Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Specialist in oral medicine

First Title value, for Searching Renner, Norren Edward Awunor ( - 2015)

2025-07-06T01:34:30Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-11-30
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation Specialist in oral medicine
Details Norren Edward Awunor Renner was a specialist in oral medicine at the Eastman Dental Institute, London. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk
Resource Identifier RCS: E010530
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Mason, Sir David Kean (1928 - 2022)

2025-07-06T01:34:30Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2025-06-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010700-E010799
Occupation Pathologist Specialist in oral medicine
Details Sir David Kean Mason was professor of oral Medicine and head of the department of oral medicine and pathology at the University of Glasgow Dental School. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk
Resource Identifier RCS: E010765
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Newell Walter (1938 - 2024)

2025-07-06T01:34:30Z

by Stephen Porter
Publication Date 2024-02-23
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation Specialist in oral medicine Oral pathologist Periodontist
Details Newell Walter Johnson had a significant impact on oral healthcare. The posts he held included chair of oral pathology at the London Hospital Medical College, Nuffield research professor of dental sciences at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, professor of oral medicine and pathology at King’s College London, and, following his retirement from King’s, foundation dean/head of the school of dentistry and oral health and professor of dental research at Griffith University, Australia and a senior fellow at the Menzies Health Institute, Queensland, Australia. He was born on 5 August 1938, the son of Otto Johnson and Lorna Johnson née Guy. He was educated at University High School, Melbourne and then Melbourne University. Following his completion of his BDSc (1961) and MDSc (1963), he moved to the UK, where he completed a PhD at the University of Bristol (1967). Soon after he commenced on a long academic career in the UK. Newell was a highly respected researcher of a variety of themes relevant to oral healthcare. His time as director of the Medical Research Council’s dental unit provides a helpful guide to his work as he strove to answer questions relevant to caries, periodontal disease and oral cancer. His many outputs covered several aspects of each of these areas, for example his work on potentially malignant disease included studies of epidemiology and risk factors in different populations across the globe, novel non-invasive diagnostic methods, pathogenic pathways and clinical practice trends. Similarly, his interest in periodontal disease enabled papers on risk factors, biomarkers in saliva and gingival crevicular fluid, and the impact of HIV-infection upon gingival and periodontal tissues. He was therefore something of a polymath in research. Communication was a notable strength. He was a skilful speaker, clearly enjoyed lecturing and was not afraid of robust discussion – even when he ran the risk of losing an argument. He embraced the notion of working with whoever was good, wherever they were and consequently had a considerable number of collaborations with individuals and groups across the globe (travel never seemed to trouble him). He encouraged young researchers enthusiastically, was open to new concepts and mentored many to reach heights that they may have otherwise considered impossible. He was a loyal supervisor – and was known to attend the vivas of some of his PhD students – a potentially disarming experience for examiners. Newell’s endeavours were recognised by awards, including the John Tomes medal of the British Dental Association (2004), the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) distinguished scientist award in oral medicine and pathology (2007) and the IADR distinguished scientist award for international oral health (2017). He was also the recipient of the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (2011). In parallel he established the Newell Johnson travel award to help new investigators residing in low to upper middle-income countries to attend the IADR general session and exhibition. Despite being unwell, Newell continued to contribute to the knowledge base until shortly before his death. He was something of a whirling dervish, being notably energetic in conferences and meetings. He was ebullient, warm-hearted and generous. His energy and forthright approach could at times be challenging but a discussion with Newell, even where there was disagreement, usually ended with a genuine smile. Newell died on 20 January 2024 at the age of 85. He was survived by his first wife, Pauline Margaret (née Trafford), two daughters Sarah and Nicola and three grandchildren. He was predeceased by his second wife Jeannette (née Giblin). Not only will he be missed by his family and friends, he will not be forgotten (for the right reasons) by the many individuals who deliver education, research and/or clinical care in the field of dentistry.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010591
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Darling, Arthur Ivan (1916 - 1987)

2025-07-06T01:34:30Z

by Stanley Gelbier Chris Stephens
Publication Date 2024-10-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010600-E010699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/388389388389
Occupation Dental surgeon Oral surgeon Specialist in oral medicine
Details Arthur Darling was the first professor of dental surgery and director of dental education at Bristol. He was born on 21 November 1916 in Heaton, Newcastle, the son of John Straughan Darling and Henrietta Darling née Jeffcoat. John was an insurance company manager, whilst Henrietta was originally a clerk at a boot manufacturer. Arthur was the third of their four children and was a direct descendant of George Darling, the brother of Grace Darling, the Northumberland heroine who, in 1838, helped rescue passengers and crew from the shipwrecked paddle steamer *Forfarshire* off the Farne Islands. Arthur was to show the same energy and grit. His initial education was at Whitley Council School North. Arthur’s family later moved to the coast, so his secondary education was first at Monkseaton High School in Whitley Bay and then at Whitley Bay Grammar School. He had planned on becoming an actuary, but that idea was dashed when his sponsor suddenly died, however, a local dental practitioner mentioned to his father that Arthur had all the requirements for entry to a dental course. In response Arthur said: ‘Me? Blood? Not Likely!’ Nevertheless, with a £40 per year grant from the dental board of the General Medical Council, Arthur joined six other students at the Sutherland Dental School of King’s College, University of Durham, which, despite the name, was based in Newcastle. Arthur soon became fascinated by dental science: ‘I was a bit starry eyed about research.’ This interest stayed with him throughout his student days and beyond. He qualified LDS in 1937 and BDS in 1938. After qualifying he became a lecturer at Newcastle, where he was greatly influenced by the dean, Robert Bradlaw. The latter became the first president of the General Dental Council and was the leading figure in mid-20th century UK dentistry. Interestingly, four ‘Bradlaw boys’ from Arthur’s time at Newcastle in due course became deans of UK dental schools: Darling (Bristol), Maurice Hallett (Newcastle), Fred Hopper (Leeds) and Aylwin Hitchin (Dundee). In Newcastle Arthur had found many unanswered questions or was being fobbed of with what he called ‘folk stories’, but when Bradlaw arrived as professor of dental surgery, they seemed to be on the same wavelength, and he began to answer some of Arthur’s questions. Over the next 40 years Arthur’s research was focused on the initial stages of dental caries and, like many researchers at the time, Arthur got much encouragement and help from Lilian Lindsay, the first British Dental Association librarian and later sub-editor of the *British Dental Journal*. When the Second World War started Arthur, then in charge of the Newcastle conservation department, wanted to volunteer for the Forces, however, Bradlaw, chairman of the national manpower committee, advised that he could volunteer but wouldn’t be going anywhere. He was invaluable as a teacher and there were too few of them, so he remained in that post until 1947. During that period, he was also honorary dental surgeon to Princess Mary Maternity Hospital (1943 to 1947), a lecturer in operative dental surgery (1941 to 1947), oral anatomy (1943 to 1947) and dental materia medica (1945 to 1947). Bradlaw encouraged Arthur to carry out research into tooth decay, for which he gained his MDS in 1942, he also advised that Arthur needed to obtain a medical qualification, and told Arthur’s father that if he did so and produced some reasonable research, there was a good chance he would get a dental chair by the age of 30. This proved to be the case. In order to learn human anatomy, Arthur was paired with Howard Tonge during their fire watching duty on the roof of the medical school. Howard at that time was hoping to obtain a chair in oral anatomy. Arthur, in return, gave him dental tutorials. Howard was later to become professor of oral anatomy at Newcastle and president of the British Dental Association. Arthur qualified in 1947. By this time Bristol University was seeking young people ‘of vigour and vision’ to staff its new dental school. Arthur certainly fitted that bill. As a result, in 1947 he was appointed as Bristol’s first professor of dental surgery and director of dental education. At the time there was only an entry of 12 clinical students a year, but this gradually rose to 150 across all years. In his early years at Bristol, Arthur was a titan – intelligent, determined and immensely energetic, however, his blunt northern approach did not go down well at first with senior hospital and faculty colleagues, who saw him as a ‘young upstart’. Soon after his arrival he fell out with hospital colleagues who, until then, had been allowed to do exactly as they thought fit, not always for the benefit of the school. As late as the 1960s, the NHS consultants still met secretly before any formal meeting of the dental division, which ran the hospital clinical services, to determine how to handle Darling. The portrayal of the consultant surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt by James Robertson Justice in the film *Doctor in the House* (1954) was a fair reflection of how many consultants behaved at that time. The Second World War had depleted all the dental schools of staff, students and resources and when Arthur arrived in Bristol he couldn’t find a single microscope. In Newcastle, Bradlaw placed his emphasis on discipline and research as a basis for progressive teaching, for himself as well as his staff. Darling tried to do the same at Bristol, fighting hard, sometimes lonely, battles for full-time staff, resources and the power to use them as he saw fit. Later the histopathology laboratory, complete with 50 microscopes, was a prominent feature of the school’s 1964 extension. With his drive the school’s reputation gradually grew and more full-time staff were appointed as student numbers increased. Significant research papers were published, with Arthur’s work on enamel structures highly rated. He was popular amongst the students. First, he persuaded hospital staff to take their teaching responsibilities seriously. Prior to this, the sole teaching in orthodontics offered by the member of staff concerned was: ‘Gentlemen when you qualify you will refer your patients to me in my practice at….’ Arthur was also well known to support students who had committed a minor transgression and, in his early years, he occasionally closed the school on Wednesday afternoon (apart from a skeleton staff) to allow staff/student sports events to take place. His whole-hearted enthusiasm for teaching dentistry and efforts in advancing the prestige of the dental school eventually broke down the earlier hostility from the older members of the university and hospital staff. Through his research he achieved a national and then an international reputation. As a result, he soon attracted research funds to the school. In 1950, the Medical Research Council set up its first dental research unit at Bristol, with Arthur as honorary director. In 1960 the British Dental Association awarded him its Howard Mummery Prize and, in December 1961, Arthur received the first F R Moser Prize for distinction in dental research from the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The unit at Bristol studied the origins of tooth decay, for which it attracted a team of first-class scientists and a large sum from the Wellcome Foundation provided the school with a new research wing. A 1977 Medical Research Council grant was awarded to study ‘Collagen fibre crimping in the periodontal membrane and its potential role in tooth eruption, support and movement.’ Arthur’s drive and organisational ability was now acknowledged in the university, and he became dean of the Bristol medical faculty with overall responsibility for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science. Later, as a pro-vice chancellor of the university, he continued to display his skills as an academic politician and, in the winter of 1968, Arthur earned the long lasting thanks of the senate and then vice chancellor Alec Merrison when he ended the students’ 10-day sit in at the university senate house. Darling was by now also known as a fearsome and belligerent examiner for the FDSRCS examination and a number of people are known to have taken the Edinburgh fellowship to avoid possible humiliation. Others who had been examined by him in the final FDSRCS refused to apply for Bristol appointments. A story is told by a fellow final FDS examiner of how one post-war ex-services candidate, having been goaded by Arthur in the final viva voce examination, rose to his feet and, towering above his tormentor, said: ‘I have killed better men than you!’ and strode out of the hall. Another postgraduate experienced a similar bullying but stood his ground. The candidate’s powerful voice brought the exam hall proceedings to a stunned silence as he stated very politely that he did not think that Arthur’s manner of questioning was an appropriate way to address a candidate. Darling, who respected those who stood up to his testing approach, passed the candidate, who later joined the staff of the Bristol Dental School. However, the 1970s were the high-water mark of Arthur’s career. He was a member of the General Dental Council for 23 years, serving as an influential chairman of its dental education committee for five years. He was also a member of the Faculty Board of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (vice dean, 1977) and from 1962 to 1965 was president of the British division of the International Association of Dental Research. He was also an important figure advising the Department of Health and many other bodies. He was amongst the first to be awarded an FDSRCS without examination when it was established in 1948. The Irish fellowship followed in 1964 and the fellowship of the College of Pathologists in 1967. He received honorary degrees from the University of Wales and René Descartes University, Paris and, in 1971, he was awarded a CBE for his services to education and dentistry. By this time, it was widely expected that Arthur would soon achieve the presidency of the General Dental Council or be elected as dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Instead, he found himself relegated from the national stage to return to his original role as director of dental studies at Bristol. It was perhaps inevitable that there would soon be conflicts with senior academic staff who, in the preceding 10 years, had learned to get on with running the school themselves on a loose rein. A number of able young academics left to pursue distinguished careers in other universities. Those who did so included (later professors) Stuart Crabb, Martin Curzon, Graham Charlton, Jim Fletcher Newell Johnson and Bob Yemm, the last four of whom went on to become deans of other dental schools. Matters at Bristol came to a head in May 1974. By this time, the school had its own dental library sub-committee, which acted on behalf of both the university’s board of dental studies and the university library committee. However, Arthur still regarded it as his departmental library, which it once been, and for which financially he still had overall charge. Sadly, his philosophy of ensuring that ‘every penny must count’ led to him in that year deleting half the books requested by the dental library committee. There was by this time also no consistent direction coming from the then three professorial heads of department. As a result, the entire non-professorial staff signed a round-robin to the vice chancellor Alec Merrison asking him to intervene and re-establish effective management of the school. To the end of his academic life Arthur remained unaware that the days of autocracy in dental schools were past. By then all other UK schools had elected, fixed term dental deans. When, in 1980, one senior member of staff privately asked Darling, who by then was within two years of retirement, if he would stand down as director of dental studies to allow a smooth progression to an elected head of school, he refused, saying: ‘There is no one I can trust to run my school.’ He seemed unaware that those ‘untrustworthy people’ were almost exclusively those he had appointed. Arthur and his wife, Kathleen Brenda Pollard, who he married in August 1948, had four children. Outside of dentistry he was said to have a great sense of fun, enjoying fishing, badminton, tennis, music and foreign travel. He had a fine voice, singing solo and in choirs. He had a particular passion for working with wood and was a competent maker of chairs and stools enhanced by delicately carved designs. When he demitted office as vice dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, he carved and donated staves for the future vice deans’ ceremonial use. On his retirement the Bristol dental alumni financed the painting of his portrait and collected a large sum, which he used to buy a lathe. Arthur Ivan Darling died on 22 December 1987. A memorial service was held in Bristol Cathedral on 7 March 1988, attended by British and foreign representatives of many dental, medical and university organisations.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010672
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset