Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Philanthropist

First Title value, for Searching Wolfson, Sir Isaac (1897 - 1991)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008400-E008499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380603380603
Occupation Businessman Philanthropist
Details For Sir Isaac Wolfson's distinctions and career see *Who's Who* 1990 and the excellent memoir by Lord Bullock in *Biographical memoirs of the Royal Society* 1994 423-7.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008420
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Shapland, Sir William Arthur (1912 - 1997)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-01-19 2012-03-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372370372370
Occupation Accountant Philanthropist
Details Sir William Shapland, an honorary fellow of the College, was born on 20 October 1912, the son of Arthur Frederick Shapland and Alice Maud née Jackson. Educated at Tollington School, he joined the firm of Allen Charlesworth & Co, chartered accountants. He was given the responsibility of dealing with the accounts of John Blackwood Hodge & Co and Bernard Sunley & Sons, and, later, of advising the chairman, Bernard Sunley, a construction magnate. So valuable was his advice that, in 1946, he was invited to join the group as a non-executive director. In 1954 he became an executive director, succeeding Sunley as chairman of Blackwood Hodge ten years later. In 1960 he helped set up the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation, which distributes almost £3 million a year to good causes. Charities and institutions as varied as the Scout movement, Charing Cross Hospital and the Wild Fowl Trust have benefited. Among his many honours he was a Waynflete fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and honorary fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford. He died on 1 October 1997, leaving his wife Madeleine and two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000183
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Morton, Harry Stafford (1905 - 2001)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008700-E008799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380982380982
Occupation General surgeon Philanthropist
Details Hal Morton was born on 18 August 1905 in Port Greville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Charles S Morton, a physician in Halifax, and Marie née Stafford. He was educated at St Andrews College, Toronto, and then Dalhousie University, where he became a member of the Phi Rho Sigma Fraternity of Canada. He then went to the London Hospital to study medicine, where he fell under the spell of Russell Howard and Henry Souttar, and became an enthusiastic rugby player. At first he thought he would be a gynaecologist, but later turned to general surgery. He returned to Canada in 1937 as honorary attending surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, and then joined the RCNVR in 1938 and spent the war years on active service as a surgeon, refusing promotion beyond Surgeon Commander so that he could continue operating. He retired as Surgeon Captain in 1945, his outstanding service being acknowledged with the OBE. He was a keen teacher at McGill University Medical School, organising the surgical fellow training programme for nearly 20 years. Having gained so much from his experiences overseas, he set up (and financed) an exchange fellowship between the London and the Royal Victoria Hospital. From 1960, he was chief surgeon at the Queen Mary's Veterans' Hospital. He was chairman of the cancer committee of the Quebec Medical Society and founded the Quebec Tumor Registry. He was chairman and chief examiner in surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. He was awarded an Hunterian Professorship in 1954 for his work on electrogastrography. He married Rachel Perot Wainwright, who shared his love of travel and learning. They had no children, but they threw their energies into making friends of their trainees. In retirement they lived near the edge of the sea on Heckman's Island, near Lunenburg, where they developed a traditional farm using sustainable agricultural practices. They left this farm to Acadia University so that it could be maintained in perpetuity as an environmental studies centre. Always a generous man, Hal Morton gave our College a very substantial donation to encourage young surgeons to go abroad, especially to Canada. The College acknowledged this by electing him to its Court of Patrons in 1999, the President, Sir Barry Jackson, making a special journey to Montreal for the purpose. In retirement, Hal established the Mount Allison University Morton Library Fund, which supports studies in history and biology, and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. A keen sailor, he was instructor in navigation to the Montreal Power and Sail Squadron and, after moving to Halifax, continued to race 14-foot dinghies, and was a life member of the Lunenburg Yacht Club. He was honorary medical officer to the last corvette, HMCS *Sackville*, which is docked in Halifax as the Canadian Naval War Memorial; there he furbished a naval sick bay as it would have been during the second world war. In his 95th year he published a book on Canadian medical officers in the Royal Navy during the second world war, the product of many hours of research. A genial friendly man with a distrust of bureaucrats and stuffed shirts, Hal had many friends on both sides of the Atlantic. He died on 7 December 2001, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008799
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Toynbee, Joseph (1815 - 1866)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2012-12-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003200-E003299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375479375479
Occupation ENT surgeon General surgeon Philanthropist
Details The second son of George Toynbee, a large tenant farmer and landowner in Lincolnshire, was born at Heckington in that county on December 30th, 1815. He was educated at King's Lynn Grammar School, and was apprenticed at the age of 17 to William Wade, of the Westminster General Dispensary in Gerrard Street, Soho. He studied anatomy at the Little Windmill Street School under George Derby Dermott and became an expert dissector. He attended the practice of St George's and University College Hospitals, and showed his interest in diseases of the ear as early as 1836, when he wrote letters to the *Lancet* under the initials 'J T'. In 1838 he assisted Richard Owen (qv), who was then Conservator of the Hunterian Museum, and was soon afterwards elected one of the Surgeons to the St James's and St George's Dispensary, where he established a useful Samaritan Fund. He also promoted the building of a model lodging-house near Broad Street, Golden Square. He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1842 for his researches demonstrating that articular cartilage, the cornea, the crystalline lens, the vitreous humour, and the epidermal appendages contained no blood-vessels. Toynbee lived in Argyll Place, Regent Street, so long as he was Surgeon to the Dispensary, and there began to specialize in aural surgery, but soon becoming successful moved to 18 Savile Row. When St Mary's Hospital was established in 1852 he was nominated the first Aural Surgeon and Lecturer on Diseases of the Ear, holding the appointments until 1864. He married in August, 1846, Harriet, daughter of Nathaniel Holmes, and by her had nine children, of whom the second son, Arnold (1852-1883), was the well-known social philosopher and economist, a founder of the first University Settlement - Toynbee Hall. Joseph Toynbee died from an overdose of chloroform on July 7th, 1866, and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's, Wimbledon. At the time of his death he was Aural Surgeon to the Earlswood Asylum for Idiots, Consulting Aural Surgeon to the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, President of the Quekett Microscopical Society, and Treasurer of the Medical Benevolent Fund, an office he had filled since 1867. Toynbee raised aural surgery from a neglected condition and made it a legitimate branch of medicine. The Toynbee Collection illustrating various diseases of the ear is exhibited in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields. It is the result of minute dissections extending over twenty years, during which time he is said to have made preparations from more than two thousand human ears. Many of the specimens came from the patients in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum whose ears he had examined during life. One of his most valuable contributions to the treatment of deafness was his invention of an artificial tympanic membrane. He first demonstrated the existence of many bony and other tumours of the ear, of the ossicles, and of the tympanum, and demonstrated that the Eustachian tube is always closed except during the act of swallowing. As a philanthropist the English public owes much to Toynbee. He advocated the improvement of workmen's dwellings and surroundings at a time when the duties of a Government in regard to public health were hardly beginning to be appreciated. His benevolent efforts centred in Wimbledon, where he occupied a country house from 1854. Here he was indefatigable in forming and maintaining a village club and a local museum. He published in 1863 *Hints on the Formation of Local Museums*, and his enthusiastic advocacy was of great value in furthering the establishment of similar clubs and museums in other parts of the kingdom. He also took a deep interest in the condition of the deaf and dumb, and devised plans by which they were taught to speak. The Otological Society subscribed a sum of money to name the Committee Room at the Royal Society of Medicine which is called the 'Joseph Toynbee Room'. Publications: *The Diseases of the Ear; their Nature, Diagnosis and Treatment*, 8vo, London, 1860. A new edition with a supplement by JAMES HINTON, 1868. Translated into German, Würzburg, 1863. This was Toynbee's chief work, and placed aural surgery on a firm basis. It is still interesting on account of the details of cases and methods of treatment. *On the Use of Artificial Membrane Tympani in Cases of Deafness*, 8vo, London, 1853; 6th ed, 1857. *A Descriptive Catalogue of Preparations illustrative of the Diseases of the Ear in the Museum of Joseph Toynbee*, 8vo, London, 1857.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003296
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wolfson, Leonard Gordon, Baron Wolfson of Marylebone in the City of Westminster (1927 - 2010)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-10-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001000-E001099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373235373235
Occupation Businessman Philanthropist
Details Lord Wolfson was a businessman and an outstanding philanthropist. He was born in London, the only child of Edith and (later Sir) Isaac Wolfson, the son of Russian immigrants who had settled in Glasgow, and was educated at King’s School, Worcester. He succeeded to the Great Universal Stores business empire that had been established by his father. He ran the Wolfson Foundation and supported the Wolfson Colleges, which his father had established in Oxford and Cambridge, as well as many Jewish charities. He also built up a valuable art collection. He was elected to the Court of Patrons of our College in 1976 and was made an honorary fellow in 1988. He married first Ruth Sterling, by whom he had four daughters, and, after a divorce, Estelle Feldman. He died on 20 May 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001052
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Leverhulme, Philip William Boyce, Viscount Leverhulme (1915 - 2000)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-13
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008700-E008799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380920380920
Occupation Philanthropist
Details Born on 1 July 1915, Lord Leverhulme was the grandson of the first Viscount, who began as a grocer and built up Lever Brothers as a worldwide business, establishing soap factories all over the world and pioneering the development of West Africa and the Congo. Philip Leverhulme was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in modern languages. He developed an early and abiding interest in hunting and horse racing, but subsequently fishing and shooting became his main hobbies. During the second world war, he served as a Major with the Cheshire Yeomanry in the Middle East and managed to ride a winner during a race meeting in Beirut. He was Deputy Honorary Colonel in the Cheshire Yeomanry TAVR from 1971 to 1972 and Honorary Colonel in the Queen's Own Yeomanry from 1978 to 1981, and was awarded the Territorial Decoration. He was a senior steward of the Jockey Club from 1970 to 1976. Philip succeeded his father, the second Viscount, in 1949 and moved to the family seat in Thornton, becoming Lord Lieutenant of the City and County of Cheshire, a JP, President of the Council of Liverpool University from 1957 to 1963, and its Chancellor from 1980 to 1994. He was awarded an honorary LLD by the University in 1967. In 1988 he was appointed a Knight of the Garter. Philip married Margaret Moon of Tiverton in 1937, who predeceased him in 1973. They had three daughters but no sons, so the baronetcy expired with him. He was an extremely genial and affable man and was very proud of his association with the College, to which he was a regular and very generous benefactor. For many years he was chairman of the fundraising committee, composed of many successful businessmen and captains of industry who made substantial contributions to the College's financial affairs. For his services to the College he was elected an honorary FRCS in 1970 and was appointed to the Court of Patrons. At his memorial service in Chester Cathedral the church was packed and many warm and affectionate tributes were paid to the sterling qualities of this extremely nice man.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008737
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Sims, Sir Arthur (1877 - 1969)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-10-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006100-E006199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378303378303
Occupation Accountant Businessman Cricketer Philanthropist
Details Born in Lincolnshire in 1877, Arthur Sims went to New Zealand with his parents at the age of three. In the then rugged pioneering days of that young country, those same parents spared nothing to ensure that his upbringing and education were the best possible under existing conditions. He responded with deep affection and admiration - a fact which influenced his whole future. Their faith in the Empire, their belief in the essential value of a good education, their foresight in appreciating the part science would play in a rapidly developing world, their staunch adherence to basic moral principles, and their ultimate deaths from cancer are all reflected in Arthur Sims' subsequent career. As a boy he was brought up in the country, and early acquired a love of outdoor life and games. At Christchurch Boy's High School he was the first boy ever to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets in one season - an early indication of what was to become one of his greatest interests. He proceeded to Canterbury University where, in the company of Lord Rutherford, he qualified MA with First Class Honours in Chemistry. He then turned his attention to business, and qualified as an accountant - and combined his scientific and commercial knowledge in becoming the protagonist of the frozen meat industry in New Zealand. Ultimately his business interests became protean and world wide. He was an astute man of affairs par excellence - a real merchant venturer - but his dealings were always essentially within the Empire. A born individualist, he was an ardent supporter of free enterprise, and equally an outspoken opponent of Socialism and the Welfare State concept. His amazing success story in business, which developed a breadth of interests and took him from New Zealand to Australia, to South Africa and Rhodesia, and ultimately to the United Kingdom, stemmed from an intense vitality, an inexhaustible energy, an infectious enthusiasm for whatever he was doing, and a belief that the one inexcusable sin was wasting time! In his younger days, his prowess in cricket was phenomenal - and the love of the game stayed with him throughout life. He played for New Zealand in 1899 versus Australia, and again in 1905 and 1910; but his greatest feat was when leading an Australian side against New Zealand in 1914 he, with Victor Trumper, put up what is still the world's record stand for an 8th wicket partnership of 433 runs in 190 minutes - his own contribution being 140. He himself probably appreciated even more the making of 127 not out playing with the great Dr Grace in a charity match at Blackheath in 1913. Since 1926 he was a member of the Imperial Cricket Conference, and who more deserved membership of the MCC, which he achieved in 1955. One stresses this cricket side of his life because it, was indirectly an important side of his working routine. It was not in his nature to get worried - especially after he married his life partner and ardent supporter and admirer, Nancy, in 1909 - but if tension in business tended to mount too high, he had three antidotes - the Tate Gallery, the Choir at St Paul's, and Lords. A Test Match without Arthur Sims was a rare occasion! Certain side lights of his personality are shown by the fact that he played active tennis until he was over 75; that although he enjoyed food, he smoked little and drank less; that he had no clothes sense whatsoever; that he was a voracious reader (especially of history); that he collected books and Oriental pottery; and that his admitted heroes were Alexander the Great, W G Grace, Winston Churchill and Cecil Rhodes! It was not until after the second world war that this indomitable little man - with his own business empire well and truly established - became a philanthropist and a patron of science - particularly medicine. Sitting in his rather featureless office in Holborn Viaduct, he began to turn his long cherished ideals into eminently practical ideas. His generosity was immense, and was only rivalled by his modesty. His retiring nature hid a dynamic drive, and few knew of the varied spread - the quality as well as ample quantity of his donations to the many causes he espoused. He neither asked for, nor expected, thanks for his largesse. The success of his many schemes was rewarded enough, but over the years he built up a goodly company of firm friends whose appreciation of his generosity was matched only by the admiration and affection they had for the man himself. A list of some of these donations is surely merited, and it will be obvious how most of them mirror the loves and interests and beliefs that made up his own life. In 1938 he endowed a Rutherford Memorial Scholarship in Physics at Canterbury University - his alma mater. Soon after, he donated the first radium ever to be used medically in New Zealand, and followed this up after the war with the gift of a cobalt therapy unit to the Christchurch Hospital - a £35,000 gesture. In 1945, he set up his "Empire Scholarships" - to bring one young man each year to Cambridge from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. This scheme was planned on a Rhodes Scholarship basis. In the same year, so impressed was he by Sir Alexander Fleming, the the discovery of penicillin, and so depressed by the lack of recognition accorded to him, that he gave him an annuity for life, and at the same time a generous donation to the Research Fund of Fleming's Hospital - St Mary's. During the war, he provided all the specialised equipment required by the first New Zealand Mobile Surgical Team to operate in the Middle East; and in 1953 he donated the stained glass windows in Lincoln Cathedral, which commemorate the 198 New Zealand airman who lost their lives serving with Bomber Command. In 1955 he presented the thrones which decorate the Legislative Chamber of the New Zealand House of Parliament; and in 1965 he gave £10,000 to help establish halls of residence in his old University in Christchurch. In 1956 he gave £15,000 to the research funds of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; but undoubtedly his most valuable contribution was the setting up of the Sims Commonwealth Travelling Professorships in 1946. These - now usually two annually - were to allow medical men at the top of their profession to travel from the Dominions to the "Old Country" (Sims' terminology!), and from Britain to the Dominions. So inbred an Empire man was he that it took much persuasion to extend and enlarge these invaluable personal contact tours to include the more recent parts of the Commonwealth - over and above the Dominions. When he did, he was overjoyed at the result. It is typical of the man that one of the clauses of the award stipulated that where possible, the Travelling Professor's wife should travel with him, and that if possible they were to have their week-ends free. There are now over thirty of these Professors (and a similar scheme has been established in his only daughter's name for obstetrics and gynaecology), and until his death, they were wont to meet the Donor annually at a dinner held in one of the Royal Colleges. The obvious delight of Arthur Sims and his wife on these occasions was heart-warming to see. It was not surprising that his service to the Commonwealth was recognised by a surely well deserved and earned Knighthood in 1950. Other awards to him steadily mounted over the years. New Zealand University gave him an Hon LLD; both the Australian Royal Colleges made him an Honorary Fellow, as did the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; and the Royal College of Surgeons of England awarded him its highest honour - the Honorary Medal - in 1949 - made him a Member of the Court of Patrons, and an Honorary Fellow in 1956. He was a constant visitor to the College up till the last months of his life - always welcomed by a growing host of friends trying - quite unsuccessfully! - to make him appreciate what an invaluable contribution he had made to British and Commonwealth medicine. Industrious, courageous and pertinacious - witty, intelligent, ever seeking new knowledge - kindly, modest and over-generous, Sir Arthur Sims loved life - fully. He mixed the astute business man with the philosopher idealist. In his youth he played his games in the same way as in more mature years he ran his business - for the delight he got out of them; and in so doing he gave, and gave gladly, friendship and stimulus to many who knew him, and hope and happiness to thousands who did not - surely a most honourable Honorary Fellow. He died on 27 April 1969, aged ninety-one, and was survived by his wife, and his daughter Margaret Black who followed her father's example by endowing a travelling fellowship of obstetricians and gynaecologists.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006120
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wellcome, Sir Henry Solomon (1853 - 1936)

2024-05-07T22:21:55Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-12-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004700-E004799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376939376939
Occupation Archaeologist Chemist Collector Pharmacist Philanthropist
Details Born in a log cabin at Almond, Portage County, 125 miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on 21 August 1853, the son of the Rev S C Wellcome and Mary Curtis, his wife; his father was a missionary working amongst the Indian tribes. The son attended the schools on the frontier, including one which was held in a typical Western log hut schoolhouse. As a boy he was in the midst of the great Sioux Indian war in Minnesota, when more than a thousand whites were massacred. He was made captain of the boys whose duty it was to cast rifle bullets for the defence of the settlement, and actively assisted his uncle, a surgeon, in treating the wounded. He chose chemistry and pharmacy as his career, studied in Chicago, took his diploma in Philadelphia, and afterwards went to New York, where he wrote several articles for scientific journals. He then travelled widely in the United States and studied the native cinchona forests in South America. He came to London in 1880 and with S M Burroughs founded a business for making fine chemicals, alkaloids, and pharmaceutical products. The firm, as Burroughs and Wellcome, was amongst the first to take advantage of modern chemistry and machinery to supply pure drugs in a solid and compressed form. The drugs were sold under the registered name of "Tabloids", a term so convenient that it was soon adopted into the English language for anything compressed into a small form. The word was employed by other manufacturers until on 14 March 1884 the Court of Appeal determined that it could only be used by Messrs Burroughs and Wellcome. Burroughs died and Wellcome carried on the business alone, until in 1914 it was converted into the Wellcome Foundation, with Wellcome as the governing director. He took out letters of naturalization as a British subject on 28 October 1910. He married on 25 June 1901 Gwendoline Maude Syria, daughter of Dr Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of Barnardo's Home. She, after a divorce, became Mrs Somerset Morgan, leaving him with one son, who survived him. He died in London after an operation on 27 July 1936, leaving a very large fortune, which he had placed in trust for the public benefit. Wellcome was a man of varied interests. Foremost came his business. From small beginnings he raised it to a world-wide concern, and being a practical man he preferred experiment to theory. He was not content to supply pure drugs, but he wished to know why they acted and how they could be put to the best use. For this purpose he founded in 1894 a physiological research laboratory first at Brockwell Hall, Herne Hill, and afterwards at Beckenham. In 1896 he opened a chemical research laboratory, in 1913 a medical research museum which included tropical medicine and hygiene with anthropology, and in 1915 an entomological field research centre at Claremont. Each of these laboratories was placed in charge of a highly skilled superintendent and much experimental work of great scientific value emanated from them. It became evident, however, that they were too widely separated and their work was co-ordinated in 1913 in a Bureau of Scientific Research, and in 1930 they were centralized at the Wellcome Research Institution, a fine building at the corner of the Euston Road and Gordon Street which was opened by Lord Moynihan on 25 November 1931. Tropical medicine interested him from the time he was amongst the first civilians to enter the Sudan after it had been recaptured in 1885. In 1900 he founded the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories in connexion with the Gordon Memorial College at Khartum, placed the laboratories in charge of Sir Andrew Balfour, and attached to them a floating research laboratory, which cruised through the waterways of the Nile and its tributaries in the Sudan. A few years later he gave great help in securing the foundation of the Gorgas Tropical Research Laboratories on the Panama Canal. Next in interest for Wellcome came his collection of an historical medical museum, comprising anthropological specimens, medical appliances, coins, pictures, statuary, books, and druggists' wares. It was for many years housed in inadequate premises in Wigmore Street, where it was too little known to the general public. It was mainly gathered together by C J S Thompson, afterwards keeper of the historical section at the Royal College of Surgeons' Museum, and was rearranged by his successor L G Malcolm, MA. As an archaeologist Wellcome began excavations in the Sudan in 1901 and continued them in 1910, making Gebel Moya his centre and being amongst the first to recognize the value of aerial photography in field exploration. He investigated more particularly various sites in the province of Sennar, and was especially interested in the excavations of the Bible city of Lachish. During the war of 1914-18 he instituted a special commission to secure improvements in the design of Army field ambulances. He also constructed and equipped a chemical and bacteriological motor field research laboratory, which was used in Palestine and Egypt. At different times he founded the Lady Stanley Maternity Hospital (1927), a medical hospital dispensary in Uganda, and (1908) placed a fund under the control of the China Medical Missionary Association to translate into Chinese the various medical, surgical, and chemical textbooks required by the native students, who were being educated on the lines of European medicine. Many honours came to him from various quarters. He was created a Knight Bachelor in 1932, he was invested with the Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in France, 1934, he was admitted an LLD (1927) of the University of Edinburgh, and was elected FSA in 1913 and FRS in 1932. In New York he was awarded the Remington honour medal, the highest professional award in pharmacology, and in London (1885) he received the Royal Humane Society's medal for a gallant rescue from the Thames. Personally Wellcome was a quiet, reticent, and almost shy man, slightly below middle height, clean-shaven, alert, and quickly brightening up when he became interested in some topic of conversation. Generous and often lavish, he was not free from faults. He was a hard man, not easy to work with or to satisfy. He was arbitrary, and thought so little of those who had served him well and faithfully for many years that he would dismiss them almost at a moment's notice and seemingly without sufficient reason; in other words, he treated distinguished scientific men as though they were mere employees. A buyer of books on a large scale, he left them unsorted and uncatalogued. There was in him therefore something of the spirit of a miser. His great library was opened to the public after the second world war. In January 1924 the Wellcome Foundation Ltd was formed, to take over all the business activities of Burroughs Wellcome and Co. and the various institutions and museums founded by Wellcome, who held the whole of the share capital. By his will the shares of the Wellcome Foundation were vested in trustees for the maintenance of the Research Undertaking Charity and the Museum and Library Charity. (*Brit med J* 1937, 1, 242 and leading article at p 224.) In 1941 the Wellcome Foundation joined with other companies to form the Therapeutic Research Corporation of Great Britain. On 6 December 1937 the sale of his personal collections, including the contents of his house at Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park, was begun. The collections included some 700 chairs and settees by Chippendale and other masters, European and Oriental; weapons and fire-arms; portraits; porcelain, pottery, and glass; needlework and oriental textiles; and the largest known collection of models of boats (*The Times*, 2 December 1937, p 12e). Publications: *The story of Metlakhatala*, 1887 [The history of the Indian nation to which his father ministered]. Wellcome also wrote many chemical and Galenical reports.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004756
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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