the cantor at his school’s synagogue. Not only did Joe do well academically, he also excelled at many sports, including javelin throwing, soccer, tennis, cricket and squash, and later on at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg became a champion middleweight boxer whilst attending medical school there. Prior to medical school he went into the Army and was stationed in Italy and the Suez Canal. He met my mother, Myrna, at a musical evening one night in Johannesburg when she was 17 and he 22. It was mutual love at first sight, with my father falling for my mother’s quiet, sweet Titian beauty and my mother attracted to his disarming intelligence, blond hair and green eyes. Not long after they married, Joe, with his beloved ‘Emmy’ in tow, moved to London in 1955, where he pursued his FRCS and where his daughter, Anne (myself), was born a few years later. Following their time in the UK, Joe with his wife and daughter emigrated to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. During his career, Joe was first and foremost a surgeon and a family physician. During his 33-year tenure, he performed hundreds of surgeries and trained hundreds of residents at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where he specialised in gastrointestinal surgery. He was notorious among his surgical residents due to his insistence on them going for runs around the hospital between surgeries in order to remain fit and to prepare them for the tireless work required as an on-call surgeon. Despite his busy schedule, he also participated in medical research. His focus was on the responses of a variety of organs and tissues to surgery, with canines and golden hamsters as model organisms. In 1960, he published a paper on ‘Post-operative intussusception in the dog’ in the *Canadian Veterinary Journal* (1960 Oct;1[10]:452-6). Although intussusception is rare it affects 1 in 2,000 children and can be deadly if not diagnosed and treated correctly. In a paper published in the *Canadian Journal of Surgery* he studied the effects of tumours induced by methylcholanthrene in the gallbladder and liver of the golden hamster (‘Further studies on methylcholanthrene-induced tumours of the gallbladder and liver in the golden hamster.’ *Can J Surg*. 1963 Jul;6:367-71). He later published a case study on pancreatic pseudocysts (‘Unusual presentation of a pancreatic pseudocyst: a case report.’ *Can J Surg*. 1987 Jul;30[4]:281-2). Being the Renaissance man that he was, Joe was not content with just being a surgeon/physician, he was also widely read, particularly in the areas of English literature and history, spoke a number of foreign languages, and was responsible for bringing the game of squash to junior players in western Canada. He also took a great interest in Churchill, having crossed paths with him as an impressionable student on the streets of London, becoming president of the Winston Churchill Society for many years. My father was a great speech writer and orator, and our family would look forward every year to hearing his well-informed speeches about the people surrounding Churchill, who he would invite to speak to the society each year, including Churchill’s daughter, Lady Soames, and his biographer Martin Gilbert, who both knew my father personally. Joe was also an incredibly loving grandfather who doted on his grandsons. My father never viewed his grand parenting duties as a chore, but as an honour, an opportunity to spend quality time with his grandchildren, Zaccary and Aydan, and enjoy re-living his childhood through them. My father also enjoyed doing locums for some of the general practitioners in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, right up until the age of 80. Joe did not retire easily, and after a few years his health began to deteriorate and he was forced to deal with the challenges of cancer, a pacemaker and, later, developing a form of dementia. From the beginning, I remember my father Joe as always being a very happy, positive person with a great sense of humour. His loving encouragement in every interest and activity I pursued was palpable – from running the 100-yard dash in high school track and field, to patiently teaching me chemistry, to always being there for me during my piano competitions with a linen handkerchief in tow to dry my sweaty hands. What was incredible to me as his daughter, and I think was his greatest feat, was that, even though Joe suffered memory loss, the beautiful, caring person that he was always shone through, greeting people in the Steveston streets where they resided, whilst walking with my Mom, telling every woman she was beautiful. When Joe Siegenberg passed away on 13 June 2015 at the age of 88 he left his family a beautiful, inspiring legacy of love, deep caring for the suffering and pain of others, and of never giving up.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008083
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Wastell, Christopher (1932 - 2012)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2012-02-29 2014-04-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374251374251
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Christopher Wastell was professor of surgery at Westminster Medical School, London. He was born on 13 October 1932 in Birmingham, the fourth child and third son of Edgar Barker Wastell, a manager, and Doris Emeline Wastell née Pett. He was educated at George Dixon Primary School, Edgbaston, and then Drax Grammar School in Yorkshire. He went on to study medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School. He held house posts at Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford, and in Farnborough, and was then a senior house officer at Bristol Royal Infirmary. He went on to gain experience in paediatric surgery at Great Ormond Street, where he was a house surgeon. He then spent a year at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, as a research fellow, before joining the Westminster Hospital and Medical School in 1963 as a registrar to the newly-formed academic surgical unit headed by Harold Ellis. The senior lecturer at the time was (later Sir) Roy Calne, the lecturer (later Sir) Norman Browse and the house officer (later Sir) Barry Jackson. Wastell then became a lecturer, senior lecturer and then reader, before gaining a personal chair in 1982. In that capacity he established a flourishing academic surgical department at St Stephen's Hospital, Chelsea (later to become the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital) against considerable opposition by some of the existing staff. Audit and peer review was not welcome at that time, but Wastell's perseverance won through. His research interest at that time was in gastric surgery and duodenal ulceration. When Harold Ellis retired in 1989, Wastell was appointed to the university chair of surgery at Westminster Medical School. He edited or co-authored several books on the surgery of the stomach and duodenum, most notably *Surgery of the stomach and duodenum* with Lloyd Nyhus (Boston, Little Brown and Co, 1986) and *Surgery of the esophagus, stomach and small intestine* with Lloyd Nyhus and Philip Donahue (Boston, London, Little Brown, 1995). Later, as duodenal ulceration became largely a medical condition, he became interested in HIV infection and the surgical implications of AIDS, and published extensively on this subject. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was a Hunterian professor in 1969 and later a member of the Court of Examiners. In retirement he became a volunteer in the Hunterian museum at the College, and worked for the National Counselling Service for Sick Doctors and the Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme. With his abiding interest in John Hunter, he was an enthusiastic member of the Hunterian Society, giving the society's oration in 1988, entitled 'John Hunter - a man of his time'. Two years later he was elected president and delivered a provocative presidential address, 'Pedagogues and surgeons', in which he asked the question 'are professors of surgery necessary?' He was a keen gardener and a passionate sailor. In retirement he completed the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (in 2000) and served as commodore of the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club (from 2006 to 2008). He continued to sail even after suffering a stroke, from which he made a remarkable recovery, apart from a partial paralysis of his left arm. Chris was quietly spoken and modest. He was a much admired teacher and an excellent supervisor of his many research registrars. His funeral, a secular service, was attended by a large number of his former juniors, as well as by many consultant colleagues. In 1958 he married Margaret Anne Fletcher. They had three children (Giles, Jackie and Viv) and five grandchildren. Christopher Wastell died of cancer on 18 January 2012, aged 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002068
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Cooke, William Michael (1937 - 2022)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Richard Cooke
Publication Date 2022-05-17
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385690385690
Occupation General surgeon Gastrointestinal surgeon
Details William Michael Cooke was a consultant general surgeon at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. He was born on 16 June 1937 in Derby City Hospital, where his father, Gordon Cooke, became the youngest medical superintendent. Gordon was from the Isle of Man, and his father was a Methodist minister, which meant religion was important to the Cooke family. His mother, Dorothy Cooke née Williams, was from Edinburgh and obtained the rare distinction of qualifying as both an anaesthetist and a dentist. She started her career as a school dentist in Roxburghshire, where Michael was to spend some of his early childhood in the war to avoid being bombed in Derby, which was a target because it was the location of Rolls Royce. It was during the war that his younger sister Lynda was born. After the war the family lived in the grounds of the City Hospital. Michael first attended Foremarke Hall, the preparatory school for Repton, before later boarding at Kingswood School in Bath, which his father, uncle and older cousin had attended. This was a happy time for Michael and he achieved in both sport and academia. There were always high expectations of the Cooke family, which was no doubt passed on to other generations. He then went up to Merton College, Oxford in 1955, to read animal physiology. He also represented the college at tennis. He then moved to London, where he entered St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, Paddington, receiving a Harmsworth scholarship. He was proud to have served here as the last surgical dresser as a student to Sir Arthur Dickson Wright. Michael qualified in 1962 and obtained the FRCS in 1967. He was a house surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, with A S Till, and at Hammersmith Hospital, a casualty officer at St Thomas’, a surgical registrar at St Charles’ Hospital with J I Burn, and a senior registrar at Hammersmith with R B Welbourn and at Northampton General Hospital. In 1975 he accepted a position at Middlesbrough General Hospital as a consultant surgeon, specialising in gastrointestinal surgery. He created the first endoscopy unit in the town, initially mainly from charitable sources, ran a busy gastric clinic, and, following the gradual demise of surgery for peptic ulcer, developed a unit specialising in oesophageal cancer, although he remained a general surgeon of the old school to the end. He was instrumental in appointing the first medical gastroenterologists to the hospital. In 1995 he moved from the old Middlesbrough General to South Cleveland Hospital, which was extended to form the 1,000-bed James Cook University Hospital and ended his career there as chief of service of the division of surgery. He was an honorary associate clinical lecturer at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, an honorary clinical tutor to Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London and an honorary tutor at the faculty of medicine and dentistry, University of Dundee. He was a member of the British Society of Gastroenterology, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and the North of England Surgical Society. His career was the dominant component in his life and something he took great pride in. He was held in deep respect by colleagues and patients alike, and patient welfare was his top priority. He had a strong personality, but beneath the carapace of a brisk and somewhat stern attitude, which brooked no nonsense, was a cheerful man with a gentle sense of humour, whose loyalty to his long-standing nursing staff was returned in spades. His work ethic and sense of duty always extended to a ward round on Christmas morning. He was married twice, first to Katherine (née Moore), with whom he had Emma and Helen. Sarah and Richard were his children with his second wife, Helen (née Skinner). In 1982 Michael and Helen bought a small cottage under the Cleveland Hills, and built it into Parklands, which was to be the family home for 40 years. Over the years many animals were added: ponies, donkeys, goats, sheep, chickens, cats and dogs. He was a dedicated father, often taking Emma and Helen skating, swimming and diving in the sea. Sarah and Richard were taken for tennis lessons up the lane. In return outdoor assistance would be expected – putting up fencing in winter in the driving rain, or in the summer evenings taking in the hay bales from the top field. Sport was a main passion – conversation was effectively banned during Wimbledon and the Six Nations. He was a keen Derby County supporter. His other passion was his sheep, as well as his two border collies, Tess and Meg. Lambing season was the highlight; always needing plenty of help with bottle feeding and castrating. Rounding up the sheep was always much more challenging – he never mentioned it but I'm sure he always regretted not getting Tess and Meg trained properly. He travelled extensively in retirement, to Antarctica, China and Russia, amongst other places. He enjoyed the rest of his years with his children and seven grandchildren, watching sport and drinking his favourite Black Sheep beer.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010115
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Price, Ivor Isaac (1903 - 1950)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-10-04 2014-08-07
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/376666376666
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Born in London on 30 August 1903, the eldest child of Nathan Price, a hardware merchant, and his wife Yetta Nyfield. He was educated at Daventry Foundation School and King's College Hospital, where he won numerous scholarships and prizes and served the usual residential posts. He also served as house surgeon and resident medical officer at Queen Mary's Hospital for the East End, surgical registrar at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, and medical superintendent of the Seamen's Hospital, Tilbury. Price entered the medical service of the London County Council in 1929 and was posted to Bethnal Green Hospital and St Andrew's Hospital, Bow. From 1938 to 1948 he was deputy medical superintendent and senior surgeon at St Mary Islington Hospital, Highgate, and in 1947 was promoted to be a surgical specialist in the Archway group of hospitals. His interest lay in gastroscopy and gastroenterology, and he achieved his ambition when he was appointed in 1948 consulting surgeon and director of the gastroenterological unit at the newly formed Whittington Hospital, of which St Mary Islington became a component. Price was busily at work to within a few hours of his death from coronary thrombosis on 24 July 1950, at the age of 46. He married in 1942 Phyllis Aarons, who survived him with a son. Publications: Myositis fibrosa progressiva. *Brit med J* 1930, 1, 1131. Carcinoid tumour of Meckel's diverticulum. *Brit J Surg* 1935, 23, 30. Pre- and post-operative treatment of peptic ulcer. *Med Press* 1947, 217, 526.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004483
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Carswell, William Roy (1915 - 1971)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-09-25 2016-02-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006000-E006099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378220378220
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon Paediatric surgeon
Details William Roy Carswell was born in 1915, the son of a Dunedin doctor, and was educated in the University of Otago where he graduated MB ChB in 1939. He was appointed house surgeon to Wellington Hospital and then joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He had a distinguished military career and was awarded the Military Cross for his services in the Western Desert. Carswell returned to New Zealand at the end of 1944 and became surgical registrar in Palmerston North. In due course he proceeded to London where he gained valuable clinical experience and passed the FRCS Examination in 1949. He then returned to Palmerston North where he was appointed consultant to the hospital and developed a special interest in paediatric and gastrointestinal surgery. He took an active part in training members of the junior hospital staff, and supplemented his own experience by visits to clinics in England, the United States, and Australia. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1950. As an undergraduate he was keen on gymnastics, and followed the example of his father as a fly fisherman, passing on the love to his own son. His other leisure pastime was swimming, and he coached his children who in turn won many swimming prizes. Carswell was a very friendly, helpful person who enjoyed a happy home life with his wife, two daughters and his son who all survived him when he died at an unduly early age of a coronary attack at his home in Palmerston North on 8 November 1971.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006037
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Slaney, Sir Geoffrey (1922 - 2016)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Penny Slaney
Publication Date 2016-02-19 2016-08-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009000-E009099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381252381252
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Sir Geoffrey Slaney was Barling professor of surgery and head of department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham University, and a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was born in West Hallam, Derbyshire, on 19 September 1922, the elder son of Richard and Lois Slaney. His paternal grandfather was a master builder who established a family business employing all four of his sons. In 1932, after his grandfather's early death, the family moved to Codsall, near Wolverhampton, where Lois taught the piano and Richard worked in the textile industry. Geoff was awarded a scholarship to Brewood Grammar School, where he became head boy. During his teenage years he was a committed member of the Boy Scouts. Although Geoff had decided on a surgical career soon after starting senior school, the science teacher had joined the armed forces, so in his first year at Birmingham University he had to read physics. He enjoyed the subject, especially since the department was engaged in top secret wartime Government research. He declined an opportunity to continue with this and entered medical school with a scholarship in 1941. During the war he served in the university's Home Guard battalion, taking on duties with the Fire Service. He was awarded both junior and senior surgical prizes and qualified with a distinction in surgery in 1947. He spent the following year as a house surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital, conspiring with the ward sister to introduce intravenous fluids, unbeknownst to his chief. In 1948 he started National Service as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps at Catterick in Yorkshire. He then became a registrar at the London Hospital and in Coventry, where he met his future wife, Jo. In 1955 he was offered a one-year post at Cook County Hospital in Chicago with Warren Cole, the preeminent American academic surgeon of the day. In Chicago he first saw vascular surgery, considered futuristic on this side of the Atlantic at the time, and obtained the degree of master of surgery (Illinois). On returning to Birmingham, he became a lecturer in the department of surgery led by Alan Stammers. He was influenced greatly by Brian Brooke, both in technical innovation and open direct dialogue with patients and relatives. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1959, to a chair in 1966 and to the Barling professorship and head of department in 1971. Geoff initially trained in gastrointestinal surgery and continued this interest throughout his career, but it was in the new specialty of vascular surgery that he achieved national and international recognition. He and his close friend and colleague Frank Ashton worked together to develop a vascular unit for five million people and received referrals from all over the UK and abroad. Despite their academic activities, Geoff and Frank maintained full-time clinical commitments and personally provided an onerous 24-hour emergency vascular service for the five million population of the West Midlands. They presented and published their surgical experience widely. They trained many vascular surgeons for the region and throughout the UK, including several current academic leaders, creating one of the most formidable diasporas in UK surgery. Geoff embraced the national and international surgical scene with enthusiasm and success. He acquired 14 visiting professorships throughout the world, gave around 160 eponymous lectures, received seven honorary fellowships, edited surgical journals and wrote numerous book chapters and scientific papers. He particularly enjoyed examining for nine universities, and had a long-standing commitment to promoting racial equality in surgical training in South Africa, which he visited as an external examiner over many years. His academic achievements were important to him, but he remained primarily a clinician. Because of his standing he received many referrals of difficult surgical problems, which he managed with patience, sensitivity and realism, taking much of the responsibility from the referring colleague. His patient care was personal and he was regularly in theatre or on his ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at nights and weekends. The Christmas ward round with his firm, often in fancy dress, boosted morale of patients and staff in a manner no longer seen. It was inevitable that Geoff would involve himself with the Royal College of Surgeons. There was a West Midlands tradition of Council membership, with several vice presidents from the region, but there had been only one president and that in 1864. Being known nationally, respected and well-liked, he was elected in 1975 to Council, which elected him to the presidency in December 1982. His predecessor, Sir Alan Parks, had died in office and he had to take over with no warning during the meeting in which he was elected. He was a popular and successful president, leading a major and essential reform of the career structure of surgeons in training. He was invested as a KBE in 1984. During his presidency, the West Midlands provided simultaneously and uniquely the presidents of two other Royal Colleges, the Physicians and the Pathologists. His commitment to the College extended beyond surgery. He was a keen sportsman with great enthusiasm for rugby and cricket, and was very pleased to make 55 not out for the Council cricket team at Down House when he was 62. Geoff Slaney was a commanding figure in the West Midlands and the country, with enormous charisma contributed to by his height and good looks. Nevertheless, he was a friendly and approachable man, whose advice was sought widely on many topics beyond the realms of surgery. He had absolute integrity and never promised anything that was not delivered. He inspired many surgeons who followed him and was one of the great surgical leaders of his generation. Although he retired from clinical work at 65, he continued for many years to edit journals and participate in College activities. In retirement he enjoyed fishing in the Wye valley and watching sport. He developed an interest in sculpture and in his usual style studied art at Dudley College at the age of 80. He retained his intellect throughout his life and in old age could still recall long passages of Shakespeare he had learnt at school. He was happily married to Jo, a former radiographer, for 60 years. He often commented that his success was shared and only possible because of her constant support. Although his father died young, Geoff remained close to his mother Lois until her death just before her 105th birthday. He never forgot her assistance during his undergraduate and early surgical training. He was very proud of his two daughters, Penny and Sarah, consultants in vascular radiology and clinical genetics, and his son, Tim, a principal engineer for Jaguar Land Rover. A main joy in retirement was spending time with his grandchildren, Ellie, Michael, James and Dan, watching their progress and achievements in music, sport, at school and at university.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009069
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Alan Godfrey (1938 - 2006)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2008-02-07 2018-05-10
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372629372629
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details Alan Johnson was a leading gastro-intestinal surgeon and medical ethicist. He was born on 19 January 1938, at Epsom Downs, Surrey, the son of Douglas Johnson, a doctor. He was educated at Epsom College and Trinity College, Cambridge, with his clinical studies being carried out at University College Hospital Medical School, London. He graduated in 1963 and, after house appointments, trained in surgery at UCH with Anthony Harding Rains and at Charing Cross Hospital with Norman Tanner. In 1971 he was appointed senior lecturer and later reader in surgery at Charing Cross, before taking up the chair of surgery at Sheffield in 1979, an appointment which he held until his retirement in 2003. He specialised in surgery of the upper gastro-intestinal tract, in which he became a world authority. Over the years he published some 200 peer-reviewed articles and 35 book chapters on topics such as gastric motility, portal hypertension, highly selective vagotomy for peptic ulcer, Barrett's oesophagus, surgical treatment of morbid obesity and various aspects of biliary disease. His randomised clinical trial published in 1996 comparing cholecystectomy by either laparoscopy or mini open incision was heralded by The Lancet as setting a new gold standard for surgical research. This was later acclaimed as one of the five most important articles in gastro-enterology published worldwide in that year. He authored or edited ten textbooks and was in wide demand as an authoritative and lucid lecturer. He gave invited lectures in more than 20 countries ranging over five continents. He took an active part in surgical professional organisations and was elected president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, the British Society of Obesity Surgery and the National Association of Theatre Nurses. For several years he was chairman of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee to the Secretary of State for Health and he also served as chairman of the Specialty Advisory Committee in General Surgery. He chaired several Medical Research Council committees and, owing to his incisive critical faculty, was a much-valued member of the editorial board of a number of surgical journals. He was elected an honorary fellow of the American Surgical Association and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Sheffield University. Alan Johnson was an outstandingly popular colleague with his peers and a much-loved mentor to his junior staff and students. Gentle and compassionate, he had no enemies. Throughout his career he was keenly interested in medical ethics and wrote and lectured widely on this subject, in addition to his many surgical contributions. This interest stemmed from his deep Christian faith. His father had been founder of the Inter Varsity Fellowship and later became the first general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship. Following in his father's footsteps, at the time of his death Alan was president of the Christian Medical Fellowship, having previously been chairman. His lectures on medical ethics were legendary; they were always well-reasoned with a touch of humour and never table-thumping. One of them began: "Hitler and Mother Teresa each had 24 hours in every day - they just used them differently!" His last book, titled *Making sense of medical ethics: a hands-on guide* (London, Hodder Arnold, 2006) and written jointly with his son Paul, was completed a month before his death. In his youth he was a keen sportsman, playing hockey and cricket for his school, university and hospital. As he grew older he turned to wood carving and painting in watercolours and pastels. He was also enjoyed ornithology and country walking. He played the piano and the organ and was a patron of the Sheffield Chorale, in which his wife was a singer. Married to Esther, he had two sons, Paul, who became a paediatric surgeon, and Andrew, and a daughter, Fyona. During a routine medical check up two weeks before he died, his doctor jokingly said that Alan was so fit "he would live forever". His reply was typical: "I am going to live forever, but not in this life!" A fortnight later, he was due to preach on 'the place of compassion in modern medicine' at St John's Church, Wotton, near Dorking. There on 15 October 2006, in the churchyard, just before the service began, he had a massive myocardial infarction and died.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000445
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chalstrey, Sir Leonard John (1931- 2020)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Michael Farthing
Publication Date 2020-04-14 2020-08-26
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/383551383551
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon
Details Sir John Chalstrey was a consultant surgeon and senior lecturer at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He specialised in oesophageal and gastric cancer surgery, was an early adopter of minimally invasive surgery when it was introduced in the 1980s, and a founder member of the Society of Minimally Invasive General Surgeons. He was also an early adopter of flexible endoscopy and the first to establish an independent day-case endoscopy unit in London. John was born in Tipton, Staffordshire on 17 March 1931 to Leonard Chalstrey and Frances Mary Chalstrey née Lakin, both school teachers. John went to Dudley Grammar School, where he excelled not only in his academic studies but also in cross-country running. He joined the Tipton Harriers, where his grandfather had served as a vice president, running competitively as a junior in the 440 and 880 yards to county level. He went on to read medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1951 and then to St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, where he completed his clinical training, qualifying as a doctor in 1957. He undertook several training posts in London, including a lectureship in anatomy at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and then research fellow and senior registrar in transplant surgery at the Royal Free, when he wrote his MD thesis on thyroid cancer. In 1969, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon and senior lecturer at Barts. Thus, John was a ‘Barts man’ through and through, but he was different from many of his surgical predecessors. He was a modest and unassuming man, quietly spoken and always polite and courteous in his interactions with other hospital staff irrespective of their position or seniority. He was a delightful colleague and always put patients at the centre of his practice. John was proud of his heritage as a son of the industrial West Midlands, sometimes referred to as the ‘Black Country’; once said to be ‘a place where even the birds cough’. To my ear, he never lost the appealing warmth and softness of his Tipton accent, which re-affirmed for me the inner contentment he had with his origins. During John’s early consultant years, Barts began to work more closely with district general hospitals, initially the Hackney Hospital and then the Homerton. John was one of the Barts team that willingly took on additional responsibilities outside the ‘marble halls’ of a teaching hospital. His surgical trainees refer to him as a ‘wonderful teacher and surgical guide’ and felt valued and well cared for. One trainee recalled John’s response when he failed the fellowship examination at the first attempt. ‘People who pass that exam first time are never much good – and so I assure you that when you do pass next time round – you will have joined the League of Gentlemen!’ Kindness and reassurance at a time of great need. Despite his unerring commitment to surgery and clinical practice, John had several other strings to his bow. Practising at Barts within the City of London, he developed a profound interest in the workings of the City of London Corporation and its livery companies. He was a member of both the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (master from 1994 to 1995) and the Worshipful Company of Barbers (master from 1998 to 1999). His engagement with the City went even further, being elected as alderman of Vintry ward (in 1984) and subsequently as sheriff (from 1993 to 1994) of the City of London. He served as the 668th Lord Mayor of London (from 1995 to 1996), following which he was knighted. He was the first surgeon to be elected Lord Mayor and only the second medical doctor to take on this role, the first being Sir Thomas Boor Crosby, a medical officer for insurance companies, in 1911. During the year of his mayoralty, his beloved Barts Hospital came under threat of closure. The Save Barts Campaign was launched and, presumably through skilful negotiation mediated by the Lord Mayor, a group of campaign protesters was permitted by the court of common council to join the parade of the Lord Mayor’s Show. He and the Lady Mayoress, his wife Aileen (née Bayes), a pharmacist (they met as youngsters at the St Matthew’s Church Youth Club in Tipton, but did not marry until John had finished his studies) travelled across the world during the mayoralty. They met many heads of state that year, perhaps the most notable being Nelson Mandela during his state visit to the UK in 1996, when John bestowed upon the president the honorary Freedom of the City of London. This was followed by a momentous return visit to South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe a few months later, when they met Nelson Mandela again and their friendship was rekindled. John had a lifelong interest in military medicine. He undertook National Service (from 1949 to 1951), serving in the Welsh regiment and as a sergeant instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps. He went on to serve in the Territorial Army and was an honorary colonel of the City of London Field Hospital of the Royal Army Medical Corps. He took on many voluntary roles, including surgeon-in-chief of St John Ambulance, chancellor of City University, London and was made a knight of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 1995. John was a friend and colleague at Barts, but his greatest act of friendship was to arrange a special occasion at the Guildhall when he conferred upon me the Freedom of the City of London during the year of his mayoralty. This was not a random event as he had carefully planned the future, stating clearly after I had signed the book and we had enjoyed a glass of sherry, that I should now join a livery company and he had decided that it should be the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. As they say, ‘the rest is history’. I was extremely sorry that Sir John was not well enough to join us for my installation as master in 2019 some 23 years later. John and Aileen had two children, Susan, an ENT surgeon, and Jonathan, a management consultant specialising in transforming business cultures; between them they produced five much-loved grandchildren. John enjoyed retirement, spending time in his garden and returning to an earlier love of painting in oils. Sir John Chalstrey died on 12 March 2020. He was 88.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009734
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Miller, William Henry (1881 - 1951)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-11-21 2014-08-07
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/376864376864
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon Gynaecologist
Details Born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 16 March 1881, the eldest child of Henry Septimus Miller, a timber merchant, and Annie Elizabeth Potts, his wife. His childhood was spent in Canada, but his parents came back in 1893 and he was educated in London at William Ellis's school and Guy's Hospital, where he won the Durham and Hilton scholarships. He qualified in 1906, took honours at the London MB in 1907, and first-class honours with the gold medal in gynaecology at the MD in 1911, the same year that he took the Fellowship. He was house surgeon at Guy's, and clinical assistant at the Soho Hospital for Women, and then assistant medical registrar and surgical registrar at the Samaritan Hospital. After a period in general practice at Enfield he went into partnership with A C Hartle MD, at Bedford, and ultimately became senior partner in this large practice. Soon however he went on active service during the war of 1914-18, as a surgical specialist in the RAMC. After his return to Bedford he took an increasing part in the profession life of the district. He was appointed assistant surgeon at the Bedford General Hospital in 1924, became senior surgeon in 1932 in succession to W G Nash, and was elected consulting surgeon on his retirement in 1948. He continued to work at the Hospital till March 1951, when he finally retired on his seventieth birthday. He had at first been chiefly a gynaecologist, but in the second half of his career preferred to practise gastric surgery. He was a good teacher of surgery. During the second war, 1939-45, he was chairman of the local medical war committee, and he was a medical referee for the Ministries of Pensions and Labour, surgeon and agent for the Admiralty, and referee for the National Fire Service and the Royal National Hospital at Ventnor. He was a member of the Association of Medical Officers of Schools. He was medical adviser to the Bedfordshire Hospital Services Association, and a member of the Bedford Group Hospital Management Committee. Miller married in 1904 H M Zimmerman, who survived him with a son and daughter. Their elder son had been killed in 1940. He died suddenly in his surgery at 4 De Parys Avenue, Bedford, on 31 December 1951, aged 70. Miller was a man of strong and decisive character. His charm and friendliness made him a tower of strength to the many people who turned to him successfully for sound advice and practical help.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004681
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching d'Allaines, François Louis Paul de Gaudart (1892 - 1974)

2024-05-06T20:55:03Z

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/378586378586
Occupation Gastrointestinal surgeon General surgeon
Details François de Gaudart d'Allaines was born in Blois. His father was serving in the French Army but resigned in 1905 on account of the Army becoming implicated in the controversy between the Catholic Church and the anti-clerical government. François early decided to be a surgeon and when the first world war started he was a junior resident. He joined the Army and served with an ambulance at Verdun. After the war he became assistant to Paul Lecène at L'Hôpital Saint Louis and quickly showed great surgical skill with enthusiasm for new developments in surgery. He was especially interested in gastro-intestinal surgery and was the first in France to perform a total gastrectomy for carcinoma. He developed a technique for a one stage operation for resection of carcinoma of the colon, and a transacral approach for carcinoma of the rectum with preservation of the anal sphincter. After the second world war he became interested in the new development of heart surgery and also the removal of aortic aneurysms. He was President of the Association Française de Chirurgie, and a member of the Académie des Sciences to which traditionally only two surgeons are admitted. A man of great culture as well as an outstanding surgeon he was interested in all human achievement and especially in literature and art. He returned to his native county in the Loire Valley where he had acquired a small chateau at Clemont which had formerly belonged to his family. There he bred cattle and was killed by a car when inspecting his herd in February 1974.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006403
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset