First Title value, for Searching Wagget, John (1938 - 2021)

2024-05-10T13:12:48Z

by Laurie Rangecroft
Publication Date 2022-02-17
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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/385451385451
Occupation Paediatric surgeon Neonatal surgeon
Details John Wagget was the second full-time paediatric surgeon in Newcastle upon Tyne, initially at the Fleming Memorial Hospital for Sick Children and the Babies Hospital, then later at the Royal Victoria Infirmary when both the former hospitals closed. He was born in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, to Charlton Minto Wagget, a junior school head teacher and chairman of Chester-le-Street District Council, and Eva Wagget née Scott, a district nurse. He was educated at Dame Allan’s School in Newcastle, where he loved playing rugby, and then at the medical school of King’s College, Durham University, which was also in Newcastle. As a houseman at the Royal Victoria Infirmary John met Ina Graham, a theatre staff nurse, and they were married in 1963. He had determined that he wanted to be a surgeon but, having won the Sir James Spence prize in paediatrics as an undergraduate, it was apt that, having gained his fellowship in 1966, he opted for the newly emerging specialty of paediatric surgery. Almost all his training was in Newcastle with John Scott, but a Fulbright scholarship enabled him to spend the year of 1969 as assistant chief resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia under C Everett Koop, a future surgeon general of the United States. John was appointed as a consultant paediatric surgeon in 1970. Having learned about total parenteral nutrition (TPN) in the surgical neonate unit in Philadelphia he set up that service in the Newcastle unit aided greatly by his close friend the clinical biochemist Gordan Dale. This was a significant advance in the treatment and survival for those patients. John was a skilful and caring surgeon much loved by staff and patients alike. He was also an excellent, very patient educator and many trainees were grateful for his teaching over the years. While he wouldn’t have described himself as an academic, he nevertheless published 30 papers in scientific journals, including several on TPN and the use of acetylcholinesterase assay in rectal biopsies to aid the diagnosis of Hirschsprung’s disease. He also contributed four chapters to standard paediatric surgical textbooks and presented papers at various learned societies. With Gordan Dale, he wrote a book on the history of the Fleming Hospital at the time of its closure in 1987 (*The Fleming Memorial Hospital for Sick Children, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1887-1987* Newcastle upon Tyne, Bealls, 1987). He also did more than his share of administrative duties, taking on the role of clinical director for paediatrics for six years and serving on many local and national committees. He retired in 1997 for health reasons and, although his health issues were added to over time, he had a long and generally fruitful retirement. John was a devoted family man and he and Ina had three daughters, Kathryn, Lois and Rachel. Outside of the family he maintained his lifelong love of rugby by supporting the Newcastle Falcons, while gardening and hiking were other passions. He also played several roles at his local church and school. He died on 13 December 2021 at the age of 83 and was survived by Ina, his daughters, two grandchildren and his younger sister Vera. His younger brother Eric predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010081
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Irving, Irene Marion (1928 - 2020)

2024-05-10T13:12:48Z

by Sir Alan Craft
Publication Date 2021-09-23
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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/385010385010
Occupation Paediatric surgeon Neonatal surgeon
Details Irene Irving was a senior lecturer in paediatric surgery at the University of Liverpool and a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital (Alder Hey) who managed to combine her career with bringing up three children on her own after the early death of her husband. She was born in Liverpool, the daughter of George Stanley Irving, a chemical engineer, and Mary Ellen Irving née Stockley. Apart from a few months when she was evacuated to north Wales at the beginning of the Second World War, she spent her whole life in Liverpool. The city was heavily bombed during the war and she recalled leaving an air raid shelter one night to get a book and finding an incendiary bomb had landed in the front garden. She and her father quickly piled sandbags on it, preventing it from exploding and saving her family. She was educated at Broughton Hall Convent High School and then, in 1945, at the age of 17, went on to study medicine at Liverpool University on a state scholarship. She was the outstanding student of her year and grew up very rapidly in the company of many ex-service students. Inspired by her ex RAF friends, she learnt to fly in her third year and gained her pilot’s licence in 1948. Her only brother Francis was a pioneering glider pilot and aeronautics expert. After qualifying in 1952, her first house posts were in surgery and medicine at the Royal Infirmary. Deciding against adult surgery, she then took a senior house officer post in the newly-established academic department of paediatric surgery at Alder Hey under the inspirational leadership of Peter Paul Rickham, one of the first to specialise in the surgical care of children, along with Isabella Forshall. Irving was immediately fascinated by paediatric and especially neonatal surgery and, inspired by Forshall, she decided to make paediatrics her specialty. But first she had to train in general surgeon. After a year demonstrating in the medical school and then six months of casualty work, she became Philip Hawe’s first female registrar at the David Lewis Northern Hospital. She gained her FRCS in 1957. She returned to paediatric surgery in 1958, as a registrar to Forshall. She married Louis Desmet in June 1960 and had three children in rapid succession. She moved to the post of clinical assistant at Alder Hey and Birkenhead Children’s hospitals, a part-clinical, part-research post. During this time, she wrote her ChM thesis on ‘Exomphalos with macroglossia’ and gained her degree in 1969. Louis had been an oyster farmer in Belgium and then ran a hotel in Liverpool largely occupied by long-term resident elderly. Irene described how she would often have to be the hotel cook in addition to her mothering and work duties. Unfortunately, Louis died of cancer in 1973, leaving her to bring up their three children then aged nine, 10 and 12. The youngest was born with a dislocated hip and spent almost five years in hospital, once for a continuous period of 12 months, during which time Irene visited her every day. Irene made the difficult decision to resume full-time clinical surgery and, after a period as a locum consultant, in 1974 she was appointed to a post as lecturer (later senior lecturer) with consultant status in the newly-formed university department of paediatric surgery at Alder Hey. Paediatric surgery encompasses operating on children of all ages, from tiny premature new-borns to almost fully-grown teenagers. Operating on the delicate tissues of a new-born takes special skills and she was particularly good at it: she was a fine and very delicate surgeon and her patients suffered few complications. In surgical parlance, she was described as ‘having a lovely pair of hands’. Parents were happy with her explanations: she was always very careful and thorough as she was in all aspects of her life. Her patients and families adored her, as did the nurses and junior doctors. A former trainee described her as an iron fist in a velvet glove. If you did not pull your weight or let her down, she would let you know in no uncertain terms. She was always calm and very approachable. Whilst working in the academic department she did research and wrote papers as well as doing the research for and then becoming a co-author of what was the standard textbook – Rickham’s neonatal surgery (London, Butterworth, 1978 and 1990). She served on the council of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, the North Sefton Health Authority and the Liverpool Medical Institution. An excellent teacher and lecturer, she was much in demand and undertook lecture tours in Brazil and the Far East. In 1986, following two skirmishes with cancer, she took early retirement and devoted her time to being a doting grandmother, travelling, buying a grand piano and learning to play it, and singing in a choir. Irene was only five feet tall, always immaculately turned out, with an infectious sense of humour and a radiant smile. She loved reading poetry and was an avid *Telegraph* cruciverbalist. She was survived by her three children. Her sons, Paul and Laurence, are engineers, whilst her daughter, Anne, is a wood engraver and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts. There are five grandchildren. Irene Irving died on 5 March 2020 at the age of 91. Because of the corona virus pandemic, she had a family-only funeral with six attendees, with others linking in by video.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010000
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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First Title value, for Searching Wagget, John (1938 - 2021)

First Title value, for Searching Irving, Irene Marion (1928 - 2020)