Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Vascular surgeon

First Title value, for Searching Bengoechea Gonzales, Eufrasio ( - 2007)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John Blandy
Publication Date 2012-02-06 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374154374154
Occupation Transplant surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Eufrasio Bengoechea Gonzalez was a vascular and transplant surgeon from Toledo, Spain. He specialised in surgery in the UK, becoming a fellow of the Edinburgh college in 1961 and of the English college in 1962. For the next 10 years he worked in Northampton, Nottingham, Chester, Liverpool and Tulane Hospital, New Orleans, before returning to Spain as chief of surgery at the Hospital Virgen de la Salud in Toledo. He was also a consultant in surgery to the US Air Force at Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. He published some 30 papers, mostly in English-speaking journals, on vascular and transplant surgery.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001971
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Greenhalgh, Roger Malcolm (1941 - 2023)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-12-15
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Roger Greenhlagh was professor of vascular surgery at Imperial College, London and head of its vascular surgery research group.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010575
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Srodon, Paul Damian (1964 - 2023)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-12-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Paul Damian Srodon was a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal London Hospital.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010583
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Paaske, William (1948- 2016)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2020-03-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Professor William Paaske was a consultant vascular surgeon at the Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. 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: E009726
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pattisson, Patrick Henry ( - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2021-11-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Patrick Pattisson was a vascular and general surgeon at the West Middlesex Hospital, and an honorary surgeon to the England Rugby team. 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: E010037
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Glick, Selwyn (1934 - 2023)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2024-01-10
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon Colorectal surgeon
Details Selwyn Glick was a general surgeon who lived in Draguignan, France. 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: E010585
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wise, Roy Oliver (1928 - 2018)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008300-E008399
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Roy Wise was a vascular surgeon in Durban, South Africa. 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: E008367
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Davies, William Tudor (1940 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-06-19 2021-01-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381866381866
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details William Tudor Davies was a general and vascular consultant surgeon in Cardiff. He was born on 17 July 1940. Qualifying MB, ChB in 1963, he did house jobs at the Middlesex Hospital in London and the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. In 1967 he passed the fellowship of the college. He spent time in the USA as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the University Hospital, Boston. At the Welsh National School of Medicine he was a senior lecturer and honorary consultant. He retired in 2006. He died on 7 May 2014 aged 73, survived by his wife Betiwyn and children Anna, Julian, Lowri, Daniel, Manon and Catrin.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009462
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Layzell, Trevor (1949 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Tony Smith
Publication Date 2015-09-15 2017-05-17
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/380262380262
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Trevor Layzell was a general and vascular surgeon at Bishop Auckland General Hospital. He was born on 2 February 1949 and studied medicine at Newcastle University, graduating in 1972. He started his career at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, followed by a move to Sunderland Royal Hospital and a short stint as a GP, also in Sunderland. Trevor quickly realised he wanted to be at the frontline, doing surgery in theatre. He was a senior registrar in surgery in Newcastle and Carlisle. At Bishop Auckland, as a consultant surgeon, he established and developed the breast care department. Trevor cherished the chance to make a difference and loved to travel to different parts of the world to give expert opinion as an examiner. He was an Arris and Gale lecturer at the Royal College of Surgeons. He retired in 2007. He was very popular character with staff and patients, who loved his outgoing and forthright personality and wicked sense of humour. He had a great passion for music, especially his beloved piano, which he played at numerous events. He was an active member of the Barnard Castle School choir. Trevor Layzell died on 16 September 2015, aged 66. He was survived by his partner, Tony, and his son, Jonathan. Another son, Richard, predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008079
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ham, Robert John (1948 - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2021-03-22
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Robert Ham was a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal London Hospital. 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: E009943
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Quin, Roger Owen (1942 - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-06-07
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Roger Owen Quin was a consultant general and vascular surgeon in Glasgow. This is a draft obituary. If you have any information about this surgeon or are interested in writing this obituary, please email lives@rcseng.ac.uk
Resource Identifier RCS: E010135
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hulton, Neil Raymond (1954 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2021-05-05
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Neil Hulton was a consultant vascular and general surgeon at the Royal Oldham Hospital. 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: E009960
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ibach, Ernst Gerhard (1931 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2020-08-12
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Ernst Ibach was a vascular surgeon based in Western Australia. 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: E009782
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mistry, Firoz Dara (1938- 2018)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2020-04-14
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009700-E009799
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Firoz Mistry was a general surgeon in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. 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: E009741
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jenkins, Andrew McLaren (1937 - 2022)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-04-12
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Sandy Jenkins was a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. 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: E010105
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Stephen Michael (1943 - 2022)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-11-10
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Stephen Jones was a consultant vascular surgeon at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton. 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: E010174
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kellerman, Anthony James (1948 - 2022)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-11-10
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
Occupation Neurosurgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Tony Kellerman was a consultant neurosurgeon at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford and Southend Hospital. 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: E010175
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jamieson, William George (1931 - 2012)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2014-08-15 2016-10-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005800-E005899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377998377998
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details William George ('Bill') Jamieson was a general and vascular surgeon at the Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada. He was born and raised in Cobourg, Ontario. Before earning his BSc degree at Eastern Michigan University he was a successful minor league baseball player. He went on to medical school at the University of Western Ontario. He had a 30-year career as a general and vascular surgeon at the South Street campus of Victoria Hospital, where he started the vascular program. He enjoyed playing golf, fishing and bridge. In retirement he became a successful painter and continue to tend his garden. He married his high school sweetheart, Marion, and they had three daughters, Lori, Mary and Sue, three sons, John (who predeceased him), Bill and Andrew, 14 grandchildren and a great granddaughter. William George Jamieson died on 17 December 2012 at his home in London, Ontario.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005815
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dickinson, Peter Henry (1922 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2013-07-24 2015-07-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004200-E004299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376452376452
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Peter Henry Dickinson was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, an honorary consultant in vascular surgery for the Newcastle Regional Health Board and a lecturer in clinical surgery at the University of Newcastle. He was born on 17 June 1922 and studied medicine at Durham, qualifying in 1945. He gained his FRCS in 1951. Before his appointment to his consultant posts he was a house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, and a research fellow in surgery at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. He was a member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the Moynihan Chirurgical Club. He was awarded an MBE in 1995 for his work on medical appeals tribunals. Peter Henry Dickinson died on 11 June 2013. He was 90.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004269
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Brown, James Richard Issard (1973 - 2024)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 19-03-2024
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010600-E010699
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details James Richard Issard Brown was a consultant vascular surgeon at Southend Hospital. 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: E010600
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Standfield, Nigel John (1951 - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2021-05-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Nigel Standfield was head of the London Postgraduate School of Surgery and professor of vascular surgery and head of surgical education at Imperial College. 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: E009980
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sutton, Frederick Raymond (1921 - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2022-01-28
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385359385359
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Frederick Sutton was a consultant vascular surgeon at Rush Green Hospital, 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: E010066
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Evans, Geoffrey (1935 - 2010)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-12-09 2015-02-20
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/373888373888
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Geoffrey Evans was an associate professor of surgery at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was born on 25 January 1935 in Mountain Ash, Glamorgan, Wales, the son of William Garfield Evans, a schoolmaster, and Hannah Evans née James. He attended Mountain Ash Grammar School and then studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. He was a house surgeon on the surgical unit at St Mary's and then a house physician at Paddington General Hospital. From May to December 1959 he was a casualty surgeon at St Mary's and subsequently a tutor in anatomy and physiology at the medical school there. From May to December 1960 he was a senior house officer at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and then became a surgical registrar at Southlands Hospital, Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex. He returned to London in 1963, as a surgical registrar at Paddington General and a senior registrar in surgery at St Mary's. In 1967 he went to Canada, where he was a Canadian Heart Foundation fellow in the department of pathology at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. He stayed on to become an assistant professor of surgery in 1969 and then, from 1970, an associate professor of surgery. He carried out research into thromboembolism and transient cerebral ischaemia. He was a member of the Society of University Surgeons, the Society for Academic Surgery, and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Canadian Heart Foundation. Outside medicine he enjoyed skiing, sailing, squash, photography and music. In 1959 he married a Miss Martin. They had a son and twin daughters. Geoffrey Evans died in 2010.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001705
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nevelsteen, Andre Alfons Jozef (1951 - 2009)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-10 2014-08-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374017374017
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details André Nevelsteen was head of vascular surgery at the University Hospital of Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium. He was born in Geel on 8 August 1951. He studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, graduating in 1975. He went on to train in general surgery and then specialised in vascular surgery. His training included spending time with E Stanley Crawford's department in Houston, Texas. He became clinical head of vascular surgery in Leuven in 1992, and then chief of vascular surgery in 1999. He wrote numerous articles, notably on the long term follow-up of surgical aortic reconstruction, the treatment of prosthetic infections and on the endovascular treatment of aneurysms. He was a member of several scientific societies and was president of the European Society for Vascular Surgery in 2001 and 2002. He was for many years a member of the board of the Belgian Society for Vascular Surgery. André Nevelsteen died on 9 December 2009, aged 58, after a long illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001834
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Immelman, Edward John ( - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2015-05-08 2017-12-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007200-E007299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379414379414
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Edward John Immelman was a consultant vascular surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. He was educated at Rondebosch Boys' High School and went on to study medicine at the University of Cape Town, where his academic ability was recognised with the award of the McCullogh and Aaron Behrman scholarships, and the Dowie Dunn memorial prize for the best student in paediatrics. He gained his MB ChB with honours. After an internship with Jannie Louw and Frank Foreman, he spent a year at the J S Marais Surgical Laboratory, where his supervisors were Christiaan Barnard and Bob Frater. His surgical training culminated in his passing the fellowship of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in 1966. In 1967, he went to the UK, as a lecturer and an honorary senior registrar at the University of Bristol. He gained his FRCS in 1969. On his return to Groote Schuur in 1970, he was appointed as a senior surgeon and senior lecturer, working for Jack Hesselson and then Helme Madden. When Madden retired in 1980, Immelman became the head of his firm. He was appointed as an associate professor in 1976 and in 1981 was made the second full chair of surgery. He retired from surgical practice in 2000, but continued to teach at Groote Schuur Hospital until 2005. At Groote Schuur, he was also responsible for re-establishing the non-invasive vascular laboratory, in 1975. He was a founding member of the Vascular Society of Southern Africa and was president from 1993 to 1995. In 2011, he was given the Society's distinguished service award. He published nearly 200 articles and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals and wrote many chapters in books. His research included an important trial of thrombolysis for deep vein thrombosis. He is particularly remembered for his teaching of students: he was voted 'teacher of the year' by the final year classes in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In 1989, he received the prestigious distinguished teacher award from the University of Cape Town. Edward John Immelman died on 10 January 2013. He was survived by his widow Trish and sons Robert and Grant.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007231
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gaylis, Hyman (1921 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-11-19 2021-05-06
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Hyman Gaylis (Hymie) was born in the small mining town of Boksburg, outside Johannesburg, South Africa, on 17 December 1921, the son of Bennie and Mina Gaylis. His parents were Lithuanian Jews who had immigrated to South Africa in the early years of the twentieth century to escape persecution. His early years were hard, especially as his father died when he was only fourteen. At first he studied dentistry at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, but then switched to medicine and, capitalising on his manual dexterity, began training as a surgeon. He stayed in Johannesburg to complete his master of surgery degree and, after house jobs there, continued his studies in London, UK. In 1955 he passed the college fellowship and travelled to Boston, USA where he was mentored at Harvard by the eminent vascular surgeon, Robert R. Linton, and achieved his FACS in 1957. He returned to South Africa and rapidly built up a reputation as a pioneer in vascular surgery, working as a consultant at the Johannesburg Hospital. Eventually he was appointed professor of surgery at the University of Witwatersrand Medical School. He had a reputation as a consummate and painstaking clinician and it was said of him by his peers that he was *a surgeon’s surgeon*. In 1994, when he was 74, he and his wife emigrated to San Diego, USA to join their sons and their families. Although well past retirement age, he joined the faculty of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and was appointed a voluntary professor in the department of surgery, being reappointed in his early 90’s. He also routinely attended surgical grand rounds at the UCSD and Scripps Clinic. When asked what he enjoyed most about being a surgeon he replied *Just telling the patient that they will be ok*. Outside medicine his love of working with his hands meant that he was a talented carpenter and he had a facility for mending broken machines. A keen sportsman, he had excelled at water polo in his youth and continued swimming all his life. He married Rhoda in the early 1950’s and they had two sons who both followed in their father’s footsteps. Franklyn became a urological specialist and Brendan an otolaryngologist. When he died on 5 December 2013 aged 91, he was survived by Rhoda, his sons, daughters-in-law, Jean and Merle, and grandchildren Greg, Jackie, Joshua and Alex.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009493
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Laurence, Alberto Ernest ( - 2012)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-05-13 2019-04-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009100-E009199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381319381319
Occupation Coloproctologist Colorectal surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Alberto Laurence was a distinguished Argentinian coloproctologist. He was born in Buenos Aires on 17 July 1915, the son of Hector Ernesto Laurence, a dentist, and Dora Catalina Laurence née Small, who died when he was a child. The family had ties to the UK: his maternal great grandfather, Harry Wells, was a vice consul in Argentina and his father was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Laurence was educated at St George’s College in Quilmes, a province of Buenos Aires, and then at the National School Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. He went on to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, qualifying in 1941. He carried out his internship at the Ramos Mejia Hospital, Buenos Aires and then joined the staff of the British Hospital of Buenos Aires. He was an assistant surgeon at the hospital for 22 years, then chief of the surgical service for 16 years. For two years, he was a member of the committee of management. His initial interest was in vascular surgery; in 1949, he edited a textbook on varicose veins *Varices del miembro inferior* (Buenos Aires, El Ateneo), which ran to three editions. He later transferred to coloproctology and co-edited two colorectal textbooks, one on the cancer of the rectum and sigmoid colon with Allan Murray (1967) and one on diverticular disease of the colon with Edward Donnelly (1979). He was president of the Sociedad Argentina de Coloproctología in 1954 and of the Sociedad Argentina de Gastroenterología in 1965, of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Proctología in 1972, the Academia Argentina de Cirugía in 1978 and the Asociación Argentina de Cirugía in 1982. In 2011, he received the award of master of coloproctology from the Sociedad Argentina de Coloproctología. He was a founding member and, in 1986, vice president of the International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1989. In Latin America, he received awards from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Peru. In 1987, he edited a book on distinguished Argentinian surgeons *Grandes figuras de la cirugica Argentina* (Editorial LEA). In retirement, he wrote an autobiography *Recuerdos de un cirujano* (Buenos Aires, Ediciones Pasco, c.2003). He married Marta Maria Oucinde in 1943 and they had two children, Gloria and Alex, and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Alberto Laurence died on 16 January 2012 at the age of 96.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009136
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Paes, Trevor Rudrah Franco (1953 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2014-10-17 2016-12-22
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/378326378326
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Trevor Rudrah Franco Paes was a consultant surgeon for the Hillingdon and Mount Vernon NHS Trust. He was born in Dar es Salaam in East Africa. His father was personal physician to the statesman Julius Nyerere; his mother was minister of education. Paes studied chemistry at Imperial College, London, and gained a first-class BSc degree in 1973. He went on to study medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1978. He held house posts at Barts, including working with Martin Birnstingl. In 1983 he gained his FRCS and in 1989 his MS. He was a general and vascular surgeon at Hillingdon, Mount Vernon, Bishops Wood, Clementine Churchill and Harefield hospitals. He also established his own private practice. He became an expert at surgical interventions for excessive sweating and blushing. Outside medicine, he enjoyed chess, looking after his dog and gardening. He died on 24 September 2014 aged 61 after experiencing a ruptured aortic valve and was survived by his two children, Sebastian and Olivia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006143
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bakran, Ali (1949 - 2010)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2012-02-03 2013-08-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001900-E001999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374148374148
Occupation Transplant surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ali Bakran was a consultant and vascular surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital when he drowned while on holiday in the Maldives. He was born in Hyderabad on 15 January 1949 but his family moved to the UK and settled in Salford when he was a small boy. He attended primary school in Salford and then went to Manchester Grammar School. He studied for his BSc in anatomy at Bristol University and qualified MB ChB at Leeds University in 1973. He held surgical posts at Hull and Leeds and joined the higher surgical rotation in Manchester in 1980, moving to Liverpool nine years later as a consultant. He developed a close relationship with the biomedical engineering department at the university and was involved with research projects on vascular access. Another major interest was the study of opportunistic viral infections in transplant patients. In all, he contributed 86 research papers to the literature on a range of clinical and laboratory based topics. In the mid 1990s he helped set up the European Vascular Access Society (EVAS) and was treasurer of the British Transplant Society. He was the founder president of the VASBI (Vascular Access Society of Great Britain and Ireland) which he established in 2009 because of the need to have a multidisciplinary organisation committed to the promotion of vascular access for haemodialysis. The membership was to include vascular surgeons, transplant surgeons, nephrologists, radiologists, dialysis nurses, sonographers and vascular scientists; the inaugural meeting was, tragically, the month after he died. VASBI are now holding annual meetings and training sessions; their current president, Steve Powell, is an interventional radiologist who had been Bakran's partner in developing the excellent outcomes achieved by Liverpool's vascular access service. A member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh he became an ambassador for the College in Africa, visiting various countries to promote co-ordination in surgical training. He was a passionate supporter of Manchester United and enjoyed playing tennis, listening to classical music and eating Indian cuisine. He was remembered for his enthusiastic participation in the annual Snowden hike to promote organ donation. Having fought to overcome his own impoverished background he was keen to improve access to medical education for those from similar backgrounds and set up the charity Aequitas which he was hoping to make his second career after retirement. He was on a two week holiday in the Maldives with his wife and daughter when he drowned while snorkelling. He died on 27 August 2010 aged 61, survived by his wife, Diane, son Adam and daughter Miriam, mourned by his colleagues and by his patients to whose care he had been devoted. His registrar remarked "In transplant surgery we follow the patients throughout life…..he would bulldoze his way for [them]".
Resource Identifier RCS: E001965
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marks, Charles (1922 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-05-16 2019-05-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009100-E009199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381331381331
Occupation General surgeon Thoracic surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Charles Marks was professor of surgery at Louisiana State University, New Orleans. He was born in Kremenchug, Ukraine, the son of Abe Marks, a businessman, and Sonia Marks née Beck, a housewife. He migrated to South Africa, where he matriculated from Wynberg Boys’ High School in Cape Town in December 1939 with first class honours. He then studied medicine at the University of Cape Town, qualifying in 1945. He gained his FRCS in 1952. From 1953, he was a consultant surgeon in Salisbury, Rhodesia. In 1955, with two physicians, Michael Gelfand and Joseph Ritchken, he established the *Central Africa Medical Journal* and served on the editorial board until 1963, when he moved to the United States. He was an associate professor of surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and then in 1967 he became an associate clinical professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and director of the department of surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio. In 1971, he was appointed to his post at Louisiana State University School of Medicine. He was also chief of transplantation surgery at Charity and Hotel Dieu hospitals. In 1988, he returned Africa, to Zimbabwe, where he was a senior consultant in the Ministry of Health and director of the section of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare. He was also chairman of the Zimbabwe Heart Foundation from 1989 to 1994. His last appointment was as medical executive director and director of medical education for the Florida Department of Corrections, a post he held from 1994 to 1998. At the Royal College of Surgeons, he was a Hunterian Professor in 1956 and gave a lecture on the surgical sequelae of bilharziasis. He wrote and edited several books on surgery, including *Applied surgical anatomy* (Springfield, Illinois, Charles C Thomas Publishers, 1972), *Surgical management of systemic hypertension* (Mount Kisco, New York, Futura Publishers, 1981), *Fundamentals of cardiac surgery* (London, Chapman and Hall Medical, 1993) and *Fundamentals of plastic surgery* (Philadelphia, W B Saunders, 1997). He also published a memoir *Threads of destiny: a surgeon’s odyssey* (Mustang, Oklahoma, Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, 2007). He was an honorary member of the 1921 Surgical Club from 1983. In 1982, he received the Presidential Distinguished Medal of Merit from President Reagan. With his wife’s family, he established the Wernick-Marks endowment at the University of Zimbabwe Medical School for an annual lectureship. Outside medicine, he enjoyed boxing as a student and rugby, and was later interested in tennis, swimming, literature, golf and travelling. In December 1949, he married Joyce Wernick. They had four sons: Malcolm, a professor of plastic surgery in North Carolina; Peter, chief of cardio-thoracic surgery in Rockford, Illinois; Ian, a managing director; and Anthony, an investment and financial consultant. There are eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Charles Marks died on 10 May 2015. He was 93.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009148
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pratt, David (1930 - 2006)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2008-10-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372747372747
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David Pratt was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds. He studied medicine in Leeds, where he had a distinguished undergraduate career, gaining first class honours and graduating with distinctions in surgery and forensic medicine. After house appointments, he served as a surgeon lieutenant on HMS Eagle during the Suez Crisis. He returned to Leeds, where he completed his surgical training. In 1962 he gained his FRCS, winning the Wilson Hey gold medal. He was appointed as a consultant to St James’s and Chapel Allerton hospitals, Leeds. His consultant career was marked by great diagnostic flair and superb technical skills: but above all he is remembered by patients for his caring personality and by his colleagues for the help he gave them in difficult times. Behind an unassuming demeanour there was a lively mind and a gentle sense of humour. David was a valued member of the Travelling Surgical Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1971 onwards. He and his wife, Libby, made many friends when attending overseas and home meetings. He was greatly respected in this forum of surgeons whose members represent most parts of the UK and many specialties. He was also a member of the Vascular Society and many of his publications reflected this interest; his wider knowledge of surgery was apparent in other papers and lectures. During a visit of the Travelling Surgical Society to Gibraltar and southern Spain he gave a paper on ‘Delorme’s procedure’ illustrated by his own pastel drawings: colo-proctologists present were surprised at the depth of his knowledge and his carefully assessed results. His other interests included photography, domestic cooking and watercolour painting in which in retirement he took lessons. He died suddenly at home of acute coronary insufficiency on 23 May 2006. He is survived by Libby and three sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000564
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Osman, Isam El Din Salih Mohamed (1964 - 2023)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2023-11-28
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Isam El Din Salih Mohamed Osman was head of the vascular and endovascular department and director of operating rooms at the King Saud Medical City, Saudi Arabia. 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: E010508
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Feldman, Maurice Avrom (1927 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2015-02-16 2017-06-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006700-E006799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378969378969
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Maurice Feldman was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham. He was born in Cardiff on 7 August 1927, the youngest son of Lewis Feldman, a retail and wholesale trader, and Leah Feldman née Volozhen, a housewife. He was educated at Wood Street and Roath Park elementary schools in Cardiff and at Cardiff High School for Boys. He then went to Bristol University to study medicine, qualifying in 1951. He held house posts in Weston-super-Mare and in Bristol, and senior house positions at Birmingham Accident Hospital and Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. He was a surgical registrar at City General Hospital, Sheffield, and at City Hospital, Nottingham, and then a senior surgical registrar at Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham. In 1968, he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at Dudley Road Hospital. He was also a senior clinical lecturer at Birmingham Hospital. He was the first consultant surgeon to have a special interest in peripheral vascular surgery at Dudley Road Hospital and, with a radiological colleague, he established a very active and successful vascular surgical unit there. He retired in August 1992. He was a member of the Medical Appeals Tribunals Service and of the management committee of the West Midlands Health Research Unit. Between 1953 and 1955 he carried out his National Service as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He saw service in Singapore and Malaya, and was awarded the Malaya medal in 1955. He was a member of the Army Emergency Reserve from 1955 to 1958. Outside medicine, he enjoyed gardening (including working in his allotment), walking and travel, particularly around the UK. In 1959 he married Vera Cohen, a teacher and later deputy head. They had a daughter, Leah, and a son, Adam, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and specialist in renewable energy. Maurice Avrom Feldman died on 4 December 2014. He was 87.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006786
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Baker, Lynne Wilford (1928 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2020-11-24
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Lynne Wilford Baker was head of the department of surgery at the University of Natal Medical School, South Africa. He was born on 28 June 1928 in Potchefstroom, Transvaal, the first child of Lynne Wilford Borrius Baker, a bank clerk, and Fredericka Wilhelmina Baker née Tom, the daughter of a ‘landrost’ or magistrate. Baker attended Bezuidenhout Valley Junior School, Troyeville Boys’ School and Jeppe Boys’ High School and then went on to Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg to study medicine, where he held a Barclays Bank scholarship. He qualified in 1951. He returned to Potchefstroom, where he worked as a general practitioner, but subsequently decided to train in surgery. He went to the UK and trained under Hugh Dudley and George Mavor at Aberdeen University, where he developed an interest in venous disease and arterial surgery. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1958 and of England in 1961. He went on to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he completed a MSc degree in surgery. In 1967 he returned to South Africa, where he was appointed head of department and professor of surgery at the University of Natal, based at the King Edward VIII Hospital. Here he worked hard to develop a first-rate department of surgery and persuaded the authorities to create independent departments, notably paediatric surgery, urology and ENT. He fostered many connections overseas and took regular sabbaticals. In 1994 he delivered the Semmelweiss lecture on ‘Lessons from lavage and colonic trauma’ at the Surgical Infection Society of Europe Congress in Vienna. He held senior leadership roles in the College of Medicine of South Africa and in other organisations including the Surgical Research Society and the Trauma Society, as well as the Association of Surgeons of South Africa. Outside medicine he enjoyed rugby and golf; at university he swam. In 1956 he married Barbara Young. They had two children, Diane and Andrew, and three grandchildren. Lynne Baker died on 10 February 2017. He was 88.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009871
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Parry, Edgar Williams (1919 - 2011)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-01-10 2015-09-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374018374018
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Edgar Williams Parry was a consultant surgeon at Broadgreen, Bootle and Waterloo hospitals, Liverpool, and a leader in the field of vascular surgery. He was born at Betws Garmon, a hamlet in north Wales, on 1 May 1919, the son of a farmer, and was educated at Caernarvon Grammar School. He studied medicine at Liverpool University and qualified MB ChB in 1943. He was a house officer, a resident surgical officer and a registrar in Liverpool. He then went back to Wales, working at the Caernarvon and Anglesey Hospital in Bangor. In the early 1950s he spent some time at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where he researched venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism under Robert Milnes Walker. He then went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for a year, where he worked with Jack Grindley. On his return to the UK he became a senior lecturer in surgery at Liverpool under Charles Wells. In 1956 he was appointed to his consultant post at Bootle, Waterloo and Broadgreen hospitals, and was an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool throughout his consultant years. From 1980 to 1981 he was president of the Liverpool Medical Institution. During his career he saw a rapid development in the techniques of vascular surgery. When he began as a consultant the most common vascular operations were amputations and lumbar sympathectomy (an operation to treat blocked arteries which involved dividing the lumbar sympathetic nerve chain). As new preventative techniques emerged, Parry was among the first to introduce them into UK hospitals. In 1956 he carried out his first non-ruptured aortic aneurysm operation, and he went on to perform successful operations on the carotid artery under hypothermia and to bypass femoral arteries in the leg. He also took part in the first few kidney transplants in the Mersey region, and developed new procedures for the removal of blood clots from deep veins in the leg. Outside medicine, he enjoyed golf, travelling and gardening. Edgar Parry died on 9 February 2011, aged 91. He was survived by his wife Enid (née Rees), a fellow medical student, whom he had married in 1949, their son and daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001835
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Middleton, Michael David (1933 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John Black
Publication Date 2021-02-10
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Michael Middleton was an Edinburgh Scot from a medical family who became a general and vascular surgeon in Birmingham, active in training and examining. His father, David Skene Middleton, had qualified in both medicine and dentistry in the 1920s but practiced initially as an anaesthetist. An enthusiastic Territorial Army Colonel he led a Field Ambulance to France in 1939. In 1941 he was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned in Changi jail Singapore, where he gave anaesthetics and dealt with maxillofacial injuries. After the war he returned to Edinburgh to become a full-time maxillofacial surgeon. Michael was born in Edinburgh in 1933 and educated at Loretto and Edinburgh University Medical School. After an initial dalliance with obstetrics he trained as a surgeon in Edinburgh working for Sir John Bruce and Sir Michael Woodruff. In 1964 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. In 1968, unusually for a born and bred Edinburgh man, he left Scotland and was appointed as a general surgeon to East Birmingham (now Heartlands) and Solihull Hospitals. His sub-specialist interest was in the rapidly developing area of vascular surgery and he developed large NHS and private practices. He was a popular surgical trainer and became a member of the Specialty Advisory Committee in General Surgery. He examined for the Edinburgh FRCS, was an external examiner in Sydney and Dublin, and served on the board for the nascent Intercollegiate Fellowship examination. Michael Middleton had three children, a boy and two girls, none of whom followed him into medicine. His wife Patricia was the daughter of a Bishop. Her twice great-grandfather Sir John Kirk was an Edinburgh medical graduate who became a life-long friend of Joseph Lister when they both worked with James Syme. He subsequently served in the Crimean war, travelled for five years with David Livingstone and was British administrator in Zanzibar where he played a large part in the abolition of the slave trade. Throughout his life in England Michael Middleton’s attachment to his native Edinburgh remained strong. Despite this he had no trace of a Scottish accent, doubtless due to his public school education. Naturally he played golf, and often returned to Muirfield with the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009931
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Troensegaard-Hansen, Erling ( - 1992)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008300-E008399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380568380568
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Erling Troensegaard-Hansen received his education at Copenhagen and at the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, qualifying with the conjoint diploma in 1932, and gained the Fellowship in 1948. After registrarships at Mansfield General Hospital, Windsor Hospital and Slough Emergency Hospital, he became honorary surgeon to the Scandinavian Benevolent Society and the Central YMCA. In 1956 he became a research fellow in surgery at Charing Cross Hospital and honorary surgeon to the Anglo-Scandinavian Society. In 1958 he was also a clinical assistant in the vascular surgery unit at Hammersmith Hospital. Thereafter he practised as senior surgical registrar at King George V Hospital, Ilford and at the Barking Hospital Group varicose clinic, as well as practising privately. In 1965 he moved to Canada, where he practised as a surgeon to the Gull Lake Clinic, Gull Lake, Saskatchewan. He retired in 1985 and died at Ocean Park, Surrey, British Columbia on 24 October 1992.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008385
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Gilling-Smith, Geoffrey Lawrence (1955 - 2010)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2011-12-20 2015-02-27
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/373968373968
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Geoffrey Gilling-Smith was a consultant vascular surgeon at Royal Liverpool Hospital. He was born on 15 November 1955 at St George's Hospital, London, the son of Dryden Gilling-Smith, a businessman. His mother, who was head of the physics and chemistry department at the French Lycée in South Kensington, spoke French and he was bilingual. When he was 11 his aortic coarctation was repaired by Charles Drew at the Westminster Hospital. Brought up in Tadworth, he gained a scholarship to Epsom College, where he captained the shooting team, and he went on to study medicine at Charing Cross Medical School. He was a casualty officer in Ealing, a senior registrar at St Mary's and a research fellow at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, prior to his appointment to his consultant post in Liverpool. At Liverpool he was greatly involved in training and education. His particular expertise within vascular surgery was the endovascular treatment of arterial disease, specifically aortic aneurysms. He was a member of the council of the Vascular Society and a member of the European Society for Vascular Surgery. He was a surgical tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons. Outside medicine he had a wide range of interests, including painting, music, particularly jazz, motor bikes and fast cars. He was also a member of the board of his father's company and was involved in other companies which he helped to establish. Geoffrey Gilling-Smith died on 17 January 2010 from aortic valve disease. He was survived by his wife Lynda, his two children, his sister and parents. He was 54.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001785
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shute, Kenneth (1945 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2014-11-25 2015-05-01
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/378618378618
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Kenneth Shute was a much-loved surgeon who devoted his career to providing high quality surgical services to the population of Newport, Gwent. A Welshman through and through with a big heart, a Welsh accent, a big personality and an infectious grin, he was adored by the local population, many of whom wrote moving tributes after his untimely death. Ken was born and schooled in Pontypool, a city he loved and for whom he played rugby for many years. In 1963 he left his beloved Wales for London and St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, from where he graduated in 1968. House appointments were in Plymouth and Gloucester, but he then returned to his *alma mater* as an anatomy demonstrator before passing the primary FRCS. Jobs in Reading and Hammersmith followed, but after obtaining the final FRCS in 1972 he became a rotating registrar at St Thomas' and was especially influenced by John Pullan and Norman Browse, gaining much experience of peripheral vascular surgery. A lectureship at St Thomas' followed when he pursued animal research into the effects of intraluminal oxygen on ischaemia of the small intestine, work which was successfully submitted for the degree of MS in 1978. Several papers also emanated from this experimental study. In the same year he was appointed senior registrar to the Nottingham and Derby Teaching Hospitals, gaining special experience in breast disorders, endocrine disease and gastroenterology. In 1981 he was appointed consultant general and vascular surgeon to the Royal Gwent Hospital, from where he retired at the age of 65. A skilled rugby player in his youth, hooker for Pontypool Rugby Football Club and later a patron of the club, he also played squash to a high standard until a knee problem led to his exchanging the squash court for the boxing ring at the surprisingly advanced age of 56. He loved his new sport at the St Joseph's Boxing Club and was strongly opposed to the BMA's call for the sport to be banned. There can be very few surgeons who have made such a transition in their sporting activities at such an advanced age! Married with two children, Dan and Zanna, he suffered a stroke at the age of 68 and died in the Royal Gwent Hospital a few days later. Many glowing tributes to him were published in the local newspaper, *The South Wales Argus*.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006435
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nolan, Bernard (1926 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2013-12-16 2015-12-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004700-E004799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376973376973
Occupation General surgeon Transplant surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Bernard Nolan was a consultant surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary who took part in the first kidney transplantation in the UK. He was born on 17 August 1926 in Eccles, Lancashire, the son of Edward Nolan, an engineer, and Mary Nolan née Howarth, a teacher. His brother John would also go on to study medicine, becoming a consultant ophthalmologist, also at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Bernard Nolan was educated at St Joseph's College, Blackpool, and then went on to Edinburgh University Medical School. At university he was a member of the air squadron and the athletics club, played rugby and participated in student union activities. He graduated MB ChB in 1949. Until October 1950 he worked as a house surgeon to (later Sir) Walter Mercer, whose operative versatility influenced his decision to pursue a career in surgery. From 1950 to 1951 he was a senior house officer in surgery at Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle. He then carried out his National Service in the RAMC in Egypt and Libya, as a junior specialist in surgery. Leaving the Army with the rank of captain, he returned to Edinburgh, as a demonstrator in anatomy and then as a surgical registrar at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. In 1956, at the start of the Suez Crisis, he was recalled to the Army as a surgical specialist with the rank of major. From 1957 to 1959 he was a surgical registrar on the rotational training scheme at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. In February 1959 he became a senior registrar on the professorial surgical unit, under (later Sir) Michael Woodruff, and in May of the same year he was appointed as a lecturer in the department, with involvement in the transplantation research programme and the Edinburgh-based Medical Research Council's group on transplantation. On 30 October 1960 he assisted Michael Woodruff in carrying out the first ever kidney transplantation in the UK, between identical twins, and was largely responsible for the pre- and post-operative care of both donor and recipient. The recipient, who had end-stage kidney failure, did not need immune-suppressive medication and lived another ten years. Over the next two years, Bernard Nolan greatly increased his experience of transplantation. In 1962 he was a research fellow at Harvard University Medical School, where he worked with Joseph Murray, 'the father of transplant surgery'. Also in 1962, he was appointed as a senior lecturer in surgery at Edinburgh University with honorary consultant status at the Royal Infirmary. In 1965 he transferred to the NHS as a consultant general surgeon, but, in close association with Michael Woodruff, continued to run the Edinburgh transplant service. As an NHS consultant surgeon, Nolan became increasingly committed to vascular surgery and pressed for the establishment of a surgical unit devoted to this specialty. In 1982 this was achieved, when the Edinburgh Specialist Vascular Surgery Service was set up at the Royal Infirmary. Nolan headed the unit and, with two other dedicated vascular surgeons, provided an exceptional emergency service. He was an examiner for both the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and of England. Nolan retired in February 1989. In retirement he and his wife indulged their love of travel, but unfortunately this was curtailed by the effects of serious road accident Nolan suffered while walking near their home. Recovery proved long and difficult. He then developed pulmonary fibrosis, which led to increasing disability. Bernard Nolan died on 18 October 2013 in Edinburgh. He was 87. He was survived by his widow, Margaret Winifred Nolan née Coleman, known as 'Peggy', a former dermatologist at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, whom he married in September 1958, and their two sons, Geoffrey and John.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004790
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ludbrook, John (1929 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Guy Ludbrook
Publication Date 2017-11-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381570381570
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John Ludbrook undertook medical studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, and showed an early interest in medical research by completing a BMedSci with no less than Jack Eccles, a Nobel Laureate. His residency training was at Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, with Douglas Robb. He received a NZ Universities Travelling Scholarship and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, which allowed him to continue his post graduate surgical studies at St Mary's Hospital with Charles Rob, the celebrated pioneer of vascular surgery. Following some time in a 'cutting job' at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital to develop his surgical skill, he returned to New Zealand in 1959 as an Assistant in the Department of Surgery, University of Otago in Dunedin, under the guidance of Gus Fraenkel (later inaugural Dean of Medicine at Flinders University, Adelaide). In 1964 he became the Professor of Surgery at the University of New South Wales, and then in 1968 he succeeded Dick Jepson as the Dorothy Mortlock Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide. He introduced a strong appreciation of basic medical research to that department in his chosen specialty of vascular surgery. His enthusiasm for medical sciences led to a 1 year sabbatical in Milan, Italy in 1975, with Guiseppe Mancia and Alberto Zanchetti at the Istituto di Ricerche Cardiovasculari, University of Milan. In 1981 he moved into full-time research by becoming the Associate Director of the Baker Medical Research Institute, and then a Senior Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne. Retirement was not on John's agenda, and in 1997 he then followed what had previously been an avocation and undertook a new professional pathway, and proudly became a qualified statistician (AStat). This allowed him to bridge the divide between theoretical statistics and clinical research, and in this way he continued to have a major impact on medical research, and on emerging clinical researchers. The overwhelming theme expressed by former students, colleagues and friends is of the enduring impact of a man dedicated to medicine and science, a man who was never satisfied with anything less than excellence, and a man with an insatiable curiosity and a life-long passion for knowledge and learning. This is perhaps best encapsulated by the words of a former student, Prof Warwick Anderson, an internationally successful figure, who recently said "I owe so much to (John) in my own career. No one has been more helpful and influential, and I will be forever grateful". John was active in the College, being a member of Council for 12 years, Chair of the Board of Examiners (1977-79), and Vice-President in 1982. John Ludbrook was born in Auckland New Zealand on the 30 of August 1929, to Ailsa Burns and Samuel Ludbrook. Samuel was the first specialist paediatrician in New Zealand, with a busy private and public practice, and a special interest in Cerebral Palsy. John excelled academically, attending Kings School and later Wanganui Collegiate School, where he graduated as *Dux*. Whilst this instilled a life-long interest in learning in the Sciences and Arts, he always remained quietly proud of his school prizes in both Divinity (?) and Boxing. He married Margot Hardie in 1955, and they had three children, Geraldine, Guy and Alice. He later married Judith Whitworth, and they had one daughter, Emma. The year of full time research in Milan, Italy had a major impact on both John and his family, with a life-long interest in all things Italian. John, Margot and their eldest daughter Geraldine, all studied Italian at university. Margot went on to teach and develop curricula at a secondary school level, and Geraldine is a linguist and professor at the University of Venice. John became fluent in Italian and was a passionate student of the finer points of language. John retained a keen intellect and an interest in science and the arts until the last days of his life, and he passed away peacefully on 9 June 2017.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009387
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Adiseshiah, Mohankumar (1941 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Irving Taylor
Publication Date 2021-02-10 2021-03-30
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/384250384250
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Mohankumar Adiseshiah, known by all as ‘Mo’, was a consultant vascular surgeon at the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He was born in Madras, India on 20 May 1941. His father, Malcolm Adiseshiah, was an internationally-renowned UNESCO educationalist. His mother, Helen née Paranjoti, was the daughter of a prominent clergyman. He attended La Martiniere College in Lucknow prior to moving to the UK, where he attended Wandsworth School in south London. From there he was successful in obtaining an entrance state scholarship to King’s and Westminster Medical School. Mo graduated in 1965 and was awarded the Arthur Evans memorial prize in surgery. He subsequently became a fellow of both the Royal College of Surgeons of England (in 1969) and of the Royal College of Physicians (in 1998). Following house officer posts at the Westminster and St George’s, he commenced his surgical training at University College Hospital London and in Cambridge. He later spent time as a research fellow in Toronto and as a lecturer in Hong Kong. He was particularly influenced in his training by Harold Ellis, Charles Drew, David Bailey, G B Ong in Hong Kong and Ronald Baird in Toronto. He was awarded an MA (Cambridge) in 1977 and an MS (London) in 1978. On his return to the UK, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Huntingdon and a lecturer in Cambridge. Typical of Mo, he threw himself energetically into upgrading Huntingdon Hospital to a full district general hospital with the help of the then local MP John Major. Mo returned to the Middlesex Hospital and UCH in 1982, serving with enviable distinction in many capacities in the hospital and university, until his retirement. As clinical director for surgery, he redefined vascular surgery as an emerging subspecialty of general surgery and oversaw the transition of the service to the current excellent UCLH main campus. He maintained a commitment to surgical research throughout his career and published widely, however, his most enduring legacy is undoubtedly his pioneering role in the early development of minimally invasive endoluminal stent graft repair, as an alternative to open surgery. He was a very early convert, cobbling together homemade early prototypes, and patenting the University College London technique in 1995. He stuck with this new technique through its at times underwhelming ‘endo-gloominal’ infancy whilst training, publishing and participating in defining trials for what is now the global default aortic operative approach. To Mo and his small band of pioneering colleagues, the vascular community owe a wealth of gratitude. Mo loved to travel. A visionary surgeon from the start, he understood that we can only see as far as our horizons. His professional travels took him to every continent. As a regular invited faculty member at international meetings, he contributed tirelessly. He served on the council of the Vascular Society and published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including book chapters and national newspaper articles. He chaired the medical committee and was a trustee of St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy. Mo adored cricket, rugby (Saracens) and the theatre, being responsible for a number of raucous productions whilst at medical school. He played squash and the violin. He was also passionately concerned about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. Surviving a major stroke in November 2018, the cruellest blow to a surgeon who had saved countless others from the same fate, he regained some quality of his life only to be taken by Covid-19 on 20 April 2020 at the age of 78. Mo was a wise, compassionate and generous man and was survived by his wife Maria (née Kilkelly), six children and two granddaughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009913
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tiwari, Christopher Maya Kumar ( - 1992)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008300-E008399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380574380574
Occupation General surgeon Orthopaedic surgeon Prosthetic surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Christopher Tiwari was educated at Agra University and at the SW Medical College, Agra, gaining a BSc in 1947 and qualifying MB BS in 1952. After qualification he was a demonstrator in pathology at his medical college, before coming to Britain and gaining his Fellowship. Thereafter he held registrar posts at Whittington Hospital and Hillingdon Hospital, where he was later honorary clinical assistant in vascular and general surgery. Concentrating thereafter on orthopaedics, he was honorary adviser in prosthetics at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, and honorary consultant prosthetic surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospitals, London and Stanmore. He was also prosthetic specialist to the Limb Fitting Service at Roehampton and Stanmore. His death was reported to the College on 6 November 1992.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008391
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ellis, Frank Groves (1925 - 2003)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Norman Kirby
Publication Date 2009-02-10 2011-05-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000500-E000599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372769372769
Occupation Renal transplant surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Frank Groves Ellis was a renal transplant and vascular surgeon at Guy's Hospital. He was born on 12 September 1925 into a long-standing farming family. After grammar school, he entered Guy's medical school in 1943, qualifying in 1949. He was an anatomy demonstrator in 1952. He gained a consultant post at the Royal Northern Hospital London as a general surgeon, gaining particular experience in oesophageal, breast and urinary surgery, but in 1969 was appointed as a renal transplant and vascular surgeon at Guy's Hospital. His first renal transplant at Guy's was in fact done in Brighton. In that early period transfer of the donor kidney was not easy, so he took the whole surgical team, with the recipient patient, to the south coast in his car. The operation was successful. Further developments made his department internationally renowned and he made countless working trips to the Middle East and built up a multitude of foreign connections. At one period, due to a shortage of established anaesthetists, he personally financed the employment of one to help lower his long waiting list. He genuinely enjoyed teaching students: he could be abrasive at times, but never talked down to them, or to junior colleagues. He did on occasion talk down to many of his seniors, which displeased a minority. However, this was usually regarded as professional tactlessness rather than intentional rudeness. He was particularly helpful to new consultants to Guy's. He was a staunch friend to his juniors. Alongside this thrusting personality was a man who was courteous with patients, NHS or private, who took careful case histories, with diligent note and record keeping, together with a comprehensive pre-operative examination and investigations. He was not a committee man, so did not rely on their decisions and usually did what he had decided to do. This undoubtedly did upset the committees, but benefited his patients. Frank belonged to many surgical societies and was a fellow of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. The Lettsomian lecture he gave to the Medical Society of London in 1975 was entitled 'Organ transplantation'. He was elected president of the society in 1978. In 1961 he was Hunterian Professor of our College. He published many papers on vascular surgical emergencies and angioplasty, and wrote a chapter on acute and chronic renal failure in *Surgery* by Kirk et al (London, Pitman). His wife and children endured with him the difficulties of the last phase of his life. He bore this period with great courage. He died on 10 August 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000586
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Luck, Richard John (1931 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Carole Luck
Publication Date 2020-11-02
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/383978383978
Occupation Renal surgeon Vascular surgeon Urological surgeon
Details John Luck was a urological surgeon in Windsor and Maidenhead. He was born on 26 February 1931, the son of Thomas Richard Luck, a manager, and Beatrice Christina Luck née McKenzie. He was educated at Southgate County Grammar School and then won an entrance scholarship to St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1954 with two prizes in surgery and one in medicine. His first clinical post was as a house surgeon to Arthur Dickson Wright. He obtained his FRCS in 1959 and became a senior registrar at St Mary’s and gained a Fulbright scholarship as a surgical fellow to Harvard and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. There he became a renal transplant officer working on unrelated and cadaver renal transplantation. He also wrote three chapters on renal and bladder function for his professor, William Tait ‘Bill’ Irvine, as a contribution to *The scientific basis of surgery* (London, J&A Churchill, 1965) and several papers on renal transplantation. He then returned to St Mary’s, where he worked for Felix Eastcott. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Windsor with one session a week as a lecturer and honorary consultant at St Mary’s. He was initially a vascular and renal surgeon, but eventually specialised mainly in urology. He also continued his academic work, publishing further peer-reviewed papers and was co-author of General surgery in gynaecological practice (Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 1971) with Stanley Simmons. He established a renowned urology practice in Windsor and Maidenhead. His talents included his clinical ability, his ability to diagnose and judge how to care for his patients and his considerable technical skills. He also retained the ability to teach and perform research. His many registrars obtained senior posts throughout the UK and internationally. His dissections were beautiful and achieved with apparent ease and sparseness of effort. He was patient, modest and never arrogant. He enjoyed cricket, tennis, golf, skiing, painting and drawing. Most of all, he had a very happy and fulfilling family life. Sadly, his first wife Heather (née Kerr) died of cancer in her fifties and he then married Carole (née Ranscombe), a consultant radiologist in Windsor. He had three children from his first marriage, a son from his second and two stepchildren. He died on 17 December 2019 at the age of 88. He was loved and respected by all and will be sadly missed.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009865
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Bradley, John William Paulton (1927 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2013-11-08 2015-11-20
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/376793376793
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John 'Jack' Bradley was a consultant surgeon at Hillingdon and Mount Vernon hospitals. He was born in Paulton, Somerset, on 20 October 1927, the second child and only son of William Henry Bradley, a medical officer and epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health, and Gladys Maud Bradley née Smith, the daughter of a mathematical instrument maker. He was educated at the Cathedral Choir School in Oxford and then Westminster School, and went on to study medicine at Christchurch College, Oxford University. Whilst a student he was a member of the University Air Squadron. He qualified BM BCh in 1952. He carried out his National Service as a squadron leader in the RAF and, in the late 1950s, was a senior medical officer during Operation Grapple, the British nuclear weapon tests of hydrogen bombs on Malden and Christmas islands in the Central Pacific Ocean. He was a house surgeon at the Gordon Hospital, the Royal Northern Hospital and St James', Balham, and then a registrar at Sutton and Cheam Hospital and Westminster Hospital. He subsequently became a resident surgical officer at Brompton Hospital and a senior registrar at St George's Hospital. During his training he particularly remembered being influenced by Lawrence Abel, Stanley Aylett, William Gabriel, Norman Tanner and Lord Brock. He was also a research fellow at the Buckston Browne research farm. Outside medicine he was interested in gardening and building. In 1959 he married Heather Diane Cornell. They had two sons, Russell and Jason, and a daughter, Lesley. He died on 30 September 2013 and was survived by his children and his second wife, Averil Mansfield, a former president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004610
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tracy, Graham Douglas (1926 - 2009)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2015-09-14 2018-06-26
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/380244380244
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Doug Tracy was foundation professor of surgery at the University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney from 1969 to 1986. He was born in Sydney on 14 May 1926, the eldest of three sons of Haydn Douglas Tracy and Florence Tracy née McCarthy. His mother died in childbirth when he was just seven, and his father's work at an oil company meant the family had to move frequently around the country. Tracy completed his high school education at Taree, and won a scholarship to Sydney University to study medicine. He qualified in 1948 and became an intern at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. Deciding on a surgical career, he went to England as a ship's surgeon and passed the FRCS in 1955. Whilst in London he worked as a researcher under the pioneering vascular surgeon John Kinmonth at St Thomas' Hospital. He carried out further training at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. On his return to Australia, he was appointed as an assistant to Frank Rundle at Royal North Shore Hospital. He later became Rundle's junior partner. In 1959 Tracy was appointed as head of the department of surgery at the University of New South Wales' new medical school, based at Prince Henry Hospital. When St Vincent's Hospital transferred from Sydney University to the University of New South Wales in 1969, he became the foundation professor of surgery there and developed an outstanding vascular surgical department. He wrote many journal articles and book chapters on vascular surgery, surgical education and history. In 1968, he led the first civilian surgical team to Vung Tau, South Vietnam, for three months and later served as a colonel in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps Reserve for six years. At the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, he was a councillor (from 1968 to 1981), chairman of the board of examiners (from 1972 to 1977) and president (from 1979 to 1981). He was also president of the Surgical Research Society of Australasia (in 1968) and chairman of the Australian and New Zealand chapter of the International Cardiovascular Surgical Society. In 1979, he was a Sir Arthur Sims Commonwealth travelling professor, lecturing in southern Africa, the UK and Ireland. He was a visiting professor in Seattle, Cleveland, North Carolina, Nashville and Hong Kong, and became an honorary member of the American Society for Vascular Surgery. In 1985, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. He enjoyed golf, tennis and painting, and wrote *Golf dissected by a surgeon*, as well as a volume of autobiography, *Inside the ropes: a surgeon's life* (Temple House, 2008). Doug Tracy died from cancer on 9 April 2009 at the age of 82. He was survived by his widow Nola (née Buckley), to whom he had been married for 59 years, their seven children (Vicki, Steven, Lyn, Jo, Louise, Jackie and Patrick) and eight grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008061
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Johnson, Roger Hughes (1939 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Leena Chagla
Publication Date 2017-11-02 2018-05-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381563381563
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Roger Hughes Johnson was a consultant general surgeon at Whiston and St Helens hospitals, Merseyside. He was born in Southend-on-Sea on 24 July 1939. His father, William Joseph ('Bill') Johnson, was a firefighter and his mother, Irene Johnson (neé Hughes), taught home economics. His grandfather was a cockle fisherman. He grew up in Essex, where he attended Westcliff High School for Boys. He studied medicine at the Middlesex Hospital in London, qualifying in 1963. He began to pursue a surgical career, holding a number of training posts at various hospitals in the South East of England. At registrar level, partly because of the prevailing difficulty of obtaining the next promotion, but also because of a wanderlust for travel and adventure, he went to Africa. In 1969, he was appointed, under the auspices of the British Overseas Development Agency, as a general surgeon to the Princess Marina Government Hospital in Botswana. He was the only government surgeon, although there were missionary surgeons in the hospital. This proved not only a challenge, but also a steep learning curve! Roger returned to the UK in 1974 but, like others in a similar position at the time, he struggled to get back into the UK system. After a number of locums, he took up a research post with Averil Mansfield, then a vascular surgeon in Liverpool. He needed an academic component on his CV. He worked on the development of a new method for the detection of the plasminogen activator content of vein walls. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with a vascular interest, to Whiston and St Helens hospitals, Merseyside, in 1977. He provided a very welcome addition to the existing team of three general surgeons. He worked tirelessly and conscientiously with his colleagues to provide a caring and expanding surgical service, developing a hitherto lacking vascular dimension to the service. He was committed to playing his part in persuading the university to send surgical students to the hospital. His contribution in this field was highly valued. In his later years, he was the lead surgeon in the establishment of a dedicated breast unit in the hospitals, the Johnson room being a lasting memorial to the part he played. Roger loved singing. He was a bass baritone in the Ormskirk Music Society and Wigan Choral Society. His love of history led to a history degree as a mature student. Hockey - playing, umpiring and coaching - was another passion of his, as were watersports. He met Helen, a mathematician, when they were both students in London. They married in 1964. Roger struggled latterly with Parkinson's disease for a number of years, but sadly died from complications following open heart surgery on 7 August 2017. He was 78. He was survived by his wife, Helen, his son, Richard, and his daughter, Peta.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009380
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching King, Raymond Barry (1935 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John Royle
Publication Date 2018-02-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381815381815
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Barry King graduated MB BS from Melbourne University in 1958. After initial postgraduate training at Prince Henry's Hospital and the Repatriation Gen Hospital he went to England in 1966 and gained his FRCS. From 1966 until 1968 he worked with Peter Martin, first at Chelmsford and then at the Hammersmith Hospital. He returned to Australia in 1967 a well-trained general and vascular surgeon. He immediately obtained his FRACS and was appointed to Prince Henry's Hospital and the Western Hospital in Footscray where he established the vascular unit. A foundation member of the RACS Section of Vascular Surgery, he became Secretary and then President of its successor, The Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery (1995-97). He subsequently became vice president of the International Society of Vascular Surgery. He served on training and examining bodies of the RACS while an active surgeon and on retirement he served on the Heritage and Archives committee. He enjoyed showing visitors around the college treasures to which he donated several significant historical books. Barry's initial enthusiasm for vascular surgery obtained under Stan Reid at Prince Henry's Hospital continued throughout his surgical career. Like most vascular surgeons in the 1960's he initially worked as a general and vascular surgeon but soon worked solely as a vascular surgeon. Barry was able to engender enthusiasm in his colleagues. The famous "Mai Tai" tour of a group of young vascular surgeons to see specialist vascular surgeons in the United States of America stimulated the camaraderie among the vascular surgeons from all Australian states and this has endured. Barry's enthusiasm was also evident in the various RACS committees on which he served. Barry was born in Williamstown in Melbourne's west and was always a "son of the west". His appointment as a consultant to the Western Hospital, Footscray meant that he was able to serve the population in the western suburbs, which he did with distinction. Apart from generating a vibrant vascular surgical service, he served as Chairman of the senior medical staff, Chairman of the division of surgery, and Clinical Dean, Monash Medical School at Western Hospital. Apart from his administrative work, Barry was known internationally for his pioneering work on peri malleolar bypasses in diabetic patients. He presented this work at an international conference in Amsterdam in 1991 and then gave an update on his follow-up at a second international conference in Kyoto in 1995. Always an avid Bulldogs (AFL) supporter, it was a great joy to him to see his team win a premiership after 50 years. The Grand Final, which Barry attended, occurred only a few months before he died. Barry was the ideal doctor with strong empathy with his patients. He always was great company with his friends. He was a wonderful family man. His devotion to Lesley was well-known as was his love for Carolyn and Richard and their children. Our sympathies go to them all.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009411
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nigam, Ramesh (1920 - 1999)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008800-E008899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381002381002
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ramesh Nigam was founder professor and head of the department of surgery at the Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, India, and a distinguished vascular surgeon. Born on 12 August 1920, his father had served in the Indian Medical Service, and then became professor of surgery at the King George's Medical College, Lucknow. His mother was Indrani Kunwar. He was educated at La Martinière Boys School, and at Jubilee College, Lucknow, and went to Guy's to study medicine in 1937. At the outbreak of the second world war, he found himself on his summer vacation in India and, unable to return, he finished his medical education at the King George's Medical College, Lucknow, qualifying with honours in the MB BS and with all 17 gold and silver medals awarded by the university. He held junior posts as demonstrator and lecturer in surgery at King George's Medical College. After the war, he returned to England to sit for the FRCS and was awarded the Hallett prize in the primary in 1946, passing the final in the same year.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008819
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Standeven, Alfred (1916 - 1983)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007600-E007699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379866379866
Occupation Trauma surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Alfred Standeven was born in 1916 and graduated in 1939 after studying at Queen's College, Cambridge, and St Mary's Hospital. Shortly afterwards he joined the Royal Air Force, serving from 1941 to 1946. He passed the FRCS Edinburgh in 1944 before being posted to serve as a surgical specialist in Burma and later in Japan. He was twice mentioned in despatches. After demobilisation he served as senior registrar, first at Southend and later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He passed the MCh degree in 1954 and the FRCS two years later. He then joined the surgical unit at St Mary's as first assistant and acquired considerable experience of vascular surgery. In 1958 he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Royal Victoria Hospitals in Folkestone and in Dover and brought to them a vast experience of trauma surgery and vascular surgery. He retired in 1981 but the enjoyment of his last few years was marred by the need for repeated blood transfusions for multiple myeloma. He died on 6 May 1983, aged 67, and is survived by his wife Patricia (Paddy) and two daughters, one of whom is a doctor.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007683
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rose, Sidney Samuel (1917 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Roger Marcuson
Publication Date 2014-03-21 2015-02-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005100-E005199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377352377352
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Sydney Rose was a vascular surgeon at Withington and Wythenshawe hospitals, Manchester. He was born in Manchester, the son of Hyman Leonard Rose, a merchant, and Rebecca Rose née Tofield, and gained a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School. He qualified from Manchester University Medical School in 1941 and shortly thereafter joined the RAF. He was based in Scunthorpe and by the time he left the RAF had risen to the rank of squadron leader. During his time at Scunthorpe he visited some of the newly liberated prison camps on continental Europe and was deeply affected by what he saw: he would never speak of this in later life. Whilst at Scunthorpe he met a number of keen, and later famous, sportsmen, including Stanley Matthews, Raich Carter, Peter Doherty and Dan Maskell. This was the start of his lifelong interest in football and indeed tennis, which he continued to play into his eighties. It also fostered his interest in what would now be known as sports medicine. Following his demobilisation, he returned to junior surgical posts at Manchester Royal Infirmary, where he progressed up the surgical ladder. He became a registrar to Michael Boyd, where he developed his interest in vascular surgery. He spent a year training with Michael DeBakey in the USA, and during this time won a $1,000 prize on an American quiz show! In 1956, after his return to the UK, Sidney was appointed as a consultant in vascular surgery at Withington and Wythenshawe hospitals, later to become the University Hospital of South Manchester. He developed a keen interest in varicose vein surgery, and developed an extensive and successful private practice. He was an elected fellow of both the American and International Colleges of Angiology. Sidney lectured all over the world on various aspects of vascular surgery. His publications were on the subject of varicose veins and his particular interest was the 'weak wall' theory of their genesis. He also wrote a chapter in *Vascular surgical techniques* (London, Butterworths, 1984), edited by Roger M Greenhalgh and with contributions from many other distinguished surgeons. He was a founder member of the Vascular Society (of Great Britain and Ireland) and was its president in 1982. He was president of Manchester Medical Society in the same year, when he delivered his presidential address 'In thoughtful vein'. He had many interests outside surgery, particularly supporting both Manchester football teams - an undoubted skill! He was involved in looking after the survivors of the Munich disaster of 1958, when members of Manchester United team were involved in an aeroplane crash on the runway. He was a director of Manchester City Football Club from 1966 to 1986, becoming life president after he left the board. He was a keen piano player, at one stage owning two grand pianos, and once told me that he would play for up to two hours a day. He was a keen freemason, an avid stamp collector and kept tropical fish. He married Golda Cohen in 1943 and they had three children - Angela, Paul and Caroline. After retirement, Sidney spent his time equally between Manchester and South Africa, where he died on 29 January 2014 at the age of 96, a life richly lived.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005169
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Tibbs, David John (1920 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2017-11-02 2020-07-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381565381565
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David John Tibbs was a consultant general and vascular surgeon in Oxford who, during the Second World War, was awarded a Military Cross for his bravery on D-Day. He was born in Croydon on 10 March 1920, the youngest of three sons of Evan Llewellyn Tibbs, a city trader, and Mildred Ann Tibbs née Mundell, a housewife. He attended Wallington County School in Sutton, where he was school captain, and then studied medicine at Oxford and Guy’s Hospital Medical School. He qualified from the wartime shortened medical course with the conjoint examination in 1942 and gained his MB BS in 1943. He joined the newly-formed parachute section of the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to 225 Parachute Field Ambulance. He was among the first British paratroopers to be dropped into France on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and, in charge of 12 stretcher bearers, was tasked with picking up injured paratroopers. The citation given at the time of the award of his Military Cross reads: ‘At first the Defence Zone was subject to light Machine-Gun fire and later in the day the area was heavily sniped. In spite of this and the lack of cover, this party, under the personal leadership of Captain Tibbs, worked unceasingly until 1400 hours, when they had collected all casualties. During the eight hours the party sustained two killed and four wounded, but regardless of personal risk, Captain Tibbs completed his task.’ A few days later the regimental medical officer of 13th Parachute Battalion (13 Para) was severely wounded; Tibbs replaced him and remained with 13 Para for the rest of the war. In August 1944, he was shot by a sniper while rescuing an injured soldier; he was wounded in the right shoulder causing a severe haemorrhage, but managed to crawl to safety and was evacuated to England. After recuperating, he rejoined 13 Para in England and then returned to the frontline in December 1944, fighting alongside the Americans in the Battle of the Bulge at Ardennes in Belgium, the last major German offensive on the Western Front. After the defeat of Germany, 13 Para was posted to Singapore, Malaya and Indonesia, largely on internal security duties. Tibbs was demobilised in 1946. He returned to London, to Guy’s and Putney hospitals, and then, in 1951, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was also a reader in surgery at Durham University. In 1961, he moved to the United Oxford Hospitals as a consultant vascular and general surgeon and a clinical lecturer. At Oxford he was a leading member of the planning team for the new John Radcliffe Hospital and president of the Oxford Medical Society in 1979. He retired in 1985. In 2012, he published his memoirs *Parachute doctor* (Sabrestorm Publishing). In 2016, he was awarded the Légion d’honneur, the highest French honour, for his role in the D-Day landings. David Tibbs died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on 16 August 2017. He was 97. He was married twice. His first wife was Patricia (‘Paddy’) O’Meara, a nurse at Guy’s, whom he married in 1943. They had three daughters, three sons, ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. After his divorce, he married Marie Ames in 1968.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009382
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Wilmshurst, Colin Cyril (1932 - 2016)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Peter Densham
Publication Date 2016-07-29 2016-11-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381417381417
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Colin Wilmshurst was a consultant vascular surgeon at Torbay Hospital. He was born in Chislehurst in Kent on 29 October 1932, the oldest of three boys. His father was a Metropolitan Police officer and his mother a teacher. He was educated at a local grammar school near Orpington. After school, he carried out his National Service: Colin told amusing stories of how he accidentally found himself in the Royal Navy, having presented himself for the Royal Air Force. In December 1952, he was a midshipman on HMS *Implacable*, and his midshipman's log makes fascinating and amusing reading. His escapades demonstrate an adaptability and resourcefulness that would clearly stand him in good stead in his subsequent medical career. His Naval career really took off when he was posted to smaller ships, and his skill as a navigator meant that he was soon the navigation officer for 232 Minesweeping Squadron. Colin was clearly good at it and rewrote the navigation teaching manual, which remained in use for many years. He spent a dangerous year in 1955 clearing wartime mines from the Dutch coast, and was seconded from the Navy to the Decca company to draw up all the English Channel navigation charts. He was offered a full-time Royal Naval commission, but had already decided on a medical career. He was accepted at Guy's, and qualified MRCS LRCP in 1962. He did house jobs in Kent and developed an interest in vascular surgery, and moved to Torbay Hospital in south Devon in 1964. Soon afterwards, he spent two years in Toronto and a short time in Miami improving his vascular surgical skills. On returning to the UK, he helped pioneer the techniques of autologous vein grafts in this country, and also performed numerous procedures using synthetic grafts in treating peripheral vascular and aortic disease. He worked with Michael Gardner, Charles Clyne and Roger Fox in Torquay, and contributed to publications such as *Vascular surgery: current questions* (Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1991) and *The venous system in health and disease* (Amsterdam, Oxford, IOS Press, c.2001). He was an active member of the Joint Vascular Research Group (UK). Outside work, Colin had many other talents. An exceptional photographer, he had invested in his first 35 mm camera in 1956, his earliest subjects being Naval ships. He quickly became interested in wildlife photography and would spend hours taking pictures of birds such as kingfishers, peregrine falcons and their young. He was involved in recording the building and launching of the ill-fated racing catamaran *Team Philips*, and made a number of medical teaching and instructional films for Torbay Hospital. He became an authority on British butterflies and their habitats, and for many years was a member of the Dartmoor Preservation Association. He was an avid fly fisherman. Colin was a popular and respected surgeon among patients and colleagues alike. The writer worked with him for over 20 years, and never heard anyone speak ill of him, and never saw him angry. He was a selfless man who went through his life helping others. As his own health failed, he remained uncomplaining, stoical and philosophical to the end. His wife Ella predeceased him, as did his daughter Sandra, a nurse. He died on 17 May 2016 aged 83 and was survived by his longstanding partner, Jane, and his son, Guy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009234
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Nash, Thomas Paul (1926 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Reginald S A Lord
Publication Date 2016-01-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009000-E009099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381213381213
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Tom Nash was a seventh generation Australian of Irish extraction, born on the family property at Yass, NSW. He was educated at Christian Brothers Goulburn (Dux 1942) and Sydney University (1943-8, MB BS Hons 1). At St Johns College, University of Sydney, he excelled at rugby, cricket, swimming, diving, billiards and golf. He was later a competitive sailor and farmer. While a resident at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney (1949-50) he wed Nancy, their marriage producing seven sons. Surgical training was in London and Southampton. His surgical interests thereafter evolved from general surgery particularly gastric surgery, trauma and abdominal emergencies to the treatment of arterial and venous disease. In 1957 Nash joined the staff of St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney progressing in the system then of Assistant (and partner) with Justin Fleming FRACS, to Senior Surgeon and Visiting Medical Officer (1975-1990). Other surgical appointments were to Liverpool Hospital (1956-70), Lewisham Hospital (1956-74) and Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Sydney (1957-84). His many medical committees included Vice President, Association of Surgeons (1974); NSW Committee RACS (1974-82); Board of Directors St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney (1977-86); and NSW Complaints Board. His surgical contributions included reports on trauma, venous valve transplantation, intra-arterial oxygen therapy, and reconstruction for aneurysm and occlusive disease. Tom Nash was an exceptionally dextrous, fast and economical surgical operator. He was generous and encouraging to surgical trainees, of whom I was one. Tom was gregarious, entertaining and enthusiastic in so many areas. His final years were difficult but borne stoically.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009030
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Villet, Daniel De Gouret (1925 - 2011)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2012-02-29 2014-03-14
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/374250374250
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Daniel de Gourêt Villet was a surgeon in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He was born in South Africa, the son of Daniel du Plessis Villet, a chartered accountant, and Agnes Cecilia Villet née Huxham, a secretary. The Villet family was descended from a Frenchman, Charles Matharin Villet, a naturalist and botanist, who arrived in South Africa in 1803 and started a menagerie. Daniel Villet was educated at Bredasdorp High School, and came first in the matriculation examination in the Cape province. He then studied medicine at the University of Cape Town, gaining class medals in obstetrics and gynaecology, and qualifying in 1949. He was a demonstrator in anatomy at the University of Cape Town in 1951, and then went to the UK. He held senior house office posts at Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital, the thoracic unit at Nottingham City Hospital, and at Whittington Hospital, London. From 1954 to 1955 he was a resident surgical officer at Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary. He gained his FRCS in 1954. He then returned to South Africa. From 1955 to 1957 he was a surgical registrar in the department of surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, and, from 1958 to 1959, a surgical registrar at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban. He became an honorary consultant surgeon at Livingstone Hospital, Port Elizabeth, and was later a consultant surgeon in vascular surgery at the Provincial Hospital, Port Elizabeth, where he initiated and developed the department of vascular surgery. For many years he was the only vascular surgeon in the eastern Cape region. He was also involved in a part-time capacity in forensic medicine, and from time to time worked as an assessor at inquests. He was on the Provincial Hospital committee, and was chairman of the East Cape Association of Surgeons. Outside medicine, he was at one time a temporary 'locum' church organist, sailed (fitting out his own yacht almost single-handed), played tennis and squash, and was interested in carpentry and music. In 1979 he married Joan Valerie Powell, a nurse. They had four children - Mornet, Bronwyn, Glynnis and Carys. Daniel de Gourêt Villet died on 30 June 2011, at the age of 86. He was survived by his wife, children and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002067
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ashton, Frank (1925 - 2012)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John Black
Publication Date 2012-12-21 2016-12-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003300-E003399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/375499375499
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Frank Ashton was a consultant vascular surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He was born in Birmingham on 26 April 1925. His mother died when he was two, and he moved to Manchester to live with relatives. He returned to Birmingham at the age of 11, when his father remarried, and attended Saltley Grammar School. His father was works manager and director of an engineering company and Frank wanted to become an engineer too, but did not have the necessary mathematical ability. His practical engineering skills however were demonstrated when he repaired the door of the headmaster's study damaged during an air raid. He entered Birmingham Medical School in 1943, where he underwent infantry training and carried out nocturnal fire watching from the university buildings. He qualified in 1948 and was house surgeon to Scott Mason at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. After the usual registrar posts, he became a research fellow at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, employing his engineering instincts on the design of early cardiopulmonary bypass equipment. His ChM thesis was on this topic. His medical student romance with his future wife Joyce, a student nurse, was helped by his ownership of a motorcycle and sidecar. After a seven-year courtship and a three-year engagement, they married in 1951. By then he was doing his National Service, attached to the Royal Engineers in Malvern Worcestershire, where his married quarters had been converted from the mortuary. They then moved to King's Heath and had four children, whose future careers included radiology, physiotherapy and engineering. In the late 1950s Frank Ashton was a lecturer in surgery in a department dominated by peptic ulcer surgery, with Frank Stammers, and inflammatory bowel disease, with Bryan Brooke. Excited by the developing field of arterial surgery, on his own initiative he arranged a clinical post in Houston, Texas, with Michael DeBakey and Stanley Crawford. He arrived in 1960, just in time to see the election of John F Kennedy to the presidency. On his return he was the only trained vascular surgeon in the West Midlands and, in 1963, was promoted to consultant/senior lecturer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he spent the rest of his career. With his friend and colleague Geoffrey Slaney, he built the academic unit into the regional vascular centre, and when Slaney took the Barling chair in 1971, Ashton became reader and was subsequently appointed to a second chair. Frank's research interests were inspired by his engineering background and inclinations, leading to him to form, with non-medical university colleagues, the Midlands Medical Engineering Group. He spent much time on the design and development of a silicon rubber arterial prosthesis. With the benefit of hindsight this was a blind alley, but this was not apparent at the time. He was the head of the department of surgery laboratories and provided unfailing help, advice, encouragement and constructive criticism to many senior lecturers, lecturers, research fellows and technical staff. Frank Ashton was a gifted technical surgeon with the wide repertoire usual in his generation. His practice was based on sound clinical instincts, and he had great rapport with his patients. He finished operations quickly by moving unhurriedly and with economy of effort. He was an outstanding teacher and trainer to many generations of junior surgeons at the Queen Elizabeth, many of whom set up their own vascular units in the West Midlands and elsewhere, and look back on their time with Frank as one of the happiest times of their surgical careers. He taught methodically and spent many hours patiently assisting his trainees. He was also able to let go and allow trainees to operate solo, but had an uncanny knack of appearing at the theatre door when he was needed. He did not find operative surgery difficult and did not see why his trainees should either. Frank Ashton was a soft-voiced, somewhat diffident man, but possessed of steely determination and self-confidence when required in the best interests of his patients. He was also a man of great personal integrity, truly without enemies. He was content to bear a very heavy undergraduate teaching and administrative role in the department of surgery, which dovetailed well with the national interests of his colleague Geoffrey Slaney. Nevertheless, his standing in the profession was recognised in 1984 by the presidency of the Vascular Surgical Society. Frank and Joyce moved out of Birmingham to a farm with 40 acres of land in Worcestershire. They kept sheep and some heifers, and did their own lambing. He did not go in for expensive cars, and parked his mud-stained vehicle in the consultants' car park without embarrassment, at least to him. They also had a house in St Mawes in Cornwall, where he kept a boat called *Innominate*, after the notoriously fragile and temperamental artery. In 1982 he was knocked down by a car and sustained a fractured pelvis, complicated by a pulmonary embolism from which he nearly died. He recovered and returned to work, but with permanent lung damage, which helped him to give up his long-term pipe smoking. In 1986 Geoffrey Slaney finished his term as president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and returned to full-time work. Frank, in the light of his accident, promptly retired, a typically sound decision that gave him 25 years of happy retirement. He carried on with his farming and his engineering workshop. Above all, he enjoyed his family, including 11 grandchildren. He was increasingly unwell in his final two years, but remained active until his death on 13 November 2012 at the age of 87. Frank Ashton was an inventive surgical researcher, a first-rate clinician, an outstanding technical surgeon and a surgical teacher who inspired a generation of surgeons who revered him. He was a devoted husband, rewarded with a long and happy marriage, and a much-loved father and grandfather.
Resource Identifier RCS: E003316
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ahmadi, Mahmood (1936 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Arthur Pomerantz
Publication Date 2019-12-18 2020-02-19
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation Thoracic surgeon General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Mahmood Ahmadi was a surgeon at the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. He was born into a privileged family in the small agricultural village of Vastan in Iran not far from Tehran. As an infant, he survived an earthquake to which many of his siblings succumbed. Growing up he enjoyed a multicultural upbringing and was exposed to many different customs and beliefs, from Kurdish bareback riding to the Judaic roots of Purim in Persia. Like his older brother, Abdol Ghana Ahmadi, a noted lawyer and jurist in Iran, Mahmood possessed a superior intellect. He combined this with a familial motivation to master his scholarly pursuits in all disciplines, not just science and medicine. Mahmood developed his addiction to surgery at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences and received his MD in 1960. He pursued two years of missionary work in rural Iran, followed by a rotating internship and residency in Canton, Ohio, USA at the Aultman Hospital and then a general surgery residency in Cleveland, Ohio at Fairview Park Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital under the Case Western University system. His chief of surgery there, Charles Marks, recommended that he seek further training at the Royal College of Surgeons in England. After completing a paper with Marks in 1969 (‘Agnogenic myeloid metaplasia: role of splenectomy’ *Postgrad Med J*. 1969 Apr;45[522]:261-5), Ahmadi crossed the pond to London to immerse himself in his studies with a clinical appointment at King Edward Memorial Hospital, riding around town in a red Triumph convertible. His rewards for his efforts were the fellowship on 7 July 1971, when he passed his exams, and, more importantly, Marsha Savage of Centreville, New Brunswick, Canada, whom he married on 22 August 1970. After gaining his FRCS, Ahmadi went back to his native country in 1972, to work as a general surgeon in Qom. His thirst for mastery of advanced surgical techniques took him and his family back to Cleveland, Ohio from 1974 to 1976, where he received cardiothoracic residency training at St Vincent Charity Medical Center. He again returned to his homeland to practise his newly-honed skills in Tabriz and then Tehran. He subsequently rose steadily in clinical reputation to university faculty representative to the Shah in his specialty. Throughout his rise to professional eminence in his home country he always expressed a desire ‘to do my best to help the people’. He did this financially, spiritually and medically. Unfortunately, he had to survive another earthquake in the form of the Iranian Revolution at the end of 1978. Marsha and their daughters took the last Pan Am flight out of Tehran on the day after Christmas. Mahmood made it out on Easter weekend of 1979 after tending to casualties of both sides of the hostilities. They were united at the Savage family homestead in New Brunswick, Canada. Mahmood had the equivalent of $47 in his pocket. Always looking forward, he took a fellowship at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston under Denton Cooley from July 1979, and then worked as a general, thoracic and vascular surgeon at the Aroostook Medical Center (AMC) in Presque Isle, Maine, the town across the border from Centreville. After nine years as a mostly-solo practitioner with a splendid reputation for excellence in surgical care, Mahmood joined the four-man group of surgeons assembled by David Sensenig. For six more years, this surgical programme was fully funded under the auspices of US Senator George Mitchell of Maine, at the VA Hospital at Togus, Maine, where I first met him. We had a challenging and interesting practice covering the full scope of surgery except open heart surgery. After Senator Mitchell retired, the Togus inpatient programme was cut back and Mahmood and I were reassigned as part of the start-up crew for the newest VA Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1995. For five more clinical years at the VA, Mahmood became the go-to guy when patients presented for complex surgical intervention. He also returned to Iran on short sabbaticals to practise open heart surgery at a university hospital in Tehran and was appointed to the Iranian Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Ahmadi retired from the VA and clinical practice in 1999 mostly because of concerns about the hospital’s inefficient IT revolution. We remained close friends for another 20 years. I remember driving him to Hollywood, Florida, where I worked as a surgical oncologist so that he could observe his true passion, cardiac surgery, after a good breakfast in the physicians’ cafeteria. He eventually befriended every member of that department headed then by Michael Rosenbloom. He called them his cousins. Throughout his life, he maintained an interest in comparative religious philosophy, liturgy and history. He was a self-proclaimed Deist, Sufi and follower of the poet Rumi for most of his life, but accepted the sacraments of the Catholic faith just before his death. He befriended many clergy of nearly all denominations as his cousins as long as they shared his inherent honesty and concern for individuals. Many of us counted on his fatherly support as well as biblical knowledge to help us through difficult times. He honoured me, a colleague and friend for his last 30 years, by presiding during the funeral of my eldest son. As a young man, Ahmadi was an active and accomplished intercollegiate athlete, competing throughout the Middle East and Europe, as a champion weightlifter. He developed immensely appealing social skills, which, with his handsome countenance, muscular appearance and vitality, earned him a thick address book, of which he was proud. He was certainly not shy with the opposite sex. He was a polyglot by inclination and personal experience. Ahmadi passed away on 19 November 2019 at his home in Jupiter, Florida from a brief illness arising from acute myeloid leukaemia. He was 82. He was survived by his widow Marsha, three daughters, six grandchildren and dozens of devoted friends and colleagues. Ahmadi was truly a citizen of and surgeon to the world: all of his cousins like me really miss him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009674
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hogg, John Hugh Wilson (1943 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2014-08-15 2017-04-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005800-E005899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377996377996
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Hogg was a vascular and general surgeon in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. He was born on 10 January 1943 in Sydney, the son of James Wilson Hogg, the headmaster of Trinity Grammar School, and Alyson Hogg. He was educated at Trinity, where he excelled academically and was also a talented sportsman. In 1961, he began studying medicine at the University of Sydney, qualifying in 1967. He held junior posts at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and then joined an Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition for 15 months as deputy station director and medical officer at Mawson Station. The Hogg Islands near the station were named after him. He then went to the UK for further training and gained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and in Ireland. In 1975, he returned to Australia and worked at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, focusing on vascular surgery. He gained his fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and was a member of the first Australian surgical team to visit China. In 1977, he moved to Illawarra, where he set up a thriving medical practice. He became clinical director of surgery at Wollongong, Shellharbour and Bulli hospitals. He also set up two healthcare institutions, IOH (Injury and Occupational Health) - with his wife Linda - and South Coast Vascular Laboratory. In 2004, he joined the University of Wollongong as foundation dean of its proposed graduate school of medicine. The school accepted its first students in 2007. He retired in 2008. He also chaired the Light and Hope Foundation, which supports people with mental illness in the Illawarra region. In October 2002, he was in Bali with his family when the Bali bombings happened. Hogg and his wife volunteered to help; John treated nearly 300 people over three days at Sanglah Hospital and Linda helped identify those who had died. They were later awarded with the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2003 Australia Day honours list, and the City of Wollongong made Hogg its citizen of the year. Hogg died from metastatic melanoma on 1 March 2013 aged 70. He was survived by his wife Linda (née Blogg) and their children, Genevieve, Sophie, James and Katie. He was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate of science by the University of Wollongong.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005813
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Negus, David (1930 - 2010)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2012-01-10 2012-11-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001800-E001899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374023374023
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David Negus was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Lewisham Hospital, London, and a pioneer in the newly emerging sub-specialty of phlebology. He was born on 11 August 1930 in London, the son of a distinguished otolaryngologist, Sir Victor Ewings Negus, and his wife, Winifred Negus née Rennie. David was schooled at Charterhouse, from where he was called up for National Service at the age of 18 to serve in the Royal Armoured Corps. On demobilisation he proceeded to New College, Oxford, in 1950, taking an honours degree in animal physiology in 1954. He then studied at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1958 with both the conjoint and an Oxford degree. Early surgical training was in Cambridge, Southampton and St Thomas', with the FRCS being passed in 1962. He was then appointed as a registrar to the Royal Portsmouth Hospital for two years, before returning to St Thomas' and embarking on a research project into post-thrombotic syndrome under the supervision of Frank B Cockett. This work resulted in the award of an Oxford DM MCh in 1967, an Arris and Gale Lecture delivered in 1970 (*Annals RCSEng* 1979, 47; 92-105) and a lifelong interest in venous disorders. There followed a succession of posts in the St Thomas' training circuit before he was appointed as a consultant to Lewisham Hospital in south London in 1976. At Lewisham he practised the entire range of general surgery, but with a special interest in peripheral vascular surgery, including lymphology and phlebology. He was an active fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, becoming a member of council of both the surgical and the clinical sections, and chairman of the newly-formed venous forum. In 1984 he was appointed Hunterian Professor and delivered a lecture entitled 'The prevention and treatment of venous ulceration'. He published widely, principally on various aspects of venous disorders, including chapters in textbooks and, in 1991, a monograph, *Leg ulcers: a practical approach to management* (Butterworth-Heinemann), which went into several editions. In 1986 he was instrumental (with others) in founding the journal *Phlebology* and three years later became its editor. On relinquishing this post he was appointed editor emeritus. He was elected an honorary member of the Société de Française de Phlébologie in recognition of his considerable contributions to this specialty. In private life he enjoyed sailing, cruising and ocean racing. As a young man he was an above average hockey and tennis player, and for many years enjoyed beagling, being master of Christchurch and New College beagles whilst an undergraduate. As a St Thomas's medical student, he contributed variously to the annual Christmas show and wrote several of the songs which became legendary. He confounded many of his student contemporaries by owning and driving a Rolls Royce, but he was not the only St Thomas's graduate of those days to do this! Of high intellect but quiet disposition, he had a keen wit and a dry sense of humour, always with a twinkle in his eye. Married to Anne (née Turner), a St Thomas' nurse, they had three children: Verity, a literary editor; Rupert, a gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital; and Samantha, a radiologist at St George's Hospital. In retirement he moved to the Isle of Wight, but died on 8 October 2010, aged 80, after a long battle with carcinoma of the bladder, a disease that he faced with typical stoicism.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001840
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bergan, John J (1927 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2018-11-19 2021-03-08
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John J. Bergan was an innovative and pioneering vascular surgeon who helped develop a separate surgical specialty for diseases of the arteries and veins. Born in Tampico, Mexico on 4 April 1927, he was the son of Ernest and Arva Yealy Bergan. His parents managed property in the area and always spoke Spanish at home, John didn’t learn to speak English until he left at the age of seven to live with his maternal grandparents in South Bend, Indiana where he attended high school. He spent a year at Yale University before being drafted into the US navy in the second world war. After initially graduating in engineering from Purdue University in 1950, he qualified in medicine from the University of Indiana in 1954. He moved to Chicago and began a surgical residency at the Wesley Memorial Hospital. In 1964 he carried out the first kidney transplant and the second organ transplantation in Illinois at Passavant Hospital. Playing a major part in the merger of the Wesley and Passavant Hospitals to form the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 1972, he initiated the opening of their departments of transplantation and vascular surgery. It was in the same year that he recruited James S. T. Yeo to the medical school staff and the two vascular surgeons began a highly fruitful collaboration. From 1969 to 1976 he was chief of the division of surgery at Northwestern University Medical School, chief of the division of transplantation from 1976 to 1988 and Magerstadt professor of surgery from 1971 to 1988. In 1988 he left Chicago for San Diego in order to specialise solely on venous disease. He began to practice at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla and took up the post of clinical professor of surgery at the University of California at San Diego. Two years later he founded the Vein Institute of La Jolla and was one of the first doctors in the USA to treat varicose veins with foam sclerotherapy, saving patients from having to undergo vein stripping surgery. He was the author of 40 books and over 800 scholarly publications. He was renowned both nationally and internationally and served as president of many professional bodies such as the Society for Vascular Surgery. He retired in 2009 and, when he was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, he returned to the Chicago area to be nearer to his family while being treated for his illness. In the 1960’s when he arrived in Chicago he had discovered competitive yacht racing and became both enthusiastic and accomplished. He raced one-design boats off the lakefront and also larger cruising yachts in longer races including taking part in 37 of the Chicago Yacht Club’s Chicago to Mackinac races – thus qualifying as an ‘Island goat’. In 1951 he married Carolyn née Widener and they had three children. His daughter Elizabeth (Betsy) Bergan Altman became a sailor who won the US women’s open championship in 2007 and her sister Margaret Bergan Davis qualified in medicine. His son John Widener Bergan became a sales and marketing director in San Francisco where he died aged 54 on 30 April 2017. John J. and Carolyn divorced in 1980 and she died in 1996. In 1981 he married Elizabeth neé Molnar and they divorced in 2013. He died in a hospice in Chicago on 11 June 2014 aged 87 and was survived by his children, sister Margaret Butterworth, brother Ernest, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009473
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Grimley, Ronald Patrick (1946 - 2005)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2006-09-22 2007-02-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000200-E000299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372439372439
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ron Grimley was born in Birmingham on 21 February 1946 and was educated at grammar school in Small Health and Birmingham University. After junior posts, mainly at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he was a lecturer on the surgical unit under Sir Geoffrey Slaney. He was appointed vascular and general surgeon to the Dudley Health Authority in 1983, where he developed a busy vascular and endocrine practice, as well as a special interest in melanoma of the lower limb. He published extensively and was a keen teacher of young surgeons. He was an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Intercollegiate Board, and a member of the Specialist Accreditation Committee in General Surgery and the first clinical sub-dean. He was a prime mover in the foundation of the undergraduate teaching centre which was opened and named after him on 14 March 2006. He died from a myocardial infarct on 26 September 2005. He was married to Penny and they had three children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000252
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Chamberlain, John (1938 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Nigel Jones
Publication Date 2014-07-18 2014-08-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005600-E005699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377853377853
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Chamberlain was a consultant in general and vascular surgery to the Newcastle upon Tyne hospitals for 26 years. He was born in Leicester on 27 January 1938 to Jack and May Chamberlain. He was an only child. As a young boy John was fascinated by steam engines and was very proud of his grandfather, who drove steam trains from Leicester to London. John's father, who worked for Leicester City Transport maintaining buses, wanted his son to be an engineer, however influences at school awakened John's ambition to study medicine. John attended Medway Primary School in Leicester. In his own words: 'Due to superb teaching and encouragement at Medway, particularly from Misses Twiselton, Bak and Townsend, I was fortunate to continue my education at Wyggeston Grammar School for boys...' His inspirational biology teacher there, Horace Lacey, also taught the naturalist David Attenborough. John decided he wanted to be a doctor, and in 1957 he went up to St Andrews University as a medical student. In the first year he was the joint winner of the zoology medal. In November 1959 he met his future wife Mary at the students' union in Dundee, dancing a quick step to Chris Barber's 'When the saints go marching in'. Mary was a student teacher from Fife. In 1960 John moved for his clinical years to Queen's College, Dundee, which at that time was part of St Andrews University. During his student years John demonstrated the stamina needed to become a surgeon with his mode of transport: he travelled the 340 miles from Leicester to St Andrews on his Lambretta scooter. John graduated in 1963 and spent a happy year as a houseman at Maryfield Hospital in Dundee. In July 1964 John and Mary were married. John demonstrated anatomy for a year at St Andrews University. Their new home was a flat opposite the 18th hole of the Old Course, with wire netting on the windows to deflect stray golf balls. A further year of surgical training was gained in Leicester, before an appointment as a surgical registrar in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy. In the autumn of 1966 he started at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary as a registrar to Eric L Farquharson and Archie Macpherson. Farquharson's *Textbook of operative surgery* is well known to generations of surgeons, but his nickname 'the Elf' may not be! John gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1967 and began a long association with the Edinburgh College. He was soon promoted to senior registrar. John and Mary's sons Alasdair and Nicholas were born in Edinburgh. John was appointed as a general and vascular surgeon at Newcastle General Hospital in 1973 on a firm with Alf Petty. He also had sessions at the Royal Victoria Infirmary with the vascular team of Peter Dickinson and Ian McNeil. In 1977 his main base moved to the newly-built Freeman Hospital, where he enjoyed excellent facilities and great radiological and anaesthetic colleagues. John attracted several trainee surgeons from Australia who spent a year at the Freeman developing vascular surgical skills. With others, he helped set up the Northern Vascular Research Trust and raised monies to support many vascular research fellows to present, publish and gain higher degrees. Many current vascular surgeons in the Northern region worked for John. During his career at the Freeman Hospital, John made contributions to the development of thrombolysis, angioplasty and peripheral stenting. He was influential in setting up a dedicated operating theatre with fixed angiographic equipment, which allowed a significant aortic stenting programme to begin. He worked closely with the regional limb fitting service, which was on the Freeman site, improving wound healing after amputation and rehabilitation of amputees. He was involved in regional audits of carotid and aortic surgery. Excellent intra- and post-operative care of aortic surgical cases was developed with anaesthetic and ITU colleagues. When John retired there were six vascular surgical consultants in the vascular unit. John was keenly involved in surgical training. Nationally, from 1991 to 1996 he was a member of the specialist advisory committee in general surgery of the Joint Committee on Higher Surgical Training. Locally, he was chairman of the Northern Regional Surgical Training Committee from 1994 to 1999. In all his roles he was a fair leader, not given to extremes of behaviour, and only impatient for his next cup of tea. His ward sister, speaking at his funeral, described the obligatory pot of tea at the end of his ward rounds. The Friday afternoon vascular clinic also ended in the company of the red china teapot! John was a member of many professional associations, including the Vascular Surgical Society, of which he was a council member serving on the executive committee. He was a council member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland from 1981 to 1984. Locally he was a strong supporter of the North of England Surgical Society, and was president from 1995 to 1996. His membership of the Moynihan Chirurgical Club from 1987 was a source of great friendship and interest for John and Mary. John was president in 1997 and he and Mary enjoyed many happy times with many surgeons and their spouses from all over the UK. John was an examiner in medical and dental undergraduate exams for the University of Newcastle. He was an examiner in surgery for the FRCS Edinburgh from 1978 to 2002 and also examined for the Glasgow and Irish Colleges part II exams in 1986. He was on the editorial board of the *Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh* from 1981 to 1984. John had 20 years' experience of medico-legal cases and served as a member of the Appeal Tribunal. John and Mary visited Australia three times in the late 1990s, initially to visit their son Nicholas who was working there. John was pleased to meet up with Australian surgeons who had worked with him in Newcastle. He enjoyed the music of Australian singers John Williamson and Slim Dusty. John's sense of humour made him a big fan of the Goon Show and he also collected the writings of Spike Milligan. In May 1998 John was awarded the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He retired from surgical practice in 1999. He continued with some medico-legal work and examining for a while. John was a member of the Rotary Club of Newcastle upon Tyne for many years and was president from July 1998 to June 1999. John had been troubled earlier in life by asthma and a degree of bronchiectasis with occasional chest infections. His retirement latterly was dogged by this. Rupture of a bulla of the lung caused a pneumothorax requiring a chest drain and pleurodesis. He bore these painful insults bravely, but his breathing was subsequently very difficult. He also suffered from Parkinson's disease after retirement. Mobility was limited for many months. Mary supported him through his limitations and was with him at home when he died on 1 June 2014, aged 76.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005670
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Williams, Edward John (1928 - 2007)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Christopher Russell
Publication Date 2010-11-11
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/373242373242
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Edward John Williams was a consultant vascular and general surgeon at St Mary's Hospital, London, and Wexham Park Hospital, Slough. He was born in Towyn, a small village in Clwyd, north Wales, on 3 February 1928, the son of D C Williams. He was educated locally and did his undergraduate studies at the London Hospital Medical School. After qualifying, he was house physician to Lloyd Rusby and the children's department, and house surgeon to the cardiothoracic firm of Vernon Thompson and Geoffrey Flavell. He joined the RNVR for his National Service and was a squadron medical officer on HMS *Cossack* in Korea from 1952 to 1953 and on HMS Indefatigable in 1954. On demobilisation, he returned to the London as senior registrar to Hermon Taylor, a pioneer vascular surgeon who was developing techniques for disobliteration and freeze-dried homografts, and then as an assistant on the surgical unit under Victor Dix and W T Irvine, who sent him as the Robertson exchange fellow in 1959 for a year to Chicago, taking with him his ravishingly beautiful bride, Sue. In Chicago he worked with R K Gilchrist, the general surgeon, and the vascular team under Julian, Dye and Geza de Takats. He returned to the London, bringing his new skills and expertise in vascular surgery, and, when in 1961 Irvine moved to St Mary's to be professor of surgery in succession to Charles Rob, John Williams accompanied him as senior lecturer and was later his deputy director of the academic surgical unit. St Mary's was at that time the centre for vascular surgery in London. 'EJ' (as he was known to many) was not a career academic and seized the opportunity in 1968 to move to the new hospital at Wexham Park, which was developed with close links to St Mary's. For the rest of his career he attended the surgical unit on Wednesday, taught the students and discussed cases with the registrars, and by his affability maintained the team spirit within the unit for the remainder of Irvine's tenure, and throughout Dudley's redirection of the unit from a vascular to a gastrointestinal interest. Many were the registrars and subsequent assistant directors who appreciated John's wise advice. His work was directed to establishing vascular surgery in a large modern district general hospital, yet by maintaining close links with the academic surgical unit at St Mary's he was able to ensure that the standard of investigation and treatment of his patients was the same in both units. He did not neglect Wexham: he was chairman of the Oxford Group of Surgeons from 1984 to 1987, president of the consultants' mess at Wexham for many years and, in 1989, was elected president of the Society of Vascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. EJ maintained his links with St Mary's Hospital Medical School and regularly held the final MB examinations at Wexham. The examinations were organised meticulously, with outstanding cases, and followed by superb entertainment at his home on the outskirts of Gerrards Cross, where Sue and their two daughters kept horses. In retirement he continued his interests by being chief medical officer at the National Horse Driving Championships, dividing his time between his cottage in north Wales and fishing on the River Tay, where friends had the rights on a stretch of water. EJ lived life to the full, with an affability and gentlemanliness which made him so popular in company and in his professional life. He was remarkably helpful to many of his staff of all grades and made sure they were all well looked after. Towards the end of his life his wife Sue developed cancer, which spoilt his retirement, for she organised his life. She died a year before he did, leaving two daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001059
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Santer, Graham Julian (1930 - 2012)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Andrew Wu
Publication Date 2012-07-12 2013-10-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002600-E002699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374831374831
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Graham Julian Santer was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Walton and Fazakerley hospitals. He was born on 16 December 1930 in Liverpool, of orthodox Eastern European Jewish heritage, and was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate School, which set him on a sound foundation for a highly academic future vocation. Before entering medical school in Liverpool he carried out his National Service and later enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps based at the Royal Herbert Military Hospital, Woolwich. He was dispatched all over the country on a project designed to screen all personnel for TB. It was a period of camaraderie and *bonheur* in his life, which he often recounted with fond memories. After he qualified in 1957, he obtained his formative surgical experience in different parts of the country, including Blackpool, Chelmsford and Southport, whilst pursuing his fellowship for the Royal College of Surgeons, which he gained in 1963. As a registrar his interest in the exciting field of vascular surgery, a specialty very much on the ascendancy at that time, was heavily influenced by pioneers such as Peter Martin of the Hammersmith Hospital and Edgar Parry at Broadgreen Hospital. His research into thrombofibrinolysis made an important contribution to the understanding of venous disease and vascular reconstruction in limb salvage. This interest later led to a seminal publication in the *Annals* ('Extended deep femoral angioplasty and lumbar sympathectomy as a limb salvage procedure', 1979 Mar;61[2]:146-8). This was an important advance in the relief of rest pain from chronic limb ischemia and offered an alternative to major amputation in the elderly. He was appointed as a senior registrar and subsequently as a consultant in Walton Hospital and embarked on a long and distinguished career, exemplified by his tireless diligence, pursuit of excellence and ultimate patient care in a single-handed vascular practice in a major teaching hospital with a vast catchment area extending from north Liverpool to Lancashire. In addition to being on constant cover for vascular emergencies such as ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, Graham was fully involved in all aspects of general surgery. He recognised that early mobilisation after surgery was a key factor in preventing post-operative deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolus. To reduce hospital stay, short surgical procedures were hitherto done as day cases performed in the main or accident and emergency theatres. In 1976 he published and gave lectures on his experience of the planning, organisation and management of a new independent purpose-built day case surgical unit at Walton. This was audited to show a highly efficient and successful scheme with no parallel in the country. Not only was he modest in material aspiration, Graham's unassuming confidence belied his immense ability and skill. A man of high principle and intellect, he was a fierce defender of the disadvantaged and the marginalised. His sense of righteousness made him an ideal representative on the health authority manpower committee. During a session with the hospital chairman, who was seconded from the chemical giant ICI, and who was insistent on reducing the level of nursing staff as a cost-cutting exercise, Graham retorted with his typical sense of humour that trained staff must not be treated as pots of paint. He epitomised the essence of professional integrity, pragmatism and clinical wisdom of the highest order. These fine qualities were indelibly imprinted in all who worked under him throughout his long, distinguished surgical career. A private man, Graham always considered himself fortunate in life. Happily married to his soul-mate Maggie (née Carpenter) for 40 years, they had three successful children and five grandchildren. A loving father and devoted husband, he placed great importance on a tight-knit family life. He was much loved for his caring nature. His vast knowledge of current affairs, politics, fine wine and history made him delightful company in any circle and to friends of all ages. Graham retired in 1993 and enjoyed his passion for reading, travelling to visit old friends and being surrounded by his loving family. He lived life to the full and bore his terminal illness with serene courage, resolute stoicism and graceful acceptance.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002648
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Dormandy, John Adam (1937 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Tina Craig
Publication Date 2019-06-06 2022-06-13
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John Dormandy was born on 3 May 1937 in Budapest. He was the son of Paul Szeben, a pea grower who was accustomed to exporting his crop to the UK, and his wife Clara, who was an author and dramatist. He had a sister, Daisy, and his elder brother, Thomas, was to become a consultant chemical pathologist, renowned for his research on the actions of free radicals. The family were Jewish and went into hiding in 1944 when the Nazis invaded Hungary. After several months sheltering in a convent, they escaped to Geneva. In 1948 they made their way to London, where they settled and changed their surname to that of a village in Hungary which was 150 miles east of Budapest, where they had a country estate. John was educated in Hungary, Geneva and Paris before enrolling at London University to study medicine and graduating MB, BS in 1961. Apart from a spell as a registrar at the Royal Free, he was to spend most of his career at St George’s Hospital, progressing from lecturer in applied physiology to senior lecturer in surgery and, eventually, professor of vascular surgery. He was famous for his pioneering work investigating the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral artery diseases. Setting up a clinical trials unit at St George’s, he participated in numerous studies on the various treatments available for patients with critical limb ischaemia and was a vociferous campaigner for holistic therapy. A colleague referred to him as *an unusual surgeon* since he was keen to conserve affected limbs rather than *to correct [the problem] immediately with a knife*. Written with three co-authors, his book *Clinical haemorheology* (Springer, 1987) remains a standard work in the field. In the early 1990’s he was the first to advocate the use of specialist nurses to manage clinics for patients with chronic vascular disease and eventually this led to a nationwide network. He saw the benefits of multidisciplinary information sharing and was a leading figure in setting up the Trans-Atlantic Consensus for the management of peripheral artery disease (TASC) which published uniform guidelines in 2000. It was due to his personal involvement that so many vascular societies across Europe and North America collaborated in the research and adopted the recommendation. The author of five medical books and over 200 research papers, he continued to write and appear as an expert witness after his retirement in 2001. In the 1980’s, as his fame grew, he was called upon to deal with some high profile patients. Flown to Baghdad, he operated on the varicose veins of Saddam Hussein’s mother, to be rewarded with a gold watch which was later stolen. In 1983 he went to Libya where he is thought to have treated either Colonel Gaddafi himself or one of his advisors. John was said to be extremely angry that the large bill for this was never paid due to the row over the siege of the Libyan Embassy the following year. Due to his multicultural upbringing he was fluent in several languages. He was a popular and gregarious host, enjoying fine wines and good food often followed by a cigar. It was said that when he had to implement a no smoking policy as clinical director of St Georges he put a sign on his office door reading *You are now leaving the premises of St George’s Hospital*. A keen downhill skier, he also enjoyed playing golf and tennis and travelled at hair-raising speed round town on his beloved scooter. Other interests were art, architecture, theatre, opera and travelling – in retirement he published a book on his favourite part of France *A history of Savoy: gatekeeper of the Alps* (Fonthill, 2018). His wife, Klara, predeceased him in December 2018 and he died suddenly in Paris on 26 April 2019. He was survived by his children Alexis and Xenia and stepchildren Gaby and Alex. His brother Thomas predeceased him in 2013.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009608
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cheng, Koon-Sung (1966 - 2003)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372223372223
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Koon-Sung (‘KS’) Cheng was a vascular surgical registrar at the Royal Free Hospital, London. He was born in Hong Kong, but came to England with his family in 1977. When he arrived he spoke very little English, but made rapid progress at Uckfield Comprehensive School. He went on to study medicine at Queens’ College, Cambridge, specialising in pharmacology. He captained the College badminton team and played football, squash and chess. He went on to Addenbrooke's Hospital for his clinical training. After junior posts there, he was a senior house officer in the East Birmingham Hospital accident unit and later a registrar in general surgery at London Whittington Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. He decided on a career as a specialist vascular surgeon, and from 1998 to 1999 worked as a specialist registrar in the vascular unit at the Royal Free Hospital. He was then a research fellow there and published a number of papers and contributing chapters to several medical textbooks. He was due to move to Singapore as an assistant professor of vascular surgery, but was tragically killed in a road accident. He leaves a wife, Carol Susan.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000036
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Savage, Christopher Roland (1915 - 2004)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02
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/372338372338
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Christopher Savage was a consultant vascular surgeon at Leamington and Warwick Hospital. He was born in Kingston on Thames on 31 August 1915. His father, Arthur Livingstone Savage, was an architect, and his mother was the artist Agnes Kate Richardson. He was educated at Gate House School, Kingston, and Canford School, Dorset, from which he went to St Thomas’s Hospital. After house appointments he worked at the Royal Salop Infirmary before joining the RAF in 1940, where he reached the rank of acting Wing Commander. After the war, he continued his surgical training at the Royal Leicester Infirmary, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and St Thomas’s. At St Thomas’s he was much influenced by Sir Max Page and Sir Maurice Cassidy, at a time when vascular surgery was just being developed. He was appointed consultant at Leamington and Warwick Hospital in 1956, where he introduced vascular surgery, published extensively on aortic aneurysms, and wrote a textbook *Vascular surgery* (London, Pitman Medical, 1970). He introduced weekly teaching rounds for his registrars and housemen, as well as students from London teaching hospitals. He married in 1953, and had a daughter (Romilly) and two sons (Richard and Justin). He had a stroke in 2000, which impaired his hearing and vision. He died on 2 February 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000151
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ardill, Bertram Leslie (1937 - 1977)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-11-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006300-E006399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378496378496
Occupation Community medicine specialist Medical Officer Physiologist Vascular surgeon
Details Bertram Leslie Ardill was born on 5 November 1937 in Ballywalter, County Down. His father was a bank official. He was educated at the Methodist College, Belfast, and the Queen's University, where he had a distinguished academic career, obtaining the BSc with honours in physiology in 1959 and proceeding to honours MB BCh BAO in 1962. After a year as assistant lecturer in physiology he was awarded a Beit Memorial Research Scholarship in 1964 and worked in the physiology department of St Mary's Hospital Medical School for three years. During this time he published many papers on peripheral vascular surgery and proceeded MD in 1967. He returned to Northern Ireland to develop a long held interest in vascular surgery and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1970. A promising career was cut short by illness in 1973, and he decided to turn to medical administration. He became a consultant in community medicine and in 1975 was appointed administrative medical officer to the North and West Belfast District, a position he served with great ability until his untimely death on 26 September 1977.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006313
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Karmody, Allastair Michael (1937 - 1986)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

First Title value, for Searching Oliver, Joseph Edward (1920 - 1973)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-09-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005900-E005999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378177378177
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Joseph Edward Oliver was born on 12 September 1920, and was educated at Coatham School, Caius College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital. He qualified with the Conjoint Diploma and the Cambridge MB in 1943, and became house surgeon at Park Prewett Hospital, Basingstoke before joining the RAMC later in that year. He was present at the Normandy landings, and also served in India and Burma. After demobilization he worked at Hillingdon Hospital, and was surgical registrar at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham preparing for the FRCS which he took in 1953. In 1944 he was appointed senior registrar to the Nottingham General Hospital, and after rotating to the Sheffield Royal Infirmary returned to Nottingham where he was appointed to the consultant staff in 1964. He specialized in vascular surgery in which he achieved considerable success. Oliver was well-liked by colleagues and patients, and admired for his good humour and general vitality as well as for his surgical skill. His hobby was sailing an ocean-going yacht at Burnham-on-Crouch; he died suddenly just after returning from a river trip on 7 July 1973, at the early age of 52. He was survived by his wife and two sons.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005994
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Greenwood, Richard Kay (1928 - 1999)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

First Title value, for Searching Skelton, Colin Charles (1935 - 1994)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

First Title value, for Searching Shannon, Robert (1928 - 1991)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008300-E008399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380484380484
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Robert Shannon was born on 10 May 1928 in Brisbane, Australia, the son of Reuben Samuel Shannon, a company manager, and Muriel Adeline, née Bone. He was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and Queensland University where he graduated MB BS in 1950, proceeded to the MS in 1955 and gained the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1955. After house posts at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and an appointment there as the University of Queensland's teaching surgical registrar he came to Britain in 1956. He gained both the English and Edinburgh Fellowships in that year, and then became surgical registrar at Southend General Hospital. Returning to Queensland, he was surgical supervisor to the Royal Brisbane Hospital from 1956 to 1965 and visiting surgeon, general and vascular surgery, at that hospital from 1965. He was Chairman of the Queensland State Committee, Australian Association of Surgeons, from 1983 to 1986. He published numerous papers on abdominal surgery in the *Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery* and in the *Medical Journal of Australia*. He was an all-round sportsman, playing rugby union, hockey and cricket, and later golf. In 1946 he was the Queensland amateur surfing junior champion. He married Dorothy Frances Cashman, a registered nurse, in 1952. They had four children - David, a solicitor; Jennifer, a cardiovascular specialist in Columbia, South Carolina; and Robyn and Kaye, who both became nurses. Shannon died on 13 November 1991, survived by his wife and family.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008301
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Hugh Owen (1918 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Bing Jones
Publication Date 2016-11-21 2017-03-30
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381466381466
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Hugh Owen Jones was a general surgeon in Cardiff. He was born in Monmouth on 12 May 1918 and brought up in a school house in the tiny village of Goytre near Pontypool, where his father, William Lewis Jones, was a schoolmaster. His mother, Rebecca Jane Jones née Davies, was a nurse. The toilet for both the schoolchildren and the teacher's family was a bench over a trench, where they turned the soil and then grew vegetables. Hugh loved telling of running beside the first bus to the village, which theatrically caught fire and melted its glass windows. He went to school at Haberdashers' Aske's West Monmouth School in Pontypool. When his brother, Peter Henry Jones, who became a thoracic surgeon and was also an FRCS, went to Westminster Medical School, Hugh was asked if he too wanted to be a doctor and replied 'I am not averse'. There were inadequate funds for two students and Hugh was funded by a scholarship, which he won by learning the entire Gospel according to Saint Matthew. This became a reservoir of biblical wisdom and pithy quotes, passed on to his children and grandchildren. He and his brother Peter lived in the attic of a hotel run by an expatriate Welshman, sending their weekly laundry home by train to Monmouth for their mother to wash. Hugh trained as a medical student and then as a surgeon at King's College Hospital, where his grandson later worked. He soon decided on a career in surgery and studied under many famous surgeons of the time, including Cecil Wakeley, Clement Price Thomas and Russell Brock. He served in the merchant Navy at the start of the Second World War, and then in the Army in India, where he fell in love with his wife Pauline (née Jackson), a newly qualified doctor, also trained at King's, smoking Passing Clouds cigarettes on the steps of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Cardiff in 1952 and remained in Cardiff until his retirement. He had a busy general surgical practice, including operating lists at hospitals around the city, including Caerphilly and Llandoch. He would often come home saying that he had needed to 'drive like Jehu' (*Second Book of Kings* 9:20) over the mountain to perform an emergency operation at Caerphilly Miners' Hospital. He was a committed teacher and retained a wealth of connections with past trainees who settled all over the world. One of his trainees recalls him saying: 'I don't mind if you make a mistake whilst learning providing it is an error which I can easily correct.' Hugh developed an interest in vascular surgery. His son recalls being taken into the operating theatre as a child to watch a novel balloon angioplasty clearing a femoral arterial clot and the blood decorating the operating theatre wall. Hugh worked for the Medical Defence Union well into retirement. He was actively involved in the development of the Heath Hospital in Cardiff. He and his wife were active members of the Surgical Travellers Club. Hugh had wide interests, including learning Russian, sailing, navigation, silversmithing, beekeeping and wood turning. He survived more than 30 years after a soft tissue sarcoma was successfully resected from his arm. On retirement to an 18th century cottage in mid-Wales, he put his many talents and skills to use in the beautiful remote setting and was active well into his 90's. In retirement, Hugh and Pauline started a whole new shared career as foster parents for a series of very young babies. He was an inspired father and grandfather, nurturing and encouraging everyone, but particularly children, building enchanting log cabins in the woods, massive dams in the stream and an impossibly long rope slide into the valley. Hugh Jones was a lover of nature. He was always filled with wonder. He found everything and everybody fascinating. He never failed to make those close to him feel important and worthy. He gently faded and died peacefully on 3 December 2013 in Cardiff, aged 95. He led a full life. He was survived by his widow Pauline, three children - Penelope Anne, a general practitioner, David Andrew, a haematologist, and Helen Mary, a social worker - nine grandchildren (including one doctor) and one great-grandchild…and a wealth of biblical aphorisms.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009283
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Stephenson, Clive Bryan Stanley (1933 - 2003)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-11-02 2007-02-09
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/372343372343
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Clive Stephenson was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 12 November 1933 and was educated at Scots College. He studied medicine at Wellington, where he qualified in 1957, held house posts and was a surgical registrar. After a year demonstrating anatomy in Otago, he went to London in 1962 to specialise in surgery and completed SHO jobs at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital for a year, and registrar posts at Bristol Royal Infirmary and Hackney General Hospital. In 1965 he was a lecturer in surgery at St Mary’s Hospital, London, where he became particularly interested in vascular surgery. He went on to be a senior registrar at Chelmsford for two further years. In 1969 he returned to Wellington as a full-time vascular and general surgeon, becoming surgical tutor in 1970, and finally visiting vascular and general surgeon at Wellington Hospital in 1971, a post he combined with that of visiting general surgeon at Hutt Hospital. He died in Lower Hutt on 3 July 2003.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000156
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Armour, Roger Hanif (1934 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Peter Kelly
Publication Date 2020-11-24 2020-12-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/383997383997
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Roger Armour was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, who in retirement invented an inexpensive ophthalmoscope, which could be used in poorer regions of the world. He was born Roger Hanif Ahmed on 19 August 1934 in Murree, a small hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas, the son of Aziz Ahmed, a veterinary surgeon, and Edith Florence Ahmed née Raymond. Roger had a younger brother, David; both became highly-respected surgeons. Roger’s first school was in Kidderminster, but subsequently his schooling was split between Lahore and Peshawar. It was in Peshawar that he did his O and A level equivalents and, having achieved amongst the highest scores in the country, he was accepted to study medicine at the prestigious King Edward Medical College in Lahore. In his final years as a student he found himself having to work as both a temporary nurse and stand-in doctor. He has said this was when he learnt that medically knowing about diseases is a world away from actually looking after and caring for patients. It had a lasting effect, to the point where he always thought nursing more important and more difficult than medicine. It was a salutary lesson on the importance of compassion and caring that guided his whole life and was so apparent both to those who worked with him and of course to his patients, for whom he cared deeply. In 1956, he qualified as a doctor and went to Britain with £20 in his pocket, and took his first post as a house surgeon at North Hertfordshire Hospital in Hitchin. It was here that he met Gillian Evans, a pretty staff nurse who had just accepted an offer to become an air hostess with Pan Am. He quickly persuaded her to become his wife instead and proposed to her on a bench halfway up Windmill Hill. They married in 1957 and had the happiest of marriages, celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary in 2017. Realising how competitive it was to become appointed as a consultant surgeon, Roger ensured that he was more than adequately qualified by first obtaining the fellowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of both England and Edinburgh. As if that wasn’t enough, he then successfully studied for his membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, followed by a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene, and finally by a Liverpool masters’ degree in surgery. He was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Birkenhead and Wallasey, where he spent three years. It was here that Roger and Gillian had their much-loved family, daughters Jasmin and Sara, and son Steven. It was at the end of the three years in 1972 that Roger was appointed as a consultant general and vascular surgeon to the Lister Hospital, Stevenage, where in essence his career had originally started. He soon built a reputation as not only a technically gifted surgeon but one who led with compassion, dedication and commitment. He was held in the very highest respect across all layers of hospital life and made lifelong friends – the greatest compliment being that he was a surgeon’s surgeon. With retirement in 1996 Roger remained as active as ever. He was most concerned with the incidence of blindness, especially in Africa and Asia, much of which was potentially curable but untreated because diagnoses were unachievable without the aid of an expensive ophthalmoscope. He set about designing a cheap lens-free ophthalmoscope at a cost price of just £1. It won several awards, including two Medical Futures Innovation awards, the 2005 Edward de Bono medal for application and simplicity, and was placed second in the global Saatchi and Saatchi World Changing Ideas award. Roger was made a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2018 – a source of immense pride to him. Roger died peacefully at home on 17 September 2020, surrounded by his loving family. He was 86. With his death, the world of medicine and we ourselves are all the poorer. He was a gentleman, a teacher and the surgeon par excellence to his patients and colleagues, and to his family a dearly-loved husband, father and grandfather to his beloved grandsons Daniel and James. He led a remarkable life and his biography is testament to the caring and integrity which was evident in everything he did and witnessed by his many friends and family who will miss him deeply.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009876
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Turney, Joseph Pett (1918 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2016-07-28 2020-02-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381395381395
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Joseph Pett Turney was a consultant surgeon at West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, Cumbria. He was born in Hammersmith, London on 6 June 1918. His parents, Wilfrid Turney and Edith May Turney née Skinner, were both teachers. He had a brother, Wilfrid. Turney attended St Stephen’s Elementary School and Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith and then, from 1935, studied medicine at University College London. He qualified in 1941 with a distinction in surgery and the Fellowes silver medal in clinical medicine. He held house surgeon posts at University College Hospital, King George Hospital, Ilford, and Redhill General Hospital in Edgware, and was conscripted in September 1942 into the Royal Army Medical Corps. He left extensive notes on his wartime experiences at the Royal College of Surgeons. In February 1943, he was sent to North Africa as a general medical officer with the 98th general hospital, but soon grew tired of staffing 96 beds filled with patients with dysentery and malaria. He applied for a forward posting, which the Army ‘…agreed with uncharacteristic alacrity’ and in July 1943 joined the 3rd field ambulance of the first infantry division. In December 1943, the division moved to Italy and on 22 January 1944 Turney landed on Anzio beachhead, Italy, as a resident medical officer in the 1st battalion of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry at the beginning of the Battle of Anzio. In May, he was wounded and was evacuated to Naples, but in August 1944 rejoined the 3rd field ambulance and fought across the Arno river and through the Apennine mountains ‘until snow stopped play’. In December 1944, the first division was sent to Palestine on police duty, the only time Turney says he carried a side arm. He was promoted from captain to major as second in command of 132 field ambulance and later commanded 18 field hygiene section in Syria. In January 1946, he had home leave from Egypt and in February of that year he was appointed as a senior medical officer on board the troopship *Duchess of Richmond*, sailing to Bombay and back. He was mentioned in despatches for organising a line of evacuation through German positions when his brigade was cut off and in May 1946 was demobilised with the rank of major. He recounts that, a week later, back in England, he was told by a ward sister: ‘I don’t do ward rounds with house surgeons.’ He was a house surgeon at the North Middlesex Hospital, where he worked for Ivor Lewis, then a registrar in orthopaedics at the Postgraduate Medical School of London. From September 1947 to 1952, he was a senior registrar at West Hertfordshire Hospital, Hemel Hempstead. He was subsequently a senior registrar at Redhill General Hospital, Surrey, under Norman Pitt and then held posts at North Shields General Hospital and West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven. In 1963, he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at West Cumberland Hospital. Here he introduced vascular surgery to the hospital ‘…prior to this most of our ruptured aortas died in the ambulance on the 100-mile trip to Newcastle. I taught myself this operation on cadavers and have never seen the operation done by another.’ In notes he left at the RCS, he described his immense frustration with trying to find a consultant position: ‘The first half of my surgical career after leaving the Army was unsatisfactory. I was 45 before I obtained a permanent job…I spent 15 years in temporary and above all terminable posts after getting my FRCS in 1948.’ He attributed these difficulties to an imbalance in the ratio between senior registrar and consultant roles, the ‘adverse effects of patronage’ and a poor decision on his part to leave the Postgraduate Medical School. But his struggle had its advantages: ‘My peripatetic career had its good side in that I met so many excellent surgeons quietly working away in their D G Hospitals largely unrecognised and possibly undervalued.’ Once he became a consultant however, he ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ his work. He was chair of the medical committee, a member of the hospital management committee and a tutor in clinical surgery at the University of Newcastle, but ‘played no part in advancing the science of surgery’. He was ‘content in my routine job’. Outside medicine he was a sidesman of St Laurence’s Church in Ludlow, and a member of the Civic Society and Probus Club. He enjoyed climbing, gardening, languages, woodwork, architecture and travel. In retirement, he read books on history and genetics. In December 1946, he married Cecily Gertrude Blackwell, a legal secretary. They had two children – Gillian Madelaine, a businesswoman, and Theresa Mary, a general practitioner. Joseph Pett Turney died on 26 October 2015 in Edinburgh. He was 97.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009212
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Obeid, Magdi Latif (1943 - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Ian Donovan
Publication Date 2021-11-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385176385176
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Magdi Obeid was a consultant general and vascular surgeon in Birmingham. He was born on 5 January 1943 to his Egyptian parents in Khartoum, Sudan, where his father was working at the time. He was educated in Sudan and Egypt, and studied medicine at Ain Shams University, Cairo. He excelled in all his examinations and graduated in 1965. He worked as a house officer in Khartoum from 1966 to 1967, after which he decided to train in general surgery in England. He faced some initial discrimination. His first posts were locum appointments in London, however, once in employment, his excellent work, dedication and character ensured progress to substantive appointments, starting at Sheffield Children’s Hospital in 1968, followed by a post in general surgery in Dewsbury in 1969. Having passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1969, he was appointed as a registrar at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where he worked for Sean Corkery, who had been his senior registrar in Sheffield. Magdi was then appointed as a registrar on the renal transplant unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, working for Tony Barnes. The workload was onerous, Barnes being the only consultant and Magdi the only registrar. Urgent work could present at any time and involve Magdi driving long distances to retrieve donor kidneys prior to assisting (or later performing) the implantation of the kidneys. Magdi’s performance in the very demanding job on the renal unit impressed many of his colleagues, as did his strength of character and he was subsequently appointed as a senior registrar on the west Midlands rotation. In 1977, Magdi was appointed as a consultant in general surgery at St Chad’s Hospital, Birmingham with sessions at Dudley Road Hospital, later transferring all sessions to Dudley Road. His major sub-specialty was vascular surgery and for many years he dealt with the majority of vascular emergencies, when on call for general surgery or when not officially on call. Apart from vascular surgery, Magdi provided a service in parathyroid and adrenal surgery, in addition to the usual gamut of general surgery. In addition to this clinical workload and despite the onset of insulin dependent diabetes in the 1980s, Magdi was elected to the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and was later appointed to the Intercollegiate Board of Examiners in General Surgery. He was also elected by his colleagues in the west Midlands to be their representative on the council of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He was chairman of the division of surgery in West Birmingham from 1985 to 1988 and a member of the board of the West Birmingham Health Authority before the organisation became a trust. As chairman of the division, he exerted invaluable influence in supporting general surgery at the hospital when it was threatened with losing one of its six consultant posts for budgetary reasons. Magdi Obeid was elected president of the West Midlands Surgical Society in 2003. He retired in November 2004. His interests were his family, garden and fine art. He had a love of British painting of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a true connoisseur, with an extensive knowledge of the art and artists of the period. He had an extraordinary visual memory for works of art, including where and when he had seen them. He was a contributor to exhibitions at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Magdi and his wife were also patrons of the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He was born into the Coptic Church and was a practising Christian. Magdi’s health had been deteriorating for many years as a result of complications of diabetes. In January 2021 he contracted covid while in hospital being treated for covid vaccination complications. He fought this with great courage and, despite being told that he had no chance of survival and would not be given care on the intensive care unit, he did survive after a long struggle and returned home. However, after this time in hospital, he was diagnosed with an aggressive B-cell lymphoma. He spent some time at home and then in St Mary’s Hospice, Birmingham, where he died on 4 September 2021 with his family around him. He was 78. Magdi loved his family above all else. He met future wife, Daisy, on their first day at medical school. They married in 1966 and were together for the rest of his life. She became a consultant clinical haematologist. They had two daughters, Amira and Amani, and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010036
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kenyon, John Richard (1919 - 2004)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372274372274
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John Richard Kenyon, known as ‘Ian’, was a former consultant vascular surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. His father, who was a general practitioner in Glasgow, died when Ian was just 13. His mother had been a Queen Alexandra nursing sister on various hospital ships during the Gallipoli campaign. After Glasgow Boys High School, Ian went to Glasgow University to study medicine and soon afterwards joined the RAF. He served in the Middle East and left the forces as a Squadron Leader. During this period he developed an interest in surgery and, following his demobilisation, went to London to further his surgical studies. At St Mary’s Hospital he was an assistant to Charles Rob and, on the retirement of Sir Arthur Porritt, he became a consultant surgeon. He was eventually assistant director of the surgical unit. He remained at St Mary’s until his retirement. He made many contributions to the developing specialty of vascular surgery, particularly on aortic aneurysm, carotid artery stenosis and renal transplantation. In the early 1980s he became President of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was married to Elaine. They had no children. He was interested in rugby (he was President of the St Mary’s Hospital rugby club) and model steam trains, building a railway track around the five acres of his garden. He died on 9 March 2004 following a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000087
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Messent, Arthur David (1915 - 1985)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007500-E007599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379685379685
Occupation General practitioner Genito-urinary surgeon Urologist Vascular surgeon
Details Arthur Messent obtained an open exhibition to Mill Hill School and proceeded to St Bartholomew's Hospital where he won the Brackenbury Prize in surgery and anatomy. He qualified in 1938 and after a short spell in general practice he joined the Royal Air Force and served in Coastal Command both in the Faroe Islands and the Middle East where he was mentioned in despatches. After the war he continued his surgical training, passed the FRCS examination in 1948, and held senior registrar appointments in Norwich, Reading and Hammersmith before his appointment as consultant in vascular and genito-urinary surgery to the Brentwood Group of Hospitals in 1955. In 1940 he married Margaret, a doctor's daughter and medical secretary at St Bartholomew's Hospital where one of their daughters eventually trained as a nurse. Their second daughter trained as a physiotherapist at the London Hospital. He enjoyed gardening, reading, entertaining and being entertained. He was kind, courteous and ready to help those in need, and it was sad for him and his family when he was struck by a long illness. He retired in 1980 to Nantgaredig in Carmarthen, his wife's birthplace, hoping to enjoy the countryside he loved and he died on 2 August 1985 survived by his wife and daughters, Rosemary and Ann.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007502
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Evans, David Stanley (1935 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2019-12-18 2020-02-04
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David Evans was a much admired general and vascular surgeon in Shrewsbury who became well known nationally in the latter part of his career for being in the forefront of hernia repair by minimal access surgery. He performed more than 2,600 such operations, giving a Hunterian lecture on his experience in 2001. David was perhaps born to be a surgeon, both parents being surgeons. His father, Evan Stanley Evans, was an orthopaedic surgeon with a special interest in children’s surgery who later became the medical superintendent at Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital. His mother, Muriel Gordon Evans née Henderson, also trained as an orthopaedic surgeon but later undertook child care and school clinics. He attended Kingswood House School in Epsom and then Charterhouse. In the school holidays, from the age of 14, he assisted his father in the operating theatre, learning to tie surgical knots, removing skin staples and simple suturing, and in 1953 proceeded to St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1959. After house jobs, there followed a broad surgical training at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, Hammersmith Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital and in Chelmsford, before he returned to St Thomas’ as a registrar, having become a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1963. A period of research under the direction of Frank Cockett led to his MS thesis in 1970 titled ‘Thombo-embolism and the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis by ultrasound’ and a Hunterian Lecture on the same subject published in the *Annals* (‘The early diagnosis of thromboembolism by ultrasound’ *Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1971 Oct;49[4]:225-49). Extensive training in vascular surgery during his senior registrar years at St Thomas’ led, in 1974, to a very busy consultant appointment in Shrewsbury as a general and vascular surgeon. Throughout his consultant career David was a true general surgeon but with a special interest in peripheral vascular surgery. In 1990, he was one of the first British surgeons to practice minimal invasive surgery, initially on gallbladders, but quite soon extending his expertise to laparoscopic repair of hernias. It was in this area that he rapidly established a national reputation, publishing widely on his experience (for example, ‘Day-case laparoscopic hernia repair’ *Br J Surg*. 1996 Oct;83[10]:1361-3) and being a teacher on national training programmes. In 2001, the first year of his retirement, he collated his experience of 2,600 repairs in 1,900 patients in a Hunterian lecture entitled ‘Laparoscopic transabdominal pre-peritoneal (TAPP) repair of groin hernia: one surgeon’s experience of a developing technique’, published in the *Annals* (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 2002 Nov;84[6]:393-8). Soon after his retirement, David moved to Dorset, where he took an active part in village life while pursuing his interests of golf and bridge. Sadly, he had the misfortune to require several orthopaedic operations, a heart operation and a frightening attack of Guillain-Barré syndrome, from all of which he made a full recovery. In 2017, he published an entertaining account of his life *A nurtured passion: a surgeon’s life in two halves – open and closed* (lulu.com). Married in 1968 to Mary, a St Thomas’ nurse, they had four children – Katie, James, Charlotte and Sarah, the last entering the medical profession. David Evans died of renal failure on 17 November 2019, aged 84.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009680
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ketharanathan,Vettivetpillai (1925 - 2005)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-12
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372275372275
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Vettivetpillai Ketharanathan or ‘Nathan’ was a senior research associate at the vascular surgery unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia. He was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on 25 November 1935 to Appiah Ketharanathan and Rukmani Nama (Sivayam) Ketharanathan, who were both teachers. He attended Jaffna Central College, but from the age of 14, when his father died, he had to shoulder the burden of family responsibilities. He studied medicine in Colombo, qualifying in 1960. After house jobs in Colombo and four years as a registrar at the General Hospital, Malacca, he went to Melbourne in 1966, as a registrar on the cardiothoracic unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he came under the wing of Ian McConchie. He became an Australian citizen, and was encouraged by McConchie to go to London, where he completed registrar posts in Hackney and the Brompton Hospital. He returned to Melbourne, where he began to carry out research into improved biomaterials for replacing cardiac valves and blood vessels, research he continued whilst he was working as a consultant thoracic surgeon at Ballarat. This work took him later to Portland, Oregon, as an international fellow in cardiopulmonary surgery. A number of new materials were patented by him and in 1990 he set up two companies, BioNova International and Kryocor Pty, to exploit them, whilst he was appointed senior research associate at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. An indefatigable investigator, he was an inspiration to many young surgeons. Among his many interests were cooking, and he was a regular client at the Queen Victoria market, seeking the freshest produce, rewarding his friends with examples of Sri Lankan fare. He died on 3 March 2005, leaving his wife Judith, and four children, of whom his eldest daughter, Selva, is an infectious diseases specialist at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth. His second daughter, Naomi, is about to qualify at Amsterdam.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000088
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Connell, John Leonard (1922 - 2008)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John Doyle
Publication Date 2016-03-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009000-E009099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381256381256
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Leonard Connell, who died in Melbourne on 8 August 2008, had an outstanding career in the fields of General and Vascular Surgery for forty years prior to his retirement in 1992. John graduated in medicine with high distinction, in 1947, from St Vincent's Hospital Clinical School of The University of Melbourne. After completing a two year residency at St Vincent's Hospital John chose a career in general surgery and within a remarkably short time he obtained the Master of Surgery Degree and the FRACS. In 1951 he went to England where he obtained a coveted training position at the West Middlesex Hospital with Mr W J Ferguson acknowledged as being one of the most accomplished surgical technicians in England. Whilst there John became interested in the newly developing speciality of Vascular Surgery and would attend operating sessions and clinics at St Mary's Hospital, London where Professor Charles Robb and his Unit were pioneering this speciality. He took up a surgical position at St Vincent's Hospital in 1954 and quickly established a very large practice in public and private surgery. The major emphasis was on the full spectrum of General Surgery as practised at that time but he maintained his interest in Vascular Surgery. However as is often the case with new developments, the response of the hospital and his colleagues to the introduction of Vascular Surgery was rather ambivalent. Despite this he continued to perform some vascular surgery operations and in 1957 did the first or one of the first carotid endarterectomies in this country. He was also involved in the first successful operation at St Vincent's Hospital for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. In addition to his operative and clinical surgical commitment he was a dedicated teacher much sought after by undergraduate final year medical students and then later, with the development of the RACS Training Program, by those doing postgraduate study. John had a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Senior Medical Staff at St Vincent's Hospital becoming a Senior Surgeon in 1962. By that time he had been joined in his clinic by the late Ellery Ryan - his great friend, golfing partner, and enthusiastic Vascular Surgeon with the result that there was a gradual increase in the amount of vascular surgery performed and this was further augmented when the author who trained at St Mary's Hospital London joined the Connell Unit in 1964. Although John continued to do General Surgery until his retirement the proportion of Vascular Surgery gradually increased and by 1980 after quite a number of years of gentle but persistent persuasion he and the hospital agreed to the establishment of a Vascular Surgery Unit and John became its first Senior Surgeon. John was a prodigious worker with great determination, concentration and stamina but he also found time to be active in the committee structure of the hospital and to take an active part in the affairs of the RACS particularly with respect to the development of vascular surgery. He was well known and prominent in the national vascular surgery scene and also had many friends in vascular surgery in other countries, particularly the United States. It was not all work and no play, and John maintained active participation in sporting activities - for many years tennis, and an enthusiastic and dedicated golfer, a game he loved and played until the last months of his life; but also chess for a change of pace. John's first wife Betty (née Fitzpatrick) was a popular and well known person, particularly with regard to her famous or infamous (depending on your point of view!) support of the Collingwood Football Club. John was devastated when Betty died in 1990 and it took him some time to regain his balance. He was extremely fortunate eventually, to be reacquainted with one of his former operating theatre nurses, Deirdre Connelly, who became his second wife and who cared for him with great love, devotion and dedication particularly during his prolonged terminal illness in Queensland and in Melbourne. In his busy life John had much success and achievement and this was recognised by an award in the Order of Australia, the receipt of the RACS Medal, and perhaps most cherished of all by him, his selection as the Rudolf Matar Lecturer by the Society for Cardiovascular Surgery in 1989. However, not that you would know it from John, an intensely private person, he also coped with considerable ill health, sadness, and tragedy with great courage and fortitude. He was an exemplar of the words in Rudyard Kipling's famous poem - "if you can meet triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same... then you will be a man my son". That is the way I will remember John L Connell. John is survived by his wife Deirdre and by four of his five children, his eldest daughter Patricia having pre-deceased him in 2006.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009073
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Mellick, Selim Abraham (1925 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Ian Gough
Publication Date 2019-08-05
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/382502382502
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Selim Mellick, universally known as Sam, was a legendary surgeon. He was born in Innisfail in north Queensland and was Dux of both his local primary school and his high school the All Souls School in Charters Towers. He graduated from the University of Queensland with first class honours in medicine and surgery in 1948. He travelled to England to work and study and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1953. In 1954 he married Patricia (Pat) Bulmer and they had 2 daughters, Sally Ann and Alice Amanda (Mandy). Returning to Australia he was appointed as a Visiting Surgeon to the newly opened South Brisbane Hospital, later the Princess Alexandra Hospital, where he worked for 30 years of his distinguished career. He was Chairman of the Princess Alexandra Hospital Society from 1964 to 1968. He was initially a general surgeon but the surgical group recognised the need for someone to specialise in vascular surgery and Sam was chosen for that role. He was an influential pioneer in the developing specialty of Vascular surgery and was appointed as a Vascular Surgeon from 1961. He headed the specialty group as Senior Vascular Surgeon until his mandatory retirement at the age of 60 in 1985 and the unit was named in his honour as the Sam Mellick Vascular Unit. After that he worked in private practice at the Holy Spirit Hospital. His contributions to vascular surgery in Brisbane and indeed worldwide were enormous. In that era ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was a feared and usually fatal event. Surgery was extremely challenging and techniques were being developed to manage the pathology. The ruptured aorta need to be replaced with a new artery and commercial grafts were not yet available. Sam’s wife Pat prepared grafts from synthetic terylene material on her home sewing machine and these were used successfully. Sam led improvements that over time reduced the mortality from around 80 percent down to 30 percent in cases of rupture and also led to classification and criteria for operating prophylactically before rupture occurred, resulting in much improved overall survival. Sam delivered a Hunterian Professorship Oration to the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1981 in which he described the results, from the unit he headed, of 1166 femoro-popliteal bypass grafts over that first 20 year period. Sam was an excellent surgical technician and one of his peers described him as “stitch perfect”. Sam had a long and distinguished association with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, obtaining his Fellowship in 1960. He was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable teacher of students and surgical trainees. He was the Founding Chairman of the RACS Section of Vascular Surgery in 1972, serving for 4 years as Chairman and then continuing as a member. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the *Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery* 1989-1996. He was a member of the FRACS Part 1 Board of Examiners from 1969 to 1983, being Chairman for the last 3 years. He was a member of RACS Council from 1977 to 1989, Censor in Chief from 1983 to 1986 and Senior Vice President from 1987 to 1989. After retirement from Council he was made a life member of the RACS Court of Honour. His involvement at a high level of international professional organisations was remarkable. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Chairman of its Australian and New Zealand Chapter from 1987 to 1982 and served 2 terms as a governor between 1986 and 1992. He was a member of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery from 1977, President of its Australian and New Zealand Chapter from 1989 to 1991 and President of the International Society from 1991 to 1993. Sam was a consultant vascular surgeon to the No 1 military hospital in Brisbane from 1965 and in 1968 led a civilian surgical team in South Vietnam during the war. Among his many non-medical aﬃliations he was a Chairman of the Marriage Guidance Council of Queensland, member of Council of St John’s College at the University of Queensland, Founding Chairman of the St John’s College Foundation, Founding President of the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Queensland and Founding President of the State Library of Queensland Society. Sam received many honours throughout his career. The most prestigious was Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1980. Other notable honours were visiting Professorships in England, Ireland, USA, France and New Zealand. The Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery named its travelling fellowship in his honour, the ANZSVS Sam Mellick Travel Fellowship, and Sam presented the inaugural award in 2012. He was a tutor in surgical anatomy at the University of Queensland and later was awarded the title of Honorary Professor. Sam’s presence was always positive. He seemed to be eternally optimistic and when meeting him and enquiring how he was he would say “marvellous” or “strong”. He had no problems finding an operating theatre to work in (even when staﬀ was apparently in short supply for other surgeons) and was enthusiastically supported by nursing staﬀ and assistants. In an era when some surgeons behaved somewhat autocratically Sam was a wonderful teacher, mentor and role model. He leaves an outstanding legacy as a master surgeon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009630
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Dolphin, Jeffrey Michael (1929 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Mandy Beinder
Publication Date 2021-01-07 2021-07-02
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/384135384135
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Jeff Dolphin was a senior consultant surgeon in Walsall. He was born on 11 October 1929 in Aldridge in the West Midlands, the son of Raymond Dolphin and Joyce Dolphin née Phipps. He grew up in Harborne, Birmingham and was educated at King Edward VI Five Ways School and King Edward’s School, Edgbaston. His father was a research scientist who was keen for Jeff to study metallurgy, however, influenced by his future wife, Peggy (Margaret) Checkland, whose ambition was to go into nursing, Jeff chose to study chemistry, physics and biology in what was called the ‘medical sixth’. After qualifying at the University of Birmingham in 1952, he undertook his house officer posts at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where he became a temporary demonstrator in anatomy and obtained the primary fellowship examination. After this he took a short service commission in the Royal Medical Army Corps between 1954 and 1957. He spent most of his service in the British Army of the Rhine, firstly as medical officer to the Scots Guards and the 4th Guards Brigade, then as a junior surgeon at the British Military hospitals in Münster and Mönchengladbach. Jeff worked at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and Birmingham Children’s Hospital in senior surgical registrar posts and, in 1960, he passed his fellowship exams as a surgeon. He joined Walsall Hospital in 1964 as a consultant surgeon, one of only three in Walsall. The position involved an interest in vascular surgery, and Jeff was entrusted with this specialty, being the first surgeon with this training in the group. This also involved setting up a radiology service for arteriology and nurse training in the care of such patients. Jeff was involved in the femoropopliteal bypass trial organised jointly between the United Birmingham Hospitals and Charing Cross Hospital. When Jeff first arrived at Walsall, his word for the hospital was ‘deprived’. Over his 28 years there he saw the number of consultants double and throughout his career he saw the nature of patients undergoing surgery change. As a junior doctor he had seen TB patients treated surgically, although suitable medication had been available since 1947. In 1964 there were many patients with peptic ulcers who were treated with surgery rather than medication and he saw a big change in the move away from radical surgery for breast cancer to treatment with chemotherapy and, later, radiotherapy. In his specialised field Jeff found the new procedures, developed in the USA during the 1960s, hugely beneficial, with radiologists dilating and making passageways through arteries, reducing the need for invasive surgery. When he retired he could clearly see the potential for laparoscopic procedures and the importance of developments in ultrasound scanning and computer tomography to provide accurate diagnoses. Since 1966 Jeff was involved in helping ENT colleagues in the management of carcinoma of the pharynx and upper oesophagus. This included repairing the pharyngeal defect using the vascular pedicle graft. This type of work was very new at the time and was only carried out at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and between Walsall and Birmingham ENT Hospital. The new out-patient department at Walsall was opened in 1973 and Jeff oversaw the development of the operational plan for the surgical day unit. For the last 11 years of his career he was the senior consultant surgeon. He averaged 800 operations a year, which gives a total based on 28 years at Walsall of 22,400. In addition, he saw an average 100 patients a week in clinics – 112,000 during his time in Walsall. He also saw private patients at home. In addition to his work as a surgeon, Jeff served as chairman of the surgical division, chairman of the senior staff committee, a consultant member of the unit management team, chairman of the medical executive committee and as a member of the chief officer group of the district health authority. He acted as a clinical tutor for the Royal College of Surgeons of England and served on the national training committee. He was an active member of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Association of Surgeons in Great Britain and Ireland, where he spoke at a London meeting on the possible dangers to the ureter of chemical sympathectomy. Peggy did become a nurse and in 1953 they married. They had four children and four grandchildren. Peggy died in December 2019. Jeff’s interests included golf, modern languages and travelling. Many happy holidays were spent caravanning on the continent and in the UK. He loved France and the Lake District. Peggy and Jeff spent their honeymoon in the Lakes and enjoyed many years walking the fells. Jeff was an avid reader. His choice of reading material was vast – including novels (he read War and Peace twice!), French literature and autobiographies, and he had a particular interest in history. He always seemed to retain whatever he had read. His other passion was gardening and, just before he died, he was delighted that the garden at his home had just been accepted into the National Open Garden Scheme. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Jeff became an NHS responder, phoning people who were feeling isolated and offering his support. He felt it was something he could do to help, and he did it brilliantly with care and compassion. This was the way he was throughout his career: Jeff genuinely cared about his patients. He always emphasised the importance of listening carefully to what they told him to help him make a diagnosis.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009903
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Heard, Gordon Edyvean (1926 - 2018)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Malcolm H Wheeler
Publication Date 2019-01-15 2019-05-23
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Gordon Heard was a consultant surgeon at the University Hospital of Wales and a former president of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was born on 23 February 1926 in Rhiwbina, Cardiff the second son of Albert Heard, a geologist at Cardiff University; his brother, Brian, went on to become a pathologist. In 1939, at the age of 13, Gordon became seriously ill with osteomyelitis of the right tibia and spent some time in Cardiff Royal Infirmary. The experience made a lasting impression on him, so much so that he changed his childhood aspirations from civil engineering to surgery. Despite the serious interruption to his schooling, he managed to matriculate from the City of Cardiff High School for Boys, and success in the higher certificate led a City of Cardiff scholarship, a Craddock Wells exhibition and entrance to the Welsh National School of Medicine in 1943. He qualified in 1949 with the Alfred Sheen prize in anatomy and physiology and the Willie Seager medal in pathology and bacteriology. As a student, he was still troubled by recurrent bone infections, and he became one of the first civilians to receive treatment with penicillin. After qualifying, he served between 1950 and 1952 as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the surgical wards of the Royal Victoria Military Hospital in Netley, Southampton, at a time when soldiers were being returned injured from the Korean war. He went on to train in surgery in Cardiff under Lambert Rogers and David Ioan-Jones, and at the Hammersmith Hospital, London with Ian Aird. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1954. In 1958, he spent a year in the surgical department of Frederick A Coller at Michigan State University, Ann Arbor. While in the US he developed an interest in neurofibromatosis and nerve sheath tumours, which formed the basis for a master’s thesis in surgery, which was awarded with a distinction in 1960. This work also led to a Hunterian professorship in 1962. In 1961, he was appointed as a senior lecturer on the surgical unit in Cardiff and two years later, in 1963, as a consultant surgeon to the Cardiff United Hospitals. He was the first to develop a specialist service in vascular surgery in Wales and remained a leader in this field right up to his retirement. His role as a surgical teacher and mentor were fundamental aspects of his clinical and surgical practice, and as a teacher of operative surgery he was unsurpassed. His exemplary technical skill and attention to detail, no matter how minute, served as a true model of excellence. In 1981, he was elected as president of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was a founder member. He was elected to the court of examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1980 and became chairman in 1986. He was elected as president of the Welsh Surgical Society in 1987 and was later chairman of the Surgical Advisory Committee in Wales. He retired in September 1987. Gordon Heard was a tall, confident man, always immaculately dressed in suit and white coat, his distinguished appearance and imposing presence commanding respect. He was a dedicated family man, with three children and three grandchildren. When not working, he enjoyed sailing, skiing and fly fishing. He later took up wood turning and cabinet making, producing beautiful furniture, of which he was justifiably very proud. He had a very long and happy retirement with his wife, Kate, who survived him. Gordon Heard died from pneumonia on 24 November 2018. He was 92.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009559
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Provan, John Lloyd (1931 - 1996)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008200-E008299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380474380474
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Lloyd Provan was born on 9 August 1931 in Newport, England. His father was Andrew Lloyd, a chief chemist for the Milk Marketing Board, and his mother was Gwyneth Mary Evans. He attended Adams' Grammar School, Newport, Shropshire, from 1939 to 1945. From there he went to King's College School, Wimbledon, from 1945 to 1950 and then to University College, London, from 1950 to 1953. His medical training was at University College Hospital, London, where he was awarded the Goldsmid Entrance Exhibition in 1953. He qualified MRCS LRCP in 1956 and obtained the FRCS in 1961. He gained a BSc in anatomy in 1953 and qualified MB BS at London University in 1956 and MS London in 1968. In 1958 he married Margaret Elizabeth Russell and they had two daughters and a son. He trained under Professor R S Pilcher at University College Hospital and moved to Toronto in 1969, where he soon showed an interest in vascular surgery and developed a unit in the Wellesley Hospital. He was appointed staff surgeon in general and vascular surgery and chief of vascular surgery at the Wellesley Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. Away from work, he was a competitive sailor, an avid birdwatcher and a serious gardener. He also loved steam engines and model railways. He died of bowel cancer on 25 July 1996 survived by his second wife, Judy, five children and four grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008291
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bird, David Robert (1947 - 2002)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-16
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/380655380655
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David Robert Bird was born on 10 August 1947, in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. His father, Bernard John Bird, known as 'Jack', was a clerk in local government and a keen amateur musician. He had one younger sister who died at the age of 37 from ovarian cancer. His mother Mary, née Bull, developed multiple sclerosis at a young age. David was educated at the local grammar school and went on to King's College, Cambridge, where he rowed for his college, and financed himself through university by working in a butcher's shop and busking on the streets. He was a senior registrar at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and Carey Coombs research fellow in the vascular laboratory at Bristol Royal Infirmary. He was later appointed consultant general and vascular surgeon at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest. He was married to Sarah while an undergraduate, but they later divorced. He had two daughters from his first marriage, Hannah and Amanda. In 1979 he married Ann Christina Bushell. She was a consultant microbiologist in the same hospital. They bought a smallholding where they cared for farm animals. David was an accomplished musician (piano, harpsichord and tympani). They were both founder members and performers in the Preseli orchestra. Increasingly frustrated by being unable to keep up their customary high standards in a deteriorating NHS, they both developed stress-related illnesses. David was found to have Ewing's sarcoma and, despite chemotherapy and radiotherapy, he died on 3 February 2002. Ann refused to be separated from him by death and died by her own hand three months later.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008472
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Sewell, Ivor Alwyne (1930 - 1992)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-01
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008300-E008399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380486380486
Occupation General surgeon Military surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist Vascular surgeon
Details Ivor Alwyne Sewell studied medicine at King's College Hospital, qualifying MB BS in 1955. A lecturer in surgery at Westminster Hospital Medical School at the start of his career, he then became senior registrar in surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He was awarded a PhD for research into the microcirculation in 1962. Later he developed interests in urology and vascular surgery and was appointed consultant surgeon at Tameside General Hospital, Ashton-under-Lyne, in 1971. He had a life long interest in the Forces. He attended Sandhurst and was a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. He was surgeon major to the 52nd Lowland Volunteers until 1971. When he retired from the Territorial Army he was lieutenant general at 207 Manchester General Hospital and he continued to lecture at the combined services' training courses. As a founder member of the Military Surgical Society he designed a badge which would meet all the requirements of the College of Arms. He also helped develop ideas for the radical change in the structure of hospitals for the British Army of the Rhine and was subsequently awarded the Territorial Decoration. His many interests included management - he became a member of the British Institute of Management; railway engineering - supporting Dinting Railway Museum; oil painting and technical drawing. He produced many innovative teaching aids with these skills. He died on 30 July 1992 after a second myocardial infarction, survived by his wife, Jean, and two adopted children, Mark and Jackie. His epitaph reads 'Scholar, scientist, soldier, surgeon' - he was all of these.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008303
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fairgrieve, John (1926 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2014-08-15 2016-05-27
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005800-E005899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377990377990
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Fairgrieve was a consultant vascular and general surgeon in Cheltenham who, in his youth, was an outstanding sprinter representing Great Britain in the 1948 Olympic Games and reaching the quarter final in the 200m. Although John was English, being born in London, he had Scottish roots as both his father, John, and his mother Grace (née Currie) were born in Ayrshire. His father was distinguished in the first world war, winning the Military Cross on the Somme, and later became the chief mechanical superintendent at the South Metropolitan Gas Company (later part of British Gas). His two elder brothers also became distinguished soldiers, Alex winning a DSO in Burma in 1944 and Hugh wining the Croix de Guerre in Korea, both in the Gurkha Rifles. His sister, Grace, died of an intussception in infancy. John was educated at Cherry Orchard Preparatory School in Charlton and then Abbey School, Beckenham, before proceeding to Imperial Service College, Windsor in 1940, which after two years amalgamated with Haileybury College. John gained a scholarship and spent two further years at Haileybury until he was 18. He had a most distinguished school record, mainly in the sporting context; in rugby as captain of the first 15 (which won the public schools seven asides in 1944) and as captain of athletics. He was company sergeant major in the combined cadet force and a college prefect. In 1944 he proceeded to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and thence to the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in 1947. His sporting prowess continued. At Cambridge he was a full blue at rugby and athletics, and also had a trial for the Scottish rugby 15. He played in the first Varsity match after the war at Twickenham, where he scored a memorable try watched by King George VI. In the World Student Games in Paris in 1947 he won the silver medal in the 100m and the bronze medal in the 200m, while a year later he was chosen to represent Great Britain in the 1948 'austerity' Olympics, reaching the quarter final in the 200m. Qualifying in 1950, he was house surgeon in urology to Sir Eric Riches and in orthopaedics to Philip Newman and Philip Wiles at the Middlesex and then house surgeon to Philip Ghey at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. He was then called up for National Service in the RAMC, where he was senior medical officer on troopships going to the Far East with the rank of major. On demobilisation he was a casualty officer at Addenbrooke's and then a senior house officer at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Tottenham, before returning in 1956 to the Middlesex as registrar to Sir Eric Riches and C J B Murray. In 1957 he returned to Addenbrooke's as registrar to John Withycombe, passing the final FRCS in the same year. He then spent a spell as a resident surgical officer at St Mark's Hospital, where he became knowledgeable in proctology, before being appointed a senior registrar on the St Mary's Hospital rotation in 1960. It was here that his interest in vascular surgery was kindled, having originally been intent on a career in urology owing to the influence of Sir Eric Riches. In 1962 he spent a year in Boston, USA, pursuing research at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Francis D Moore's department. In 1966 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to Cheltenham General, Gloucester Royal and Stroud hospitals, where he practiced vascular and general surgery. He was the first vascular surgeon to be appointed in Gloucestershire and was single-handed in this specialty until 1986, when a second consultant was appointed. With the help of Michael Gear and Peter Morris of Oxford a link was established in Gloucester and Cheltenham with trainee surgeons in Australia and America, allowing an exchange of learning and skills. John was noted as a good and patient trainer of registrars, both in the clinical arena and in the operating theatre. Despite a very busy practice, John Fairgrieve was active in the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, serving time on its council. He became a surgical tutor at Cheltenham General Hospital and in 1983 was elected a member of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1987 he was elected chairman of the Court at a time when the FRCS examination was undergoing intensive scrutiny by the Council. In this role he showed great determination to ensure sensible changes as well as considerable diplomacy in his dealings with the Council. He was also an external examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, an external examiner in Singapore, a member of the Peripheral Vascular Club and of the Grey Turner Surgical Club, where he was honorary secretary for five years. A talented artist in pastels (in later years his Christmas cards always featured one of his own paintings); he also enjoyed gardening and field sports. He kept closely in touch with his old school and became president of the Haileybury Society. He married Drusilla Anne (née Elliot), a Middlesex physiotherapist, in 1960 and they had four daughters; Alison, Susan, Catherine and Helen. Sadly, John's final years were very difficult as he developed progressive motor neurone disease leading to increasing incapacity. He will be remembered as a most careful and caring surgeon with an excellent bedside manner and a man of great integrity. He had immense generosity of spirit, was kind and gentle and bore the difficulties of his final years with great stoicism. He died at home on 20 July 2014 aged 88.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005807
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hobbs, John Thomas (1931 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Ian Loftus
Publication Date 2022-10-13
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Thomas Hobbs was a renowned vascular surgeon, researcher and educator. He was born on 18 January 1931 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to John Leonard Hobbs and Winifred Maud Hobbs née Haynes. He qualified in 1954 at St Bartholomew’s Medical School, London, and spent the next three years as a junior surgical specialist in the Royal Air Force. He was often based at airfields, allowing him to nurture his passion for aviation, which had begun during his teenage years. John moved to role as a lecturer in anatomy at Birmingham University in 1958. He soon developed an interest in venous disease, the field of surgery for which he became so well-known, and which gained him international attention. He developed a potential diagnostic tool for venous thrombosis, using a radioactive marker, iodine-131, labelled to fibrinogen. He was able to demonstrate this concept, working in collaboration with the Medical Research Council’s department at Birmingham Accident Hospital. These findings were published in the *Lancet*, in a paper entitled ‘Detection of venous thrombosis with 131 I-labelled fibrinogen in the rabbit’ (*Lancet* 1960 Jul 16;2[7142]:134-5). On the back of this work, John was invited to Harvard Medical School as a research fellow in surgery. J W Davies, co-author of the *Lancet* paper, replaced the iodine-131 with iodine-125, which had softer radiation, and transported it to Boston via a BOAC aircraft. The localisation of radioactivity in induced thrombi in rabbits was confirmed and, soon after, in July 1961, John was able to diagnose venous thrombosis in a human. E A Edwards injected some varicose veins with labelled fibrinogen, and demonstrated increased radioactivity localised to an area of induced thrombosis. An outbreak of hepatitis on the east coast of America brought a premature end to further work in humans in Boston. It was not until 1968 that work restarted, and the techniques validated in patients by the department of surgery at King’s College Hospital, London. Returning to London in 1961, John went to St Mary’s Hospital, London, to work with W T Irvine. He was instrumental in the establishment of a vascular laboratory at St Mary’s, where he was joined by J S T Yao. In 1968, they developed the ankle brachial index (ABI), a diagnostic tool that remains a fundamental element in the assessment of peripheral arterial disease. He was invited by the Department of Health to conduct a randomised trial in the treatment of patients with varicose veins, comparing conventional vein surgery and sclerotherapy, with 10-year follow-up data. This led to further funding from central Government to create a specialist clinic, to continue his research into the management of venous disease. This became a tertiary centre for the referral of patients with unusual and complex venous problems. John eventually started a private clinic at Upper Wimpole Street, where he treated patients from around the world. His international reputation resulted in frequent invitations as a guest lecturer, particularly to Australia, Egypt and South America. John contributed much to our understanding of venous leg ulcers and pelvic venous congestion syndrome, with several landmark papers. He also published a book –*Treatment of venous disorders: a comprehensive review of current practice in the management of varicose veins and the post-thrombotic syndrome* (Lancaster, MTP, 1977). He was especially fascinated by the function and pathophysiology of the gastrocnemial veins and made a point of collecting the few rare publications on this subject. Little did he know then that the leading author of these papers would one day become key to his future happiness. By chance he met, whilst attending a phlebology meeting in Washington in 1987, Marianne Vandendriessche, an accomplished phlebologist and said contributor to the world literature on gastrocnemial veins. This was to change the course of not only his personal life, but also his professional life. They became, and remained, partners for the next 30 years. John continued to have an extremely busy and accomplished career in venous disease and intervention. Of his many achievements, he represented the British vascular community on various international committees, particularly advising on the use of compression hosiery and anti thromboembolic prophylaxis. He was a member of committees that produced an international consensus on the prophylaxis of deep vein thrombosis, and an international consensus for the investigation of chronic venous insufficiency, both published in 2001. He was a member of the international committee that defined the venous section of international *Terminologia anatomica* and the international committee for the CEAP (clinical, etiological, anatomical and pathophysiological) classification of venous disease, still widely used in clinical and scientific practice. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and also an honorary fellow of many international societies, including the American Venous Forum, the Association Columbiana Angiolana, the Capitulo Latino-America Phlebologica, the Swiss Society for Phlebology, the Asian Surgical Association, the Society Argentina Phlebolomfologia, the Egyptian Society of Surgeons, the French Society of Phlebology and the Sociedad Espanola Flebologia y Lymfologia. He was also a founder member of the venous forum at the Royal Society of Medicine. John had many interests outside of surgical practice, including flying, classic cars, ornithology, photography and painting. He was able to enjoy his outdoor pursuits to the full in his second home, Pabay Mòr in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. This was a remote island that he acquired in 1983, by sending his secretary to bid on his behalf, due to work commitments. Whilst the sum paid exceeded John’s proposed bid, it proved to be money well spent, as he spent every summer there with his wife Marianne, who survived him. In the words of Andrew Nicolaides and colleagues from St Mary’s, who knew him so well, and remember him so fondly: ‘Many things defined this generous person. His work won him a reputation as a reliable, industrious and accomplished man; a great conversationalist with friends from far and wide, many from varied backgrounds – not just the field of medicine. None of us can ever know where life’s journey will take us, but few could have achieved more in their lifetime than John.’
Resource Identifier RCS: E010164
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Massey, Charles Ian (1939 - 2008)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2010-12-09
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373304373304
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ian Massey was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at the Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire. Born in Birmingham on 31 May 1939, Ian was the son of Charles William Massey, a master baker and managing director of a large bakery in Lancashire, and Ellen née Astley. He had one brother, Alastair Paul, who was a solicitor in Manchester. Ian attended Oldham Hulme Grammar School, from which he entered Durham University to read physics, but transferred to medicine. He was elected president of the students' union and qualified in 1963, having also achieved a first class honours degree in physiology. During these early years his rapport with the university chaplain, the Reverend Jack Bennett, helped to increase his strong commitment to a Christian faith, and he was confirmed into the Church of England. After his marriage, he worshipped at the local Baptist church. He was a house surgeon in Newcastle in general surgery to S W Feggetter and a house physician to George Smart, with whom he gained an insight into endocrine and renal medicine. He became a senior house officer in the renal unit with David Kerr, when visits to patients in the early hours of the morning became a habit that never deserted him, even as a consultant. After a year as an anatomy demonstrator, he passed the primary FRCS and then became a senior house officer to the Birmingham Accident Hospital. He spent six months at Great Ormond Street and, after passing the FRCS in England and Edinburgh, became a registrar at the Westminster Hospital under Harold Ellis. Further higher surgical training followed in the Trent region. In Leicester he gained experience in general and vascular surgery and urology with George Sawyer, Kenneth Wood, Peter Bell and Gordon Smart. He was a senior registrar in Derby and Nottingham under J Hardcastle and B Hopkinson, G Makin and C A S Pegg. In 1978, he was appointed as a general surgeon with a special interest in vascular surgery at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Lincolnshire. In 1979, Ian married Jillian Archer, a consultant anaesthetist whom he had met in Leicester. They had a family of three children. Elizabeth, born in 1980, is a teacher, Caroline lectures in English at Boston College and the youngest, David, runs a landscape gardening business. Family life was of the utmost importance to Ian, as he was to the family. Ian was enthusiastic about all he did, and had abounding energy and endurance. He had many hobbies and interests. He flew light aircraft and helicopters and belonged to various flying societies. He was a keen photographer, interested in computers and all things electronic. He loved music and in later life began piano lessons. He and his family were very involved with the local branch of Cancer Relief, later MacMillan Cancer Support, of which he was a committee member and vice chairman for many years. He was a trustee for St Barnabas Hospice and the Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service. He was a regular contributor to the Magdala Debating Society in Nottingham. He was actively involved in Boston Baptist Church, a dedicated member of Gideons International, and a governor at the Pilgrim Hospital and Skegness Grammar schools. Ian Massey developed prostatic cancer in 2000, but faced his illness with determination and great courage. He was uncomplaining and maintained a cheerful, positive attitude. He took part in a 50-mile cycle ride around Lincolnshire, in spite of spinal metastases. He underwent rigorous treatment involving surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in an attempt to halt the progress of the disease, but died on 24 April 2008. He was survived by Jill, his three children and two grandchildren, Phoebe and Olivia. A well-attended memorial service was held at St Botolph's Church, where Brian Hopkinson and Geoffrey Greatrex gave moving eulogies.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001121
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

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

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

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
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Pickering, Trevor George (1934 - 2021)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Cheryl Pickering
Publication Date 2022-04-04 2022-04-19
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385609385609
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Trevor Pickering was a consultant surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, a member of Australia’s first successful transplant team and president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA). He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the only child of Hilda Hale Bleckly and George Joseph Sydney Pickering, on 30 April 1934. From the age of five, he never wavered in his conviction that he would become a doctor. Trevor attended Rose Park Primary School, where in his grade two class photograph he can be seen standing side by side with his future wife, Marilyn (‘Lindy’) Chartres. His senior schooling was at St Peter’s College, where he was awarded house colours and won the headmaster’s prize. Trevor studied medicine at Adelaide University, marrying Lindy in his final year. After graduating, Trevor spent an intern year at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, and then accepted a position at the Ashburton Public Hospital on the South Island of New Zealand. The plan was to spend 12 months in New Zealand before returning to a rural general practice in South Australia. However, at the urging of the Ashburton Hospital surgeon and with Lindy’s unequivocal support, Trevor instead headed to London as a ship’s surgeon with the FRCS in his sights, Lindy accompanying him and pregnant with their first child. Trevor sat the written primary exams but was then bedridden with a severe case of flu and was unable to go into London to take the oral exams. Devastated, and down to their last £30, Trevor and Lindy scoured the ‘situations vacant’ section of the *British Medical Journal*. Warwick Hospital offered Trevor the post of house surgeon, and they moved into the tiny flat above the pathology lab. (Years later, Lindy still remembered the smell!) From Warwick they moved to Aylesbury – where ice constantly covered the insides of the flat windows, and Trevor studied in the kitchen huddled in blankets – and then to Cuckfield and Bury St Edmunds. After three years of combining work, study and new fatherhood, Trevor was finally able to send a telegram to his parents: ‘Just call me mister!’ The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Adelaide immediately offered Trevor a position as a senior surgical registrar, and thus Trevor began an association with the QEH that was to last 35 years. It was here that, in 1965, Trevor assisted Bill Proudman on the donor side of the first successful live kidney donor transplant in Australia. Trevor also worked as an emergency surgeon at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, was a visiting surgeon at regional hospitals in Murray Bridge and Snowtown, consulted at the St Agnes Medical Centre and was a consultant vascular surgeon at Modbury Hospital. For a time, he was also the vascular consultant on the QEH Jepson unit, returning to general surgery in about 1980. As a surgeon he was measured, calm, reassuring, compassionate and highly respected. Trevor gave some 20 years of his life to medical politics, holding many positions, including president of the council of the Physiotherapy Association in South Australia, vice president and president of the AMA (South Australia), and treasurer, vice president and president of the federal AMA. He is the only South Australian to have achieved the double presidencies. Trevor was a stabilising force in a combative period of medical politics following the introduction of Medicare in 1975, advocating for measures to maintain high standards of care. Trevor served as chairman of the Peer Review Resource Centre, which established peer review and quality assurance in Australia, and was on the executive of the Australian Council on Hospital Standards. He served on the Medical Benefits Schedule Revision Committee and made significant contributions to aged care. In 1990, he chaired the AMA (South Australia) working party on euthanasia, which took the first steps towards accepting euthanasia for patients with terminal illness. Trevor’s most enduring legacy to the AMA was the establishing of a new constitution. Trevor engaged Sir Robert Cotton, a recently retired Australian ambassador to the United Nations, to undertake a constitutional review. This culminated in the Cotton Report, wide-ranging debate, and a personally and professionally punishing three years, in particular in fighting the anti-centrist sentiment of the Victorian and New South Wales branches. The eventual reform of the structure of the AMA was the greatest achievement of Trevor’s leadership. Trevor’s reflections on power, written after his AMA experiences, hold strong resonance for the contemporary world: ‘Generally, if the possession of power does matter to an individual then maybe that person should not have power vested in them. Some people have to accept power and authority, but they must be chosen carefully. An organisation will function properly if power is distributed wisely and tempered with wisdom, justice and compassion.’ Trevor lived his life by two simple principles which he took on at an early age and never wavered from: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ and ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’. ‘Once these principles are accepted’, said Trevor, ‘respect for others, truth, empathy, compassion, tolerance and humility naturally follow. These principles in no way interfere with one’s search for goals along one’s journey in life, but simply determine the manner in which they are achieved. A fierce determination to succeed should never ignore these qualities.’ Trevor continued to serve the profession in retirement, notably as a member of the disciplinary tribunal of the then Medical Board of South Australia. He also spent a day a week mentoring Guy Maddern, professor and head of surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital who said of Trevor: ‘he knew it all – the personalities, the tactics, the realities and the history.’ Trevor was a man of quiet and modest self-assurance who lived with integrity and compassion. As a surgeon he was generous with his insights, experience and care of not only patients but also colleagues, students and trainees over a lifetime of surgical service. His huge contribution to medical politics was achieved with careful and respectful negotiation, making all stakeholders feel heard and seen. He earned many accolades over his career, including an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia), yet it was the Gold Medal of the AMA that he valued most highly as true recognition by his peers for what he had achieved for the profession. In their many happy years of retirement together, Trevor and Lindy travelled Australia in their caravan, embarked on cruises with friends, and re-acquainted themselves with London and the UK on visits to their England-based daughter. An avid photographer, Trevor was rarely seen without his camera over his shoulder, and he leaves a magnificent photographic legacy of their travels. Trevor and Lindy were together for seven decades, celebrating their 63rd wedding anniversary just a few days before Lindy died. Trevor died on 29 July 2021 at the age of 87 and was survived by his children, Cheryl and Craig, and by his grandchildren Alex, Thomas, Martha and Saskia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010100
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Jones, Roland Norman (1919 - 2001)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

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/380888380888
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Roland Jones was a consultant surgeon at Essex County and Black Notley Hospitals. He was born in Southport, Lancashire, on 16 May 1919. His father Norman was an architect, his mother was Esther née Cooper. He was educated at Oundle and St John's College, Cambridge, from which he went to St Thomas's to study medicine. After house appointments, he joined the RNVR and served in landing craft at the Sicily landings. On demobilisation, he returned to St Thomas's to specialise in surgery, passed the Fellowship, and, after a post as senior registrar at St Thomas's, became consultant surgeon at the Essex County Hospital in Colchester and Black Notley. There he performed the first peritoneal dialysis in this country and developed a special interest in vascular surgery, driving to London to collect freeze-dried cadaver grafts for the treatment of aortic aneurysm. Later he carried out carotid artery endarteriectomy under hypothermia, as well as hepatectomy and pneumonectomy. There had been a very active teaching centre in Colchester for many years based on Saturday morning 'grand rounds'. Roland kept this tradition alive, attracting surgeons from all over the region. He was a genial, likeable man, whose ability to make friends played a major part in defusing arguments with the trade unions. A useful rugby player in his earlier years, he was a keen golfer and an enthusiastic cricketer, being captain of a touring side called 'the Hoboes'. Challenged after one disastrous performance as to why he had put himself on to bowl, he retorted "First of all I am the captain and secondly I bought the ball!" He married twice, had two daughters and three sons, two of whom became doctors, and 21 grandchildren. He died on 17 October 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008705
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kelly, Justin Francis (1938 - 2018)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Wyn Morgan
Publication Date 2019-01-15
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Justin Kelly established vascular surgery in Lancaster and south Cumbria; the unit later developed to include Preston and Blackpool. He was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire on 7 February 1938, the son of Bernard Kelly, who worked for the company Lamson Paragon, and Katherine Kelly née Hodgson, a teacher who suffered from multiple sclerosis. Justin’s elder brother, Michael ‘Manx’ Kelly, a RAF squadron leader and the founder and leader of the Rothmans aerobatic team, was killed testing a prototype aircraft in the USA in 1976. Justin attended Douai Abbey School, founded by Benedictine monks, and then, in 1956, went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge to read botany and zoology. He was considering becoming a priest and thought he would be able to teach these subjects as an adjunct to his ministry. He completed his degree and then his tutor recommended that he should study medicine. He consulted the abbot, who agreed and Justin returned to Magdalene for pre-clinical studies. Whilst at Cambridge, Justin was a member of the university and British fencing team, specialising in the sabre. He attended St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington for his clinical studies and qualified in 1961. Medical and surgical house jobs followed at St Mary’s. From 1962 to 1963, he was a senior house officer in obstetrics and gynaecology. He was then a senior house officer (casualty) at Paddington General Hospital and in the surgery department at Brighton General Hospital. He was a registrar in surgery at the Royal Sussex County Hospital from 1965 to 1967 and at Paddington General Hospital from 1967 to 1969. He then became a senior registrar in general surgery and urology at St Mary’s and at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough (from 1969 to 1974). During this period, he was awarded a Medical Research Council fellowship in the immunology department of St Mary’s. During his training at St Mary’s, Justin worked for Felix Eastcott and this inspired his passion for vascular surgery. In 1975, Anthony Adamson, a friend from Cambridge and a physician at Royal Lancaster Infirmary, invited Justin to look at the hospital set up. Justin was appointed as a consultant general/vascular surgeon to Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Westmorland County Hospital. The caseload in Lancaster and Kendal was very general, and the vascular service minimal. Justin’s determination to introduce a vascular service led to the purchase of vascular instruments and equipment, the setting up of new theatres and the establishment of an intensive care unit. By the time Justin retired, there was a 24/7 service for elective and emergency aneurysms, carotid endarterectomies and peripheral vascular grafting, together with an endovascular theatre for stenting. There were five vascular/general surgeons and the patients came from Lancaster, Kendal, Furness, Preston and Blackpool. Vascular specialty registrars were rotated to the unit from Manchester. Breast surgery was practised in Lancaster without the benefit of NHS mammography facilities until 1991. Patients requiring mammography either had to have the X-rays performed privately or had to travel to Manchester for NHS mammography. A surgical/radiological group was founded, in which Justin was prominent, to raise funds to pay for mammography equipment at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. At the same time, meetings were occurring to decide where to site a breast screening unit for Lancaster, Preston, Blackpool and south Cumbria. The main unit was sited in Lancaster with satellite units. The number of radiologists with mammography/ultrasound experience increased. Justin was one of the two surgeons who ran this unit in Lancaster, but later withdrew to take up the post of medical director. The general/breast surgeons were gradually replaced by full time breast surgeons. His main clinical practice was vascular and laparoscopic, and involved the training of registrars from the north-west region, the USA and Egypt. A rotating programme had been established in the 1980's when an American surgical resident from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska came to Lancaster for six months to increase their clinical experience. In turn, a Lancaster surgical registrar went to Creighton to undertake a research project. Justin was in charge of this rotation from 1990 to 1996 and was appointed to the surgical faculty at Creighton. During one of his visits to Creighton, he observed laparoscopic cholecystectomies being performed. The equipment was purchased for Lancaster and four of the Lancaster surgeons were trained in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The procedure began locally in 1990 and the results were published in *The Lancet* in 1991 (‘Elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy for “all-comers”.’ *Lancet* 1991 Sep 28;338[8770]:795-7). Several of his surgical trainees were Egyptian and one of them became head of Army surgical services at the Maadi Military Hospital, Cairo. Every year the Cairo surgeons assembled a group of difficult vascular patients and Justin went to Cairo to operate on them and to teach staff of all levels of seniority. Justin was also involved in treating victims of the Abbeystead disaster, which occurred on 23 May 1984. A massive methane explosion occurred at the waterworks valve house on the Abbeystead estate; 44 people had been invited by the North West Water Authority to observe the operations of the station. The explosion blew the concrete roof off the structure and destroyed the steel mesh floor. Sixteen people were killed – eight immediately and another eight in hospital. The majority of the survivors sustained burns. Justin was the general surgeon on duty at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and co-ordinated the major trauma plan. Severe burns cases were transferred to the plastic surgery unit at the Royal Preston Hospital. This incident was extremely traumatic for all involved; many of the injuries were extreme. Justin was very involved with the administration of the Lancaster and Kendal hospitals. He sat on multiple local and regional committees, including of the Vascular Society and the Manchester Medical Society. He was chairman of the Kendal unit medical advisory group, the Westmorland Trust development board and, from 1992 to 1995, was medical director of the Westmorland Hospitals Trust. From 1995 to 1998, he was medical director of the Lancaster Acute Hospitals Trust. Justin was absolutely dedicated to the care of patients: family holidays were often modified for clinical needs. He was a very fast and decisive surgeon, known as ‘scissor hands’ by the theatre staff. When it came to committee work, he knew his brief, had a plan and was persuasive. Some of his colleagues, both clinical and managerial, did not always agree with his plans and these occasions could result in disharmony, however, another characteristic was determination, and he would usually succeed in pushing his plan through. Justin had high energy levels and a remarkable ability to multitask. He was often found in theatre in the evening waiting to do a femoral popliteal bypass or a distal graft. He would then leave the hospital in the night and go fly fishing on the river Kent for sea trout. He was an expert angler. In 1996, Justin began to suffer from angina pectoris and this led to a quintuple coronary artery bypass. He made a successful recovery and returned to work as medical director with reduced clinical duties. He retired on 31 March 1998 and in July 2002 moved to Liss in Hampshire with his wife Valerie (née Walton), a former nurse, whom he married in 1967. Justin was a dedicated family man; he and Val had four children (Sarah, Dominic, Julian and Justine) and 12 grandchildren. In Liss, Justin became involved with the Crossover Youth Centre. Run by Liss residents, the local churches and parish council, the centre aims to take young people off the streets and reduce minor crime. Justin became chairman. Justin had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for several years and latterly from prostatic carcinoma and spinal stenosis. In 2016, he fractured his hip. A combination of those conditions and progression of the carcinoma led to his final illness. He died peacefully at his home on 20 November 2018. He was 80.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009561
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wilson, Geoffrey (1923 - 1989)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-08-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007700-E007799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379945379945
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Geoffrey Wilson, the son of Norman Wilson, a manufacturing mild owner, and of Gertie Wilson (née Green), was born at Silsden, Yorkshire, on 13 February 1923. He was educated at Keighley Boys' Grammar School and Leeds University Medical School, graduating with honours in 1947. He then served as house surgeon and junior receiving room officer in the Leeds General Infirmary before doing his two years of national service in the RAMC. On demobilisation with the rank of Captain he became an anatomy demonstrator in the University of Leeds from 1950 to 1951. He was senior house surgeon in general surgery at St James's Hospital, Leeds, for a year and then registrar in general surgery at the same hospital for two years. This was followed by a year as registrar in genitourinary surgery at St James's and the General Infirmary. Having been senior registrar in general surgery at the Leeds. Infirmary from 1955 to 1958, he was then senior registrar on the surgical professorial unit at St Mary's Hospital, London, (to gain further vascular experience) followed by a senior registrarship in thoracic surgery at Leeds, each appointment being held for six months before becoming surgical tutor in Leeds. In November 1960 he was appointed consultant surgeon to St James's University Hospital, and to Chapel Allerton Hospital. Geoffrey Wilson introduced vascular surgery into the eastern district of Leeds and was an enthusiastic teacher of both undergraduates and postgraduates. His style was dogmatic, and a surgical principle enunciated or demonstrated by him was never likely to be forgotten. He was a member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and also of the Leeds and West Riding Medico-Chirurgical Society. He published a few papers on electrolyte balance and nutrition and several on vascular subjects. Despite a large hospital and private practice he had many interests outside surgery, notably deep water sailing and gardening, and he was always a handy man around the house. He married Audrey Mitchell, a state registered nurse, on 5 October 1948, and they had three daughters, the eldest of whom also trained as a nurse. When he died on 23 April 1989, aged 66, he was survived by his daughters and by his wife who had cared for him during his last illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007762
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ware, Colin Clement (1932 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Brian Sterry Ashby
Publication Date 2018-02-26 2018-05-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381832381832
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist Vascular surgeon
Details Colin Clement Ware was a consultant general and vascular surgeon to the Southend-on-Sea Hospital Group, Essex, from 1971 to 1992. He was born in Barking, East London, on 16 July 1932. His father, Albert Ware, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Annie Jelley, had been employed in the Post Office. He was educated initially at South East Essex Technical College, and went on to King's College, London. He took a BSc in chemistry in 1954. He then did his medical training at the Westminster Hospital Medical School and qualified with his MB BS in 1962, when he was awarded the University of London gold medal in obstetrics. Colin Ware particularly enjoyed the surgical aspects of his studies and early training. After qualifying, his junior hospital posts included a period at St James' Hospital, Balham, which was at that time a widely acknowledged surgical training unit. He completed his FRCS in 1965. He subsequently became a lecturer in surgery at St Thomas' Hospital, and was then appointed as a senior registrar in surgery back at Westminster Hospital. In 1971, he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to the Southend-on-Sea Hospital Group, where he had also previously served in a junior surgical post. Though appointed to Southend as a general surgeon, he soon developed a major special interest in vascular surgery, and became an acknowledged expert in the field, especially in the surgical management of aortic aneurysms. His other special interest was urological surgery, with which he was still able to continue after the appointment of a specialist urological surgeon to Southend. He was a very intelligent man, but also kind and gentle, and popular in his contacts with patients, colleagues and staff. Colin married Jean Marian Martin, who was also a medical practitioner, qualifying MB BS in 1957, one of the earliest female medical graduates from St Bartholomew's Hospital. She entered community medicine was a particular interest in family planning. Colin and Jean had four daughters, all of whom survived their parents: Helen and Elizabeth are both teachers, Marian trained in investment banking, and Judith trained as a physiotherapist. There are 14 grandchildren. Despite his busy life as a surgeon, Colin Ware was clearly a family man. He was a devoted father and grandfather. He was also a keen sailor, an interest he maintained since university days. He kept a yacht when he was at Southend, and taught his children to sail. As a member of the Thorpe Bay Yacht Club for many years, he was a regular race winner on the Thames Estuary. He eventually graduated to a 30ft sail cruiser, on which he took the family on trips across the Channel to France and the Low Countries, and one year competed in the Round the Island Race. He was also an enthusiastic hockey player at club level and for many years played for Southend and Benfleet Hockey Club. Colin was a committed Christian and drew great strength and inspiration from the local church community at Shoeburyness and Thorpe Bay Baptist Church near his home in Southend, serving as a deacon there for many years. Even with his heavy work schedule, he always made himself available for help and advice when needed. Jean and Colin were bound by a profound love and commitment to each other and she strongly supported him during the years of study and long working hours as a surgeon. In 1992, he took early retirement, and they moved from Southend to the village of Mickleton, near Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds. Being able to make friends easily and always alert to the needs of others, he soon established himself, serving various functions with the local Methodist Church. He became a volunteer community bus driver, and a volunteer with the National Trust at nearby Hidcote Gardens. Sadly, Jean's health began to decline and their roles reversed, and he cared for her for a number of years. In early 2016, Colin has a severe stroke. He recovered partially after a period of several weeks in rehabilitation but not sufficiently to return home alone, and he made his own decision to leave Mickleton and enter a care home in Oxford, near the home of one of his daughters. Jean had developed advanced Alzheimer's disease and had already been in a nursing home for over 10 years. With the assistance of friends and family, Colin made regular visits to Jean during the last six months of her life. Though she was virtually unresponsive, these visits seemed to benefit them both. Jean predeceased Colin by seven months in the spring of 2017. Colin died on 1 November 2017, aged 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009428
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Wardle, Derek Basil James (1924 - 1997)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Deborah Wardle
Publication Date 2017-04-21 2017-05-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381527381527
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Derek Wardle was a general surgeon and general practitioner in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in Herefordshire to Harold Wardle and Elsie Wardle née Clarkeson. As a boy, he loved working on local farms, developing a love of agricultural work that played out later in his life in Australia, when he purchased a small property at Torryburn, East Gresford, in the Hunter Valley. Here he raised Hereford cattle, as a link to his childhood. He had an older sister, Margaret, who married French pilot, Rene Jonchier, and lived with their three daughters in French colonies and Paris. Derek was a keen sportsman, excelling at rowing, cricket and football during his university years. He studied at Cambridge and then King's College Hospital Medical School. Derek married Jacqueline Payne in London 1948 and, against his parents' wishes, he converted to Catholicism at Jacqueline's request. They courted through the end phases of their medical training. A family tale is told of them in a training session on eyes. Students were asked to turn the eyelid of the person next to them. Derek turned to Jacqueline, folded her eyelid back, and that, as they say, was that. They worked in the mid 1950's at the Royal Infirmary in Cardiff, Wales. From there they made the decision to move to Australia, following some colleagues and friends, the Coulthards and the Withercoms. Derek flew to Australia in 1957 to set up a home and work. Originally, he considered working in Kalgoorlie, but decided on a practice in the western suburbs of Newcastle, New South Wales. They had by then four children; Penelope, Timothy, Rebecca and Deborah, who was born after Derek had flown to Australia. Jacqueline followed with the four children, on an eight-week boat trip through the Suez Canal to Australia. The family lived initially in Wallsend, then set up home on ten acres at Cardiff, New South Wales. They had two more children, Nicholas and Felicity. The family took annual holidays to Narrabri Pony Camp for over 30 years, where Derek was the camp doctor, patching up children after falls from their horses. Derek worked at the Mater Hospital and Wallsend Hospital, and in general practice in both Glendale and in Wallsend. Derek and Jacqueline often worked together in general practice. When Derek completed his studies to become a surgeon, he established a surgery in Watt Street, Newcastle. He specialised in vascular surgery and, through private research, developed a successful alternative to general anaesthetic and vein stripping. The method of vein compression with bandages in the treatment of varicose veins was a day procedure, which involved injecting saline for small, spider veins and tetradecyl sulphate diluted into larger veins. He also did some vein stripping and was a pioneer with sclerotherapy when it started. Patients with bandaged legs were required to walk regularly to ensure circulatory rehabilitation. He was a respected senior surgeon in Newcastle, New South Wales and much-loved by his patients for his compassion and generosity. He was a doctor who often surpassed the constrictions of medico-legal or political correctness. Derek was appointed as an anatomy teacher at the newly-established medical school at Newcastle University in the 1980's. His kind rapport with students made him an excellent and popular teacher. Derek practised surgery until his late sixties. Derek and Jacqueline retired to Kilaben Bay, on Lake Macquarie and remained strongly involved in the Catholic parish at Toronto. In retirement Derek had more time for his much-loved fishing on Lake Macquarie and growing vegetables. He also practised woodturning and amateur furniture making. Each of the children had a garden bench made for them, along with numerous bowls, cigarette trays and three-legged stools, which became known as the 'child-killers', for all the tumbles that the grandchildren took from them. Derek was a loving and engaged father and grandfather. His passions, including Australian history, reading, the bush, fishing and amateur construction, have been passed on. He built sheds, stables and a tree house, among his many practical endeavours on the 10-acre block. He kept a cow and, for some years, a pig, an expression of his childhood love of farming. Jacqueline died in April 1997, and his six children knew that he would not last long after the death of the love of his life. Derek was a man of strong integrity and had a great sense of humour. He died from peripheral arterial disease and septicaemia, following a stubbed toe. 'At least the smoking didn't get me', was one of his parting quips. He and the children refused lower-leg amputation. Derek Wardle died on 28 August 2007. He was 82. He lived a full life, fostered principles of love in his family, and held the respect and admiration of friends and colleagues.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009344
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cohen, Solly Morris (1904 - 1989)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007100-E007199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379370379370
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Sol Cohen was born in 1904 in Cape Town where he gained his early education. He proceeded to the University of Cape Town, graduating BA (Honours) in 1923 and MA in 1925. He then entered Guy's Hospital Medical School for his clinical studies where his ability and innovative approach attracted the attention of Sir Heneage Ogilvie who became his life long supporter. After obtaining the FRCS he returned to South Africa and worked among the bushmen in the Northern Cape, acquiring wide expertise in surgery including the management of stab wounds of the chest and depressed fractures of the skull caused by knobkerries. He returned to England in 1939 and was appointed surgical superintendent at the Southern Hospital, Dartford. A former colleague there recalled that they were the first hospital to receive hundreds of soldiers after the Dunkirk evacuation. His experience of arterial injuries led to the award of a Hunterian lecture in 1943 on traumatic arterial spasm. Sir Thomas Lewis was so impressed with this work that Cohen was appointed to the Medical Research Council Committee on vascular injuries. With the advent of the Health Service he was appointed consultant surgeon to the Medway and Gravesend Group of Hospitals and surgeon to the peripheral vascular centre at Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford. He gave a second Hunterian lecture in 1952 describing his experience with aneurysms and arteriovenous fistulae. Sol Cohen was a man of boundless energy with a great appetite for life. With his wide experience of general surgery and profound knowledge of vascular disease he could bring any discussion to life by his pertinent remarks. He wrote widely, mainly in the vascular field, and was for many years a much valued assessor of articles submitted to the medical press. In 1966 he was elected the first President of the Society of Vascular Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He died on 1 November 1989, aged 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007187
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Macleish, Donald Gordon (1928 - 2016)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John Royle
Publication Date 2016-07-29
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381397381397
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details I first met Scotty when I was an intern in the Casualty Department in my first week at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1958. Scotty was the senior surgical registrar. Three of us new graduates had each seen the same patient and managed him poorly. Scotty took us all aside and explained what we should be doing. He did not tell us off. He just quietly explained how we should look at the total management of a patient, and not just the immediate problem. One of our duties at that time was to go to the operating theatre in the middle of the night and harvest arteries from recently deceased car accident victims. Scotty was in charge of the artery tissue bank. He was responsible for the collection and storage of these specimens. Thus in 1958 he already had an involvement with vascular surgery. He read about the bypass surgery being performed by Michael De Bakey in Houston, Texas. He thought "this is unbelievable - I must go and see for myself." So off he went to Houston. When he returned to Australia Scotty was appointed as a junior consultant to the unit of Eric Hughes Jones. A patient presented with a severely ischaemic leg (i.e. one with very poor blood supply) and an arterial X-ray showed a blocked artery in the thigh, just like he had seen in Houston. He discussed this with Eric and went ahead and performed a bypass operation. I quote Scotty's own words, which I heard again last week in a film I have of Scotty: "When Eric saw the pink foot and felt a strong pulse, his face lit up. That's when I knew this was the surgery I was going to pursue." During the 1960's Scotty was elected to the Victorian State Committee of the College. He eventually became chairman of that committee. I also wish to pay tribute to Scotty's commitment to overseas training of surgeons in developing countries. In 1970, five fellows of the College were appointed to a teaching assignment in Singapore as part of the Colombo Plan. Scotty and I went for a month each. Following a meeting with Thai surgeons in Thailand when Scotty was President the Weary Dunlop/Boonpong scholarship was established for young Thai surgeons to come to Australia. Scotty became chairman of the committee to oversee this project and remained committed to it for many years. There are several Thai surgeons now in senior positions in Thailand who owe their start to this scholarship. During his time on Council Scotty became interested in the development of surgery in Papua New Guinea. He made visits to PNG during his time on Council and after his retirement from President. He made eight visits in all, a substantial commitment to the development of academic surgery in that country. Scotty's contribution to overseas training went for 20 years. For the 50th anniversary meeting of the College in Melbourne in 1977, Scotty was appointed the convenor to arrange the program for the Vascular Section and I was appointed his assistant. Scotty managed to persuade De Bakey to come to the meeting as the vascular surgery showcase speaker. De Bakey was probably the world's best known surgeon at that time. What a coup! A suitable program was arranged around five key lectures De Bakey would give. Unfortunately about eight days before the meeting Scotty had a phone call from De Bakey. He could not come. His infant son had been admitted to ICU with a life-threatening illness. We rearranged the program and despite the absence of De Bakey the program was a huge success - thanks to Scotty. In 1975 Scotty was elected to the College Council. Dick Bennett was elected at the same time. What a wealth of talent they were! They formed a close friendship and worked very well together for years. They played tennis and golf together also. In 1980 I became secretary of the Victorian State Committee. Scotty, as a Councillor attended all meetings. I learned about his facility with words first hand. The secretary compiles the minutes and each month Scotty carefully read and corrected those minutes. His corrections were always spot on and I developed a high regard for his use of words. From 1979-1983 Scotty was the Censor-in-Chief on Council in charge of surgical training and examinations. He became Vice President in 1983 and finally was elected as President in 1985. Scotty's predecessor as President was Mervyn Smith. The general view of Council at that time was that the College should stay strictly out of politics. Mervyn Smith was the voice of that view. The Association of Surgeons was formed and spoke out strongly against this. In fact for the first time in the history of the College a group of fellows moved a censure motion against the President. Council voted on this and supported the President - after all he was just the spokesman for Council's views. My reason for talking about this is that as Scotty succeeded Mervyn Smith, it was his job to calm the troubled waters. Scotty had a very firm view of the College direction. He was not dictatorial but he was a leader. He patiently listened to the views of others and then developed a way forward. It was obvious that contact with government could not be avoided when issues of registrar training positions and the number of hospital surgical beds were concerned. Negotiations with government are inevitable. Since Scotty's time discussions with government have become more and more frequent and the need for a group like the Association of Surgeons just disappeared. The official portrait of Scotty as College President was painted by Judy Casab (who won the Archibald prize twice). When I first saw it I did not like it at all. I now realise why. It depicts Scotty as a dour scot, but those who knew him well will attest to his sense of humour. I mentioned earlier Scotty's use of words. In 1984 he gave a lecture titled "The Tyranny of Words". I will quote just one example from this. Biliary Colic. Scotty described that Sir Walter Scott had it. For non-medical people the term means severe pain in the gallbladder. Scotty pointed out that colic refers to the colon and has a characteristic intermittency. Scotty said that, just as Sir Walter Scott described, the pain is not intermittent. Most biliary pain comes from gallstones. When we say that someone has biliary colic, we mean that a stone is jammed in the outlet of the gallbladder, not in the bile duct and therefore the pain is not biliary. Thus the condition should be described as "gallbladder pain". Generations of students have learned about biliary colic, and no doubt will continue to do so. Scotty was fascinated by history, particularly by Scottish history. I quote directly from Scotty's paper:- "The origin of distilling is lost in antiquity. Whisky is something which, in the 5th Century AD the Irish gave to the Scots, who have been refining it ever since. The pot-still was, in the early days, quite illegal, and had to be mobile. The customs and excise men from the south could not match the ingenuity of the whisky distillers and "smugglers" in the highlands. The Cardow distillery was founded by John Cumming, a forebear of Johnnie Walker. Cumming was greatly assisted by his wife Ellen, who kept a boarding house in Knochando where she put up any visiting customs and excise men. Quickly making them feel at home, she raised a red flag, which was a sign for the pot-stills to be hidden. It was this sort of thing which made the authorities give in, and whisky distilling was licenced in 1823." I think the highlight of Scotty's College Presidency was the installation of HRH Prince Charles as College patron on 4 November 1985. There was a special ceremony at Government House attended by the then members of the College Council Executive and Past Presidents.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009214
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bliss, Brian Peter (1933 - 2023)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Denis Wilkins
Publication Date 2023-08-15
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010400-E010499
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Brian Bliss was a consultant vascular and general surgeon for Plymouth Hospitals. He was born on 21 June 1933 in Ilford, Essex, the son of Albert Reginald Bliss, a post office engineer, and Doris Alexandra Bliss née Young, a telephonist. As a child Brian’s life was dominated by the Blitz and two periods of evacuation. He attended All Saints Church School, passed the 11+ and went on to Selhurst Grammar School for Boys. During those early years he recalled much bullying, but grew in confidence and his troublesome asthma improved such that by the sixth form he was doing well academically, playing rugby, involved in drama, and active in the school’s Air Training Corps. He achieved a place at Charing Cross Medical School during a time when there were 100 applicants for each place and was one of 48 who qualified in 1956. Many of his peers were ex-forces and much older. He recalled later that 21 of his year went on to become consultants, three of whom became professors and one director of medical services at Eli Lilly – a distinguished group. Living on a state scholarship in post war London meant that he was impecunious. Sundry jobs working in and around Covent Garden helped him make ends meet. During his clinical attachments as a surgical dresser, he was ‘allocated’ his first patients, learned how to take blood, put up drips, assist in theatres and administer straightforward ‘gas and air’ anaesthetics – not unusual in those days. He completed his pre-registration house officer jobs at Harrow Hospital. Here he met Jeanne Shearman, who had recently qualified in nursing and was working in theatres. Romance blossomed, dating commenced, but there was very little free time. He recalled their first date was at Kew, then mainly on Sundays at Clifton Hall or Ruislip. They married in 1958, which marked the start of a long, happy and devoted partnership. As was common practice, house officers were the receiving officers for casualties overnight, treating, admitting, referring or summoning assistance. He stayed at Charing Cross and followed the conventional pathway of the time, competing successfully for six- or 12-month senior house officer appointments and building experience in the generality of surgery. Spells of locum GP work to make ends meet was par for the course. In parallel, he studied and taught physiology and worked at the Mildmay Mission Hospital in the East End. During 1958, Helen Roseveare, the well-known missionary doctor was on furlough there from her Congo assignment and made a great impression on him. He passed his primary fellowship in London at the first attempt. He was appointed as a surgical registrar at Charing Cross and recalled the broad clinical experience, which included paediatrics, cardiothoracics and orthopaedics. Final FRCS examination passed, he moved on to a senior registrar post and became interested in the newly emerging specialty of vascular surgery, particularly the development of vein and prosthetic grafts. Brian’s next appointment was as a senior lecturer in surgery in the professorial surgical unit under Anthony (‘Tony’) Harding Rains. He progressed to reader in surgery. His employment contract being with the University of London, the remuneration was extremely modest for the needs of a growing family, but he loved academic surgery and thrived. During this period, he completed his MS thesis on resistance to blood flow. He also investigated new grafts and the role of lipids in vascular disease. He was much in demand as an excellent and very patient teacher. On one occasion, when his legendary patience was being tested, came the exasperated cri de coeur: ‘By gosh, you are the thickest bunch of students I have ever come across’. Years later, he was reminded of the episode by of one of the group, whom he had just appointed as a consultant colleague. Progression to a chair might have been expected, but after nine years in post this was not to be. Although a successful well-published academic, Brian was first and foremost a clinician and by now well established as one of the new breed of general surgeons with a major vascular interest. He was one of the early members of the Vascular Surgical Society and, being the first vascular surgeon in the department, undoubtedly set Charing Cross on its course to become a major international vascular centre. In 1976 Brian was head hunted by Michael Reece and appointed by Plymouth Hospitals to develop a vascular service. There were no specialty vascular services south of Bristol at the time. Some patients were referred, but most simply suffered, underwent amputation or died from what even then was regarded as treatable vascular disease. The family relocated and settled in Saltash close by the river Tamar. There were five NHS hospitals, Freedom Fields, Greenbank, Scott Hospital, Mount Gould and Devonport, plus the Royal Naval Hospital Stonehouse. Brian described clinical practice as incredibly busy. Elective operating lists were conducted on four days a week and frequently ran on into the evening. Introducing a new specialty required exceptional effort and commitment until the case for extra resources became irresistible. Brian fulfilled his commitment to an onerous general surgical emergency rota of 1:5, while in addition providing 1:1 cover for vascular emergencies. It is doubtful whether Jeanne or the family saw much of him during those days. His efforts proved the point and in 1979 he was able to appoint a colleague. It was not deemed appropriate in those days for university hospitals, in this case Bristol, to rotate trainees far away from the centre and none were placed in Plymouth or Truro. Consequently, junior staff in Plymouth were mostly recruited from overseas. They gained excellent clinical teaching and experience and, as a consequence, Brian forged many international friendships and links which endured long after he retired. His achievement of a merit award, rarely awarded outside of the teaching hospitals at the time, was a mark of the regard in which he was held. The first phase of Derriford Hospital opened in 1982. Resisting the allure of the attractive new facilities, Brian elected to stay at the slightly run down Greenbank Hospital in the city centre to join with his new colleague and fulfil the aim of an integrated vascular unit. Many staff, including his long-term ward sister Deidre Giles and secretary Alison, chose to stay with him. Under his leadership a unit was built which published, attracted trainees and thrived. Innovations included joint ward rounds, inter-hospital vascular meetings, joint audits, vascular multidisciplinary team/angiogram reviews, a research assistant and the first steps towards a vascular laboratory. In the four-year period between 1997 and 2001 the unit treated 395 patients with aortic aneurysm and over 200 with limb threatening circulation blockages. Brian was elected to the prestigious Peripheral Vascular Club and hosted several of its meetings in Plymouth. The Plymouth unit contributed regularly to the proceedings of the Vascular Surgical Society and published many papers. One of Brian’s registrars, Alun Davies, was later appointed professor of vascular surgery at his alma mater, Charing Cross Hospital. Brian was elected by his colleagues to the influential position of hospital medical staff chairman during the Thatcher years of NHS reform, which followed the Griffiths Report in 1983. It was a poisoned challis and one which he handled with his usual fairness, trust and humour, although he admitted being bruised by the personal nature of attacks by some colleagues as he did his best to steer a course through uncharted waters. In the early 1980s, his wife Jeanne had developed rheumatoid arthritis and during subsequent years became increasingly disabled. They were a devoted couple. Colleagues and friends rarely heard a word of complaint about the difficult hand they had been dealt. Possibly influenced by Jeanne’s illness and increasing dependence, he retired from Derriford Hospital in 1993 at the age of 60. The foundations of a thriving vascular unit which now serves Plymouth and large tracts of Devon and Cornwall can be traced back to Brian’s vision and energy. The family were devout Christians and Brian was an elder of Saltash Baptist Church, to which he devoted much time and support. He was also an expert and avid gardener. Jeanne predeceased him in 2018. On 14 April 2023, after a long and tedious illness which he bore with his usual stoicism, Brian died from cancer of the bile duct. He was 89. He and Jeanne had three children, Tim, Andrew and Christine, and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010424
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Gardham, John Richard Carr (1937 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2014-08-15 2016-10-07
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005800-E005899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377993377993
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Richard Carr Gardham, always known as Richard, was a consultant general surgeon and medical director of Chase Farm Hospital NHS Trust. Born in London on 26 April 1937, he came from a medical background. His father, Arthur John Gardham, was a consultant surgeon at University College Hospital and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons; his mother, Audrey Glenton (née Carr), was a general practitioner in St John's Wood, London. It was therefore perhaps not surprising that, after schooling at Winchester College, where he won the Duberly prize, he proceeded to read for a degree in medicine, initially at Trinity College, Cambridge and then in London for his clinical studies at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. He qualified in 1962. His training in surgery was wide and he worked in several different hospitals, during which he was especially influenced by William (Bill) Richardson at Chase Farm Hospital, Frank Cockett at St Thomas' Hospital, Alan Birt in Norwich and Adrian Marston at the Middlesex. The research for his MD thesis titled 'Pyloric stenosis and paradoxical acid urine' was carried out at the Middlesex in the department of surgery under the supervision of Leslie Le Quesne and Michael Hobsley; the work was awarded the Sir Lionel Whitby medal and prize for a thesis of exceptional merit. By the time of his consultant appointment to Chase Farm Hospital in 1975 he was expertly trained in all branches of general surgery, including urology and vascular, and it was this latter interest that he pursued increasingly as his career progressed. Richard was a meticulous, painstaking surgeon with a first class knowledge of anatomy. He believed that if an operation was worth doing it was worth doing properly. He was an excellent clinical opinion and hugely admired by his patients. In his early consultant years, he undertook a prodigious workload, but as the years progressed he was in demand for his excellent administrative skills and he undertook an increasing amount of hospital committee work, becoming chairman of the surgical division and eventually the hospital's first medical director, a post he held for five years. He retired at the age of 62, in 1999, at a time when his beloved Chase Farm Hospital was about to undergo a merger with Barnet Hospital as part of a geographical rationalisation of services. Retiring to the family home on the edge of Exmoor, originally bought by his father, Richard was able to pursue his love of riding and country sports, which had been largely denied him during his clinical career. He rode with the local hunt twice a week, tended his market garden, became a church warden at St Mary's, Oare (the Lorna Doone church) and spearheaded a campaign to rid the local woodland of excess rhododendron and make it friendlier for wildlife. His visits to London were infrequent, except to Lord's, where he was a member of the MCC, and to meetings of the Senior Fellows Society of the College, where he enjoyed meeting former colleagues. A quiet, gentle man with a backbone of steel when needed, Richard was a revered surgeon at Chase Farm Hospital and a much-loved member of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds in Oare. At his memorial service the tune *Gone away* was played on a hunting horn. It was while a registrar at St Thomas' that he met Mary (née England), a nurse, whom he married in 1968. They had three children, Clare, Duncan and Aiden. In 2014 he developed leukaemia, and despite intensive chemotherapy died within a few months of diagnosis, on 6 August 2014. He was 79.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005810
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Harrison, George (1920 - 1997)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-11-03
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008600-E008699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380843380843
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist Vascular surgeon
Details George Harrison was born on 3 January 1920 in Leeds. His father, also George Harrison, was an engineer. He was educated at Cockburn High School in Leeds and Leeds University Medical School, where he was strongly influenced by Archie Derwood, won the anatomy prize and at first intended to be an anatomist. As a student he often watched Beecham rehearsing his orchestra, which had been evacuated to Leeds. After house jobs in Leeds, he became a demonstrator in anatomy, and then did a junior job with Henry Hamilton Stewart in Bradford, who was one of the pioneers of transurethral prostatectomy by means of the cold punch. Henry Stewart was very impressed: George Harrison had extraordinary manual skill, being ambidextrous, he could write beautifully with either hand and was a successful amateur magician. During the war he was not called up, but served as RSO in Bradford, which received large numbers of wounded after initial treatment in the South of England. He was appointed resident surgical officer and later first assistant to Henry Stewart in Leeds and ultimately returned to Leeds as surgical tutor. He was appointed consultant in Derby in 1952 at the Royal Infirmary, the City Children's Hospital and the City Hospital. He was a true general surgeon: he once likened surgery for oesophageal atresia to "sewing together two wet cigarette ends". He started vascular surgery in Derby when grafts were hand sewn from Terylene shirt tails, and he had to teach his radiologists how to do a translumbar aortogram in the post-mortem room. His main interest was in urology; he was renowned for his proficiency with the cold punch, only taking up the hot wire when the rod lens and fibre light became available. He was an enthusiastic surgical traveller, became secretary of the Punch Club and President of the 1921 Surgical Club. He was always interested in teaching practical surgery and was proud that at least four of his trainees ultimately became professors of surgery. In 1947, he married Muriel Robertshaw, a nurse he had met at Bradford. They had one daughter, Wendy and a son, G S M Harrison (Mark), who became a consultant urologist. He loved music, especially Mahler, played the piano occasionally, was a keen gardener, and was always making and mending things. He was made a senior Fellow of the British Association of Clinical Anatomists, and received the Silver Jubilee medal in 1977. Outwardly dour - one of his anaesthetists described his appearance as one of "*diabolical discontent*" - underneath there was a delightful and sympathetic sense of humour, but he could be very direct, especially if he smelt pomposity. In 1993, he suffered a massive coronary thrombosis with ventricular septal perforation and underwent two open heart operations. He died on 3 January 1997, on his 77th birthday, survived by his wife, children and grandchildren, Rachel, Ruth and Frances.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008660
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Forrest, Hugh (1929 - 1996)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007900-E007999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380117380117
Occupation General surgeon Urological surgeon Urologist Vascular surgeon
Details Hugh Forrest, whose father was a draughtsman and whose mother, Annie Tough Hay was a secretary, was born in Greenock on 12 June 1929. His initial education was at Greenock High School, where he won a poster prize for National Savings; he then went on to medical school in Glasgow, graduating in 1955 with distinction in surgery and having won the William Hunter Medal for practical anatomy. He had completed his two years' National Service in the Royal Air Force (1947-1949) before going up to university, serving in the medical branch of the RAF as a corporal. After a period of training in general surgery based at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, he became interested in peripheral vascular disease and went to Heidelberg, Germany, for specialist training in vascular surgery. His consultant career started at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow in 1967, where he was appointed consultant general surgeon with an interest in urology, this appointment lasting until 1973. He then became a consultant general surgeon with a special interest in vascular surgery at the Western Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow, in 1973. In both centres he expanded the existing vascular service, building up busy vascular units which attracted referrals throughout the west of Scotland. He served the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in many capacities and on many committees, and was a member of the College Council between 1985 and 1989. He was much concerned with surgical audit, an interest which he carried on into retirement as Chairman of the Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality, whose first annual report was published in December 1995. He was an examiner for the Fellowship in the Primary and the Final in pathology and surgery, was President of the West of Scotland Surgical Association, and represented Scotland on the Council of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he had been a Fellow since 1972. Following retirement in 1991, in addition to his professional activities he developed a consuming interest in drawing and painting, taking classes and exhibiting his work. He also enjoyed golf, building remote control model boats from scratch, and trout fishing, becoming president of the local BMA Angling Club and winning the 1994 trophy at Loch Walton Angling Club. Another great interest was poetry, and the life and poems of Robert Burns. In 1959 he was ordained as an Elder in the Church of Scotland. The depth of his faith was reflected in his life and work, and his wisdom, experience and ability to put people at ease, whatever the circumstances, were well recognised among his friends and colleagues and much appreciated by his patients. In June 1963 he married Alison Hunter RGN, who survived him, together with their two sons Alan and Ewan, one a mathematician and the other a physician. He died of pancreatic adenocarcinoma on 11 February 1996.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007934
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kalodiki, Evi (1956 - 2018)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2019-04-03 2022-03-14
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009500-E009599
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Evi Kalodiki was born on 1 October 1956 in Larnaca, Cyprus. The daughter of two eminent lawyers, she was educated at Larnaca High School where, among things, she excelled at disc throwing. Proceeding to the University of Athens she studied English literature for four years, gaining an MA before turning to medicine. Eventually she worked in the surgical unit of the university with Panayotis Balas, who was known as the godfather of vascular surgery in Greece. In 1984 she moved to the UK and continued her studies in phlebology at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. At this time she was mentored by the surgeons: Margaret Ghilchik, Hugh Arnold Freeman Dudley, J. H. N. Wolfe and Richard David Rosin. She presented innovative work to the Surgical Research Society with Gerard Stansby and, in the Irvine Laboratory at St.Mary’s, undertook research with Andrew Nicolaides. In 1996 she obtained a PhD from Imperial College in venous diseases. She became co-director of the Josef Pflug vascular laboratory at Ealing Hospital, which was set up by her former mentor Professor George Geroulakos and is now part of the West London Vascular and Interventional Centre. She developed a strong relationship throughout her career with the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, eventually becoming a visiting professor in the departments of pathology and pharmacology and a consultant to their Haemostasis Research Group. In association with other members of the faculty she initiated various national and international research programmes which were to have a profound impact in the years to come. She was secretary of the scientific committee of the International Union of Angiology and participated in the development of their educational and research programmes. Other scientific bodies she worked with included the Southeast Asian Society of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis and the American Venous Programme. Using air-plethysmography, the simple non-invasive test she pioneered (the discord outcome analysis or DOA) was of great benefit to all patients suffering from venous diseases. The author of numerous scientific publications, she was also the co-editor of five books and a senior editor of *The Journal of Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Haemostasis*. In 2016 she was awarded the Mauro Bartolo lifetime achievement award signifying her outstanding contribution to the advancement of her chosen field. An ambassador for the understanding of Greek culture in the UK, she was on the board of the Hellenic Society for many years and was a founder member of the society in honour of the Greek poet Giorgos Sarantaris (1908-1941) in Cyprus. She was also involved with many international charities for whom she developed useful contacts all over the world. After a long illness she died on 31 December 2018 aged 62 and was survived by her husband Christopher Lattimer, a fellow vascular surgeon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009590
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hamer, John Drew (1936 - 2005)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2010-01-27
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000800-E000899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373009373009
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John Drew Hamer was a vascular surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. He was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, on 2 November 1936. His father, John Llewellyn Hamer, was a headmaster, while his mother, Mabel Irene née Hawkins, was a nurse. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Nuneaton, and went on to Birmingham University, where he gained a BSc in anatomy before studying medicine. He qualified in 1960 and was a house surgeon to the surgical unit and house physician at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, and then went into general practice in Staffordshire. He soon changed course and decided to specialise in surgery. He was a registrar in orthopaedics and trauma at the Good Hope General Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, and then a registrar in trauma and general surgery to the United Birmingham Hospitals. In 1968 he became a resident surgical officer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A year later, he was appointed as a lecturer in surgery at the University of Birmingham. In 1972 he became a senior lecturer in surgery and, in 1975, a consultant surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. His main area of expertise was in vascular surgery, particularly that of the carotid artery. He had many outside interests. From his schooldays he had been keen on making model cars and aeroplanes, later he made furniture, including a font cover and church gates for his church in Oddingley. He built his own boat and was a keen sailor, and was interested in classical music, playing the organ for his church, and singing in the University Choral Society. As a schoolboy he had been an able sprinter, becoming the Warwickshire and Midlands Counties 100 yards champion. He married Angela Rosemary née Buckley in 1960. She became a GP and then a medical officer at the University of Birmingham. They had two children. Their son, Andrew Jonathan Hamer, is an orthopaedic surgeon, while their daughter, Katherine Ann, is a radiographer. John Hamer died after a short illness on 1 September 2005.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000826
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Jamieson, Crawford William (1937 - 2009)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2010-11-11 2010-11-24
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/373238373238
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Crawford Jamieson was one of the country's leading peripheral vascular surgeons. He made major academic contributions to the literature of that specialty and became president of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1995. The son of Crawford John Baird Jamieson, an industrialist, and Elizabeth, née McAulay, he was educated at Dulwich College, before proceeding to Guy's Hospital Medical School, from where he graduated in 1960 with honours in surgery. After house jobs, he spent time as a ship's doctor working on a P&O liner, before becoming a senior house officer on the academic surgical unit at St Mary's Hospital, where he was greatly influenced by W (Bill) Irvine. After passing his FRCS in 1964, he was appointed as a registrar at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where he spent 18 months working with Brian Truscott and John Withycombe. He then returned to St Mary's as a registrar, first on the surgical unit and then on the thoracic unit. In 1967, he was appointed as a lecturer in surgery with honorary senior registrar status to St Mary's Hospital Medical School. Apart from his clinical duties, in this post he was actively involved in research into aspects of gastric secretion, which led to the first of his more than 120 publications. He won the Warren Low award of the medical school, was awarded a Wellcome research fellowship and, in 1968, spent a year as Wellcome research fellow in the department of surgery, Tulane University, New Orleans, at the invitation of Oscar Creech. During this year he studied aspects of tumour immunology and the effects of laser radiation on tumour cell growth, work which led to several publications (one in Nature) and, in 1970, the award of an MS degree and a Hunterian lecture entitled 'Immunological resistance to tumours'. Also in that year, he was promoted to senior lecturer in surgery and assumed the position of assistant director of the surgical unit. In 1972 he was appointed as a part-time senior lecturer in surgery and director of the vascular surgical unit at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, a post which he held for 10 years. In 1973 he was appointed as a consultant surgeon to St Thomas' Hospital, where remained until his retirement in 1997. Although having trained in vascular surgery, his appointment at St Thomas' was as a result of his strong clinical interest and academic standing in surgical oncology and for several years he confined his practice at St Thomas' to this area. But slowly he began to increase the amount of vascular work he undertook at St Thomas', until this discipline became his overriding interest. A steady flow of original publications in peer-reviewed journals, leaders and chapters in textbooks led to him being asked to lecture both at home and abroad on various aspects of arterial and venous surgery. He was an invited lecturer overseas in countries as varied as Italy, Germany, South Africa, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and gave numerous eponymous lectures. He edited five textbooks on aspects of vascular surgery. In 1990 he delivered the prestigious Kinmonth memorial lecture to an international audience and, in 1995, became president of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He also became a trustee of the British Vascular Foundation. Over and above his many contributions in the vascular field, for much of his consultant career he was closely involved with the *British Journal of Surgery*, being editor for 10 years and then chairman of the board for another eight years. During that time he oversaw a transformation in the standing of the journal, which became international in its content and readership and universally recognised as one of the world's leading surgical journals. In the early 1990s, at a time of radical changes in the provision of secondary care, he became a member of the trust executive of the newly merged Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals and assumed the role of trust group clinical director, surgical services. In this capacity he was responsible for integrating the surgical services of the two hospitals, a task which was not easy but one which he fulfilled with distinction. He was also actively involved in workforce planning for the new trust. In these management roles he was instrumental in forging the successful merger of the two hospitals into a joint trust, while largely retaining the individual ethos of each campus. A man of keen intellect and warm outgoing personality, Crawford Jamieson was a *bon vivant*, a wonderful raconteur, a superb host and an enthusiastic supporter of country pursuits. Proud of his Scottish ancestry, he could also dance a large number of Scottish reels, flamboyant in his tartan kilt and sporran, something which always featured in his memorable New Year's Eve parties. In 1961 he married Gay Gillibrand, a fellow doctor, and they had a son, Crawford Philip, who became a consultant physician in Norwich. In 2004, after Gay's death from cancer, he married Daphne Bolton, a St Thomas' theatre sister. Sadly, their happiness was short-lived, for three years later he developed a carcinoma of the oesophagus and, despite excisional surgery and adjuvant therapy, died at home in Long Sutton, Hampshire, on 17 July 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001055
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Livingston, Reginald Hamilton (1923 - 1980)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-01-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006600-E006699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378874378874
Occupation Urologist Vascular surgeon
Details Reginald Hamilton Livingston was born on January 15 1923 at Lurgan, County Armagh, into a Quaker family and educated at Lurgan College and Queen's University, Belfast. After qualifying he took his FRCS and then spent a year at the Mayo Clinic before proceeding MD with high commendation. In 1956 he joined the staff of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, where his whole surgical career was spent. Starting as a urologist he became more and more involved in the expanding field of vascular surgery eventually being the leading expert in Ulster in this speciality. It was on the surgical unit at the Victoria that most arterial surgery was done and with the rise in civil disturbances the responsibilities which Reggie assumed were heavy indeed. He never complained and was always cheerful. Reggie Livingston was a splendid teacher and many generations of Belfast medical students owe much to his quiet, painstaking and kindly bedside instruction. He was a careful and fair examiner both in his own university of Queen's and subsequently on the Court of Examiners at the College from 1968 to 1973. He was chairman of the planning team in his own hospital and served on the Eastern Area Board from its inception in 1973. He was a keen member of the BMA and in 1972 became Chairman of the Northern Ireland Council which he continued to serve until 1978. As an excellent administrator he was greatly in demand and gave his advice to many committees in the province. Born a Quaker, Reggie was a committed Christian and gave unstintingly of his time to the local community. He served as district surgeon in the St John Ambulance Brigade and as council member of the YMCA, Cripples Institute, Belfast Bible College and Leprosy Mission. He was a family man and loved to escape with them to their bungalow by the sea at Dundrum. For relaxation he became a very skilled silversmith and was proud of owning his own hallmark. He was survived by his wife Sybil and family when he died on 7 December 1980 after a short illness.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006691
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ismail, Hisham Ismail (1947 - 1988)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-26
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007300-E007399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379541379541
Occupation Anatomist Vascular surgeon
Details Hisham Ismail was born in Heliopolis, Cairo, on 28 August 1947, the second son of Mohammed Ismail, a civil aviation engineer and general manager of Cairo airport. His early education was at Heliopolis Secondary School before entering Ain Shams Medical School, Cairo, where he obtained honours in surgery at the final examination. During his student years he was judo champion for five years and some of his surgical studies were at Charing Cross Hospital. After qualifying in 1969 he came to England and initially undertook house appointments in the St Thomas's Group of Hospitals. He decided to pursue a career in surgery and from 1972 to 1975 was rotating senior house surgeon and surgical registrar in the Guy's Group where he came under the influence of Frank Ellis and Hugh Kinder. He passed the FRCS Edinburgh in 1976 and the Fellowship of the College in the following year. He had a special interest in vascular surgery and after leaving Guy's Hospital spent some time as surgical registrar at King's College Hospital. In 1972 he married an Australian anaesthetist, Dr Glenys Penniment FFARCS, who was working at Guy's Hospital in junior anaesthetic posts and after they had both completed their training they returned to her home in Perth where he was able to obtain an appointment as registrar in vascular surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Hollywood, Western Australia. At that time his qualification permitted him to work in hospital but was not accepted by the board for registration to do private practice outside the hospital. He therefore returned to Cairo in 1983 to an appointment as associate professor of vascular surgery at Malariah Hospital where he also undertook some private practice. In 1985 he returned to Australia as vascular surgeon in Canberra but shortly afterwards developed a carcinoma of the nasopharynx which forced him to discontinue his hospital practice although he was able to continue working part-time in the department of anatomy of the University of Western Australia. He died on 17 January 1988 aged 40, survived by his wife and three children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007358
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Doyle, John Coundley (1932 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by John F Gurry
Publication Date 2015-09-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008100-E008199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380352380352
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John Doyle, former Director of Vascular Surgery at St Vincent's Public Hospital and Medical Director at St Vincent's Private has died, after a lifetime of exemplary service and outstanding leadership to both hospitals. I first met John in 1964 and over the 50 years since then he became in turn to me a teacher, mentor, close colleague and good friend. John Coundley Doyle was born on 17 June 1932, the eldest of three siblings. His early education was at CBC St Kilda, until moving to Xavier College in year 9. He matriculated in 1950, and was Captain of the School in that year, also playing in the First Eighteen and First Eleven. The following year he commenced medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating with honours through the St Vincent's Clinical School in 1956, third in the year behind Henry Berger. John commenced as a junior medical officer at St Vincent's in 1957, working through the usual rotations, but particularly remembering his time with Professor John Hayden in the Professorial Medical Unit, and his rotation through the Charles Osborne Surgical Unit where he first came to know John Connell. In 1959 John married Ann Considine in April and in August they moved to England where John commenced his surgical career. He won the Hallet Prize, first place in the Primary Examination of the FRCS, while studying at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and then worked at the Essex County Hospital before completing his surgical training as surgical Registrar and Lecturer in the Professorial Surgical Unit at St. Mary's Hospital in London, under Professor W T Irvine, but also working with Mr Felix Eastcott, a pioneer vascular surgeon who had performed the first carotid reconstruction. His experience at St Mary's exposed John to over two years concentrated training in vascular surgery, a then emerging new specialty. In 1964 John returned to Melbourne and St Vincent's, taking up a Hospital and Charities Fellowship in Vascular Surgery in the Connell Unit, practicing both general and vascular surgery. In late 1965 and early 1966 he joined Peter Ryan as a surgeon in the St Vincent's Hospital Team to South Vietnam. On his return he was appointed to Professor Dick Bennett's fledgling Department of Surgery as First Assistant and Senior Lecturer. He held this position until 1970 when he joined Des Hurley's Surgical Unit as Outpatient Surgeon, continuing in that position until the Vascular Surgery Unit was formed in 1980. In 1977 a Vascular Outpatient Clinic with five inpatient beds was established, with John Connell, John Doyle and John Gurry appointed. On the formation of the Vascular Unit, John Connell became the Senior Surgeon. Following John Connell's retirement in 1987, John became the Senior Surgeon and Director, retiring as Director in 1994, and from St Vincent's Public in 1997. John was most influential and instrumental in setting up the Vascular Surgery Unit as a separate specialty from General Surgery, finally convincing an at times reluctant John Connell that this was the way forward. As Head of Unit he recognised, embraced and encouraged the emergence of endovascular surgery. He also introduced cervical plexus block anaesthesia in Carotid Endarterectomy in cooperation with Michael Davies and Keith Cronin from the Department of Anaesthesia, leading to a significant improvement in outcomes. John published and presented a number of papers on various aspects of vascular disease and surgery during his career. During his time at St Vincent's, John held many senior positions. At various stages he was Chairman of the Senior Medical Staff, Chairman of the Division of Surgery, Coordinator of Medical Graduate Education, Medical Service Director Special Surgery, a member and Chairman of the Electoral College, a member and Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council, and importantly an inaugural Director of the newly incorporated Board of St Vincent's Public Hospital. His influence and leadership was considerable, as was his mentoring and teaching of students, residents and junior specialists. As well as his work at St Vincent's Public, John was also in private practice, operating mainly at St Vincent's Private, the Mercy and St George's. In 1995 on John Clareborough's retirement John became part time Medical Director of St Vincent's Private Hospital, holding that position there and at the combined St Vincent's and Mercy Private Hospital until 2006. He was very influential in this role providing wise counsel, practical advice and principled leadership, and was highly regarded and respected by staff at every level. A man of great integrity, very high personal standards, and compassion for the sick and underprivileged, John was widely read, particularly in biographies, the French Revolution, the Second World War and Winston Churchill, with a remarkable recollection for historical dates and facts. He was a conservative but very competent surgeon and excellent diagnostician in a field where conservatism paid. He was a kind and considerate doctor much admired by patients, families and nurses alike. Family values were most important, and together John and Ann were a great team. John had more than his share of medical problems in recent years, and indeed decades of chronic back and neck pain following earlier injuries. His stoicism and acceptance of his problems was quite remarkable. John died on 23 March, leaving Ann, his loving and devoted wife of 56 years, their four children and partners, and seven grandchildren. He will be greatly missed.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008169
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Solan, Michael John (1932 - 1995)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008300-E008399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380534380534
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Mike Solan was born in Eltham, London, on 31 January 1932. His father, Michael, was a Bank of England official and his mother was Doris Winifred Gladys Rogers, a Librarian. He was educated at Douai Abbey School, Berkshire, and at Woolwich Polytechnic and he attended St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London. He spent two years doing military service in the Royal Artillery from 1950 to 1952, including one year in Gibraltar, and subsequently three years were spent with the Territorial Army. At St Thomas's he was resident assistant surgeon from 1966 to 1967 and lecturer and research assistant on the professorial unit from 1967 to 1968. He was appointed consultant general surgeon at Frimley Park Hospital, Farnham, Surrey, in 1968. He was a general surgeon who specialised in vascular work. He was married three times and had five children. He married Christine Lee in 1959 and they had a daughter, Joanna. In 1966 he married for a second time, to Elizabeth Ann Binsted. They had four children – Matthew Charles, James Michael, Katharine Jane and Patrick William. His eldest daughter Joanna became a nurse practitioner; Matthew is a surgeon and Katharine is an anaesthetist. He was a sociable man with a great sense of humour. He enjoyed playing rugby when young but, more importantly, he enjoyed playing the bass clarinet and was very interested in traditional music and jazz. As an older man he enjoyed sailing and the sea. As a surgeon he had first-rate operative skills and was an excellent abdominal vascular surgeon. He was very much a 'surgeon's surgeon' whose colleagues sought his advice frequently for themselves as well as for their patients. He was excellent company with a zest for the good things in life, and was a natural leader of his local medical community. He was not a great or prolific surgical author, although one of his contributions 'post-operative gastric decompression by temporary gastrectomy' (*Br J Surg* 1965 82 569) did attract much attention and was widely used in clinical practice. He died of stomach cancer on 12 March 1995.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008351
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Chant, Anthony David Barry (1938 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Harvey Chant
Publication Date 2020-08-12 2021-01-28
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/383719383719
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Tony Chant was a consultant vascular surgeon in Southampton, Hampshire. He was born in Pembroke, West Wales. His father, Percival James Chant, was a Royal Air Force engineer who worked on Sunderland flying boats at the outbreak of the Second World War. He was then posted to Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where Tony grew up. Tony’s mother was Ethel Helen Chant née Quick. His careers tutor at Hitchin Grammar School advised him against surgery, saying that he had once been into an operating theatre as a student and ‘it smelt abominably’. Tony went to London to study medicine at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School. He failed his first-year exams, found himself looking for employment in London and soon landed a job at King’s College on the Strand as a physiology laboratory technician. Here he worked for St John Buxton on early radioisotope studies of capillary permeability. Also around this time, he taught history of music at his brother Derek’s school. The headmaster here noted Tony’s flair for teaching. This break gave him the opportunity to study again for his first MB. He was successful this time and shortly after gained entry to St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School. While there, he married Ann Venning (in 1959), the daughter of an antiques dealer from Hitchin, Hertfordshire. As a result of more stability in his life, things began to turn around and Tony found himself in the top 5% of his year and was invited to study for an intercalated BSc in physiology, working under the tutelage of ‘Mac’ Macdonald and Elizabeth Ulmond. Three other students were selected: the ‘Powles Twins’ (Ray and Trevor) and Hugh Phillips. All four ended up travelling to America on a scholarship to work as technicians in physiology departments. Here, Tony met Seymour S Kety, who was using radioisotopes to study blood flow, and a lifelong interest in blood flow and vascular physiology developed. After qualifying in 1964, he started work as a house surgeon to G W Taylor, followed by a series of junior surgical roles in north London hospitals. He then went to Cardiff and worked under the supervision of H O Jones and Archie Cochrane as a research fellow. He contributed to an early randomised trial of venous sclerotherapy against venous surgery. After demonstrating no difference between liquid sclerotherapy and surgery, it was deemed that sclerotherapy was the preferred treatment on the basis that it was cheaper. After two years of follow up, it became apparent that the results of the surgical arm were superior, leading to a retraction of the paper and a valuable lesson to all those involved. His personal research in Cardiff, eventually leading to the award of his MS thesis, involved assessment of lower limb venous function by the study of radioisotope clearance. With his research complete and some further basic surgical experience in South Wales, he moved on the Royal United Hospital, Bath, where he had the some of his happiest memories of work and life in general. He worked for Howell Thomas ‘Johnnie’ John, a fearless ex-pilot and surgeon, and became a competent surgical registrar. Ever on and upwards, he landed a senior lecturer post with Sir James Fraser in the newly-founded Southampton Medical School. Two years later, he was working for John Webster and not long afterwards was appointed as a consultant surgeon (with a vascular interest) in Southampton in 1974. There he developed a national reputation for treatment, training and research in vascular surgery. Having been a tutor from the outset of the Southampton Medical School, he began to realise that medical education could be reorganised to allow doctors, nurses and managers to start from a common root, to branch out and develop into whatever area of healthcare interested them. The concept of ‘the stem doctor’ was developed and published, and elements of his theory are developing traction in today’s healthcare education. He published in many areas, but it was his passion for venous pathology that led to the award of a Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian chair. He was a founding member of the Joint Vascular Research Group and enjoyed an active role in the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland (VSGBI) and the Association of International Vascular Surgeons. After struggling to raise funding specifically for vascular research, he set up the British Vascular Foundation, later renamed the Circulation Foundation when it was adopted as the charitable arm of the VSGBI. For his all-round contribution to vascular surgery he received a lifetime achievement award from the VSGBI. He was the model of a lifelong learner; he was awarded an MA in philosophy from the Open University and published his work criticising the unscientific concept of ‘thought experiments’. Tony was a talented pianist and enjoyed singing – whether in church or his favourite pub, the Newport Inn. When he was younger, he played squash to a high standard in the rather warm courts in Barts, built next to the boilers. During his consultant years he became an accomplished chalk stream angler with a keen eye for the larger River Test trout. More latterly, his gardening became more important and he was the recipient of three Royal Horticultural Society medals. Tony Chant died on 20 February 2020 at the age of 81. He was survived by his wife Ann, three sons and seven grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009766
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Galloway, John Millie Dow (1936 - 2022)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Alan Wilkinson
Publication Date 2022-09-21
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/386030386030
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Millie Dow Galloway, known by the Gaelic name Ian, was a general and vascular consultant surgeon in Hull. He was born on 21 December 1936 in the village of Auchtermuchty, central Fife, the son of Annan Galloway, an insurance salesman, and Agnes Galloway née Dow, a housewife. He was the second of three brothers. His secondary education was at Bell Baxter Grammar School in Cupar, where his fellow pupil was Alasdair Breckenridge, the renowned clinical pharmacologist. At the time, Ian was only the second child from Auchtermuchty to go to university. He entered Edinburgh University medical school at the age of 17, qualifying in 1960. After house jobs at Bridge of Earn, he became an anatomy demonstrator for a year, before starting his clinical surgical training in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Initially drawn to orthopaedics, he thought he should gain some further general surgical experience. Having passed the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1964, he secured a post at Aberdeen. In Aberdeen he worked with George Mavor, whose work ethic and personality he greatly admired. Mavor became his long-term mentor. At this time he was active in research in venous thromboembolism and was awarded his ChM in 1969. In 1970, at the age of 33, he was appointed to the Hull hospitals as a general surgeon with a vascular interest. As the first of a new generation of surgeons in the hospital, he was influential in improving facilities, equipment and postgraduate education. He was appointed college tutor in 1974. Subsequently, as he was joined by younger consultant surgical colleagues, sub specialisation occurred in general surgery within the Hull hospitals. By 1980, with a vascular colleague, a permanent on call rota for vascular surgery was established covering east Yorkshire and offering support to hospitals in north Lincolnshire and north Yorkshire. A close working relationship with the radiologists interested in vascular imaging developed. Improved imaging meant angioplasty and stenting could become options in the management of patients with arterial disease. The early development of the combined weekly meetings between the vascular surgeons and radiologists held on Friday lunchtimes was beneficial to patient management, educational for the junior staff, and further improved working relationships. Ian’s ability to persuade management of the need for new equipment to improve patient care, such as duplex scanning facilities within the vascular department, enabled the assessment of patients with potential carotid disease and patients with complex venous problems by specifically trained vascular radiographers. As vascular surgery emerged as a definite subspecialty, Ian was involved at a national level on the Vascular Advisory Committee and as a member and secretary of the Peripheral Vascular Club. Later he was a council member of the Vascular Society, becoming its president in 1998. His interest in education and training in vascular surgery resulted in senior vascular trainees from Australia, South Africa and Greece coming to Hull to improve their surgical skills through the 1980s. With the changes to surgical training in the UK, Hull became a popular centre for trainee surgeons wishing to specialise in vascular surgery. Later, he was also instrumental in establishing an academic unit within the vascular department. He was, after 1980, an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, often examining in physiology, where he maintained an active interest. Within his department he always encouraged the staff to be self-critical about their work. He himself was clear his best years were in his mid-40s, with experience helping into his late 50s. In 1995, he became medical director of the Hull Hospitals Trust, a post he held until his retirement in 1999. His experience, wisdom and quiet effectiveness enabled him to support the Trust during its involvement with the Hull Postgraduate Medical School. He gave up all surgical practice in 1996, abandoning a successful private practice. Ian was a keen golfer, whilst his involvement was limited when working, in retirement he and his wife Margaret played many of the prestigious courses in the UK. He was captain of Hull Golf Club in 2002. His love of reading was lifelong; he had read most of the major authors between 1700 to 1900, in particular Scott and Hardy. He was a member of the council and subsequently (in 2002) president of the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society. Despite a heavy workload, Ian was a devoted family man. He met his wife Margaret whilst a young medical student, and they married in 1961. Their two sons, Peter and Malcolm, shared Ian’s interest in sport. He was club surgeon for Hull FC rugby league club for several years, visiting matches when work allowed. Retirement gave Ian and Margaret the opportunity to enjoy travel worldwide, to entertain in the house they both loved, and to enjoy the company of family and their grandchildren. Apart from a posterior cerebral stroke, age 78, successfully treated by radiological embolectomy, Ian he remained in good health. Sadly, for the last few years of their 60 years of married life, Margaret needed an increasing amount of care, which Ian was determined to deliver personally in their home. Margaret died in October 2021. Thereafter Ian’s health and fortitude rapidly deteriorated and he died on 12 August 2022 aged 85.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010157
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Gordon-Smith, Ian Christopher (1941 - 1978)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-12-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006500-E006599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378695378695
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ian Christopher Gordon-Smith was born in 1941 and was educated at Haileybury, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and the Middlesex Hospital. He qualified in 1964. After house officer posts at the Middlesex he was surgical registrar at Cheltenham General Hospital, taking the FRCS in 1969. He then returned to the Middlesex and soon started research into the prevention of deep vein thrombosis, work which led to a thesis for the MCh degree at Cambridge in 1976 and several important publications. Having worked for one year in Thailand he became senior surgical registrar at St Mary's Hospital, where he continued his training in vascular and general surgery. He had nearly completed his higher surgical training, but was released for a further period of service in Thailand before applying for consultant posts in Britain. Throughout his short career in medicine he was an enthusiast in everything he did. He communicated easily with all groups and all ages. His driving force was a deep Christian faith which was an integral part of his life. It showed itself in concern for others, work in the Church, the Christian Medical Fellowship, and a number of organisations for young people. It was this same faith and practical concern that took him to work with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship at Manorom, among the paddy fields of central Thailand. The day he arrived at the hospital he used vascular surgery techniques learnt in London to save a patient's injured limb, and this set the stage for the months of involvement both in medical matters and in the local community. His wife Stephanie shared his conviction and their family life, which he prized so highly, was very happy. He died on 14 January 1978 aged 37 years in a motor accident in Thailand together with his wife and two young children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006512
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Clyne, Charles Andrew Cooper (1946 - 1992)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-07
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007800-E007899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380049380049
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Charles Clyne was born in Huddersfield on 3 February 1946, the son of a Czechoslovakian immigrant who had come to Britain in 1939. His early education was at St Bee's School in Cumbria, just five miles from the nuclear processing plant at Sellafield. He trained at Liverpool University Medical School, qualified in 1969 and after junior appointments in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and Alder Hey Hospital passed the FRCS in 1974. He was surgical registrar to John Younghusband at Portsmouth from 1974 to 1977, and at Hammersmith Hospital from 1977 to 1978; deciding that vascular surgery was his métier, he pursued this whilst a lecturer in surgery at Southampton from 1978 to 1984. He was appointed as Research Fellow to the Department of Neurology and Vascular Surgery at the Tufts New England Centre in Boston in 1982, and the work he did there gained him an MS from Southampton University on his return in 1983. In 1984 he was appointed consultant surgeon to Torbay Hospital, where he soon made his mark with his delightful personality and impressive surgical skills. He was Hunterian Professor in 1988, and was made the first Medical Director of the South Devon Healthcare Trust in 1991. Sadly he developed adenocarcinoma of the stomach with bony metastases. He died on 1 July 1992, and in his own obituary in the BMJ wrote 'I feel somewhat cheated by my early departure from life and question the role of the proximity of Sellafield to the school I attended in the 1960s'. He was a keen sheep breeder, ran a medical video company, and enjoyed tennis and sailing. He married his wife Elizabeth in 1970, and she and their children Alex, Jonathan and Suzie survived him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007866
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
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First Title value, for Searching Butler, Michael Frank (1924 - 2013)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Christopher M Butler
Publication Date 2012-02-09 2014-01-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E002000-E002999/E002000-E002099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/374184374184
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Mike Butler helped establish and develop general surgical services in the Isle of Thanet, Margate and Ramsgate, Kent. He was born on 21 January 1924 in London, the third child and first son of Frank Butler and Ailsa Butler née Beckwith. His father served in the First World War and was a dentist, originally in Harley Street and then in Finsbury Square in the City of London. He was also a keen and gifted amateur musician: his wide circle of musical friends included Gustav Holst, who was a regular visitor to the family home. Mike's early appreciation and love of music was to stay with him for the rest of his life. He was educated at Tollington Preparatory School in London and, from 1937, he was a boarder at Bishop's Stortford College in Hertfordshire. He played both cricket and rugby in the school first teams. He entered St Mary's Hospital to study medicine at the age of 17, in 1941. He gained a prize in anatomy and the Meadowe's prize in obstetrics, and qualified in 1945, at the age of 21. His first post was as a resident obstetric officer at St Mary's, and this was followed by a spell as a house surgeon at the Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton. In addition to surgical duties, the house surgeon was also expected to give anaesthetics for procedures such as tonsillectomy or cystoscopy. In 1946 he joined the RAF for his National Service and was appointed medical officer to RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland. The posting proved quiet enough for him to complete the reading and study required to pass the primary FRCS in 1948. After leaving the RAF in early 1948, he took a further house job in surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Bournemouth. After passing his final fellowship in 1949, he was appointed as a junior registrar to W J Lytle in Sheffield. The position provided ample experience and training in elective abdominal, thyroid, breast, hernia, prostate and basic children's surgery. He felt that he learnt from Lytle the basis of a sound and safe surgical technique and a practical common sense approach to surgical problems and administration. This was to provide the basis for his surgical practice for the rest of his career. After a further year as registrar in Sheffield, he was appointed to the Westminster Hospital in London as a middle grade registrar to E Stanley Lee and George Macnab. The work involved not only the usual general and urology cases, but also major head and neck and breast cancer surgery with Lee and some brain surgery with Macnab. There was a weekly combined clinic led by Sir Stanford Cade, which usually had a remarkable collection of cancer cases to consider. In 1954 he was appointed as a senior registrar to Kingston Hospital with Richard Franklin, a post he held for two years, before rotating back to Westminster as senior registrar to Lee, Macnab and the newly-appointed thoracic surgeon, Charles Drew. Drew was ploughing a fairly lonely furrow developing his technique for open heart surgery using profound hypothermia, at a time when most cardiac surgeons were using and developing the heart-lung machine for these cases. Mike was interested to see the development and practice of the technique, and recognised the heart-searching that the pioneering Drew endured - particularly in the early days when fatalities were not uncommon. During the latter part of his time at Westminster he took a post as a clinical assistant to the urological surgeon David Wallace at St Peter's and St Paul's. Early in 1960 he rotated into the post of research assistant to Charles Drew. Some unsuccessful attempts at heart and lung transplants in greyhounds and feasibility studies on the possibilities of coronary artery endarterectomy using cadaveric hearts were undertaken. Although he found research work interesting, Mike didn't see his future as an academic surgeon: he was appointed as a consultant general surgeon to the Isle of Thanet Hospital group in 1960. His sessions were all based in Thanet, with colleagues from Canterbury having sessions in Thanet and covering some of the emergency rota. Initially he covered general surgery for the hospitals in Margate and Ramsgate. A true general surgeon, he could turn his hand to most operations, including chest and urology. As sub-specialisation developed in general surgery he was able to drop urology. He developed an interest in the newly-developing peripheral vascular surgery and was able, by visiting London centres, to train himself to a good standard. He helped develop and rationalise surgical service provision in Thanet with the gradual upgrading of the Margate site and the closure of Ramsgate Hospital to acute admissions. It was not until the 1990s, after his retirement in 1989, that the development of hospital services in Thanet was finally completed with the opening of the new Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospital. In 1947 Mike married Marjorie (née Parsons), a theatre nurse from the Royal South Hants. They had two children, Christopher, a surgeon, and Nigel, a general practitioner. An accomplished pianist and choral singer, Mike also enjoyed dinghy sailing, wind surfing and skiing. A keen and devoted family man, during his retirement he enjoyed watching his seven grandchildren grow up and taught them all to sail and surf. In 2010 his knowledge of anatomy was still good enough to help one grandchild pass his MRCS examination. He was a very fit man and enjoyed good health for most of his life, with the only significant surgery being a successful coronary artery bypass operation after a myocardial infarction in 2001. The last few months of his life were frustrating as the effects of a failing tricuspid valve made him rather short of breath and not able to attend to his large garden as he wished. He was spared any significant failing of his mental faculties and died suddenly but peacefully on 16 August 2013, aged 89, with his wife of 66 years by his side at home in the house that they had shared together for 53 years on the cliff top at Broadstairs. He was survived by his wife, two sons, four grandsons, three granddaughters and two great granddaughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E002001
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bremer, Julius Karl (1922 - 1987)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-04-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007100-E007199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379303379303
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Julius Karl Bremer was born in October 1922. He was educated at the high school in Graaf-Reinet and qualified MB ChB from the University of Kaapstad in 1935. During his years at the University he had a distinguished academic record and was elected to be chairman of the students' council. He won the debating society's speaker's cup and was co-editor of the medical students' magazine Inyanga. In 1933 an article by him was published in this magazine on tumours of the pituitary and it was probably one of the first articles in Afrikaans by a student. After hospital appointments under Professors Falconer and Saint he decided to pursue surgery and worked at various hospitals, among them St Thomas's and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. He obtained the MRCS in 1937 and the Fellowship the following year. In 1940 he returned to South Africa becoming part-time assistant to Dr F du Toiti van Zyl and working at the Groote Schuur Hospital. In 1944 he moved to Pretoria to set up in private practice and joined the staff of the medical faculty of Pretoria University becoming part-time senior lecturer in anatomy and then in surgery. From 1950 to 1985 he was Professor of Surgery at the University and at the Pretoria General Hospital. Julius Bremer was a practical hard-working surgeon. His main area of research was vascular surgery. He worked for the Medical Society of South Africa from 1940 and he became President of the North Transvaal Branch in 1963, National President in 1969 and Chairman of the Federal Board of the MSSA from 1972 to 1974. He served on a number of committees including the membership committee and represented the MSSA at meetings of the World Medical Society. In 1967 the MSSA presented him with its bronze medal and in 1970 he was awarded the gold. He also served several times as an elected member of the Medical and Dental Council of South Africa working on various committees and becoming vice-president in 1985. It is not known when he married but he and his wife, Jeanette, had two daughters and three sons of whom two now practice medicine. He was an inspirational teacher and a loyal friend with a fine sense of humour. He died on 1 October 1987, ten days before his 75th birthday, survived by his wife and family.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007120
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Kendrick, Ralph Ronald (1915 - 1994)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-15
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008100-E008199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380305380305
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ralph Ronald Kendrick was born on 3 April 1915 in Camberwell, London, the only son of Samuel and Eleanor Kendrick. He was educated at Dulwich College and received his medical education at King's College Hospital, London, where, following graduation, he became house surgeon to Sir Cecil Wakeley. He then joined the Royal Air Force as a general duty medical officer, attaining the rank of squadron leader and serving for some years in Canada. Returning to civilian life he became in due course a surgical registrar at the Gordon and Princess Beatrice Hospitals in London, and in 1948 passed the FRCS. Later he became a surgical registrar at the Joyce Green Hospital, Dartford, and the Gravesend General Hospital. At this point in his career he became interested in vascular surgery, at that date beginning to emerge as a specialty in its own right. In pursuit of this he performed considerable research into the various vascular grafts then available. Besides work as a busy registrar he found time to court and marry Kathleen Elizabeth Owsley, by whom he had four sons and one daughter: the eldest son, born in 1949, recalls being taken as a small boy to the hospitals with which his father became associated, and possibly because of this was the only one of their children to become interested in medicine. He was appointed consultant general and vascular surgeon to the Medway Hospital Group in 1962 and thereafter led a busy life in both hospital and private practice. His chief interest outside the hospital was his garden, which covered three acres and in which he grew sufficient vegetables to feed not only his children but also his twelve grandchildren. In the mid-sixties he bought his first Aston Martin and joined the Aston Martin Owners' Club, continuing to drive his car until his death at the age of 79. After his retirement in 1980 he continued in private practice, and until the age of 70 performed intermittent locums in the area. He died suddenly on 29 November 1994 following surgery to repair a thoracic aortic aneurysm, survived by his wife Elizabeth, children David, Richard, Anne, John and Robert, and grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008122
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching O'Flynn, William Redmond (1927 - 1992)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-09-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008200-E008299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380417380417
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details William O'Flynn was born in County Limerick on 12 April 1927, into a family with a long tradition in medicine as general practitioners. Unfortunately no details of his forbears are available. After education at Presentation College, Bray, County Wicklow he entered the National University of Ireland in Dublin, graduating in 1950 and completing the FRCS four years later. After hospital resident appointments he was later a senior registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital and clinical assistant at the Miller General Hospital, Greenwich. As he wanted to live and work in Britain he undertook National Service, which, as an Irish citizen, he could have avoided. He was commissioned into the RAMC in 1956 and served for two years, reaching the rank of major as surgical specialist in Gibraltar. He resisted pressure to remain in the army and, after further training posts, was appointed consultant surgeon at the Miller and at St Olave's Hospital in 1964. He became especially interested in peripheral vascular surgery and, on the death of S H Wass in 1970, he was invited to take on Wass's work at Guy's. He considered this a great honour and, with his innate modesty, did not realise that the invitation was due to the excellent reputation he had established at St Olave's. O'Flynn had a wide knowledge of many subjects, especially literature, and had a legendary ability to produce appropriate and witty quotations for every occasion. He further evinced great kindness and understanding of human nature so that he was deeply appreciated by patients and all hospital staff. Only a few days before his death he was given a moving farewell by his fellow consultants, junior staff, nurses and domestic staff. When he died on 28 April 1992, aged 65, just two weeks after his retirement, he was survived by his wife, Doreen, a former nurse, and by his two sons, Richard and David, both of whom are doctors.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008234
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Barros D'Sa, Alban Avelino John (1937 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sarah Gillam
Publication Date 2015-02-16 2017-05-04
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006700-E006799
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378963378963
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Alban Barros D'Sa was a consultant general surgeon at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. He was born in Nairobi, Kenya, into a Catholic family originally from Goa. Barros D'Sa later moved with his parents to Kisumu on Lake Victoria, where he went to school. He knew he wanted to become a doctor, but family circumstances meant he had to leave school after O levels, study at Nairobi Teacher Training College and become a teacher at the age of just 18. It was only after five years of teaching and having supported his brothers and sisters through their education that Barros D'Sa felt able to go to medical school. In 1960, he went to London to study A levels at West Ham College, and two years later was accepted into Bristol University Medical School. He paid his way by working night shifts during the holidays in a factory and cleaning machinery. He won prizes in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ENT medicine and ophthalmology, and qualified in 1967. He was a house officer at Bristol Royal Infirmary, then spent a year as a demonstrator and was subsequently a senior house officer at Bristol Royal Infirmary, Southmead Hospital and Frenchay Hospital. At Frenchay he worked with the thoracic surgeon Ronald Belsey, which started his interest in oesophageal surgery. He gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1972. He then went to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and Hammersmith Hospital, London, as a Pfizer research fellow, tutor in surgery and honorary senior registrar. From 1975 to 1979 he was a senior registrar in general and vascular surgery at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff and the Singleton Hospital, Swansea. In 1979, he was appointed as a consultant surgeon in Coventry and Rugby. He began as a general and vascular surgeon, but later specialised in laparoscopic, upper gastrointestinal, thyroid and parathyroid surgery. After training with Joseph Petelin in Kansas, he introduced laparoscopic general surgery to Coventry and Warwickshire in 1990. Also in 1990, he became an examiner in general surgery for the FRCS (and later MRCS) exam at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He was also a tutor on and then the convenor of laparoscopic surgery courses at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 1997, he was awarded an FRCS *ad eundem* by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He was also an examiner in surgery for the universities of Leicester and Warwick, and a surgical tutor for Rugby. He retired from his NHS post in October 2002, but continued in private practice until 2008. In retirement, he was able to travel with his wife and spent time with his family, despite poor health. Alban Barros D'Sa died on 24 January 2015 whilst on holiday in Grenada. He was 77. He was survived by his wife, Gwenda (née Davies), whom he married in 1972, and their two children, Sonia and Ian, both of whom have followed him into medicine.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006780
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mannick, John Anthony (1928 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by C Keith Ozaki
Publication Date 2021-10-08 2021-12-10
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010000-E010099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/385091385091
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details John A Mannick was chief of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston and Moseley professor of surgery at Harvard University. He was born in Deadwood, South Dakota, the son of Alfred Mannick, an engineer, and Catherine Mannick née Schuster, an English teacher. As a youngster, his family moved to Yakima, Washington, where he graduated from high school. He then enrolled at Harvard. At Harvard, he majored in history and literature. Besides a robust liberal arts education, he took the required pre-medical science courses. He matriculated to Harvard Medical School, gaining his MD degree in 1953. Upon graduation, Mannick joined the US Air Force and served in Sacramento and San Antonio. Upon completion of his Air Force obligation, where he rose to the rank of captain, he carried out a surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Although he was counselled by his mentors to take a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he chose a fellowship in the laboratory of E Donnall Thomas (a future Nobel laureate), studying transplantation biology at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York. He became a pioneer in the new field of transplantation, focusing on lymphocyte biology. Mannick’s first faculty position was working with another transplantation pioneer, David Hume, at the Medical College of Virginia. He became a fast friend of Richard Egdahl (another junior faculty member), both practising general surgery. As the story goes, Hume summoned Mannick and Egdahl to his office, advising them that they should subspecialise. Both vigorously protested, so Hume flipped a coin, assigning Mannick to vascular surgery and Egdahl to endocrine surgery. Shortly thereafter, Egdahl left Virginia to become the chair of surgery at Boston University. Egdahl recruited Mannick back to Boston to become the residency programme director at Boston University, where he eventually succeeded Egdahl as chair of surgery. Mannick was then recruited to succeed Francis Moore as the chief of surgery and Moseley professor of surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1976. This was a time of transition at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital as it merged with the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital (orthopaedics) and the Boston Hospital for Women (gynaecology). This merger resulted in Affiliated Hospitals Center, which subsequently became Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Mannick presided over unprecedented growth of surgical services at BWH. He facilitated the integration of Harvard Community Health Plan surgeons into the staff at BWH. Several of these surgeons became outstanding teachers for the BWH surgical residents. All the while, the academic faculty continued to build strong programmes in cancer, cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery, especially. He served as surgeon-in-chief at the Brigham and Moseley professor of surgery at Harvard until 1994. In the subsequent decades he remained actively involved in education and research efforts at both institutions. Mannick built exceptional research programmes led by surgeons. These surgeon-scientists made major contributions in the fields of transplantation biology, vascular biology, tumour immunology, nutrition, pulmonary physiology and injury/sepsis, and received generous NIH funding. He was not only a tremendous role model, but he also created opportunities for each of these investigators to flourish in the BWH environment and beyond. One measure of success was the number of presentations at the surgical forum of the American College of Surgeons. Mannick was particularly proud of the times when the Brigham faculty had the most abstracts presented at the forum. His own laboratory continued to make significant contributions even after his retirement as chair of surgery, when his NIH-funded research focused on abnormal lymphocyte responses that occur after injury. His track record for continuous NIH funding is unequalled. The BWH department of surgery continues to host an annual John A Mannick research awards ceremony in his honour. These awards recognise surgery residents and research fellows for their work in basic science, clinical or outcomes research. As a vascular surgeon, he was always well prepared, thorough and meticulous. He contributed many successful techniques to the practice of vascular surgery. These include vein grafts to reconstruct the tibial and peroneal arteries, the reduction of mortality from abdominal aortic aneurysm repair from more than five percent to less than two percent through the use of volume loading and minimal dissection of the aorta and iliac arteries. In addition, the use of axillofemoral and femorofemoral grafts to correct aortoiliac occlusive disease in certain high-risk patients, and the demonstration that autogenous tissue reconstruction techniques can be applied with very high rates of long-term success in over 90 percent of patients with limb-threatening femoropopliteal and infrapopliteal occlusive disease. Beyond the vascular fellows, he welcomed general surgery residents into his operating room, and many learned their first vascular anastomoses under his watchful eye. What he taught his general surgery residents in terms of technical innovation was of incalculable value throughout their careers. As a medical administrator Mannick was inspirational. Always punctual, his meetings were incredibly efficient. He was always ready with his incisive wit to defuse confrontation or provide support. He was also remarkable in that he always carried a very thin briefcase, and his desk was always clean by the end of the day. He governed his department with a small council of elders and decision-making was efficient, fact-based, and emphasised what was best for patient care. His example and mentorship helped develop a number of leaders. His mentees became chairs of departments of surgery at Washington University in St Louis, the National Children’s Medical Center, University of Wisconsin, the New England Deaconess Hospital, the University of Florida and Seattle Children’s Hospital, to name a few. He also produced several deans, CEOs and innumerable division chiefs throughout the country. He received many honours, leading the Society of Vascular Surgery, being president of the American Surgical Association and receiving the lifetime achievement award of the Society of Vascular Surgery. He was particularly proud of his honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Mannick was not only a role model professionally but also personally. He was an avid tennis player and in later years became an enthusiastic golfer. He met the love of his life, Virginia Gossard, while she was at Radcliffe College, in an organic chemistry class before medical school. He was particularly impressed when he discovered that she outperformed the rest of the class on their exams. A blind date subsequently led to their eventual marriage. ‘Ginny’ and this surgeon were great partners throughout his career and were an inseparable duo at meetings. As Mannick was frequently quoted saying, ‘Behind every successful surgeon stands a spouse, astonished!’ As Ginny’s health declined, he was a remarkably devoted and tender care giver. Predeceased by his wife, Mannick died on 13 October 2019 at the age of 91 and was survived by their daughters, Catherine, Elizabeth and Joan, and seven grandchildren. He will be remembered as the consummate surgeon-scientist, masterful administrator, and a devoted educator and mentor to many.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010014
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Shoesmith, John Harrop (1925 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Michael J Gough
Publication Date 2018-03-27 2019-11-05
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009400-E009499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381840381840
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Shoesmith, consultant surgeon at Leeds General Infirmary and Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, was one of the first vascular surgeons in the UK. He was a founder member of the Vascular Society in 1966 and subsequently president in 1988. He was born on 1 July 1925 in Halifax to Harold Percy Shoesmith and Mary Shoesmith née Harrop. His father, always known as Percy, qualified as a dentist from Leeds University before the First World War, where he served in Thessaloniki prior to being appointed to the Bradford hospitals. Mary was a leading light in the Workers’ Educational Association, a school governor and magistrate; by all accounts a formidable woman. John was educated at Heath Grammar School, Halifax. He was an all-rounder, excelling at sport, attaining the King’s Scout award and winning a scholarship to Leeds Medical School, where he graduated in 1948. Although exempt from the Armed Forces, he served with V Company of the West Riding Home Guard whilst a student. One of the highlights of John’s childhood was accompanying his cousin, Peter, now Sir Peter Harrop, to watch the touring Australians on the Saturday of the Headingley Test in 1934. Such was the frenzy stirred up by the 1932-1933 bodyline series in Australia that they had to queue from 6.30 am to guarantee entry to the ground. They were rewarded by witnessing the lion’s share of the great Don Bradman’s innings of 304. John’s sporting achievements continued at university, where he was awarded colours in athletics, cricket, fives and rugby. In 1945, he twice represented Yorkshire at rugby before a broken leg put paid to what might have an even more impressive rugby career. Later in life John took up golf and quickly reduced his handicap to a respectable seven. As a proud Yorkshireman, he would frequently recount that he had purchased life membership of Alwoodley Golf Club, Leeds in the early 1960s for £1,000, a calculated gamble that he regarded as his best ever investment. Many years later, when the club agreed with this assessment and chased him for more money, he would always point out the terms of the contract and quietly demur. After graduation from medical school, John went to Millbank, London to undertake his National Service (from 1949 to 1951). Whilst there he met his future wife, Margot (Irene Margaret) Jolley. Margot had been offered a place at the Royal College of Music but, following the premature death of her father, James (a Church of England priest), when she was 17, funds were tight and she was unable to take this up. As fate would have it, she trained as a state registered nurse at King’s College Hospital, London and met John. During their courtship, Margot introduced him to the finer points of ballet, opera and classical music, the latter becoming a lifelong interest for both of them. After National Service, John returned to Leeds and gained his fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1952. At Leeds General Infirmary John worked with Geoffrey Wooler, who pioneered open heart surgery in Britain. The team was at the forefront of research with the heart-lung machine and, when one of the prototypes exploded, John narrowly escaped serious injury after being struck on the temple by a piece of metal. Thereafter, John’s surgical training progressed uneventfully and included working on John Goligher’s unit and with the other general surgeons at the Infirmary. He was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Infirmary in 1961, replacing the distinguished Digby Chamberlain, who wrote to John following his appointment saying: ‘Dear Shoesmith, I can think of no one who I would rather see in my place.’ Whilst John was a ‘gentle man’ in all respects, his consultant colleague was Henry Shucksmith, a formidable character with a short temper; chalk and cheese! Because of the similarity of their names, upon John’s appointment, Henry insisted that a change was necessary and, as a result, John was known professionally as ‘Mr Harrop Shoesmith’. Between them they provided the first specialist vascular service in Yorkshire after John had spent time developing his knowledge and gaining experience in Boston, Massachusetts and Houston, Texas. On his return from America, John operated on all of the acute aortic aneurysms admitted to the Infirmary both from Leeds and West Yorkshire. Despite the commitment to vascular surgery, John was a true general surgeon, covering both his share of the elective and emergency work at the Infirmary and being a visiting consultant general surgeon to Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, where he undertook both clinics and operating lists. The operating theatres there were notable for having two operating tables side by side until the mid 1980s so that the consultant could keep a close eye on the registrar! John had a number of papers published in *The Lancet*, the *British Medical Journal* and the *British Journal of Surgery*, as well as in several other specialist journals. These publications reflected the stages of his surgical career covering thoracic surgery, peptic ulcer disease and, latterly, vascular surgery. John loved to feign shock at daily events, when his hand was slapped on his forehead followed by ‘Why me?’, ‘What a b***** orgy!’ (when unexpectedly walking into a mess party) or ‘He did what?’. In the operating theatre, this was translated to ‘I’ve never seen one as big/difficult/inaccessible as this’, to which sister would calmly reply: ‘You said that last week, Mr Shoesmith.’ These characteristics made John a regular ‘star’ in the medics’ revue. Despite the fake histrionics, John was loved by his patients and was hugely popular with trainees, who he treated as colleagues, unlike other consultants of his era. Later in his career John (and Margot) were invited to join the Moynihan Chirurgical Club, the oldest and arguably the most eminent surgical travelling club. He was also appointed as a regional adviser for general surgery for Yorkshire and the Humber for the Royal College of Surgeons. Like many busy surgeons, John did not find retirement easy at first but a combination of being elected captain of Alwoodley Golf Club, his appointment as president of the Shadwell and District Probus Club, Leeds, together with a range of charity work, playing bridge and *The Telegraph* crossword soon allowed him to relax into it. He and Margot also travelled widely and continued to indulge their interest in classical orchestral concerts at Leeds Town Hall. However, John most enjoyed time spent with his grandchildren (Daniel, Elizabeth and Katherine) and his great grandchild, Daniel’s daughter, Merryn. Sadly, Margot died in 2016 and his family and friends were concerned that he would not be able to cope on his own. A bit of surgical stubbornness proved that he could until he unfortunately required orthopaedic surgery, from which he did not recover. John died on 6 November 2017 at the age of 92 and was survived by his two sons, David, a retired GP, and Michael, a retired broadcast journalist, his grandchildren and great granddaughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009436
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Soong, Chee Voon (1961 - 2009)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2011-01-06
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001100-E001199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373309373309
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Chee Voon Soong was a leading vascular surgeon in Belfast and pioneer of endograft placement for ruptured aortic aneurysm. He was born in Ipoh, Malaya, on 7 June 1961, the son of two teachers. He was sent to the Methodist College, Belfast, for his early education, from which he went on to the Queen's University to study medicine. After house jobs at Belfast City Hospital, he entered the Northern Ireland surgical rotation, completing an MD thesis on the cytokine response to revascularisation in the colon and lower limb under Brian Rowlands. For a year he joined the surgical staff of the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, but returned in 1997 to Nottingham, to work with Brian Hopkinson on endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms. He was appointed as a consultant vascular surgeon to Belfast City Hospital, where he helped to set up an endovascular aneurysm service and led the team using thoracic endografts and thoracoabdominal aneurysm repair. He organised a series of international study days on endovascular repair of ruptured aneurysm, which attracted participants from all over the world. At the same time within the hospital he initiated multidisciplinary rounds for amputees and set up research projects into their subsequent rehabilitation. His work on endovenous therapy for varicose veins led to the establishment of a service for this form of treatment in Northern Ireland, which was carefully audited. Soong published extensively and contributed chapters to authoritative textbooks such as Andrew Kingsnorth and Alijafri Majid's *Fundamentals of surgical practice* (London, Greenwich Medical Media, 2003). He continued to carry out research into screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm, diabetic neuropathy, atherosclerotic disease and the use of growth factors in critical limb ischaemia, the first trial of gene therapy to be carried out in Northern Ireland. Following the retirement of his mentor A A Barros D'Sa, he represented the region on the Joint Vascular Research Group. He was an active and popular teacher, supervised eight MD theses, and combined all this with an active NHS appointment, in spite of, towards the end, his deteriorating health. Whilst a student at the Methodist College, he met Eng Wooi Chew, also from Ipoh, and both went on to medical school together. They were married in 1989 and had two sons, Chin Mun, who is a medical student, and Chin Nam. Eng Wooi remains as a consultant interventional cardiologist at Belfast City Hospital. In 2005, he was found to have a nasopharyngeal carcinoma and underwent repeated courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, without remission. Despite this he remained as active as ever. He died on 10 August 2009.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001126
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Tweedy, Thomas Henry (1918 - 2000)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-08
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008900-E008999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381160381160
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Thomas Henry Tweedy was a consultant surgeon in Gateshead. He was born in Cramlington, Northumberland, on 23 April 1918, the son of Ernest Victor and Mary Elizabeth Tweedy. His father was an 'outside manager' for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, but also accompanied silent movies, having taught himself to play the flute and piccolo. The oldest of four children, Tom spent his childhood in Morpeth, where he attended the Edward VI Grammar School. At the age of 11, his singing voice was discovered. At first he sang locally in various churches, but later he had a manager, and sang in music hall and theatres around the country, including Blackpool and the London Palladium, often accompanying himself on the violin. In 1932, he recorded songs such as *Danny boy, Love's old sweet song, The rosary* and *By an old abbey door* on the Decca label. The recordings were cut directly onto disc as he sang. He also led the school orchestra, and played cricket and rugby. Destined for an exhibition to study history at Oxford, he changed direction and decided to become a doctor, having been influenced by his lifelong friend Jim (now Vice Admiral Sir James) Watt. He received his medical training in Newcastle, where he qualified in 1940, having won prizes in anatomy, obstetrics and gynaecology, and the Philipson prize in his final year. He did junior posts at Ashington and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, where he met Monica Dolan, a nurse and later a midwife. He joined the RNVR in 1941, and served as a Surgeon Lieutenant on HMS *Berwick* and HMS *Wadden* on northern patrols and Russian convoy duties, on a hospital ship during the invasion of Normandy, and on a destroyer in the Mediterranean. During this time he kept in contact with Monica. They were married in 1944, and had a son, Denis, and a daughter, Carolyn, who became a dentist. There are three grandsons - Luke, Christopher and Peter. After the war, he returned to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle as registrar and then senior registrar on the surgical unit, before being appointed consultant surgeon to the Gateshead group of hospitals in 1952. He had a particular interest in vascular surgery and researched hepatic venous return, and developed techniques in mastectomy and mammography. He was a founder member of the Hadrian Travelling Surgical Club, and a past President of the North of England Surgical Society. He was a rich source of North East medical history. He died on 20 August 2000, having previously suffered from a stroke.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008977
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hurst, Paul Anthony Edmund (1946 - 2023)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Graham Tansley Layer
Publication Date 2023-03-06
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010500-E010599
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Paul Hurst was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. He was born on 9 August 1946 and was brought up in Essex on the London borders, industrious and with fine academic ability and musical talents. He studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School and was awarded a physiology BSc degree and qualified in 1970. After house jobs, he was a trainee at Basildon and moved to St Thomas’ Hospital as a rotating surgical registrar having achieved the FRCS (in 1974), but also the MRCP, something of which he was forever proud. Paul then spent over two years as a lecturer on the academic surgical unit, which was regarded as an absolute necessity for a young surgeon to progress and impress at that time. He was important in the invention of an experimental operation with J B Kinmonth, designed to reduce lower limb lymphoedema – ‘the mesenteric bridge’, transplanting lymphatics from ileal and mesenteric tissues, bypassing the iliofemoral blockage. He submitted his successful MS thesis in April 1979. He was a thoroughly experienced old fashioned senior registrar for several years, as was usual at that time, and was appointed to Brighton as a highly skilled consultant surgeon. Paul was thrilled and not just a little amused to be based in a colourful Kemptown, with a contemporary, diverse population, in a large hospital with excellent colleagues, and able to live in rural Sussex. As a general and vascular surgeon, he will be fondly remembered for his great care of his patients, his attention to detail, his diagnostic clinical skills, his teaching, his patience, wit and humour. Primarily, Paul enjoyed being a district general hospital surgeon; he never had ambitions for teaching hospital life nor to work in a city. He found it ironic that Brighton would become a university teaching hospital and the medical school one of the most popular in the UK – let alone Brighton and Hove being awarded city status in 2001! He always enjoyed teaching and was as an examiner for the FRCS and the medical school. A certificate hangs in his house, Lower Lodge, recognising him in the top teacher awards by the students as best overall teacher, which was repeated year on year, recognising his inspirational style. He prized teamwork and the surgical firm and was dismayed by its deconstruction and new working patterns. He deplored the recent changes and what he saw as the loss of stature in the role of a consultant in modern Britain. In 2003 Paul was elected president of the surgery section of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM). His masterful academic year included the traditional president’s speech ‘A view from the beach’, illustrated with numerous quirky cartoons. He was active in the RSM, the Vascular Society, the Surgical 60 Travelling Club, the local Med-Chi Society and the Jaguar XK Club. In his own time, he enjoyed watching sport on his state-of-the-art television and sound system, which had every conceivable optional extra, but with impossible to understand multiple remote controls. His favourite relaxation perhaps was being at his Cornwall home overlooking St Michael’s Mount, watching barn owls, deer, buzzards and rabbits, when he would reminisce. Paul was enormous fun to travel with – he had witty views on everything, a certain irreverent humour with spontaneous quips. He was fond of loud rhythmic music, especially around the safari campfire, but most recently at the Rio Carnival. He relished an outstandingly successful tiger safari, part of which was completed on elephant back. He enjoyed the thrill of flying in a balloon or in a helicopter without doors. He was delighted with snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, nattily dressed in wetsuit and fins; he found the attached prescription face mask gave him better sight underwater than he had through normal spectacles, so threatened to wear the mask from then on! Paul’s sad diagnosis of Alzheimer’s came on very slowly and he would often talk about it. He well knew his ultimate fate. His wife’s fortitude throughout was admirable. Paul died on 7 September 2023 at the age of 77 and was survived by his wife Sandra (née McNeill), twins Lucy and Alex, and five grandchildren. A memorial service was held for him at All Saints’, Laughton, East Sussex in October 2023. The admiration and respect for this talented late friend, polymath, vascular surgeon, teacher, artist, musician, motoring enthusiast, fisherman, ornithologist, raconteur and wit, and, above all, family man, was enthusiastically celebrated. A picture was painted of a busy man, recounting amusing stories of life and surgery, sculpting a lifelike bust, creating a stunning painted artwork, extravagantly illustrating a set of surgical operation records, or doodling a candid cartoon of one of his friends. The world has lost a great family man, friend, colleague and surgeon.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010597
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Eastcott, Harry Hubert Grayson (1917 - 2009)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Averil Mansfield
Publication Date 2010-04-28
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000900-E000999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373109373109
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Harry Hubert Grayson Eastcott, known as ‘Felix’, was the first man to perform carotid endarterectomy, thereby preventing strokes in countless patients. He was born in Montreal, Canada, on 17 October 1917, the son of Henry George Eastcott, a resident engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Gladys née Tozer. The family returned to England in 1920 and he was educated at Hoe Grammar School, Plymouth, the Latymer School, Edmonton, and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. When a student in the anatomy class, he was observed by Neil Pantin to walk along leaning forwards with his hands behind his back, like the cartoon cat, and henceforward became known as ‘Felix’. As a student he played the piano in a honky-tonk band, which included Harding Rains on trumpet. He qualified with honours in 1941 and without delay went on to sit and pass the primary FRCS. He was house surgeon at the Hammersmith Hospital under Grey Turner and Dick Franklin, where he met a theatre nurse, Doreen Joy (‘Bobbie’), the daughter of Brenchley Ernest and Muriel Mittell. They were married in 1941. He then joined the RNVR and served throughout the war, reaching the rank of surgeon lieutenant-commander, and during his service visited Australia for the first time. On demobilisation, he returned to St Mary’s to work for Dickson Wright and Sir Arthur (later Lord) Porritt, and passed the final FRCS at the sixth attempt. An exchange sponsored by Arthur Porritt took him in 1949 to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, where he came under the surgical mentorship of Charles Huffnagal and learned the latest techniques of vascular surgery. On his return, he passed his masters in surgery, gave a Hunterian Lecture on arterial replacement with grafts, and became assistant director (honorary consultant) of the surgical unit under Charles Rob. It was in 1954 that he performed the first operation to prevent strokes. The patient was Ada Tuckwell, who had had many transient ischaemic attacks. The decision was taken by Denis Brinton and Pickering to carry out arteriography – in those days a hazardous procedure. This revealed a short stenosis of the internal carotid artery, the source of the previous emboli. Charles Rob delegated the operation to Felix. He had grave concerns that this might induce a stroke during the operation, but Rob and Pickering took the view that without it this would happen inevitably. May 19th was a cold day. The operating theatre was chilled. Ice packs were placed over the patient to reduce the risk of brain damage. Felix remarked that you could almost hear the nurses’ teeth chattering. The operation was carried out in the presence of some members of the council of the American College of Surgeons who were visiting the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Happily, the operation was successful and the patient lived for another 20 years without neurological symptoms. It was a superb outcome for the patient, but even more for mankind as this opened the doors for stroke prevention surgery on a major scale. Felix always referred to it as ‘my little operation’, but its impact was anything other than little. In a later article he quoted Winston Churchill as saying: ‘We have reached the end of the beginning’. He remained anxious about its scientific credentials until the results of a large multicentre trial showed once and for all just how valuable it had been in preventing stroke. Eastcott’s vascular surgical practice grew steadily from then on and he attracted the complex and difficult cases to St Mary’s and the other hospitals with which he had a connection, the Royal Masonic Hospital and King Edward VII Hospital for Officers. His book *Arterial surgery* (London, Pitman Medical) was another major contribution. It had been suggested to him by Zachary Cope, but it took several years to prepare and was finally published in 1969. It was a big success. Two further editions followed, the third in 1992, almost 10 years after he retired. He published extensively and was the editorial secretary of the *British Journal of Surgery*. Felix received many invitations to lecture around the world, particularly in the USA and Australia. In 1973 he was the King’s Fund travelling fellow to Australia and New Zealand. He was honoured in many countries and by many colleges and received honorary fellowships from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He received the Fothergill gold medal of the Medical Society of London 1974 and the Galen medal of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1993. At the Royal College of Surgeons, he was an examiner from 1964 to 1970, a council member from 1971, vice-president from 1981 to 1982, and was acting president for a few weeks after the untimely death of Sir Alan Parks. He was a Hunterian professor and Bradshaw lecturer and was awarded the Cecil Joll prize. An enthusiastic Freemason, he ensured a continuous and major source of funding for the College from the Grand Lodge. He was later appointed to the Court of Patrons. Long after his retirement, Felix would attend early morning meetings in the vascular unit at St Mary’s, when he would recall in vivid detail some of his old patients and their problems. He loved his work: on one occasion in the middle of an operation he turned to his anaesthetist, Harry Thornton, and said, ‘Harry, I can’t believe they are paying us to do this’. Felix had many other interests. He always supported the music society at St Mary’s and sometimes participated. He loved to play the piano and did so most days after dinner: he called this ‘washing-up music’. Since his prep-school days he had been fascinated by flying and flew his own Tiger Moth. He was an elegant skier, an accomplished linguist, and a member of the Garrick Club. He had a few helpful encounters with the medical world. Once, in Australia, he choked on a piece of meat. He whispered hoarsely ‘Heimlich, Heimlich’. Sir Peter Bell responded with life-saving speed. Long before many of his contemporaries he appreciated the importance of non-invasive measurements in vascular disease, and so began the Irvine Laboratory, established by John Hobbs and W T Irvine. Felix supported Andrew Nicolaides and made sure that he combined vascular and cardiac surgical skills, at that time unique in the UK though common in the USA. At St Mary’s he worked closely with a wide group of colleagues, especially Ian Kenyon, Lance Bromley and Mike Snell. He also maintained close contact with other surgeons both in London, like Roger Greenhalgh at Charing Cross, and the USA, such as Michael de Bakey. He was president of the Vascular Surgical Society, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the Medical Society of London. He contributed to the design for the tie of the Vascular Surgeons, which was based on a postcard received from Dickson Wright showing an artery dancing with a vein. He was the college visitor to the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists from 1972 to 1980. He was president of the section of surgery of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1997. A romantic soul, he dearly loved his wife and family. He died on 25 October 2009. A memorial service in St Clement Danes was attended by the president and council of our college and the council of the Vascular Society of Great Britain.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000926
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Hudson, Michael John Knight (1936 - 2017)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sally Hudson
Publication Date 2017-07-12 2018-01-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381538381538
Occupation Breast Surgeon General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Michael John Knight Hudson (always known as Mike) was a consultant general, vascular and breast surgeon in north Cambridgeshire and King's Lynn. He was born in Southgate, London, on 21 March 1936, the son of Kenneth Alfred Knight Hudson, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and Eucharia Aloysius Marie Hudson née Sloane. Mike's grandfather was Ernest Alfred Knight Hudson, who served with the Australian 1st Light Horse in the First World War and won the DSO, dying from flu a few weeks after the Armistice. Mike's father Kenneth travelled as ship's surgeon on the SS *Port Darwin* to England. He initially worked at the South Devon Hospital in Plymouth, where he met Mike's mother Eucharia, always known as Lal, a nurse from Waterville, County Kerry. Mike was lucky to survive; being born prematurely and then battling pneumonia, he was not expected to last the night and had an emergency blessing from a priest. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Mike, aged three, and his older sister Patricia (who later became a nurse) were sent to Clare Park, a small boarding school near Farnham. By now Mike's father was a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician at North Middlesex Hospital (and deputy superintendent). Despite being sent for safety away from the London bombs and separated at an early age from his parents, Mike's early memories were happy, despite further illness. He caught infectious hepatitis and recalled being fed boiled sausages! He later developed a tonsillar abscess, which required incising and he remembered being terrified when told to breathe the anaesthetic gas. As a child, the only gas he knew came out of a tap and was bad for you! Subsequently, Ivor Lewis from North Middlesex removed Mike's tonsils. With his father's occupation and his own history of illness, one wonders if Mike's surgical career was almost inevitable. In January 1943, Mike and his sister came back home to Palmers Green and Mike attended Keble Prep School. His father was on call every second night for emergency surgery and fire-watched when he was not. Mike had vivid memories of local searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, especially the 4.5 inch guns which, when fired, broke windows for a mile surrounding! In 1946, Mike won a Keble Prep School scholarship and was made head of school and captain of games; the latter, he said, because he was coached by Miss Swinburne who had played cricket for England before the War. Mike enjoyed tapestry and sewing, hobbies which were useful later on! In 1947, he went to Highgate Junior School and a year later, he entered the senior school in Fargate House. He passed A levels in chemistry, physics and pure and applied maths, and maintained his keen interest in cricket, attending test matches at Lord's, where he got in for a shilling. He was made a prefect in his final year, deputy head of house (when Roger Blamey, a year older, was head) and again senior captain of games. In 1953, Mike attended St Bartholomew's Medical School and was interviewed by the dean, Edward Tuckwell. He joined the light blue firm. As Mike commented - who would guess that 15 years later he would become Edward's chief assistant (senior registrar). Mike married his first wife Anne Hamilton in 1963. Their first son was born in February 1964 and William followed in January 1967. His career took him to the Royal Masonic, the Royal Berkshire and North Middlesex hospitals. Even then, Mike was known for his carefully considered surgical decisions and somewhat tuneless 'hums' while he thought. He also became noted for wearing a bow tie, far more practical whilst doing a ward round. A younger colleague, Nicholas Packer, who gave Mike's funeral tribute, said he soon learned that if Mike hummed 'For those in peril on the sea' things were not going well, with a questionable prognosis. Mike enjoyed his time working under Martin Birnstingl, a renowned vascular surgeon, who probably influence Mike's career. At Bart's trainees rotated on different surgical teams every year. In 1973, Mike's pink firm, with Denis Nash and John Griffiths, received a visit from Loren Humphrey from Kansas who had an interest in breast cancer immunology. Keen to undertake some research, Mike applied for, and was awarded, a Fulbright scholarship and went to Kansas from August 1973 to 1974. Part of his remit was to run the breast screening unit at Kansas University Medical Center, part of a trial in 18 states to assess the effectiveness of a screening program. In March 1974, he co-wrote a paper on 'Cancer detection. Early detection at the center for breast disease.' (*J Kans Med Soc*. 1974 Mar;75[3]:72-4). In the same year, he also published with C J Smart a paper on 'Carcinoma of the male breast.' (*Br J Surg* 1974 Jun;61[6]:440-4). Returning from the USA, Mike applied for a consultant post in East Anglia, as he always wanted to be a country surgeon. He was appointed in 1975 to join Graham Thompson and Paul Seargeant as a general consultant and specialist vascular surgeon for north Cambridgeshire and King's Lynn. This involved a heavy workload, as well as being on call for emergencies. He was modest, rarely grumbled, worked very hard and was adored by his patients and staff alike, because he had an innate kindness born of compassion. On Christmas Day at lunchtime he was usually to be found dressed up as Father Christmas (or for one notable year as Tony the Tiger), ready to carve the turkey on the ward. Mike, along with Simon T Donell, presented a paper in 1986 on 'Iatrogenic superior mesenteric arteriovenous fistula' (citing a rare case from King's Lynn) at the annual meeting of the Association of International Vascular Surgeons, in St Moritz. This was reprinted in 1988 in the *Journal of Vascular Surgery* (*J Vasc Surg*. 1988 Sep;8[3]:335-8). It was a measure of the respect in which he was held that Mike sat on the medical executive committee of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, as one of the 'three wise men', doctors noted for their experience and wisdom. Mike always retained his interest in breast surgery and around 1990, when national breast screening began, he pioneered the setting up of a multidisciplinary team. He also introduced core, rather than fine needle, biopsies, to give a more accurate pre-surgery diagnosis. This was radical at the time and a notable achievement for a small country town. Queen Elizabeth Hospital still has a dedicated, excellent breast care unit, as a result of his founding principles. Following a small coronary in 1992, Mike retired in the summer of 1999. After some years, in his own words, 'in the wilderness', he met and married his second wife, Sally Ann Rosalind Strutt, in East Rudham, Norfolk, in 2000. He acquired four stepchildren, Ben, Ellie, Dominic and Charlotte, who all grew to love him. During his happy retirement spent with Sally, he co-owned a 70-foot narrowboat, was a film extra, explored Second World War airfields in East Anglia, enjoyed opera, crosswords and sudoku, and followed international cricket. His elder son Jonathan married Carla, and they had Caitlin and Erin; his younger son, William, married Jane, and their children are Freddie and Ella. Mike Hudson died on 23 May 2017. He was 81.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009355
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Ackroyd, Jenny Susan (1950 - 2004)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-07-06 2016-11-25
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000000-E000099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372189372189
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Jenny Ackroyd was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. She was born in Leeds on 23 May 1950, the fourth child of Peter Ackroyd and Evelyn née Nutt. Her father, an academic theologian, was subsequently a professor at King's College, London, and was known as 'Old Testament Ackroyd'. She was educated at James Allen's Girls' School in Dulwich, and then went on to New Hall, Cambridge, where she read medicine and fine arts. She then went to Middlesex Hospital for her clinical studies. During her junior doctor training she became the first female surgical registrar and senior registrar at St Thomas's, a particularly male-dominated institution at the time. She was awarded the FRCS in 1979. She also achieved the degree of master of surgery at Cambridge in 1986, possibly the first woman ever to do so. She was appointed as consultant surgeon in general and vascular surgery at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in 1987 and developed a particular interest in day surgery. There was no dedicated day unit there, so she and a band of enthusiastic helpers helped raise the necessary funds to build one. Her most recent interest was the building of a new surgical wing, opened by the Secretary of State for Health in November 2004, and named in her honour. Jenny was a founder member of Women in Surgical Training, a body formed at the Royal College of Surgeons for the encouragement of training of women in surgery and felt strongly that, at about two per cent, the current representation of female consultant surgeons was unacceptably low. She is remembered as a caring, encouraging, enthusiastic and patient teacher by her junior staff and was nominated by them for a trainer of the year award from the Association of Surgeons in Training. Twelve years ago she developed a melanoma of the eye and after treatment lost the sight of the eye, but continued her professional life and was often known locally as the 'partially sighted, female surgeon from Wareside', to the amusement of her patients. In this capacity she was invited to attend the Woman of the Year lunch in 1993, which was sponsored by the Royal National Institute of the Blind. During this busy professional life, working full-time throughout, Jenny had a fulfilling social and family life. She married Malcolm Lennox, also a consultant surgeon, in 1976, and had two children, Sophie and Sandy. She was a faithful member of St Mary's Church choir and also sang in Ware Choral Society and played the cello. Her manner was sympathetic, concerned and helpful, but most of all she was lively, fun to be with, colourfully dressed and noisy in a delightful way. She died peacefully at home on 5 September 2004.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000002
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Smillie, Gavin Douglas (1926 - 2003)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2005-10-26 2022-09-14
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000100-E000199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372316372316
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Gavin Smillie (formerly Smellie) was a consultant general and vascular surgeon and honorary clinical lecturer at the Victoria Infirmary, Glasgow. He was born in Glasgow in 1926, the son of William Smellie, a geologist, and Janet Smellie née Douglas, a school teacher. He spent his early years in Argentina, where his father was helping to develop an oilfield, but returned to Scotland at the age of seven to live in Cove on the Clyde coast. He was educated at Greenock Academy and Glasgow University, qualifying in 1949. After junior posts, he did his National Service in the Royal Air Force and then returned to specialise in surgery. He was a surgical registrar at the Victoria Infirmary in 1961 and a senior registrar in 1963. Interested in vascular surgery, he was awarded a travelling fellowship to the United States, where he trained in the vascular units of Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley. In 1966 he was the first to describe adding a gold weight to the eyelid of someone who could not blink naturally to reduce corneal exposure secondary to facial nerve paralysis (‘Restoration of the blinking reflex in facial palsy by a simple lid-loading operation’ *Br J Plast Surg*. 1966;19:279-83). In 1968, he was appointed to the Victoria Infirmary as their first vascular surgeon. He set up their intensive care unit, at a time when such units were in their infancy. His inventive streak led him to introduce, among other things, the use of a Fogarty catheter to clear biliary and salivary duct obstruction, and a rubber ring tourniquet for use in operations on the digits. He also worked with the regional neurosurgical unit on refining techniques of carotid endarterectomy. He was a respected clinical teacher and examiner, and a regional tutor for the Edinburgh College. He had a calm presence and enormous patience, which he combined with a pawky sense of humour. He had the unique ability of being able to create vivid pictures using concise but humorous prose, but few knew that he wrote short stories for the Glasgow Herald and the *Scots Magazine* under the nom-de-plume of Gavin Douglas. For years he was the editor of the hospital quarterly magazine *Viewsbeat*. He was also an accomplished painter and often used his artistic talents to illustrate his operative notes. He was interested in music and – in his younger days – a keen skier. He retired in 1987 and died on 6 November 2003, from Alzheimer’s disease. He married twice, firstly to Muriel (née Dawson), by whom he had two daughters, Valerie and Claire and, secondly, to Elizabeth (née Smith). He had one granddaughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E000129
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fleming, Justin Paul (1917 - 1974)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-12-01 2015-12-15
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/378658378658
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Justin Paul Fleming was born on 26 September 1917 in Sydney, the first son and second child of James Fleming, a hospital administrator, and Ethel Mary (née Downey). He was educated at St Patrick's College, Goulburn, New South Wales, Waverley College, Sydney, and the University of Sydney where he graduated with honours in 1940. After resident appointments at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, with Douglas Miller (later PRACS), he joined the medical branch of the Royal Australasian Air Force, serving at home and abroad for three and a half years. On demobilization he returned to Sydney where he took the MS in 1945 and the FRACS in 1947. The same year he was awarded a Nuffield Fellowship to work in England where he passed the FRCS and became surgical registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. He always described his years at Oxford with nostalgia: the scholastic atmosphere and the beauty of the surrounding countryside made a deep impression on his character and fired him with a lifelong enthusiasm for teaching. He also spent some time in 1949 at Professor Michael Boyd's vascular unit in Manchester. He returned to Australia in 1950 to join the staff of St Vincent's Hospital, and the Lewisham and Mater Misericordiae Hospitals. He built up a large practice and was noted for his technical skill and his kindness to his patients. He was highly regarded by his colleagues as an original thinker: he introduced and fostered the idea of surgical audit and developed new methods in teaching and patient care. He was a pioneer of peripheral vascular surgery in Australia where he was one of the first to resect an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He travelled abroad extensively to visit vascular centres in Britain and the USA and was deeply concerned with achieving the highest possible standards throughout Australia. He became an excellent undergraduate and postgraduate teacher, and was keen to ensure that young Australians had a complete basic training before going abroad for further specialty experience. He was Chairman of the New South Wales Co-ordinating Committee on surgical registrar training. Being critical of the lack of specialist political representation by the Australasian Medical Association, and in the absence of anything comparable to the Central Committee for Hospital Services in the UK, he set up the Australian Association of Surgeons of which he remained the first President up to the time of his death. Outside his professional work he was a cattle grazier and golfer. Justin Fleming published a number of articles on vascular surgery and carcinoma of the breast. In 1946 he married Mary Gwenyth Lusby, MB BS, FRACP, and they had four sons and two daughters, none of whom entered the medical profession. He died suddenly on 12 October 1974, and was survived by his wife and children.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006475
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Edwards, Alan John (1928 - 1976)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-12-01 2016-03-16
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006500-E006599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378685378685
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Alan John Edwards was born on 25 July 1928 and educated at Drayton Manor School. He served in the Royal Air Force from 1946 to 1949 and after a year at Brunel College, London, entered Christ's College, Cambridge in 1951 as a scholar and took a first-class honours degree in the Natural Sciences Tripos. Another scholarship took him to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College for his clinical studies where he was awarded nearly all the student prizes, including the Brackenbury Scholarship in surgery. He passed the FRCS Primary while a house surgeon on the professorial unit and later continued his training in traumatic and thoracic surgery at the North Middlesex and Brompton Hospitals, where he was greatly influenced by Russell Brock. He then rejoined the professorial unit at Bart's, becoming especially interested in pathology of the breast. His next appointment was at Montreal as Hosper Fellow in Surgery, which entailed responsibility for the management of teaching at McGill. Here laboratory work on the immunology of the experimental tumour led to an MSc degree in 1964, to a lasting belief in this theory of tumorigenesis, and to his Arris and Gale Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1975. He had further training in medical cancer surgery at Charleston Medical School and on return to Britain took the FRCS in 1961 and the MCh in 1967. In 1968 he was appointed senior lecturer in surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and consultant surgeon to Hackney Hospital. In 1974 he moved to Whipps Cross Hospital, though still retaining his connection with the medical college as an honorary research fellow. As surgical tutor and director of the Whipps Cross FRCS course he was completely in his element. At the same time he became increasingly prominent in the activities of the various societies to which he belonged. He was a fine operator, backed by wide experience, and was equally at home in the surgery of the head and neck, the oesophagus, the abdomen, the urogenital tract and the blood vessels. His patients thought the world of him, and his continued interest in each tended to lead to follow-up clinics of daunting dimensions. As a colleague he was held in high esteem: a delightful man to work with, always stimulating and ever ready to lend a hand. On 23 August 1952 he married Vivian Jutting, a fellow medical student at Bart's. They had two children, David and Amanda. He loved sailing, as did his son David, and both were experienced sailors. The family had a villa in Cyprus and on 15 April 1976 Alan and his son were out sailing when an unforecasted sirocco blew up and tragically they were both drowned.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006502
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Mynors, John Malbon (1921 - 1979)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-02-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006800-E006899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378987378987
Occupation Cardiothoracic surgeon General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Malbon Mynors was born at Birmingham on 1 September 1921, and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Birmingham. In 1943 he graduated with distinction from Birmingham Medical School, prepared for a life of practical Christian service by Crusader leadership. After resident surgical and obstetric appointments he became temporary Surgeon-Lieutenant, RNVR, and saw active service in destroyers before the end of the second world war. After several resident appointments he took the FRCS in 1953 and practised in the Sudan, becoming senior lecturer in surgery at the University College of Khartoum. While there his interest was kindled in the need for medical training in developing countries, and he returned to England in 1956 resolved to prepare himself to be a teacher of surgery. During his postgraduate training at Birmingham and Oxford he developed a special interest in cardiothoracic and vascular surgery. His thesis on the clinical significance of the bowel sounds led to the award of the ChM by Birmingham University in 1964. He held the distinction of being the first occupant of the Chair of Surgery at two different medical schools. In 1963, under the auspices of the British Council, he was appointed Professor of Surgery in the Mosul Medical College of the University of Baghdad. In 1966 he was appointed Professor of Surgery in the new medical school of the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The stream of graduates of a very high standard and those who have attained FRCS owe their success mainly to him. He endowed a prize for anatomy in this medical school, and was an examiner for the Primary FRCS in South Africa. In 1972 he became consultant surgeon to the Hospital of St Cross at Rugby and to Gulson Hospital, Coventry, and initiated and maintained the teaching of anatomy at Coventry to students taking the Primary FRCS examination. John Mynors applied the faith of a committed Christian to his work. He was kind and gentle, with a quiet sense of humour, intolerant with those who would compromise the high standards he set. Patients and students loved him and medical and nursing staff recall with affection his approachability, patience and loyalty. As a surgeon and a man he has left his mark in three continents. He rescued four steam locomotives from the scrapyard and was an active member of the Great Western Society and the Caerphilly Railway Society. He planted many trees in his corner of Warwickshire to replace those destroyed by Dutch elm disease. He married Una Williams in 1947, they had two daughters and one son. He died suddenly on 31 March 1979, aged 57 years.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006804
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Graham, John Wedgwood (1921 - 1985)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-18 2015-12-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007200-E007299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379472379472
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Wedgwood Graham, the son of John Machefer Graham, a farmer and grazier, and of Ivy Maud (née Wedgwood), a descendant of Charles Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, was born on 1 June 1921 at Narrabri, New South Wales. His grandfather, John Bass Graham, was a medical graduate from Dublin who practised in London before settling in Sydney as an ENT surgeon in 1906. His great uncle, Charles Hunter Graham, graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1884 and became FRCS England in 1892. With these interesting family connections, after education at Marshall Mount Preparatory School, Killara, and Knox Grammar School, Wahroonga, John Graham entered the University of Sydney, where he won the Craig Prize for operative surgery and surgical anatomy and the John Wyeth Prize for obstetrics, and graduated with honours in 1944. After resident appointments at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, he served in the Australian Army Medical Corps from 1945 to 1947, and was demobilised with the rank of Captain before returning to the Royal Prince Alfred as senior resident and registrar. He came to Guy's Hospital in 1949 for the Fellowship course and took final FRCS in the following year. He then held surgical registrar appointments at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, King Edward VII Hospital, Ealing, and at St Mark's, City Road. On returning to Australia he was appointed assistant surgeon to St Vincent's Hospital in 1954 and became Chairman of the division of surgery there in 1975. He also held a surgical appointment at the St George Hospital, Koogarah, where he introduced vascular surgery in 1960. In the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons he was a member of the New South Wales State Committee from 1970 to 1978 and Chairman from 1976 to 1978. He served as a member of the board of examiners for the primary FRACS 1954-68 and was a member of the Court of Examiners from 1974 to 1984. He was also a member of Council of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and a member of his parish council at All Saints' Church, Woollahra. His many other outside interests included reading poetry and the classics, bush- walking, trout-fishing and skiing. He was also keen on tennis and golf, swimming and snorkelling. He published a number of papers on general surgical and vascular subjects, mainly in Australian and also in British and American journals. He married Margaret Stanley Lavender, a physiotherapist, in 1945. They had a daughter, Janet, who married a surgeon and a son, Peter, who was killed aged 30, whilst mountain climbing in Peru. When he died on 5 August 1985 he was survived by his wife and daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007289
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Weale, Felix Ernest (1925 - 1998)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-08 2016-03-18
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008900-E008999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381170381170
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Felix Weale was a consultant general and vascular surgeon at Dartford and Gravesend Hospital. He was born in Prague on 15 February 1925 and was a refugee to the United Kingdom in 1939. His father, Frederick Weil, was a journalist and a prominent critic of Hitler in the Czechoslovak press. He was educated at Kingston Grammar School and King's College London, before going to the Westminster Hospital Medical School, where he won a number of prizes and was much influenced by Sir Stanford Cade. After being house surgeon at the Westminster, he did his National Service in the RAF, reaching the rank of squadron leader, and serving mainly in the Middle East. On his return, he spent time as a pathology registrar at the Westminster, Guy's and Barts, and was lecturer in physiology from 1956 to 1958 under the guidance of Lord Brock. After registrar training at Stephens' Hospital, he then became a senior lecturer and assistant director of the surgical professorial unit at Barts, where he was influenced by James Patterson Ross and Gerard Taylor. Whilst at Barts he had articles published on shock and blood flow in *The Lancet*, the *British Journal of Surgery* and in *Annals of Surgery*. He also published a monograph entitled *An introduction to surgical haemodynamics* (London, Lloyd-Luke [Medical Books], 1966). He was appointed to the Dartford and Gravesend Hospitals in 1969, where he continued to contribute to the surgical literature on topics as varied as endoscopic transthoracic sympathectomy and techniques of amputation. He was also a regular contributor to the correspondence columns of the *British Medical Journal*. In one such letter he pressed for greater representation of district general hospital surgeons on the Council of the College, something which has now come about. He was a single-handed vascular surgeon covering all vascular surgical emergencies for almost the entirety of his career. Sadly, he was involved in an incident on Christmas Eve 1983, when he declined to go to the hospital where a patient was already on the table and opened up with a burst aortic aneurysm, claiming that a colleague of his was on duty. For this the GMC took the view that the incident was an isolated lapse in an otherwise long and unblemished career, and he was simply admonished by the disciplinary committee. He was allowed to continue working until his normal retirement. He was a keen skier and also enjoyed painting. He married Audrey (née Elliott) in 1951 and had two sons; one predeceased him, the other became a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. There are three grandchildren. Felix Weale died of motor neurone disease on 6 March 1998. He was 73.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008987
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Cockett, Frank Bernard (1916 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2014-02-24 2014-09-24
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005000-E005099
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377204377204
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Frank Cockett was internationally known for his ground-breaking advances in the understanding of varicose veins and venous ulcers. He identified a new condition called the 'ankle blow out syndrome' and described the operation needed to cure it, which became universally known as 'the Cockett operation'. He was also a noted expert on early English marine paintings, being an adviser on this subject to Christie's auctioneers. Born in Rockhampton, Australia, on 22 April 1916, the son of the Reverend Charles Bernard Cockett, a Congregational minister, and Florence Cockett née Champion, Frank Cockett spent his early life in Tasmania before coming to England in the 1920s when his father took up a post in Bedford. He was educated at Bedford School and then the City of London School, before winning a scholarship to St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, where he gained a first class honours degree in physiology before qualifying in medicine just before the outbreak of war. He became a house surgeon at St Thomas' in 1940 and was resident during the time the hospital was bombed with severe damage and loss of life. Throughout the Blitz, he was one of a small band of less than 10 doctors who kept the largely evacuated hospital open for the emergency treatment of the injured public. Operating day and night in makeshift theatres in the basement, where he also slept, he wrote contemporary descriptions of his experiences in letters home. These make vivid reading and were later published in a book entitled *The war diary of St Thomas's Hospital 1939-45* (Newport, Gwent, Starling, 1991). After house jobs, he became a resident surgical officer in Guildford, before joining the Royal Air Force in 1942 and serving abroad as a squadron leader, mainly in Malta and Gozo. Here he saw the end of the siege of Malta and the beginning of the invasion of Sicily. This period of his life was later entertainingly described in his book *The Maltese penguin* (Smith-Gordon & Co Ltd, London, 1990) (a penguin being a flightless bird, it was also RAF slang for a non-flying officer, 'one of the lower forms of life during wartime'). *The Times* obituary recorded that, when his children refused to eat their meals, he would tell them how the people of Malta had to survive on only a dry biscuit in the morning and a large glass of water; half you drank and the rest was to wash your face and clean your teeth! He was then posted to Italy, before spending his final months in uniform in Algiers. In 1945 he married and returned as a civilian to a junior surgical post at St Thomas', before becoming a senior lecturer in surgery. He was put in charge of the very busy leg ulcer clinic; this was thought by his seniors to be a non-exciting clinic dealing with a non-exciting condition, the cause of which was poorly understood. It was branch of surgery that his more senior consultants shunned, but Cockett rose to the challenge and began the research which was to lead in time to his pre-eminent position as an international authority on venous disease. Over the months he carried out a meticulous series of cadaver limb dissections, investigated his patients by the new technique of venography and performed numerous open operations. By 1953 he had established that lower leg ulcers were not caused by conventional varicose veins, as previously had been thought, but by incompetent ankle perforating veins and that the appropriate treatment was their surgical ligation. This work was published in *The Lancet* ('The ankle blow-out syndrome; a new approach to the varicose ulcer problem.' *Lancet* 1953 Jan 3;1[6749]:17-23) and resulted in the award of a master of surgery degree. He was appointed a consultant and in 1956, with Harold Dodd, published a 400-page textbook *The pathology and surgery of the veins of the lower limb* (Edinburgh, London, E & S Livingstone), which immediately became the definitive text. A second edition was published in 1976. Cockett also wrote widely about venous compression syndromes and described anatomical compression of the left iliac vein. Although appointed a general surgeon, his vascular interest rapidly became dominant. In 1966 he was a founding member of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and in 1980 was elected president. A few years later he became chairman of the venous forum at the Royal Society of Medicine. Although having a flourishing private practice in which he employed generations of junior staff to assist, he never neglected his NHS responsibilities at St Thomas', nor did he neglect the teaching of medical students. He was a popular teacher and he and his wife regularly entertained students at their home - hospitality which has long remained in the memories of those who attended. Students, staff and colleagues all knew him as someone with a total lack of pomposity and a man of many unsung acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. He was much loved and devoid of enemies. Outside of surgery, Cockett was a keen sportsman; skiing, squash, tennis, swimming, but above all sailing, which he had learned while stationed in Malta. He became the owner of a series of boats, culminating in a steel-hulled ocean racing yacht appropriately named *Saphena*, its dinghy being called *Varix*. Generations of students and junior staff crewed for him until advancing age caused him to abandon the ocean and settle for gentle cruising with family. His interest in sailing led to an interest in marine art and as he approached retirement this hobby became an all absorbing occupation. He haunted the auction rooms between clinics, getting to know the dealers and adding to his personal collection of marine paintings, which came to decorate every inch of wall space in his home. Always carrying a magnifying glass, he became an authority on early English marine paintings and an adviser to Christie's. In 1993, while convalescing from a serious motoring accident, he occupied his time by writing and two years later publishing a book entitled *Early sea painters, 1660-1730: the group who worked in England under the shadow of the Van de Veldes* (Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, c.1995), which chronicled the rise of marine art in England. Richly illustrated, many of the plates depicted paintings in his own collection. A few years later, he published a second scholarly monograph, a biography of Peter Monamy, the first English marine artist of stature (*Peter Monamy [1681-1749] and his circle* Woodbridge, Antique Collectors' Club, c.2000). He was also absorbed by all matters relating to the history of St Thomas' Hospital. He was a founder member of the history and works of art committee, serving as chairman for 12 years and he wrote numerous historical vignettes for the *St Thomas's Hospital Gazette*. He was instrumental in mounting a successful appeal among ex-St Thomas's students that enabled the erection in the hospital chapel of a handsome carved stone memorial to the 52 St Thomas's-trained doctors who had lost their lives on active service during the Second World War, some of whom he knew personally. Tragedy struck his private life in 1958 when his wife Felicity Anne (née Fisher) was killed in a road traffic accident, leaving him with three small children, Judy, who became an art historian; Sally, a general practitioner; and Robin, a professor of computer science. Two years later he married Dorothea Newman, a physiotherapist at St Thomas'. They had twin sons, Peter, a civil servant, and Richard, a journalist. Frank remained exceedingly active in his twilight years and only began to ease up slightly as he passed the age of 90, when he became increasingly deaf and slowly more frail. His intellect remained as sharp as always and he was ever eager to know the latest hospital gossip. Eventually the old man's friend caught up with him and he died of pneumonia on 17 January 2014 aged 97.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005021
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bloor, Kenneth (1926 - 1986)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-04-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007100-E007199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379314379314
Occupation Cardiac surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Kenneth Bloor was born on 14 May 1926, the son of William and Aida Bloor, of Earlstown, Lancashire. He was educated at Newton-le-Willows Grammar School, from where, with a county scholarship, he went to Manchester University, graduating MB ChB in 1949. He was house surgeon to Professor A M Boyd and house physician to Professor Robert Platt (later Lord Platt of Grindleford). He became research assistant to Professor Boyd in 1950, undertaking the long term follow-up of vascular patients in addition to teaching and clinical work. His MD thesis (1954) described the progress of 1500 patients and a later analysis was dealt with in his Hunterian lecture in 1960. He became FRCS in 1958 and ChM in 1962, the year he went to Glasgow as senior lecturer to Professor C F W Illingworth. There he collaborated in a project on the use of hyperbaric oxygen in the surgery of cerebro-vascular disease and total heart-lung bypass. Back in Manchester in 1964, he established a cardio-vascular research laboratory. He directed studies on reheating in hypothermia, using a microwave resonant cavity, and regeneration after cervico-thoracic sympathectomy. With A G Riddell and others, he developed open heart surgery in Manchester, and he became one of the (then) two cardiac surgeons at Manchester Royal Infirmary, a post he held until two years before his death. He and A G Riddell achieved excellent results in the surgical treatment of portal hypertension and with H F Bassett, he developed the so-called "piggy-back" operation, implanting a second heart into dogs so as to provide a new left ventricle in parallel with their own. Others were to profit from their experience when human heart transplants were developed. He became reader in surgery in 1966 and a part-time consultant in the NHS in 1971, Professor Boyd having retired the year before. He developed a large private practice and he took an active part in the Manchester Independent Medical Association. When the AMI Alexandra Hospital opened in 1981, he was invited to chair the Medical Advisory Committee, serving for three years. Bloor was a first class surgeon. His operative technique was relaxed, unhurried and safe, and this, combined with long clinical experience, enabled him to produce results that attracted patients from all walks. He was known internationally for his contributions to the science and practice of vascular surgery and he was a founder member of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and of the editorial board of *Vascular surgery*, New York. In 1985, he delivered the Michael Boyd memorial lecture, an annual commemoration of the life of his former chief, and he discussed inflammatory aneurysms of the abdominal aorta, a lesion first recognised by him and described in the *British journal of surgery* in 1972. History and astronomy were among his leisure interests but his favourite recreation was sailing, many of his holidays being spent visiting Ireland and north west Scotland in his 30 foot yacht. He was twice married, first to Giovanna, daughter of Professor P M S Blackett, FRS (later Lord Blackett, PRS). There were three daughters and a son. Secondly, to Val, his companion of twenty years. He fell ill in the autumn of 1985 and was found to have a malignant gastro-oesophageal lesion. Operations relieved him for a time but he died on 27 February 1986, survived by Val and his children. His professional skills, humour and integrity earned him the respect of patients, colleagues and the many juniors whom he trained. The Medical Advisory Committee of the AMI Alexandra Hospital arranged the Ken Bloor memorial lecture to be delivered annually. The inaugural lecture was delivered by Professor J S P Lumley, Professor of Surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital, on 1 October 1987, in the medical school of the University of Manchester.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007131
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morris-Jones, Wyn (1935 - 2015)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by W E G (Bill) Thomas
Publication Date 2015-05-08 2015-09-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007200-E007299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379415379415
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Wyn Morris-Jones was a consultant vascular surgeon in Sheffield. He was a real 'gentleman surgeon' and throughout his career showed compassion, dedication and care for his patients. He will always be remembered for the way in which his patient's welfare always came first, and his oft-repeated phrase of 'poor, poor dear' marked his caring spirit. He was characterised by a singular humility, an amicable temperament and a winsome personality, not always found in a highly skilled consultant surgeon. Wyn was born on 13 September 1935 in a suburb of Ammanford, Wales, and his father was headmaster of a village primary school at Drefach, just outside Ammanford. Tragically his father succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis in 1938 and, a year later, when the Second World War broke out, his mother joined the war effort and worked in a factory near Ammanford making clothes for the servicemen and women. Wyn was educated at Amman Valley Grammar School, where he developed a keen interest in cricket. He also studied music to a high level and eventually had to choose between music and medicine as a career. However, after his A levels, he entered the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, where he continued his love of cricket, becoming treasurer and secretary of the medical school cricket team. After qualifying in 1959 he became a house surgeon to Lambert Rogers, house physician to Howells and then three months of neurosurgery, not leaving the hospital at all for three months. After his house jobs, Wyn was called up for National Service and was posted to Aden. He was then ordered to join the 45th commando unit and a section of the SAS as the medical officer, spending time in Sharjah and Dubai. He then returned to Aden, where he served as the regimental and family doctor. On his return to the UK, he was appointed as a senior house officer in orthopaedics and casualty at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary. He was subsequently appointed to a surgical research job identifying arteries supplying tumours and infusing them with methotrexate. In a similar manner he would dissect out lymphatics in the arms of patients with breast cancer and inject them with contrast to see if the glands in the axilla showed signs of secondary tumour. So began Wyn's vascular interest. He became highly skilled in surgical research, obtaining two higher degrees, an MCh from the University of Wales in 1969 and then an MD from the University of Leicester in 1972. While working at Cardiff Royal Infirmary, he met Isobel Jacobs, a sister in the accident and emergency department and they married on Boxing Day in 1967. In 1970, they moved to England when Wyn was appointed as a senior registrar in surgery to the United Sheffield Hospitals. During that time he spent some time in Leicester, as part of the Trent surgical training scheme, and a further period of research in Seattle, USA, which led to his MD. He was subsequently appointed as a consultant surgeon in Sheffield, initially at the Royal Infirmary and subsequently at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. Whilst working as a busy consultant vascular surgeon, Wyn also developed his love of medico-legal issues and, finding the law fascinating, he obtained a degree in law from London University in 1996. He became a much sought after medical expert and developed a significant medico-legal reputation, based on his integrity and attention to detail. Sadly Wyn's retirement was sullied by ill health, suffering as he was from widespread pyrophosphate arthropathy and pernicious anaemia. He underwent spinal surgery in 2006 and 2008, a knee replacement in 2010 and developed widespread peripheral neuropathy as well as emphysema. He bore his ailments with considerable fortitude - a characteristic that marked his whole life. He died on 6 April 2015, aged 79, a well-loved clinician, an excellent colleague and a wonderful husband, father and grandfather. He was survived by his widow, Isobel, and by their daughters, Helen and Rhian.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007232
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Baddeley, Richard Michael (1932 - 1997)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-13
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/380640380640
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Michael Baddeley, universally known to a wide circle of friends as 'Mick', was a consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals. He was born at Wolstanton in Staffordshire on 20 September 1932, the elder son of a mining engineer. He was educated at Chesterfield School, Derbyshire, and the University of Birmingham, where he joined the medical school in 1950. After initially completing pre-clinical studies very successfully he was awarded a special undergraduate scholarship for an intercalated year of study under the aegis of the then Sir (later Lord) Zuckerman, as a result of which he was awarded a BSc degree with honours. He qualified in 1956 and in addition to his Birmingham degree also successfully passed the conjoint examination. After the customary six-month appointments of house surgeon and house physician respectively, he joined the RAMC and served in Britain and Cyprus as a medical officer to the Grenadier Guards. Following his discharge from the Army and further junior training posts, he was awarded a research fellowship at the University of California and spent a highly productive year working on the many problems of portal hypertension and portocaval shunts with Marshall Orloff in San Diego. Following his return to the UK, he was appointed a lecturer in surgery at Birmingham, and the contacts with F A R Stammers and A L d'Abreu, both doyens of West Midlands surgery, greatly influenced the outlook of the young Baddeley. In 1960 Baddeley married Susan Allen, a former nurse, and they had one son, Rupert, but the marriage sadly ended in divorce and he later married Joyce, also a member of the nursing profession. In 1969 Baddeley was appointed consultant surgeon to the United Birmingham Hospitals and was based at the General Hospital, which at that time had one of the largest diabetic clinics in the country. There he continued with his interest in vascular surgery and acquired particular expertise in the management of the vascular complications of diabetes. He also developed an interest in the surgical treatment of massive obesity and rapidly became a pioneer in gastroplasty. In 1978 he was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the College and gave his lecture in Birmingham on the role and complications of gastric stapling and ileal bypass; this work achieved international recognition. Mick Baddeley was always extremely fit and a keen sportsman. He later became an able yachtsman with a great interest in off-shore racing. As a teenager he had been a junior doubles tennis champion of Derbyshire, partnering his brother, and he continued to play tennis and highly competitive squash once or twice a week throughout his career. He was a most affable man and a highly competent surgeon and it came as a great shock to his many friends when in 1990, at the age of 58 and at the top of a very successful career, he sustained a devastating cerebral haemorrhage from an inoperable congenital arterial malformation. Although he recovered, he remained severely disabled and was forced to take early retirement. He became progressively more incapacitated in the few years that remained. He died on 2 August 1997 survived by his wife and son.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008457
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Miller, John Roy Mackay (1921 - 2014)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Frank J Branicki
Publication Date 2014-11-25 2015-07-20
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/378615378615
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Roy Miller was a senior consultant surgeon at Kenyatta National and Nairobi hospitals, Kenya. He was born in Croydon on 26 June 1921, the son of Arthur John Miller, assistant secretary of the Prudential Assurance Company, and Marjorie Louise Miller née Garrett. He was educated at Cumnor House School and then St Lawrence College, Ramsgate. His undergraduate training took place at King's College Hospital, London. Roy's interest in surgery coincided with the outbreak of the Second World War. As such, his surgical training was expedited during the early 1940s, so that he was able to do part of it while still a medical student. Some of this training took place in Glasgow because of the Blitz in London. Roy won the Hughes prize for anatomy and prosected for the Royal College of Surgeons during his training. In 1943, during the black-out, while a junior doctor at King's, Roy literally collided into his future wife Mary (née Moller), who was still a medical student at the time, in a corridor one night. They were married two years later. Roy's house appointments included the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, where he worked with the father of modern-day plastic surgery, Sir Archibald McIndoe. He was a surgical registrar at King's to Sir Cecil Wakeley and E G Muir (later Sir Edward). Roy gained his FRCS in 1946. Called up to do his British military service in his capacity as a surgeon, he was posted to Kenya in 1947. Having spent two happy years in Mombasa at the British Military Hospital, he became a provincial surgeon in the Kenya Colonial Medical Service in 1949. Postings to several small hospitals, in particular Kisumu in north-western Kenya, saw Roy serving large populations with very little support in the way of laboratory facilities or X-rays. The X-ray department opened a year after Roy started in Kisumu, coinciding with a memorable ward round with Sir Herbert Seddon, who happened to be visiting. Serving together with Roy in Kisumu for eight years, Mary first developed her interest in anaesthetics, often working in conjunction with Roy on operative cases. In 1958 Roy was recommended by his senior colleague, Bill Kirkaldy-Willis, an orthopaedic surgeon, for a post as consultant surgeon in Nairobi. Cliff Braimbridge in particular was his surgical mentor early on, and Roy was promoted to senior specialist in 1972, spending 28 years at the Kenyatta National Hospital and Nairobi Hospital. He was ultimately appointed chief surgeon for Kenya, and personal surgeon to the founding president of independent Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta. Roy enjoyed a busy general surgical and vascular private practice in Nairobi, sharing consulting rooms with well-known surgeons Gerald Nevill and Imre Loeffler. Over the years he became a doyen of the surgical fraternity in Kenya; he was a founding member of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa and president from 1964 to 1965. During his career Roy published on a variety of surgical topics, starting in 1951 with possibly the earliest demonstration of the value of penicillin and skin grafting for tropical ulcer ('Treatment of tropical ulcer'. *East African Medical Journal* 1951 Vol.28 p.120). Another area of research was pneumatosis intestinalis, with a study using nitrous oxide and helium ('Pneumatosis intestinalis'. *East African Medical Journal* 1964 Vol.41 p.194). His main interests however lay in portal hypertension ('Portal hypertension in Nairobi'. *East African Medical Journal* 1967 Vol.44 p.376) and cancer of the oesophagus. In 1967 he established, in conjunction with Antonia Bagshawe, the first liver clinic at Kenyatta National Hospital. The separation of conjoined twins at the hospital on 18 December 1977, where one twin survived to adulthood, he regarded as technically one of his most memorable operations. Roy was as much a vascular surgeon as general, and he performed some of the earliest aortic grafts in Kenya. He published in this area too, and in 1980 was the first to describe tropical coagulopathic ischaemia and its treatment with streptokinase ('Tropical coagulopathic ischaemia'. *The Proceedings of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa* 1980 Vol.3 p.83). In 1981, he and his son Brian, who subsequently became a general surgeon and academic at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, set up the first colonoscopy service in Kenya. Another of Roy's passions was the empowerment, with some basic surgical training, of district hospital doctors in Kenya, to decrease the need for urgent transfer of straightforward cases to metropolitan centres. In 1986, aged 65, Roy retired from surgery and migrated with Mary to Australia to join his daughter in Victoria. Moves to Canberra and northern New South Wales followed and he enjoyed time with his family, including his two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A strong character, Roy had a very perceptive mind. One of the hallmarks of a true professional is to be able to encourage and inspire one's juniors, and herein he excelled. Numerous surgical trainees remember him with affection and gratitude, having become senior surgeons in public, private and professorial posts. His distinguished career led to the award of an OBE in 1975, at an investiture ceremony held in Nairobi, in recognition of his service to health care in Africa. A number of diverse interests outside of surgery were pursued with customary vigour, particularly dinghy sailing. Roy was the manager of the Kenya sailing team at the Rome Olympics in 1960, having won numerous sailing trophies both on the Kavirondo Gulf at Kisumu and at the Nairobi Dam. Roy loved to sail on Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley, winning the East African Fireball Championship there in 1982, and his sailing continued during his retirement in Australia. Quite late in life Roy mastered computer skills sufficient to correspond with friends and family, and he read the *BMJ* and *Time* magazine until the week he passed away. In closing, Roy Miller was a surgeon's surgeon and a mentor to many. He and Mary, who was increasingly incapacitated during the last 15 years of her life, were married for 70 years. Roy took care of her throughout with loving devotion, respect and support. Her passing in August 2014 was followed just three weeks later by his own demise at age 93, on 20 September 2014. He was survived by his son Brian and daughter Wendy.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006432
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Marston, Jeffrey Adrian Priestley (1927 - 2016)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2016-05-16 2018-02-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009100-E009199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381332381332
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Always known by his second given name, Adrian Marston was an internationally-admired surgeon, a polylinguist and educationalist who also made significant advances in the understanding of the splanchnic circulation and intestinal failure. Born to Jeffrey Marston, a major in the Royal Artillery, and Doreen (née Norris), a publisher's editor, Adrian was proud that his great-grandfather, Jeffrey Marston, was a surgeon and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. From an early age Adrian was distinguished academically, being thrice a scholar; an open scholar to Marlborough College in 1941, a foundation scholar to Magdalen College, Oxford in 1945 and a university entrance scholar to St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in 1948, from where he qualified in 1951. After house appointments, he did National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps serving in the UK and Gibraltar with the rank of captain, before returning to St Thomas' as a registrar and then a senior registrar. From 1961 to 1962 he spent a research year in the USA in Boston at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Harvard Medical School investigating aspects of intestinal ischaemia. This was the foundation of his lifelong interest in the intestinal circulation and resulted in an Arris and Gale lecture in 1964 titled 'Patterns of intestinal ischaemia' (*Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1964 Sep;35:150-81). On his return from the USA he continued as a senior registrar at St Thomas' but also undertook specialised colorectal training as a clinical assistant at St Mark's Hospital. In 1965, he was appointed as a senior lecturer in surgery and honorary consultant at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School working closely with Leslie Le Quesne. Five years later, in 1970, he became a consultant surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, which remained his principal appointment until his retirement in 1992, although at various times he also had consultant sessions at the Royal Northern Hospital (from 1970 to 1985), the Manor House Hospital (1970 to 1993), the National Heart Hospital (1985 to 1991), the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (1985 to 1991) and University College Hospital (1985 to 1992). Although Adrian was an accomplished general surgeon, he was more widely known as a peripheral vascular surgeon, this being his principal interest throughout his career. He published some 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals mainly on this subject and of which many related to the intestinal circulation and intestinal failure. His first monograph was titled *Intestinal ischaemia* (London, Edward Arnold 1977) and this was followed by *A colour atlas of visceral artery reconstruction* (London, Wolfe Medical, 1984) and *Vascular disease of the gut, pathophysiology, recognition and management* (London, Edward Arnold, 1986). He co-edited with American colleagues *Splanchnic ischaemia and multiple organ failure* (London, Edward Arnold, 1989). In retirement, having given up writing original contributions to vascular disease, he published a well-reviewed biography of one of his surgical heroes, Hamilton Bailey, *Hamilton Bailey: a surgeon's life* (London, Greenwich Medical Media, 1999). As his reputation grew it is no surprise that he was elected to high office in a number of national organisations: Court of Examiners, the Royal College of Surgeons (from 1979 to 1984), president of the Vascular Surgical Society (1985 to 1986), president of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (1986 to 1987), council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1985 to 1995 (vice president from 1990 to 1992). Throughout this busy period of his life he was also an examiner in surgery to the universities of London, Cambridge, Newcastle and Liverpool, while regularly travelling overseas giving invited lectures, especially in Europe and Latin America where his enviable language skills could be used. He was fluent in French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, while having a working knowledge of several others. It is not surprising that he was elected an honorary member or fellow of many overseas societies in countries as diverse as Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Spain and France. He was awarded an honorary MD from the University of Nice in 1983 and in 1999 became a Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite de France, a signal honour for a British surgeon. Adrian's interest in the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) was lifelong. Since his trainee days he had been a regular attendee at surgical meetings of the Society and in due course became president of the section of surgery (from 1979 to 1980). In 1995, at a time when he might have been expected to be a candidate for presidency of the College, he resigned from the College council in order to take up the position of academic dean of the RSM, a post he threw himself into with typical gusto. He had always been greatly interested in surgical education and this post enabled him to expand this interest into the wider sphere of all medical disciplines. He had overall responsibility for all educational matters at the RSM, 'supervising' the activity of some 50 different sections, always with a light touch, and starting a series of over-arching meetings aimed at the membership at large, wherever possible drawing on contributors from a variety of disciplines. This was an innovation which continues to this day. He was vice president of the Society from 1998 to 2000 and was elected an honorary fellow in 2007. In private life, he was married to Sylvie (née Colin), a dermatologist, and they had three children Joanna, John and Nicholas. He was an accredited guide at Fulham Palace and a season ticket holder of Fulham Football Club. Quietly spoken without a trace of arrogance, invariably polite and highly articulate, Adrian was hugely admired and greatly respected by all. Although it was not widely known at the time, for many years he lived with an intestinal urinary conduit, having had a total cystectomy for carcinoma of the bladder at the age of 51. Towards the end of his life he wrote his experience of this in his last book, a volume of personal memoirs, titled *As it were: reflections of a twentieth century surgeon* (London, Begonia Press, 2012). He died peacefully on 7 April 2016, aged 89.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009149
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Goodwin, David Pryce (1936 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by P E A Savage
Publication Date 2021-01-28
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/384169384169
Occupation Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details David Pryce Goodwin was a consultant in general and vascular surgery at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading and a consultant at Newbury District Hospital. He was born in Larkfield, Kent on 10 May 1936. His father, Geoffrey Pryce Goodwin, had qualified at St Mary’s Hospital, London in the 1930s and was initially a general practitioner before specialising in anaesthetics while an RAMC officer in the Second World War. After the war, he was appointed as a consultant anaesthetist to Maidstone Hospital. He married Marjorie Georgina Perry, a gynae/obstetric nursing sister, in 1935. After David’s birth they had four more boys, including twins, all of whom went on to qualify from Mary’s – Tim (who became a physician), Peter (a dermatologist), Paul (a family doctor) and Phillip (an anaesthetist). Following early education at Holmwood House, Tunbridge Wells and at Tonbridge, Goodwin entered St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1954 for his first MB. Although his scholastic achievements had been modest – the careers master at Tonbridge even suggested he should become a farmer – once he started his medical training he blossomed. He gained an honours BSc in anatomy, the anatomy certificate of merit, the Agnes Cope prize in paediatrics, the Cheadle certificate of merit in clinical medicine and a student travel award to Pittsburgh. After qualifying in 1961, house appointments at St Mary’s with W T Irvine and with T A Kemp were followed by an assistant lectureship in anatomy there while working for the primary fellowship. This led to a casualty post at St Thomas’ Hospital (from 1963 to 1964). After a senior house officer training rotation (from 1964 to 1965) in urology at St Peter’s Chertsey (with T W Mimpriss) and general surgery at the Hammersmith (with R H Franklin), he obtained his final FRCS in 1966, continuing his surgical training as a registrar at Edgware General Hospital (from 1966 to 1968). Entering the St Mary’s senior registrar training programme in 1968, Goodwin worked with H H G Eastcott and I R Kenyon (from 1968 to 1970), before spending a year in the USA with a fellowship in surgery at Tulane University, New Orleans, where he studied the immunology of malignant melanoma with E T Krementz. This led to an MS in 1973 and a lifelong interest in this malignancy. He returned to the St Mary’s rotation with appointments at the West Middlesex Hospital with J Schofield and St Mary’s (Harrow Road) with J L Stephen. Goodwin was appointed as a consultant general surgeon with an interest in vascular surgery to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading in 1974. He was also a consultant surgeon to Newbury District Hospital and an associate teacher at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School (from 1974 to 1990). One of the last generation of general surgeons, he was held in high esteem by his patients and colleagues. With a lifelong interest in malignant melanoma, acquiring a personal series of 560 patients, he published and lectured extensively on skin pigmentation, tumour immunology and general and vascular surgical topics. In 1989, he gave a Moynihan lecture on ‘The management of pigmented lesions in a district general hospital with special reference to melanoma’. Goodwin was on the national committee of the British Association of Surgical Oncology (from 1980 to 1990) and its treasurer (from 1980 to 1988), a member of the editorial board of the *European Journal of Surgical Oncology* (from 1982 to 1989) and president of the Reading Pathological Society (from 1995 to 1996). He was the College surgical tutor at Reading from 1978 to 1984 and again from 1997 to 1999. After retirement in 2000, he played an active role in developing the Berkshire Medical Heritage Centre, of which he was curator and chairman of the trustees for a number of years, acquiring many unusual and rare instruments and artefacts. In 1976 David married Sarah Morphee, a ward sister at St Mary’s. They had no children, but he was a godfather to numerous nephews and nieces. They were devoted to each other and David cared for Sarah at home when she was dying of colonic cancer in 2012. On the biographical form he deposited at the Royal College of Surgeons, he recalled: ‘I was thoroughly trained by excellent teachers, led an interesting professional life and widely travelled to surgical centres in the USA and visited Australia. My own hospital and patients always came first, along with our trainees and students in Reading, and as a result I should like to be remembered as one of the local surgeons who did some good, provided prompt services and did not too much harm. I feel proud to have been of a generation respected and trusted without excessive regulation from above. As a result I hope we achieved something worthwhile.’ At 6ft 5in tall David was an imposing figure on the tennis court and the cricket field. In later years, he enjoyed deep-water sailing on the family yacht *She of Sussex* and was a member of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. At the age of 10 he had been given a magic set, after which he never looked back, his skills as a magician increasing as the years went by until he was giving professional performances for family, friends and societies, including the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund and the Royal College of Surgeons. David was a very skilled surgeon, unique perhaps in the annals of surgery in having a 100% survival rate for sawing people in half – but then he was a member of the Magic Circle. David Goodwin died on 26 November 2020 aged 84 from complications of dementia.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009911
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Morris, Sir Peter John (1934 - 2022)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by David Cranston
Publication Date 2022-12-09
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010100-E010199
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/386259386259
Occupation Transplant surgeon Vascular surgeon General surgeon
Details Sir Peter Morris was the Nuffield professor of surgery, chairman of the department of surgery and director of the Oxford transplant centre at the University of Oxford and president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 2001 to 2004. He was born in Horsham in the state of Victoria, Australia on 17 April 1934. His father, Stanley Morris, was a civil engineer, and a twice medal winner in the Premier Australian Football League. His mother, Mary Morris née Hennessy, was a pharmacist. His father died suddenly at the age of 49 from a heart attack, when Peter was 14, and tragedy hit again a year later when his younger brother, Stan, was killed in a car accident. At Melbourne University, Peter switched from engineering to medicine and was first introduced to immunology by Macfarlane Burnett, who later shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Peter Medawar. He excelled at sport, representing Australia in university baseball and cricket. He graduated in 1957, started his surgical training in Melbourne, and married Jocelyn Gorman. They then travelled to England, working their passage on a cargo ship. He continued his surgical training in Southampton and was a surgical registrar at the Hammersmith Hospital when the first living non-related kidney transplant was performed. In 1964, he moved to a surgical resident post at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The following years were spent as a research fellow while continuing his surgical training under the direction of Claude Welch, who had been president of the American College of Surgeons. He worked 120 hours a week, lucky to get two hours sleep when on call. The day began at 5am to see all the patients before the formal ward round at 6.15am. Not only was Welch a superb technical surgeon, but he remained calm and polite in theatre, however difficult the situation. Due to return to Melbourne in 1967, Morris received a phone call to say that the university was going through a financial crisis and his post had been frozen. On hearing this, David Hume, head of surgery at the Medical College of Virginia, invited him to set up a tissue typing laboratory in what was then the biggest transplant unit in the world. Attracted by a freezer full of samples taken before and after every transplant, Morris accepted. He tested all those sera for antibodies with Paul Terasaki, who gave him his new micro assay trays. Together they discovered that, contrary to popular opinion, lymphocytotoxic antibodies did appear after transplantation and their presence at the time of transplantation imposed a high risk of hyper-acute rejection. The importance of humoral immunity was then gradually accepted by the transplant community. He returned to Melbourne in 1968 to work as a transplant surgeon and to set up and direct the tissue transplantation laboratories, working with Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, a nephrologist and renal pathologist, and a surgeon, Vernon Marshall, who had started the transplant unit. There were often long nights as he was involved not only in the tissue typing of the donor and recipient, which was slow and tedious in those days, but also the donor nephrectomy and the subsequent renal transplant, being performed continuously over a 15-hour time span. He was appointed as first assistant in the department of surgery and became director of the Australian Kidney Foundation. From data of transplant outcomes, he showed that blood transfusion before transplantation, which could ‘sensitise’ patients, was associated with improved survival of donor kidneys, rather than making it worse, which was the prevailing opinion. This conundrum has never been satisfactorily explained. In 1973, Peter Morris was on the point of accepting the chair of surgery at Adelaide University in South Australia when a phone call from Sir Richard Doll, regius professor of medicine in Oxford, led a path to the Nuffield chair of surgery in Oxford in 1974 and a professorial fellow at Balliol College. Arriving at the old Radcliffe Infirmary on 4 August, he found a note from Sir Hans Krebs, who had won the 1953 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the citric acid cycle. Morris had no idea he was still alive and working! In Oxford he established the transplantation programme with the support of Desmond Oliver, a New Zealander and former All Black, who was running one the biggest home haemodialysis units in Europe at the nearby Churchill Hospital. To that date the UK survival figures for renal transplantation were very poor: 40% of patients died within one year, and the graft survival rate was only 50%. The first two patients were transplanted on 29 and 30 January 1975 before and after midnight. Both kidney transplants were successful, and the patients lived for many years. Soon there were more than 100 patients on the waiting list. For the first few years he did most of the transplants himself, but gradually he trained up a team of surgeons. He insisted on doing the living donor transplants himself as the consequences of technical failure involved both donor and recipient. He followed the example of his mentor Claude Welch in always being courteous and unflappable. He was also a vascular surgeon and set up an academic department of vascular surgery that provided an excellent service to the region and for a time he was the only surgeon to perform carotid endarterectomies for stroke prevention. He developed an internationally renowned research programme in transplant immunology and made pioneering discoveries in the fields of tissue typing and cross matching, which led to longer kidney graft survival and more organs being suitable for transplantation. He also started the successful Oxford pancreatic islet research programme for the treatment of diabetes. He retired from the Nuffield Chair in 2001, with a three-day festschrift delivered by leading surgeons and scientists from around the globe, ending with a cricket match and banquet at Blenheim Palace. He was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, serving from 2001 until 2004, and was extremely energetic in this role. He visited five to six hospitals each month, to see how surgical services and training were being delivered. He would meet the CEOs, medical directors, consultants and trainees separately, listening to the views of clinicians as to how improvements might be made and follow up on the actions taken. He would ignore artificial health service boundaries if he felt these were detrimental to patient services and safety. Despite his workload, he enjoyed life with a fondness for fine wines, food and sport. He was the first president of the College to have Sky Sports put into the presidential office and lodge and would often walk into meetings late rattling out the latest test match score. As chairman of the RCS research board, he drove the implementation of the research fellowship scheme, which has led to the appointment of more than 900 research fellows. He established and chaired a working party on transplantation in the UK, which led to the rationalisation and improvements in the way organ transplant services were run. While president he realised that there were 19th century human remains that had been taken from Aboriginal graves in Australasia and some of this material had ended up in the museums of the Royal College of Surgeons. Morris understood the Aboriginal spiritual belief that the body should be intact and repatriated more than 75 sets of remains to Australia and New Zealand. He also invited Sir Richard Doll to lead a working party to advise on the future of surgical audit, which led to the establishment of the clinical effectiveness unit, bringing systematic methods to the collection and interpretation of surgical outcomes data. In 2005 he established the centre for evidence in transplantation at the Royal College of Surgeons and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to evaluate the quality of evidence in the field of organ transplantation. He was responsible for the development of an electronic library of all randomised controlled trials in organ transplantation. He later served as chairman of the British Heart Foundation and president of the Medical Protection Society, which provides medical indemnity for some 250,000 physicians worldwide. He was editor of the journal *Transplantation* and author of 800 papers. His book *Kidney transplantation: principles and practice* (London, Academic Press, 1979), regarded as a classic, is now in its seventh edition. He was a founding editor of the*Oxford textbook of surgery* (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1994 and was a foundation fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1997. Also in 1997, he was awarded the Lister Prize for his contributions to surgical science and the Medawar Prize in 2006 for his contributions to transplantation. He was knighted for services to medicine in 1996 and he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia for services to medical sciences in 2004. His family was an important part of his life and their home in Oxford was always welcoming. Jocelyn, herself an accomplished chest physician, would host the families of new arrivals to the Nuffield department of surgery for coffee mornings. An assortment of people was regularly welcomed to the family dinner table, where quality Australian wine would be consumed. Sir Peter Morris died on 29 October 2022 at the age of 88.
Resource Identifier RCS: E010190
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Birnstingl, Martin Avigdor (1924 - 2011)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by N Alan Green
Publication Date 2011-08-31 2011-09-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001300-E001399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373499373499
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Martin Birnstingl was a consultant vascular surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and was widely respected for his expertise and for his clear and concise teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate students. He was also a consultant surgeon to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and served in an honorary capacity at St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy. He was born on 17 June 1924, the eldest of four children: his father, Charles Avigdor Birnstingl, was a master printer and was founder of the hand-printing press 'Favil' in the 1920s. His mother Ursula née Carr went to University College to study general science and then the Royal College of Music, where she played the piano. She also made illustrations for the publications produced by her husband. Her father, Herbert Wilson Carr, was a professor of philosophy, teaching first at King's College London and then in the USA at the University of Southern California, and her mother, Geraldine Carr, was a noted enamellist who trained at the Slade School of Art. Both of Martin's parents were Fabian socialists who encouraged their offspring to develop broad cultural interests. Clearly the musical, artistic and literary genes were quite dominant. When Martin was eight, the family moved to a farm in Wiltshire, and he started a lifelong interest in ornithology. Shortly thereafter he was sent to the progressive school, Bedales, where he was influenced by some excellent teachers and there was an emphasis on the arts. This was ideal for someone in whom music was to play such an important part throughout his life. Although there were age gaps in the family of three boys and a girl, the elder two, Martin and David, shared an old Harley Davison motorbike and when at home the two older brothers towed young Roger on a wooden sledge! Their only sister, Jessica, appeared in 1939 to complete the family. From school he went to St Bartholomew's Hospital for his medical training and had an exceptionally good academic undergraduate career. He gained many prizes including the treasurer's, the Foster prize, a junior scholarship and the Brackenbury prize in surgery. With the latter, it was inevitable that he would start his career on the professorial surgical unit under Sir James Paterson Ross. His early training was undertaken at the time when the more conservative approaches to vascular problems were the vogue, such as sympathectomy. He did National Service as a captain in the RAMC, serving in East Africa and Mauritius, where he kept a pet parrot. When demobilised he had a spell as a demonstrator in pathology and during this appointment passed the primary and final FRCS examinations. Martin soon developed an interest in the emerging discipline of reconstructive vascular surgery, which had been pioneered in America in 1948. In 1952 he and a visiting American fellow at Bart's, Jack Connolly, toured the vascular centres in Europe, their education in the latest techniques being greatly facilitated by Martin's fluency in many languages. It opened many doors in France with surgeons such as Leriche, Dubust, Kulin and Oudot. With the FRCS under his belt, he went as a surgical registrar to Norwich and benefited from the wide range of clinical problems seen in the provinces. He worked with Charles Noon, a Bart's man of the 'old school', and Norman Townsley, an Ulsterman, who quizzed his registrars on clinical anatomy, some aspects of radiotherapy and introduced them to emergency neurosurgery, as well as paediatric problems. Being on call at the main Norfolk and Norwich Hospital on alternate nights and the remaining nights at the Jenny Lind Hospital for Children, gave Martin a great experience in the 'generality of surgery'. He continued his training at Bart's as a chief assistant to Sir James Paterson Ross on the surgical professorial unit, where he was fortunate to work with Gerard Taylor, who had gained experience of large vessel replacement in San Francisco with Emile Holman and Frank Gerbode. 'Gerry' Taylor replaced Sir James as professor of surgery and was a superb technician and an excellent teacher who trained generations of surgeons. Towards the end of his period as a senior registrar, Martin went as a Fulbright scholar to the USA for a year. He worked at Stanford University, San Francisco, California with Frank Gerbode. It was during this year that he and American surgeon, John Erskine, walked the John Muir trail in the High Sierras of California: this proved to be one of Martin's favourite treks. Other outside activities starting in his early adult years were sailing and canoeing. On his return to the UK, Martin Birnstingl was made assistant director of the professorial surgical unit and added to the vascular expertise already present. His interest in replacement vascular surgery was maintained and put him in the forefront of advances in this field. He edited and published *Peripheral vascular surgery* (London, Heinemann Medical, 1973), a concise textbook for the surgeon and general medical practitioner containing up-to-date reviews of the diseases affecting the abdominal aorta and peripheral arteries, with an account of the latest techniques for treating them. In 1986 he was elected president of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland. His definitive appointment was as one of two consultants on the 'light blue' surgical firm at Bart's, where he proved an admirable foil to Sir Edward Tuckwell, serjeant- surgeon to The Queen. The firm was very popular with students and trainees alike, but at times, Martin became very frustrated that the 'junior' of the two consultants had so few beds for his patients. That the hospital had no private beds suited Martin's commitment to the NHS, although he did have a modest private practice to exercise his skills. At times this source of income was barely enough to cover the cost of shared rooms in Harley Street. He was certainly unhappy at the relentless privatisation of the NHS and was never fond of committee work. He became somewhat disenchanted at the way his alma mater was approaching its future. For over 40 years his much loved partner was Renate Prince, an architect. They lived in London in a large Victorian house with a garden, trees and a resident fox. Close to Hampstead Heath, it was ideal for Martin's bird-watching, and as they were both keenly interested in the arts and travel, they were able to pursue their love of music, literature, architecture and, for many years, engaged in skiing, which Martin had started in his twenties. Martin rarely missed an alpine season and in 1960, with his brother Roger, he completed the 'haute route' from Chamonix to Saas Fee, taking in many summits en route, including Monte Rose and the Allalinhorn. Having started to play the flute in childhood, with Renate's encouragement, Martin started to learn the harpsichord in middle age. When going to Germany to collect a new instrument he had ordered, he was taken to a house and not the maker's workshop: 'Wir sind bereit, herr professor'. It took some time for Martin to convince the sizeable gathering that he has a doctor of medicine, and not of music! As a fine flautist he played in many London amateur orchestras, even performing the Bach B minor suite in public. An abiding interest in jazz music started in the year he spent in the USA during his surgical training. Although widely read in the classical literature, and able to read in many European languages, *Moby Dick* was the book he most frequently re-read. Both Martin and Renate were committed to progressive politics, and shared the same humanitarian beliefs and concerns. Martin had a principled, moral approach to the world. When involved in an issue, he used his medical knowledge and expertise to challenge the official line. In the 1960s, as an opponent of the war in Vietnam, he travelled to Hanoi for the Stockholm Tribunal (initiated by Bertrand Russell) to witness the destruction of the medical infrastructure during the American bombing of North Vietnam. He saw at first hand the damage to hospitals, clinics and the loss of important medical supplies and equipment: he was appalled to see that weapons used by the United States military had maimed or killed so many civilians. In 1982 he went to Beirut with two friends, Pam Zinkin, a paediatrician, and Steven Rose to study health conditions in the aftermath of the massacre by fellow Arabs of Palestinian refugees in camps at Sabra and Chatilla. The Israelis had stood by and watched, and Martin's opposition to Israel's stance was longstanding. He was involved in several campaigns including the academic and economic boycott. Having visited the camps in southern Lebanon they published a report on the health of the refugees. He went to several meetings of Physicians for Human Rights of Israel, and Martin campaigned against the infringements of Palestinian human rights. He was a co-signatory of a letter in the *Lancet* (2007 Dec 22;370[9605]:2102) reporting allegations that Israeli doctors colluded in the torture of prisoners in Gaza. The letter was critical of the Israeli Medical Association for not speaking out on the issue, and he was one of 725 physicians who called on the UN to investigate the claims. On the UK scene he was one of those who challenged Lord Hutton's classification of documents about the death of the chemical weapons expert, David Kelly, and took issue with the conclusion that the death was a suicide. The argument they advanced was that it was 'highly improbable' that the primary cause of death was haemorrhage from a single ulnar artery as stated in the Hutton report. He gave Norman Baker MP some useful information for the book he wrote on this controversial topic. Both Martin and Renate were disenchanted with Prime Minister Blair's tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like so many others in the UK, they feared the unnecessary loss of life and the inevitable difficulty in negotiating a peace settlement in cultures totally different from those in the West. Martin Birnstingl suffered a severe stroke when in Spain with Renate at the end of September 2010, and spent five cruel months paralysed and unable to speak, first in hospital and then in Highgate Nursing Home, where he died on 21 January 2011 at the age of 86. Renate Prince survives him as do his siblings, Roger, a well-known bassoonist and professor at the Royal College of Music and other institutions, and Jessica Smart, who was a lawyer's assistant.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001316
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Todd, Ronald Stanley (1930 - 2011)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by M K H Crumplin
Publication Date 2011-10-07 2011-11-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E001000-E001999/E001400-E001499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/373649373649
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Ron Todd was amongst only the second generation of surgeons appointed to the Wrexham hospitals. He was initially based at the War Memorial Hospital and also in the expanded Emergency Medical Services (EMS) hospital in the town, which was later further developed into the district general hospital for north east Wales. He evolved a leading role in surgical practice there and established a vascular service for the area. He was born on 16 February 1930 in Crosby, Liverpool, where his father ran a photographic business. He first attended the Rolyat Preparatory School and then he went on to Merchant Taylors' School, in Crosby, and left school at 15. In 1946, after the Second World War, at the age of 16, he decided on a career in the Merchant Navy and commenced training as a sea cadet, on the ill-fated HMS *Conway*, which finally broke its back on the Menai Strait. Ron eschewed this career, having realised that life at sea was not going to suit him. He returned to school, willingly accepted back by his headmaster. He then achieved the necessary grades to be accepted by Liverpool Medical School. He always believed that his interview had succeeded since he knew who had written *Raffles*. For his National Service, in 1948, he joined the Army and entered the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, but was released early to start medical school in 1949. He purchased a 350cc Royal Enfield motorbike, which provided him with useful transport. On one occasion, no doubt having journeyed thence on the bike, he and a friend became stuck at the top of the big wheel at New Brighton amusement park and were late for afternoon lectures. Ron was a tall man and, at the annual medical school ball, he always won a prize during the dances for wearing the shoes of the largest size. With few home entertainments at these times, he studied late into the night in the library. He qualified in 1954 from the University of Liverpool. During his initial employment, one of surgical consultants at the Liverpool Royal told Ron and a friend that there was a subterranean way into the nurses' home. Dressed in white overalls one night, they lifted a manhole cover and crawled along some pipes, only to find themselves in the main boiler room. This room was next door to the post mortem room and the boiler man almost succumbed from terror on seeing two apparitions emerge in front of him. After his house jobs at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and Mill Road Maternity Hospital, which involved regular casualty duties, he initially took an interest in obstetrics and gynaecology. But this proved not to be to his taste, so he launched into the practice of general surgery. He started his training at the David Lewis Northern Hospital (opened in 1902 with 237 beds - it closed, its function being supplanted by the Liverpool Royal, in 1978). During his younger days, he took up flying fixed wing aircraft and gained his private pilot licence. He also enjoyed sailing. Between 1960 and 1961, after five years as a surgical trainee, he obtained his fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh. He was subsequently appointed to work at the Birkenhead General Hospital as a registrar with two consultants, Furber Murphy and J B Oldham, whom he much respected. After cutting his surgical teeth, he decided it was time to boost his career with some research activity and, with a close colleague, John Laine, he travelled to New York in the RMS *Sylvania*. They both took up research fellowships under the wings of John M Howard at the Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia. This led to several publications on renal transplantation. On his return to Liverpool, in 1963, he became a lecturer in the department of surgery under the indomitable C A Wells. During further training and research activities, he met his companion for life, Gillian Drinkwater, a sister on ward five of the Royal Infirmary. He met her when requested to review a case of severe pancreatitis on her medical ward. They were married in 1966. Wrexham, a border town in north east Wales, had had only a single generation of surgeons prior to Ron's appointment - two surgeons, Robert Ninian from Glasgow and John Spalding from Guy's Hospital, both of whom had been appointed after the Second World War. Arriving as a consultant surgeon to the Wrexham Powys and Mawdach Hospital in 1965, Ron had responsibilities in the Wrexham War Memorial Hospital and also the expanded wartime EMS hospital in Croesnewydd Road, into which, eventually, the services of a district general hospital were subsumed. He also thoroughly enjoyed working at the outlying Dolgellau and Welshpool hospitals. A true general surgeon, like his three colleagues, he had to cope with a wide variety of problems, but he could now offer vascular expertise to the region. This was much needed in a mining community with a high proportion of smokers. The hospital had previously been heavily dependent on specialist facilities in Liverpool and Manchester. When John Laine was appointed three years after Ron arrived, they attracted medical students from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and began to advance the hospital in the direction it needed to go. Todd served as College tutor and postgraduate chairman and was later elected to the Court of Examiners of the English College, where he was widely respected. He encouraged several of his colleagues to follow his example in becoming elected to the Court. Ron sometimes joked that he learnt more from the candidates than from books! He had a prodigiously good memory and a sense of humour, often directing quips against himself. He was also a man who gave sound didactic advice, popular or not! Ron was a thoughtful and highly supportive colleague, speedily and wisely decisive, with an inbuilt mastery of surgical craftsmanship. Calmness and self-control in the operating theatre were two of his hallmarks. One of his finest achievements was to give wise and essential counsel to his trainees and junior colleagues. Gill and Ron had three very successful children, two ultimately became barristers and the third, treading truly in his father's talented footsteps, became a well-liked and gifted consultant in gynaecological oncology. Ron retired in 1990, having given 25 years of heavy commitment to the community of a tough mining and border town. Unfortunately the last few years of his life became blighted with Parkinson's disease and a severe neuropathy. Gill gave her all to care for him during these hard times, as did her family and friends. He died on 17 September 2011. Ron was a quiet and private man who deeply cared for his family. He was the epitome of a wise, kind, talented, and reliable general surgeon, one of those masters who could teach so much and lead by sound example.
Resource Identifier RCS: E001466
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Helsby, Charles Raymond (1921 - 1987)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-05-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007300-E007399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379508379508
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Charles Raymond Helsby was born on 13 February 1921 in St Helens, Lancs, the son of a local businessman, Frederick Johnson Helsby and his wife Emily, née Cawley. Following the local infant school he attended Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby and went on to the Liverpool Medical School. He qualified in 1944 following a difficult medical course as the Liverpool Medical School was almost destroyed by enemy action in 1940 when the departments of anatomy and physiology were particularly severely damaged. As a student Raymond was an assiduous member of the Student Christian Movement. He was a keen rugby player. Following qualification he held junior posts at the Royal Southern and Liverpool Royal Infirmary joining the RAMC in 1945. He was attached to 149 Parachute Field Ambulance serving as Captain until 1948. He returned to civilian life as a demonstrator in the department of anatomy. He held registrar appointments at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and obtained the FRCS in 1950. He was particularly influenced by Professor Charles Wells with whom he had a lifelong friendship. His early interest in urology came from this association and from his association with J Crosbie Ross. Helsby was appointed as a research assistant in Chicago in 1952 and he also spent some time in Houston. Here he gained an interest in peripheral vascular surgery. On appointment to the staff of the Liverpool Royal Infirmary he worked for a short while with Professor Charles Wells. On the appointment of Professor Stock, Helsby left the university department of surgery to work with Clifford Brewer. He was now able to start his own department of vascular surgery. He was a founder member of the Vascular Society of Great Britain, later to become its President. He was appointed a regional adviser to the Royal College and he was also appointed to the examining board. He took his ChM in 1957 using as the basis of his thesis, 'The conservation of the severely damaged calculus kidney' a paper for which he was awarded a Jacksonian Prize in 1960. He was a member of the Surgical Travellers' Club, and for a time served as its secretary, which gave him the opportunity, along with his wife, Joyce, to arrange many of its activities at home and abroad. This gave him particular pleasure. He was appointed as a Vice-President to the Liverpool Medical Institution. The Liverpool Royal Infirmary closed down in 1978 and the new Royal Liverpool Hospital was commissioned. Helsby was one of the medical members of the commissioning team and was appointed the first Chairman of the new medical board. In 1949 he had married Joyce Watson, a Liverpool medical student who qualified in 1945. Joyce took the MRCOG and practised in Liverpool. They lived life to the full and hosted splendid parties. He retired prematurely to Devon in 1981. He had always had a great love for equestrian matters (other than racing) and retirement gave him the opportunity to farm and enjoy his recreation. He also got pleasure from sailing, shooting and skiing. He was a keen collector of 18th-century cordial glasses. In retirement he studied music and painting. He developed an anginal pain with associated dyspnoea which interfered with his recreations so Raymond underwent investigations in a London clinic. During these he suffered a fatal cardiac infarction on September 30 1987. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007325
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Bouchier Hayes, David John (1940 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Niall O’Higgins
Publication Date 2020-11-24 2021-03-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009800-E009899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/383998383998
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details David Bouchier-Hayes was a professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). He was born on 30 December 1940 in Dublin, one of 12 children of Thomas Bouchier-Hayes and Mona Bouchier-Hayes née Graham. His father was born in Limerick in 1907 and became a prominent and much-loved surgeon in Dublin with a huge practice. His day care surgery clinic was so busy that one junior doctor stated that when ‘Next patient for Mr Bouchier-Hayes’ was called, everyone stood up as if for the National Anthem. He died suddenly in 1960 at the age of 52, shortly after David started university. David’s mother was born in 1909 in Shinrone, County Offaly, then known as King’s County, and qualified as a nurse. It must have been an extraordinarily difficult time for her to bear the responsibility for the children after her husband’s death. She was, however, a resourceful lady. She had a calm, gentle manner and in adversity displayed a determination which was to become characteristic of many in her family. David’s eldest sibling, Tommy, joined the British Army and became a hugely successful professor of general practice at the Royal Army Medical College at Millbank. David attended St Conleth’s College, Dublin, where he was school captain, and went on to study medicine at University College Dublin. He graduated in 1965, having achieved several distinctions as a student. He was an intern and a senior house officer at his teaching hospital, St Vincent’s. He then spent three years at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, before returning to St Vincent’s for his higher training as a senior registrar. In 1977, he was a Fogarty fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, after which he was appointed as a consultant surgeon at St Laurence’s Hospital (the Richmond) in Dublin, where his father had also worked as a consultant. David was deeply proud that he had followed his father, not only in his profession, but in the same hospital, to which they were both so staunchly affiliated. In 1981, he was appointed as professor of surgery at the RCSI, a position he held until his retirement in 2005. He also served as dean of the medical school from 1988 to 1993. When the Richmond and Jervis Street hospitals merged, they were replaced by the new Beaumont Hospital. When it opened in 1987 it became the principal teaching institution of the medical school of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Vascular surgery in Ireland had been initiated by his predecessor in RCSI, Bill MacGowan, and by Paddy FitzGerald in University College Dublin. David spearheaded the advancement of this specialty and established an enormous practice in emergency and elective work. To have developed a strong and busy clinical department was a major factor in his attracting ambitious and enthusiastic surgical trainees to his unit. His personal qualities of dedication to surgery, his restless drive to make things better, his appreciation of the history of surgery, his ability to listen, to consider new approaches and never to disparage novel views, rendered his department an exciting and attractive place for surgeons-in-training. From the earliest stages of his career he was concerned with delivering the highest standard of clinical care. He treated his patients to the best of his ability, thereby providing an exemplary model for medical students. He impressed a generation of students not only by this example but by the quality of his teaching, which sometimes, to a bewildered and puzzled audience, deviated from the biological and the clinical to consideration of epistemology or the philosophy of science. He had an unusual admixture of confidence, self-belief and humility, which made him a courageous yet careful surgeon, a considerate and kind clinician, an understanding teacher and an innovative professor. The RCSI with its global reach, under the guidance of Bill MacGowan and Kevin O’Malley, provided powerful and influential support to him in his efforts to develop the research side of surgery. He established a research laboratory in Beaumont, which was to become a powerhouse of scientific competence and excellence, always sustained and driven by his formidable curiosity and scepticism. His fierce loyalty to the RCSI and to his hospital was as secure and strong as a surgical knot. This bond in turn engendered immense loyalty among those rotating through his department during training. He was fortunate to have outstanding young surgical scientists as Paul Redmond (later professor of surgery at the University College Cork), Cathal Kelly (later CEO of RCSI) and others join him in promoting and delivering high quality surgical research. Presentations by members of his department dominated meetings of the Surgical Research Society for a time and their scientific contributions were features at prestigious meetings of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and the surgical research forum of the American College of Surgeons. The coveted Patey prize of the Surgical Research Society and the Moynihan medal of Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland were rewards for the commitment, scholarship and scientific rigour, which he instilled in his trainees. Peer-reviewed publications during his tenure numbered over 300. They included studies on systemic responses to vascular and laparoscopic surgery, tumour immunology, cytokine function, apoptosis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome and technical aspects of vascular surgery. Most of his trainees went on to senior posts in Ireland and Paddy Broe (past president of the RCSI), Austin Leahy, Cathal Kelly and Darragh Moneley joined his department as consultant colleagues. His assistance to surgeons-in-training was not confined to the high-flyers: he was also kindly, discreetly and effectively helpful to those who were struggling in their careers. He was the first in Ireland to carry out cholecystectomy by the laparoscopic route. More importantly, he established a system of training courses for surgeons to prepare them for the era of minimal access surgery. These courses were immediately successful and valued by participants who came from all over Ireland and beyond. With his colleague, Austin Leahy, he introduced laparoscopic surgery to Saudi Arabia, where they also conducted a series of training courses in the RCSI-associated hospital in Tabuk. David was a discerning observer of the mundane and the ordinary in the style of the poet Patrick Kavanagh, who was known to him and who also lived for a time in Lower Leeson Street. Additionally, he had a keen ear for the dialogue and idiom of the Dubliner and had a Beckettian sense of the whimsical and the absurd. He was therefore excellent company and a good raconteur. His tongue, while often mellifluous, could also be abrasive, salty and acid, but never forked or malicious. It was always good fun to be with him on social occasions and to hear his witty aphorisms. He was blessed in his marriage to his beloved Margaret. He delighted in the personalities and character of his children. With Margaret, he rejoiced in the many successes and achievements of David (a consultant urologist), Jonathan (a researcher and developer of medical appliances) and Lisa (a professor of molecular biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas). David died on 29 October 2019 after a long illness: the hard pain suffered by his family during his last years as his faculties faded is surely assuaged by the joyful memories of this exceptional man.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009877
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Small, Hugh Alan Dugleby (1910 - 1981)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-03-10 2017-02-17
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006900-E006999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379128379128
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Alan Small was one of the many New Zealanders to arrive in England before the second world war to remain and add his talents to the surgical scene. Born in Hastings, New Zealand, he studied medicine at Otago University, Dunedin. He came to England soon after to work successively as house officer, surgical registrar and assistant surgeon at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, and as RMO and surgical registrar at the Royal Cancer Hospital (subsequently renamed Royal Marsden). With an FRCS gained in 1937 he served in the RAF during the second world war as a surgical specialist Squadron Leader. Thereafter his consultant surgeon appointments included Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, the Seamen's Hospital, Tilbury (later becoming emeritus surgeon), Wood Green and Southgate Hospital, Chase Farm and especially the Barnet General Hospital and the Royal Northern Hospital where he was a colleague of Hamilton Bailey and McNeill Love. He was a general surgeon with wide and considerable experience, who, as vascular surgery developed, made peripheral vascular disease his special interest. His contributions to surgical literature included the joint authorship of the popular textbook *Royal Northern Hospital operative surgery* and the section on malignant disease in children in Garrod's *Diseases of children*. He invented a subcutaneous fasciotome for hernia repairs in 1935 and described a method of excising the track of a branchial fistula. In postgraduate education he was an efficient surgical tutor, well equipped to give encouragement and advice to those in training at the Royal Northern and particularly to the young New Zealanders who continued to arrive for surgical training and experience. This ability was exercised when he became the first secretary (advisor) of the new National Advice Centre of the Council of Postgraduate Education, to help newly arrived overseas doctors. He also visited and taught surgery in Baghdad. He had a wide knowledge of poetry, history and the classics, and a splendid library. It is said that he relished the cadences of the English language and his words flowed gracefully and easily. It might have been that with his mind on loftier matters he was careless about personal dress and safety, for it is recounted that he crushed his leg severely with his own car door, set himself on fire in his own kitchen, on his daily three-mile jog he managed to get run over by a car in Regent's Park, and was bitten by a dog in Hatfield. He tended to ignore his injuries, and, limping and bandaged, would continue with his work. He travelled widely, as a founder member of the Surgical Sixty Club, in Italy, Sicily, Greece, Iraq and South America. He drove an open car, but it is said, once rode a motor cycle from Harley Street to Amalfi, Italy, protecting himself from the rain by putting his head through a hole in a groundsheet. He died suddenly on 5 January 1981 at the age of 71. He was married three times. His first wife was Christina M Mcgillivray. They had three sons, Hugh, Martin and Peter, and a daughter, Jane. His second wife was Anne Elborn, whom he married in 1962. In 1967 he married Norma West. They had two daughters, Penelope and Samantha. His first wife and his son Martin predeceased him.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006945
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Browse, Sir Norman Leslie (1931 - 2019)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Sir Barry Jackson
Publication Date 2019-10-22 2020-01-06
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009600-E009699
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Sir Norman Browse was a general and peripheral vascular surgeon of considerable academic achievement who not only became internationally known in his specialty, but was also renowned for his superlative operative technique, his exceptional ability to spot potential flaws in research presentations and his lasting influence on large numbers of medical students and surgical trainees by virtue of his undergraduate and postgraduate textbooks. He was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1992, serving for three years, during which time he instigated important changes in the organisation of the College, especially in regard to examinations and research. Norman was born in East Ham, London on 1 December 1931, the younger son of Reginald Dederic Browse, a civil servant, and Margaret Browse née Gillis, a shorthand typist. He was a wartime evacuee from London to Brighton, but his primary school there moved to Camberley when the risk of a cross channel invasion became high. He won a scholarship to East Ham Grammar School, where he played the clarinet in the school orchestra and sang in the local choir. He proceeded to St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, winning a prize in anatomy. He qualified in 1955. After house jobs in Winchester and Shrewsbury, he took time out to study for the primary fellowship, passing first time. He was then called up for National Service, serving for two years in the RAMC, first in Cyprus and then Benghazi, becoming a junior surgical specialist with the rank of captain. On demobilisation he passed his final FRCS in 1959 and became a senior house officer on the professorial unit at Bristol Royal Infirmary. Then followed registrar training in Southmead Hospital, Bristol, where he was especially influenced by Joe Peacock and Robert Milnes Walker. In 1962, he became a lecturer/senior registrar to Harold Ellis at Westminster Hospital and in 1964 was awarded a Harkness scholarship to pursue research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA. Here he worked under the supervision of John Shepherd studying vein and cardiac reflexes. This research resulted in several publications in the *American Journal of Physiology* and an Arris and Gale lecture in 1966 published in the *Annals* of the Royal College of Surgeons (‘The veins and cardiovascular reflexes’ *Ann R Coll Surg Engl*. 1968 May;42[5]:307-21). On his return to the UK in 1965 he was appointed as an assistant director and consultant to the surgical unit at St Thomas’ Hospital by John Kinmonth. He remained at that hospital for the rest of his career, becoming a reader in 1965 and a professor in 1972. Along the way, in 1961 he obtained his MD on aspects of calf blood flow after surgery, which led to his first book *The physiology and pathology of bed rest* (C C Thomas), published in 1965. Then followed a stellar academic career in vascular and lymphatic surgery while always maintaining his outstanding technical skills in general surgery. Even as a registrar his precocious operative technique and neatness of dissection were quickly noticed. He quickly established a vascular laboratory at St Thomas’ employing a succession of research registrars and from which emerged over 300 original articles on venous physiology, thrombosis, ulceration and pulmonary embolus; lymphatic physiology and lymphatic disease; arterial insufficiency, atherosclerosis, cerebrovascular physiology, carotid endarterectomy, aneurysms and vascular malformations together with numerous chapters on these topics in various textbooks. Unsurprisingly, he was in demand as a lecturer, being a visiting professor on more than 30 occasions in countries throughout the world and giving many named lectures. His major textbooks on these subjects include *Diseases of the veins: pathology, diagnosis and treatment* (London, Edward Arnold, 1988), *Carotid endarterectomy: a practical guide* (Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997) and *Diseases of the lymphatics* (London, Arnold, 2003). His reputation in vascular surgery led to his appointment in 1980 as consultant vascular surgeon to the Army and in 1982 as a consultant vascular surgeon to the Royal Air Force. He became president of the European Society for Cardiovascular Surgery in 1982 and of the Association of Professors of Surgery in 1985, chairman of the British Atherosclerosis Society in 1988, president of the Surgical Research Society in 1990 and president of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1991. Numerous honorary memberships and fellowships of international surgical societies were showered upon him. Two that he especially valued were the distinguished alumnus of the Mayo Clinic (1993) and master surgeon of the International College of Surgeons (1994). Apart from his academic career, Norman Browse was a noted teacher of both undergraduates and surgical trainees. His ward rounds were extremely popular and were notable for his insistence on taking detailed histories and the careful eliciting of physical signs. He realised there was a gap in the market for a textbook covering these subjects and wrote *An introduction to the symptoms and signs of surgical disease* (London, Arnold, 1978), a publication which has had enduring popularity, running to a sixth edition (with new editors) in 2020. He followed this up with another highly popular teaching manual *Browse’s introduction to the investigation and management of surgical disease* (London, Hodder Arnold, 2010). He was a member of the court of examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons for six years before being elected to the council in 1986, where he became chairman of the examinations committee and then chairman of the academic board. He was elected president in 1992 and set out his vision for the future in the *College and Faculty Bulletin* under the title ‘Setting the agenda’ (*Ann.RCSEng* Supp1992,74,121-5). In this article, he examined each of the College boards, describing the ways in which they needed to change and the methods by which he wished to achieve such change. During the three years of his presidency, aided by his council, he achieved virtually all of his many objectives as recorded in an article ‘Review – the past three years’ (*Ann.RCSEng* Supp 1995,77,176-9). His most notable achievements included revision of the examination system by the abolition of the primary FRCS and the introduction of the MRCS diploma; the abolition of the Hunterian Institute and its associated research departments within the College with replacement by the research fellowship scheme, enabling funded research to be carried out in academic departments throughout the country; the development of a new education department providing courses, workshops and masterclasses; and, not least, a complete reorganisation of the College finances, turning a year-on-year annual deficit into a balanced budget. These changes turned a somewhat inward looking organisation only known by many for its difficult examinations into an outward looking institution relevant to the late 20th century and beyond. His one failure was his wish to transform the Hunterian Museum from being a shrine to John Hunter into a museum relevant to modern surgery. Unfortunately, this desire led to a serious clash with the then Hunterian trustees, which was not resolved until ten years later when a redesigned museum opened in 2005. Be that as it may, the College will remember Sir Norman as being one of its most innovative and successful presidents. In 1957, Norman married Joan Audrey (née Menage), known as Jeanne, who had parental roots in Alderney. They met while both were medical students at Barts; Jeanne later worked for many years in accident and emergency medicine. They had two children, Sarah, a marketing executive, and Dominic, a consultant surgeon. They holidayed in Alderney for many years before moving permanently from the mainland to the island when Norman retired in 1996. Here he took a close interest in local affairs, becoming chairman of the Alderney Maritime Trust while updating and editing new editions of his textbooks. Perhaps not surprisingly given his abilities, in 2002 Norman was elected president of the States of Alderney, serving nine years, finishing in 2011 at the age of 80. His interests were sailing (he owned a Norfolk Oystercatcher), collecting marine art, golf and reading. Jeanne died suddenly in 2018 and Norman never really recovered from the loss. He died after a short illness on 12 September 2019 aged 87.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009659
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Campbell, Robert Thomas (1916 - 1981)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-11-21
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006300-E006399
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378560378560
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Born on 1 October 1916 in Ilford, Essex, the third child and second son of Archibald Campbell and Jessica Saunders, née Halsall, Campbell's early education was at Northwood Preparatory School and Berkhamsted School, from which he won an open scholarship (senior demy) to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1934. In his second year he won the Theodore Williams Prize, and proceeded to take a first class honours degree in physiology in 1937. His medical training was at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, which he entered with the Geraldine Harmsworth Scholarship. During his clinical course he won prizes in medicine, dermatology and bacteriology before graduating in 1941. After working as house physician to George Pickering and house surgeon to Thomas Holmes Sellors he joined the RAMC and became regimental MO to the Berkshire Yeomanry. He took part in the Normandy landings, running an aid post in a tank-landing-craft. Characteristically he described the scene as being like a large-scale Cowes regatta. After working as a trainee surgeon in 102 General Hospital at Caen he saw much active service in France and Germany before being posted as a graded surgeon to India in 1944. He served in various hospitals in the East Indies, ending the war in the Celebes as an acting Lieutenant-Colonel. He returned to St Mary's in 1947 and then worked at the Bolingbroke, Great Ormond Street and Connaught Hospitals before becoming senior surgical registrar to R M Handfield-Jones and Arthur Porritt at St Mary's again. Here he was also much influenced by J C Goligher and Arthur Dickson Wright. With the latter especially he was well-matched both in wit and surgical ability. He left St Mary's in 1952 on appointment as consultant surgeon to the Portsmouth Group of Hospitals, fully equipped both as master surgeon and as master of a fund of finely-mimicked Dickson Wright stories. In Portsmouth he was a pioneer of vascular surgery and the surgery of hydrocephalus. He was also so popular as Chairman of the Portsmouth Hospitals Consultants' and Specialists' Association that he was persuaded to stay on in office until finally ill-health compelled him to resign. He was a College tutor, and his reputation as a teacher was so high that there was great competition for his junior posts from as far away as Australia. His shrewdness and wit were features of local clinical meetings, and he was also active in the Wessex Surgeons' Club and the Association of Surgeons. He was a leading light in the Surgical Sixty travelling club in all its professional and social occasions. Bob, as he was universally known, was not only exceptionally gifted intellectually and in the technical dexterity of surgical practice, but also athletically. He represented his University at both Rugby football and cricket and captained the St Mary's XV in 1937. He gained a trial cap for England before the war, and would undoubtedly have played for his country but for the war, during which he played for England in the Services Internationals. He was described, correctly, by the press as the most brilliant and the most handsome member of the team. Later he was invited to play for the Barbarians. While working in Portsmouth, he continued his Rugby career with the Chichester club, of which he became captain and which he raised to a hitherto unknown standard. He continued to play first class Rugby until nearly 40, travelling to Richmond to do so, before confining himself to playing for Chichester, long after lesser men would have hung up their boots. He was also a regular minor county cricketer, and finally an intrepid yachtsman, with whom it was an exhilarating, but exhausting experience to sail. He was a man of great charm, which might at first acquaintance conceal his firm moral and ethical beliefs. His kindness and consideration to his patients and his warm friendship towards those lucky enough to know him could not be concealed. His courage and cheerfulness during his long last illness were exactly what those who knew him expected. He died on 24 April, 1981. In 1942 he married Patricia (Paddy) Wood, whose character complemented Bob's, making them ideal hosts, guests or members of any professional or social gathering. She survives him with four daughters.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006377
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Rob, Charles Granville (1913 - 2001)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-04
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008800-E008899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381061381061
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details An internationally recognised vascular surgeon, Charles Rob made important innovations in the management of aortic aneurysm. He was born on 4 May 1913, the son of Joseph William Rob OBE, a family doctor in Weybridge, Surrey. His mother was descended from Edward 'Grog' Vernon, who introduced the rum ration to the Royal Navy. He was educated at Oundle and St John's College, Cambridge, where as a keen climber he distinguished himself by putting an open umbrella on one of the spires of King's College. At Cambridge he joined the university air squadron, gained his wings and received a reserve commission in the RAF. He went up to St Thomas's for his clinical training and graduated in 1937. After two years in junior posts at St Thomas's, he gained his FRCS. At the outbreak of the second world war, he was at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, but he soon returned to London, to St Thomas's, where he worked throughout the Blitz. When St Thomas's took over Hydestile Hospital, near Godalming, he was made resident assistant surgeon. In April 1942 he joined the RAMC and was posted to the 1st Parachute Brigade as a surgical specialist. In November of that year, the 1st Parachute Battalion was ordered to seize the airfield at Souk el Arba and the road junction at Beja, 90 miles east of Tunis. The battalion was dropped over Souk el Arba and was followed, the next day, by No 1 Section 16th Parachute Field Ambulance, commanded by Captain Wright and supported by No 1 Surgical Team led by Lieutenant Rob. At Beja the medical team requisitioned the French garrison school and converted it into a makeshift hospital. They then set up an operating theatre in the wing of the civilian hospital. On 20 November the town was bombed, causing many civilian casualties, and Rob performed more than 150 operations, with Wright acting as anaesthetist. While he was treating his patients, a bomb fell outside the building and Rob suffered fractures to his left tibia and kneecap. He continued to work and the next day performed 22 more operations. When supplies of blood and plasma ran short, he gave a pint of his own blood to try to save the life of a wounded soldier. The team stayed for 24 days, in the course of which they treated 238 patients, many of whom had open fractures and multiple wounds. For this Rob was awarded the Military Cross. After the action in Tunisia he went on to serve in command of a field surgical unit in Sicily and Italy, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the war, he returned to the surgical staff of St Thomas's. In 1950 he was appointed Professor of Surgery at St Mary's, where he made important innovations in vascular surgery, chief of which was the use of frozen (later freeze-dried) cadaver arterial grafts which revolutionised the management of aortic aneurysm, and was followed by surgery for carotid artery stenosis. He was consulted by Sir Winston Churchill, and by members of the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti royal families. He became consultant vascular surgeon to the British Army. In 1960, he moved to America, to take up an appointment as chairman of the department of surgery at the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, where he continued to develop the technique of vein by-pass grafting. In 1978 he moved to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, as Professor of Surgery, and in 1983 joined the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences at Bethesda, near Washington DC. A man with a commanding presence and great charm, he wrote well, published more than 200 papers, and, together with Rodney (later Lord) Smith, co-edited the multivolume *Operative surgery* (London, Butterworths, 1956), which became the standard work of reference in every specialty. Among innumerable honorary degrees and fellowships he was awarded the René Leriche prize of the International Surgical Society, the highest tribute to a vascular surgeon. He married in 1941 Mary Dorothy Elaine Beazley, a 'Nightingale' at St Thomas's. They had two sons, John and Peter; two daughters, Rebecca and Caroline; and eight grandchildren. He died on 26 July 2001 in Vermont.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008878
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Ferguson, Ian Allan Le Gay (1927 - 2022)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by The Ferguson Family
Publication Date 2023-03-07
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E010000-E010999/E010200-E010299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/386432386432
Occupation Vascular surgeon
Details Ian Ferguson was head of the vascular unit at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. He and his two brothers Neil and Russell were born in Longreach in central Queensland to Peter Ferguson and Leuwin Ferguson née Roxburgh. The Ferguson family owned several large farming properties. Ian had been obsessed by aircraft since he was a young child and had hoped to join the Royal Australian Air Force, but the loss of an eye due to a stockwhip accident when he was nine prevented this. Later his uncle Rupert, a doctor, encouraged him to do medicine. Ian’s early education was intermittent. He did some correspondence, read widely from his father’s library and the brothers had a series of governesses who did not stay long. (One was tied to a tree for a day.) He missed at least two years of school and during that time worked on several of the family properties and at the Blackall Woolscour, which his father managed. Eventually he told his father that he should go to school and was sent to Rockhampton Grammar then to Geelong Grammar in Victoria. After completing school, he went to the University of Melbourne to study medicine and graduated in 1951. Following a year as a resident at the Alfred Hospital, he served with the army in Korea for 12 months. On his return to Australia, he became a registrar to the professorial thoracic surgical unit at the Alfred Hospital. This included research at the Baker Institute, where he designed an oxygenator pump, which was later used on patients. In 1957, he ran the pump used by Ken Morris, assisted by Sir James Officer Brown, for the first successful open-heart operation. Ian obtained the FRACS in 1957 and travelled to England, where he worked at Guy’s Hospital with Sir Hedley Atkins and others and achieved the FRCS. The time at Guy’s gave him a very strong grounding in surgery. He returned to Australia in 1961 and rejoined the thoracic unit at the Alfred where, encouraged by physician Alf Barnett, he took on vascular surgery. Until 1954 peripheral vascular disease had been treated by lumbar sympathectomy or amputation. Later cadaver then teflon and dacron grafts were used, but Ian realised that venous grafts would be superior. Initially he performed femoropopliteal bypasses, then realised that femorotibial grafts were possible and performed, possibly, the first of these in the world. In 1974 a separate vascular unit was formed – the first in Australia – with Ian as head supported by surgeons Sam Rosengarten and Ken Stuchbery. Apart from peripheral vascular disease, the unit had great success with aortic, visceral and extracranial carotid artery disease. When Ian retired from the Alfred in 1987 at the age of 60 (as was then mandatory) the vascular laboratory was named after him, commemorating his pioneering work at the hospital. In 1966 Ian led a surgical team from the Alfred to Bien Hoa in Vietnam with surgeon Cas McInnes, anaesthetist Bob Grey and eight nurses. They operated largely on civilians who were casualties of the war. Ian took the then prime minister of Australia, Harold Holt, on a tour of the hospital when he went to visit the troops. Ian had many interests and lived a very active life. Interests included fly fishing – he had an elegant and extremely long cast – and cars. He was interested in all things mechanical and owned several Bugattis, Bristols and Ferraris and drove on hill climbs and rallies. He always bought cars of high quality – except for a beaten-up Ford, which he kept at a Melbourne airport to commute to work. His main interest, however, was flying. He discovered that he could fly as a private pilot with monocular vision and became involved in gliding, competing in state and national championships. He then obtained a general aviation licence and bought a Chipmunk, which he used for travel, towing gliders and aerobatics. Later he sold the Chipmunk and bought an Italian-designed SIAI-Marchetti, which was also aerobatic and which was used as an air force trainer in some countries. He became interested in flying and building ultralights, so he and his wife Juliet bought a property in northern Victoria, where they used a paddock as an airstrip. The property was quite large, so they had to become farmers as well. They moved from Melbourne to the property and Ian used the Marchetti to commute to Melbourne and to Latrobe Valley and Horsham, where he was a visiting specialist. Ian and Juliet had many exciting trips together in the Marchetti, the most memorable being flying to Italy and back in the small single engine aircraft with its rather meagre instrument panel. Highlights included three house arrests – in Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Sumatra. In 1988 Ian established the Yabba North Flying Association using the farm as a base for enthusiasts to fly and learn to fly ultralights. The club farewelled Ian as ‘a great leader, inspiration and fount of knowledge’. After retirement from his private practice, he became an ultralight instructor, sold the Marchetti, bought back the Chipmunk and commenced to build a Falco, a wooden aircraft designed by Stelio Frati, the Italian who had designed the Marchetti. This took six years to build and was followed by many more years of flying with trips in Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Ian stopped flying when he was 84 – except for a flight in a ‘rag and tube’ ultralight, which he flew when he was 90. He flew it perfectly. Ian was a remarkable person and lived a full and adventurous life. Despite the loss of his eye and the paucity of his early education, he had a very successful career as a vascular surgeon and became a very competent pilot. He was survived by Juliet, three children – Peta, Duncan and Kay – three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His first wife, Nell (née Taylor), predeceased him, as did his brother Neil.
Resource Identifier RCS:E010218
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Hulme-Moir, Francis Ian (1938 - 1980)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-12-19
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006500-E006599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378773378773
Occupation General surgeon Paediatric surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Francis Ian Hulme-Moir was born on 26 January 1938 in Sydney, the son of the Rev Frank Hulme-Moir who later became a Bishop and Chaplain-General of the Australian Armed Forces. He was the eldest of three children. He received his secondary education at Sydney Church of England Grammar School and graduated MB (Honours) from Sydney University where he was awarded an athletics blue. He held junior hospital posts in Sydney and in 1966 came to England to continue his surgical training. He became lecturer in surgery at St Bartholomew's Medical College and senior registrar in general surgery at the Royal Berkshire before returning to Wellington in 1970 as surgical tutor (consultant status) at the Wellington Clinical School and specialist surgeon. He had gained his FRCS in 1966, FRACS in 1971 and MS London in 1974. During his four years in New Zealand he maintained his interest in paediatric, vascular and general surgery and also developed a strong interest in surgery of the head and neck. He established an enviable reputation amongst his colleagues who recognised his particular surgical skill and devotion to duty and this was recognised in his appointment as registrar to the Cancer Consultation Clinic. He made solid contributions to research in the field of human gastric motility and presented papers at a number of scientific meetings in Australasia and the Far East. In 1974 he was approached by the New Zealand Church Missionary Society to consider taking up a post at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMG) and he responded to this call in 1975 despite warnings from some colleagues that he was imperilling his professional career, and the prospect of a drastic cut in salary. Here his previous wide experience proved invaluable as he was able to provide, with others, top level surgical expertise for referrals from the 8,000,000 people in Northern Tanzania. He gained deep respect from both his nursing and professional colleagues and the students he taught. He took active responsibility in a local church and was involved in outdoor activities with the local Mountain Club, in particular pioneering a new route to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in 1978. He became head of the department of surgery at KCMC in 1979 and his surgical skills were quickly recognised at the University of Dar-es-Salaam where he regularly examined the MD and MMed degrees. With others he developed new techniques for the closure of decubitus ulceration in paraplegics and planned a manual of paediatric surgery geared to the East African situation. He was a regular contributor to surgical meetings in East Africa and at KCMC seminars. His family were always important to him. He had married Helen Ardrey of Wellington before his 1966 visit to England and their home was rarely without visitors as they extended warm hospitality to others. The happy chaos provided by his five children was in itself a powerful witness to the Christian faith that had taken this brilliant young surgeon from the security of New Zealand to the uncertainty of East Africa. His final illness was short and totally unexpected. He died of fulminant viral hepatitis on the 27 December 1980 aged 42. His funeral service in Moshi was attended by 600 people and memorial services were held at Wellington Cathedral and in Nelson and Christchurch. He was survived by his wife and their children Michael, Agnes, Rebekah, Charlotte and Caleb.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006590
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Boyd, Alexander Michael (1905 - 1973)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2014-07-14
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005600-E005699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377842377842
Occupation Anatomist General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Alexander Michael Boyd was born on 5 March 1905 and went to school at Haileybury. Even at school team games do not seem to have interested him, but he early developed a liking for shooting and fishing, which harmonized with his somewhat Victorian upbringing at home. His life membership of the MCC meant little to him, but much to the friends who were given his tickets to Lord's. He came to St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and soon distinguished himself by winning the Foster Prize in Anatomy in 1926, and was *proxime accessit* for the Harvey Prize in Physiology. He qualified in 1929 and took the FRCS in 1931, after which he served for two years as a demonstrator of anatomy under Professor H H Woollard and did some useful research into the musculature and innervation of the ureter. In 1934 he joined the Surgical Professorial Unit as a chief assistant, and his remarkable memory for patients' names and their histories gave an early indication of his flair for clinical work. At first he devoted special attention to a study of thyroid tumours and carcinoma of the breast, but from 1936 onwards he began to lay the foundations for his investigations into the pathology and treatment of peripheral vascular disease, which became the dominant interest of his whole future career. Before the second world war interrupted his programme for a time, his skilful use of arteriography had enabled him to classify the varieties of obliterative arteritis according to the particular level at which the disease occurred in the arterial tree. Boyd served in the Emergency Medical Service for the first year of the war, and then in the RAMC both at home and in the Middle East ending up as Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of the Surgical Division of the 63rd General Hospital in Cairo, where he made a considerable impression both professionally and socially, and became an examiner in surgery in the Fuad I University. On returning to St Bartholomew's he generously undertook the direction of the Anatomy Department which was still evacuated to Cambridge and temporarily without a professor, and his influence was much appreciated not only by the Bart's students but even more by the staff of the host department of anatomy. This interlude lasted for six months, and he then returned to the hospital as assistant director of the surgical professorial unit and was appointed by the University as Reader in Surgery, though he was appointed to the Chair of Surgery in Manchester in 1946 before the Readership was due to commence. In Manchester he inherited the department in which Professor E D Telford had established such a reputation for vascular surgery, and this Boyd proceeded to develop still further with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm. He greatly appreciated the collaboration with the basic science departments of the University, but his outstanding contribution stemmed from the careful follow-up of all the patients treated under his direction. He was thus enabled to make an accurate assessment of the value of certain procedures employed in the treatment of well-defined clinical conditions, and he placed greater reliance on such clinical research than upon animal experiments. He thus became convinced of the value of well-tried methods of treatment, and rather sceptical of the innovations introduced by some other surgeons with similar interests. His pre-eminence in his specialty was attested by his election as President of the International College of Angiology, and as senior editor of the journals *Angiology* and *Vascular surgery*. Boyd was a superb teacher both at the bedside and in the lecture theatre, and students flocked to listen to his clear discourses based upon anatomy, physiology, pathology and physical signs, interspersed with amusing anecdotes which fixed facts in their minds. He surprised some of his colleagues by insisting on undertaking his full share of the emergency work of his Unit, and this he did because of the unique opportunities thus afforded for the demonstration of physical signs. It was unfortunate that for his last thirty years he suffered increasing disability from ankylosing spondylitis and arthritis, which limited his ability to take his proper part in meetings of surgical societies, and latterly interfered even with his work at home. It also prevented him from following his great interest in gardening, and in growing flowers and vegetables for competitions at horticultural shows, which gave him much enjoyment. He retired from the Chair of Surgery in 1970 and after further gradual deterioration in health he died, aged 68, on 7 April 1973. He was unmarried.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005659
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Kinmonth, John Bernard (1916 - 1982)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-01-23 2015-05-22
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E006000-E006999/E006600-E006699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/378843378843
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details John Bernard Kinmonth, the elder son and eldest of four children of Dr George Henry Kinmonth and Delia Kinmonth (née Daly), was born on 9 May 1916 in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, Ireland. As a result of the troubles the family migrated to England in 1920 when Dr Kinmonth set up his general practice in Dulwich. After education at Dulwich College Preparatory School and Dulwich College, where he passed the London First MB as an external student, John entered St Thomas's Hospital and qualified in 1938. Appointed as house surgeon there he then became surgical registrar and resident assistant surgeon before entering the RAF medical service as a surgical specialist in 1943 and attaining the rank of Wing-Commander. After war service spent mainly in West Africa he returned to civilian life as a surgical research assistant at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1947. There followed two years as a research fellow in Professor Churchill's department of the Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital. On returning from the USA he became assistant director of the surgical professorial unit at St Bartholomew's Hospital under Sir James Paterson Ross. In 1955 he was appointed surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital and director of the surgical professorial unit there in succession to Professor George Perkins who, though then an orthopaedic surgeon, had set up the unit after the second world war. Kinmonth had to overcome many problems, notably a lack of accommodation in his extensively war damaged hospital, but he always acknowledged the help and support which he then received from Norman Barrett. During the ensuing years he made outstanding contributions to surgery, especially in the peripheral vascular field. However, he was also responsible for setting up the cardiopulmonary by-pass work which he was able to hand on as a going concern to his later appointed cardiac surgical colleagues. In 1962, in collaboration with two colleagues in the United States (Charles Rob of Rochester, New York, a former student contemporary, and Fiorindo Simeone of Boston) he published a combined work on vascular surgery. Presidency of the European Society of Cardiovascular Surgery followed in 1968, and of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain in 1973. He was also Vice-President of the International Society of Cardiovascular Surgery and became an honorary member of surgical and vascular surgical societies and allied bodies in many overseas countries, notably Brazil, Ceylon, Denmark, France, Jamaica, Peru and the United States, and he had been consultant in vascular surgery to the RAF since 1957. But it was for his seminal research and publications on the lymphatic vascular system that he earned international renown though at first many of his colleagues were slow to recognise the practical implications of his work. This brought recognition in the twice awarded Julius Mickle Fellowship of the University of London; the Asellius Medal of the International Society of Lymphology and honorary membership of that society. He had the distinction of being the first Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists in 1975 and became an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1976. He was also a member of the German Society of Lymphology and Freyer Medallist of University College, Galway. During this period he undertook many distinguished overseas lectureships, notably an Arthur Sims Commonwealth Travelling Professorship on behalf of the Royal Colleges when he and his wife visited India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1962-63. He was Arris and Gale Lecturer in 1953 and Hunterian Professor of the College in 1954, and was elected to Council in 1977. During the last thirteen years of his life, intermittently at first and later more persistently, he was dogged by ill health due to recurrent pancreatitis which was long thought to be due to a benign stricture in the main pancreatic duct. He underwent three major operations before the diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma was established by ERCP examination and biopsy. Few but his closest friends and colleagues were privy to all this, but during that period he published his pioneer book on the lymphatics in 1972 followed by a superb second edition a few months before his death. Apart from his outstanding contributions to surgery he was a keen student of music and opera, and also of ornithology and photography. He and his brother had been introduced to sailing by an uncle at an early age; later in life, with his friend Dr Richard Warren of Boston, Massachusetts, he became joint owner of a Block Island fibreglass yawl in which he much enjoyed ocean cruising, a subject on which he wrote several articles. He was a reserved and strikingly handsome man whose guiding professional principles were patience and persistence in the pursuit of excellence. His younger brother, Maurice, also graduated from St Thomas's Hospital before his appointment as consultant plastic surgeon in Leicester. John had married Kathleen Godfrey, a daughter of Admiral W H Godfrey, in 1947 and they had two daughters and two sons, the elder of whom is medically qualified. He faced his last few years with dignity and courage and underwent a fourth laparotomy only a week before he died on 16 September 1982. He was survived by his brother and two sisters and by his wife and children. A memorial service was held in the Priory Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great, 10 November, 1982 and the address was given by Sir Reginald Murley, PPRCS.
Resource Identifier RCS: E006660
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Eadie, Douglas George Arnott (1931 - 2000)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-10-23
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008500-E008599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/380748380748
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Douglas George Arnott Eadie was a consultant surgeon at the London Hospital. He was born on 16 June 1931, the son of Herbert Arnott Eadie, a general practitioner in Leeds, and Hannah Sophia née Wingate. His father died when Douglas was a year old and he was brought up by his step-father, Sir Raymond (later Lord) Hinchcliffe, the celebrated lawyer and Master of the Rolls. Douglas was educated at Epsom College and did his first MB at Queen Mary College, en route to the London Hospital Medical College. An outstanding cricketer and dashing fly-half, he was an ebullient and popular student. He qualified in 1955 and was house physician to Sir Russell (later Lord) Brain and John (later Sir) Ellis, whose confidential reports were as glowing as those of his surgical chiefs - Alan Perry and Gerald Tresidder. He decided early on to follow a surgical career and took a short service commission in the RAMC, where he served in Singapore and Hong Kong as a junior specialist in surgery and incidentally found time to play cricket for the Army. He returned to the London to study for the FRCS, which he passed in 1962. By now his direct and friendly approach to patients and his unusually elegant style of operating had attracted the notice of his peers, among them Hermon Taylor, who was then pioneering vascular surgery at the London. In 1962 he won the Hugh Robertson exchange fellowship to Presbyterian St Luke's Hospital in Chicago, where the department of vascular surgery set up by Geza de Takats could by then boast the triple stars of Julian, Dye and Javid, pioneers of aortic reconstruction and peripheral vascular surgery. This was a turning point in his career: he was impressed by the challenge of this difficult and dangerous speciality - so unforgiving of technical error, and so rewarding to manual skill. After his return to the London Hospital, he was appointed senior registrar to the general surgical firm of Richardson and Blandy. In 1967 he was recruited by David Ritchie as senior lecturer on the surgical unit and given consultant status the following year. His research into transplantation of the thyroid shed light on the enigma of Riedel's thyroiditis and gained the MS in 1969, but his first interests were unashamedly the clinical care of patients. He was appointed to the staff of the London later the same year. Thereafter, while Eadie continued to develop new techniques in vascular surgery, his colleagues continued to refer to him the whole range of general surgery. With his energy, and his direct and kind way with patients, it was inevitable that he would be successful in Harley Street; and like so many of those who work hard in their private practice, he worked even harder for the NHS. He was a popular teacher, and a role model to his juniors, many of whom used his methods to set up first-rate departments of vascular surgery all over the British Isles. Although he published extensively on vascular surgery and surgery of the thyroid, his colleagues knew him best as a painstaking and careful surgeon for whom the patient always came first. It was not long before he was appointed to the honorary staff of King Edward VII, the Royal Masonic, and Osborne House. Influenced by his step-father, he developed an interest in medico-legal matters, and became a highly respected expert witness. He was Chairman of the council and later treasurer of the Medical Protection Society; served on the General Medical Council for five years from 1983, and was master of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in 1990. He married in 1957 Gillian Carlyon Coates, by whom he had two sons, James and Simon, and two daughters, Victoria and Lucy. Dogged by arteriosclerosis, he suffered a series of heart attacks and underwent open heart surgery, but always bounced back in fine fettle. He was acting as ball boy to a grandson when his last and fatal heart attack took place on holiday in the Bahamas on 5 December 2000. He is survived by his wife, children and five grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008565
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Martin, Peter Guy Cutlack (1908 - 1986)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-06-15
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E007000-E007999/E007400-E007499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/379671379671
Occupation General practitioner General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Born in Yorkshire in 1908, the son of a civil engineer, Peter Martin was educated at Malvern College, before studying medicine at Queen's College, Cambridge (1925-28), and Manchester, qualifying in 1932. In the next four years he held a series of junior appointments in the Manchester area, in these years being particularly influenced by Professor E D Telford and Professor John Morley. In 1936 he obtained his Edinburgh Fellowship, and in the following year, in which he married, he settled in general practice in Chelmsford with an appointment as surgeon to Chelmsford Hospital. A keen member of the RNVR, he was called up in 1939, serving as surgical specialist in the Middle East, in England. and latterly in the Far East. He was demobilised in 1945 with the rank of Surgeon-Commander. On returning to civilian life he gave up general practice, but continued his appointment as a surgeon on the staff of Chelmsford Hospital, and it was there, in 1946 that he performed one of the first successful replacements of a segment of artery with a segment of autologous vein, in a young man with an injury to his popliteal artery. Prior to this success Peter was already interested in vascular surgery, at that time a relatively new specialty, principally concerned with the place of sympathectomy in various conditions, in particular intermittent claudication, and in 1947 he was appointed as a part-time senior lecturer in the department of surgery at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, entrusted by Professor Ian Aird with the responsibility of forming a vascular surgery unit. Later on he was appointed as consultant in vascular surgery to Manor House Hospital, but it was the former hospitals, Chelmsford and Hammersmith, which formed the core of his surgical life. A general surgeon with wide interests, as evidenced by his development of the Martin pump, for a period widely used in blood-transfusion, Peter played a full role in the surgical work at Chelmsford, where he was held in great esteem not only for his surgical skills, but also for his kindness and wise judgement. But increasingly vascular surgery became his predominant interest. He was one of the major figures in the development of vascular surgery in the United Kingdom. From his unit at Hammersmith came important papers establishing the association of aortic aneurysm with certain blood groups and with peptic ulceration, but Peter's main contributions were not in such academic aspects of surgery. A capable operator, who preferred simple to complex techniques, essentially practical in his outlook, with an intuitive rather than analytical approach to surgical problems, he made valuable contributions to the operative treatment of aortic aneurysms, but without doubt his most significant contribution was his establishment of the value of the restoration of the flow in the deep femoral vessels by the operation of profundaplasty. Though not a prolific writer, in addition to a number of important papers Peter edited and largely contributed to two widely read books on vascular surgery. Together with Sol Cohen, the first President, Frank Cockett and James Gillespie he was closely concerned with the foundation, in 1967, of the Vascular Society, of which he was the second President. He attracted both to Hammersmith and to Chelmsford not only many international visitors, but also a succession of able young registrars, especially from Australia. An outstanding ambassador for British surgery, he was frequently invited to lecture abroad in America, Australia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He was an honorary member of surgical societies in many countries, received an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and in 1980 he was invited to deliver the Le Riche Memorial Lecture in Heidelberg. A man of splendid physique, Peter was in all senses of the word a large man. Unfailingly gentle and courteous, imperturbable, a tower of strength in all difficulties, capable, whether in the operating theatre or the cockpit of his yacht, of imparting his own self-confidence to others, a man with an enormous gusto for life, Peter had a host of friends in many countries and from all walks of life. It is a reflection of the affection in which he was held by his juniors that following his retirement the Australian surgeons who had worked with him in this country invited, at their expense, him and his wife to visit Australia. Following his retirement in 1973 Peter spent several months teaching in Northern India and Iraq, but with increasing leisure he had more time to devote to his favourite pastime, sailing. An amateur sailor of great ability and resource, over the years he owned a series of yachts which he kept at Burnham-on-Crouch, where he was well-known, and from where he cruised widely to South Brittany, Eire and the Baltic. In his later years he moved to Felsted, where he died on 18 October 1986 predeceased by his wife, Mimosa, by some months. He was survived by his two sons and his grandchildren.
Resource Identifier RCS: E007488
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Partridge, Barry William Oliver (1934 - 2020)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2021-05-04
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Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009900-E009999
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/384552384552
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Barry Partridge was born in 1934 to Annie Louisa Johnson, a secretary, and Cyril Partridge, a builder. With a younger sister, Margaret, he spent the first 4 years of his life on the family farm in Ngaere, Taranaki. The family moved to Te Puke when he was four and he attended Te Puke Primary and High Schools. Barry was keenly interested in music, learning to play the violin and continuing to play through his life. Never eager for school life, Barry left at the age of 15 years to start a building apprenticeship with his father. Commencing his Compulsory Military Training when aged 18, he spent three years in the Medical Corps and this stimulated his following a medical career. While finishing his carpentry and joinery apprenticeship, he began studying for university entrance exams through Hemingway’s Correspondence School – majoring in music and history. Successfully gaining University Entrance in 1955, he attended Auckland University to complete Medical Intermediate and gain entry to Medical School in Dunedin. Barry married Maybelle Garratt, a student nurse, in 1960 and they spent their first year together in Dunedin, as Barry completed his 5th year with Maybelle working in support. He graduated with his MB ChB the next year, being awarded the David Whyte prize in surgery along the way. Barry and Maybelle lived in Hamilton during the next four years where, following two years as a house surgeon, he became a surgical registrar. In 1965 Barry, Maybelle and their three boys - Durham, Ashton and Leighton (born in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively) set sail for the UK so Barry could pursue surgical training. The next year he passed his Primary FRCS in Edinburgh and then 3 weeks later in London he obtained his FRCS Eng. From there, the family moved to Leamington Spa where Barry worked the next two years on the Southern Birmingham circuit in Warneford, Warwick General and Stratford-on-Avon Hospitals. During this time, experience was gained in both general and vascular surgery. In 1968, Barry, Maybelle and their family returned to New Zealand where Barry had secured a position as Tutor-Specialist at Wellington Hospital. Obtaining his FRACS in 1970, he applied for and was appointed to a consultant position at Tauranga Hospital. There he was one of a team of three surgeons providing general surgery services for a large regional population. In addition, he progressively developed a vascular surgery service for the region. He became Clinical Director of Surgery in Tauranga holding this position until his retirement in 2004 and was instrumental in the development of the regional surgical service. He was elected to the RACS New Zealand National Committee and served for 8 years. By nature humble and considerate, Barry was committed to the provision of public hospital service. Already an encouraging teacher, who loved operating, he became a mentor to numerous young doctors as they commenced surgical training. He had excellent technical skills and, one of the generation of General Surgeons who before the now established sub-specialties became the norm, seemed to have expertise in a wide range of fields being equally adept at doing a craniotomy or cracking open a chest and doing an emergency lobectomy, performing a hysterectomy, nephrectomy, or whatever was necessary. He was an avid reader of surgical journals and when traveling in his car, would listen to surgical audio tapes and then discuss them with colleagues. In 1979 the family split, Ashton remaining with his father in Tauranga, and Maybelle, Durham and Leighton moving back to Wellington. Barry devoted his energies to patient care, and in 1981 married Marlene Kilmister, the charge nurse of the A&E Department. Both Barry and Marlene shared a commitment to health care and an interest in music and travel. Marlene died in 2012 leaving an emptiness in his life that was never filled. A wonderful clinician, Barry lived for surgery, and was highly respected in the community. On retirement he received the MNZM in recognition of his contribution to services to medicine. He compiled a book titled “The History of Vascular Surgery at Tauranga” and presented this to the Vascular Society of New Zealand in 2009. In 2013 he joined Rotary in Tauranga and until the time of his death, was a very active participant both as a committee member and through contributing many hours to the annual book sale. He was also a member of a U3A music group and just before his death had led the group in a practical talk on modern classical musicians. But, as his brother-in-law pointed out, medicine was so much his life that even in old age it tended to colour all his conversations. Barry Partridge is survived by his three sons, Durham, Ashton and Leighton, step-children Tracy, Todd and Brendon, sister Margaret, and nine grandchildren, four step-grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. This obituary is based on one published in the *Bay of Plenty Times*, 24 June, with subsequent assistance from Rob Cable FRACS, Margaret Walls and Ashton Partridge.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009955
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Barros D'Sa, Aires Agnelo Barnabé (1939 - 2007)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2007-11-08 2014-07-18
JPEG Image
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E000000-E000999/E000400-E000499
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/372601372601
Occupation Trauma surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Aires Barros D'Sa was a pioneering vascular and trauma surgeon in Belfast. He was born in 1939 in Nairobi, Kenya, into a Goan family. His father, Inaçio Francisco Purifcação Saúde D'Sa, was a civil servant. His mother was Maria Eslina Inês Barros. Aires grew up in Kenya and was educated at Duke of Gloucester School. He originally intended to study medicine in Bombay, but his plans changed following the Indian blockade of Goa, which heralded the end of Portuguese rule there. He went to Queen's University, Belfast, instead, on a scholarship, as one of only a handful of overseas students. He held a succession of junior posts across Northern Ireland, including at the Royal Victoria, Belfast City, Ulster and Lurgan hospitals. From 1975 to 1977 he was a senior registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital, and then spent a year at Providence Medical Center, Seattle. In 1978 he was appointed as a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He quickly stood out for his charm, warmth and humour, thirst for knowledge and superb clinical acumen. A loyal champion for his nurses and junior staff, he fought continually to ensure the best resources for them and for his patients, and had scant patience with red tape. He expected his own high standards to be met: lazy, incompetent staff were not tolerated and rude patients found terrorising nurses were simply wheeled off the ward, not to be readmitted. The Troubles in Northern Ireland reached their height in the 1970s and the Royal Victoria Hospital received the majority of victims. Many required treatment for horrific bomb blast, shrapnel and gunshot injuries. During this time, Aires gained an international reputation for his pioneering use of shunts in the management of complex limb vascular injuries. His surgical technique was unparalleled - his mentor, Sinclair Irwin, said Aires had the 'best hands' he had ever seen - and, aligned with his courage, stamina and coolness under pressure, he undoubtedly saved many lives and limbs. While Aires, along with colleagues, applied impeccable standards of care to all patients, he despised terrorists and had no time for extremists from either side. In recognition of his pioneering work in vascular trauma he was appointed Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1979. Over the next decades he travelled extensively as an invited lecturer, notably in 1983, when he was elected by the James IV Association of Surgeons to represent the British Isles as the 77th James IV Surgical Traveller to North America, Australia and South East Asia. Aires recognised clear advantages in developing vascular surgery as a distinct specialty. In 1978 he initiated the establishment of a dedicated regional vascular surgery unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, only the third of its kind in the UK, and in 1979 instituted a clinical vascular lab. In 1996 he established a registry for vascular surgical patients in Northern Ireland, among the UK's earliest regional databases. It is still in use today. Despite increasing national and international commitments, Aires retained a love of teaching. Students learned from his expertise, not least his exceptional care and thoughtfulness towards patients in pain and anticipating major surgery. As a lecturer, his excellent knowledge of anatomy and dynamic delivery enlivened the driest subjects. Often he would arrive early for lectures and cover the blackboards with superb anatomical drawings. He designed crests for the Ulster Surgical Club and the Joint Vascular Research Group, one of five national and European societies of which he was a founding member. Hugely committed to vascular research, he published extensively, in particular on vascular trauma. He authored and edited three books, including *Emergency vascular and endovascular surgical practice* (London, Hodder Arnold, 2005). He sat on the editorial board of several vascular journals and was a reviewer on many more. The latter years of Aires' career brought many accolades. In 1999 he was made honorary professor of vascular surgery (personal chair) at Queen's University, and in 2000, in recognition of his services to the specialty, he was awarded an OBE. The following year he was president of the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and hosted the annual conference in Belfast. In 2003 he became Deputy Lieutenant of County Borough of Belfast, and in 2005 the Royal Victoria Hospital honoured him by naming the laboratory he had founded 'The Barros D'Sa Clinical Vascular Laboratory'. Health problems prompted his premature retirement in 2001. His final operation was on a young man from South Africa with a large carotid body tumour. A recognised expert in this difficult field of surgery, Aires had one of the largest case series in Europe. He arranged a special weekend slot and successfully removed the tumour after eight hours of surgery. Aires was a true gentleman, a generous friend with an infectious joie de vivre, and a legendary host. His interests spanned politics, literature and the arts; he was an orchestra patron, an environmentalist, and a keen supporter of Irish rugby. Travel remained his foremost love; he and Libby had several global excursions planned for their retirement years. Above all, he was a passionate family man and believed that his life's greatest achievement was raising his four daughters. In his final year, the arrival of a grandson brought him enormous joy. Aires Barros D'Sa died on 29 January 2007 from bronchopneumonia a week after having cardiac surgery. He was 67. He was survived by his wife Libby, a retired anaesthetist, daughters Vivienne, Lisa, Miranda and Angelina, and grandson Tom Barnabé. Lisa Barros D'Sa Paul Blair
Resource Identifier RCS: E000417
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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First Title value, for Searching Reilly, Michael Charles Tempest (1913 - 2000)

2024-05-03T04:07:14Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2015-12-02
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E008000-E008999/E008800-E008899
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381052381052
Occupation General surgeon Vascular surgeon
Details Michael Reilly was born in Sheringham, Norfolk, on 30 August 1913, several weeks post-mature. This procrastination was to be a feature of his life. There was a suggestion that he should be christened 'Fabius', after the great Roman general Fabius Maximus Cunctator, but he was saddled with the family name of 'Tempest' instead, which was the cause of much later embarrassment. He was the third child of six, and the elder of two sons. His father was Hugh Tempest Reilly, a former Oxford history scholar, his mother, Margery née Dunthorne. They were on leave from India when Michael was born, and, at the age of three weeks, he accompanied them back to the subcontinent, a return he had delayed. He spent his childhood in India and learned to love the country both his father and mother served. Most of his friends were the children of members of the Indian staff, with whom he chattered in Tamil. After returning to England in 1919 at the end of the first world war, he spent a year in the care of various relatives and at a small residential school run for children whose parents, like his, worked abroad. During this time he developed sentiments towards aunts akin to those of Saki. In 1921, he went to Amesbury, a preparatory boarding school run by a genius of a schoolmaster, C L Macdonald DSO. There he received the broadest possible grounding, and found to his surprise and delight that he was considered reasonably intelligent. From there he took an open scholarship to Haileybury in 1927. The scholarship papers included Latin and Greek, so inevitably for those days he was put on the classical side, in spite of expressing a preference for mathematics and a desire eventually to take up medicine. He got some minor satisfaction from later gaining higher marks in school certificate mathematics than anyone on the maths side. He won prizes in Latin, Greek and English literature, before eventually being allowed to switch to pre-medical subjects at the age of 18. He spent most of his time at Haileybury in idleness and misery, and attributed any academic success he had there to his preparatory school training. The main lesson he learned was how to survive. From Haileybury he went to St Mary's Hospital Medical School in 1932 with an entrance scholarship. These scholarships were widely believed by other hospitals to be awarded for athletic prowess, at rugby football in particular. Reilly was no athlete, except for some ability at swimming and fencing. Ball games baffled him, but he found at St Mary's that he enjoyed rugby football for the first time, among the lower strata. He enjoyed the freedom and camaraderie of medical student life after the brutal and philistine horrors of public school, and pursued his interests in beer, women and bonhomie to the detriment of his medical studies. He just scraped through his second MB exam, and was too exhausted by the effort to sit for the primary FRCS, which at that time it was possible to take before qualification. He enjoyed his clinical studies, and, during his final year, took the post of clinical assistant in the eye department, which also involved some ENT work. Few students then bothered to enter for clinical prizes, but he felt that with his experience he should enter for at least one - the opthalmology prize. This he did, and was relieved to win half of it, the other half going to a dedicated prize-hunter. During his final year, he was also editor of the hospital gazette and continued for another year after qualification. He found the job genial but demanding. In one issue the editorial, the clinical article, the comic article, the sports reports, the book reviews and the fill-ins, appearing with different initials, as well as the cartoons, were all by him. His taste and judgement were not impeccable, and he sometimes verged on the libellous in some of his verse lampoons. It was not until many years later that he learned from Lord Porritt that he had nearly been disciplined for one of his attacks on the Establishment. It was customary in the 1930s to qualify by taking the conjoint examinations one by one and then take a house appointment, before graduating with a degree. In his final year Reilly took pathology, obstetrics and gynaecology, medicine and forensic successively at intervals of three months. To his dismay he failed at the last hurdle, surgery. There was just time to enter for the London University final examination, at that time taken all together. After three weeks concentrated devotion to his books, he succeeded in obtaining his degree, one of only four from St Mary's in that year. He was informed that he had only just failed to obtain honours in medicine. After graduating in May 1937, and taking a temporary post as resident anaesthetist at St James' Hospital, Balham, he was appointed, after written and oral examination of applicants, house surgeon to the surgical unit at St Mary's. In the process he was pleased to come ahead of the candidate with whom he had shared the opthalmology prize. The Professor was Charles Pannet, and the assistant director Arthur Porritt, later Lord Porritt. Pannet was a meticulous surgeon, an accomplished artist and a gifted teacher, not only of surgery but of the central importance of the patient. His example persuaded Reilly, who had always enjoyed exercising dexterity since childhood in model-making, Meccano, knitting and sewing, that in surgery, rather than in medicine, it was possible to use one's hands as well as one's head. He decided to work for his primary FRCS. Meanwhile, he took opportunities to gain as wide an experience as possible in junior medical and surgical posts in London and the provinces. When the second world war broke out, his natural indolence had prevented him from sitting for further examinations. The outbreak of war was a splendid excuse to avoid any more academic study, rather than enjoyable practical experience, so he joined the RAF. His incidental ambition to learn to fly received a setback when all but regular medical officers were forbidden to 'take their wings'. He served first at fighter command stations in the UK, then for a year as medical officer on troopships to Suez via the Cape and to the West Indies, then in the United Kingdom again, before being posted to the Far East at the time of D-Day. He was station medical officer in Ceylon for a while, where he enjoyed the respect of the Tamil labour force that also came under his care, not only for studying written and spoken Tamil, but also for being able to eat raw green chillies without apparent discomfort. He then took part in the combined operation to set up an airstrip in the Cocos Keeing Islands to cover the Allied invasion of Malaya. Fortunately, the Japanese were by then in retreat or they would have annihilated the expedition, a classic example of incompetent inter-service planning. After six months as senior RAF medical officer in the Cocos, he returned to Royal Air Force headquarters, Ceylon, on the Japanese surrender, and thence took a ship home for demobilisation. Against all the rules, he managed to disembark at Suez and fly to Cairo. While in England 18 months before, he had become engaged to Joy Petrie, who had given up the opportunity of reading English at Oxford at the beginning of the war to train as a nurse at King's College Hospital. She was serving in the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service, and was then in Cairo. They married in Cairo Anglican Cathedral. An attempt was made shortly afterwards to burn it down, and it was later demolished to make room for road works. After returning to England, Reilly worked at St Mary's for two years as an ex-service registrar, during which time he again studied for the primary FRCS. While shopping with his wife, he met a pre-war girlfriend who asked what he was doing now. On being told that he was working for his primary, the friend replied, somewhat to his late-wedded wife's dismay, "You always were, weren't you?" Having finally surmounted this obstacle at the age of 34, he took his delayed MRCS and then the FRCS, which he failed. On his fourth failure he was told not to come back for a year. He was finally successful at his fifth attempt. By that time he had been resident surgical officer at the Royal Bucks Hospital, Aylesbury and, failing any other appointment, a locum in general practice for three months. After that he drew the dole, until he was appointed as a senior registrar to Chester Royal Infirmary in 1950. He found this a salutary experience. He was expected to be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, during which time he held out-patient sessions, supervised the casualty department, and carried out operating sessions, on 'cold' surgery and all the emergency surgery. During one period of 48 hours, he was operating for 25. He dealt with four perforated peptic ulcers on one Sunday morning and completed his 500th appendicectomy. Towards the end of his time in Chester, he was censured before the full hospital management committee in the presence of a child who had Down's syndrome with pneumonia, for refusing to treat the child surgically. He applied successfully for a post as first assistant at the London Hospital, in spite of a threat from Chester to give an adverse report. He had informed the Chester authorities that if they did so they would hear from his solicitor. He had none at the time. He spent four happy years at the London, where he learned most from George Neligan, Hermon Taylor and Clive Butler. It became apparent to him that he was getting long in the tooth and that if he was to have any chance of a senior surgical appointment he should obtain a further higher surgical qualification. He sat the London MS on the last occasion that the written and oral examination was held, in December 1952, before it was awarded by thesis. The examination took place in South Kensington, during the celebrated smog, and Reilly took five hours to cross London, arriving on the first day with five minutes to spare. He was one of the fortunate few to escape the necessity of producing a thesis. In 1954, after it became apparent that as the oldest and most eccentric senior registrar on the suicide circuit he would never attain his ambition of a consultant post at a London teaching hospital, he applied for various vacancies in the district hospitals, finally being appointed in Plymouth. At the time the nearest centres for thoracic surgery were in Cornwall and near Exeter, while neurosurgery and plastic surgery were centred in Bristol, 120 miles away. There was no whole-time urologist either, so general surgeons were truly general. Junior staff were very junior - there was not even a surgical registrar in Devonport Hospital, where he worked, nor a senior surgical registrar in the whole of Plymouth during the whole of his time there. He had to be available for all surgical emergencies during his time on rota until well over 50 years of age. One of his interests was vascular surgery. He had been working with freeze-dried homografts at the London, and brought some down with him to use in Devonport. When these ran out, he made his own nylon grafts, until prefabricated teflon and dacron grafts became available. In addition to general surgical duties, he carried out all the vascular surgery in Plymouth for some years. Another interest was colon and rectal surgery. He conceived the idea of sigmoid myotomy in 1962 and carried out the first operation that year. This procedure gained some recognition abroad and a mixed reception at home. He found the task of writing papers and checking references without the backing of any department so tedious that he never committed any other ideas to paper, but encouraged his registrars, when he had them, to follow up his work if they were interested. He had views on the value of pre-ganglionic sympathotomy as opposed to sympathectomy, which gained some interest 20 years later. His main pre-occupation was the practise of surgery and the care and comfort of patients. In 1972, he gained some notoriety in the media for his outspoken opposition to the retrospective legislation empowering the General Medical Council to impose an annual retraining fee. As a result of this and other stresses, he was admitted to the intensive care ward early in 1973 with suspected coronary occlusion. Earlier he had been persuaded by his colleagues to stand for election to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons. While convalescing on sick leave, he learned to his surprise that he had been successful. There was at that time a movement towards a more widely based representation on the Council. He surmised that his good fortune may have been partly due to this, partly that his name was known in medico-political and proctological circles, and partly to votes from the Indian sub-continent. In the absence of UK applicants loath to sever the umbilical cords binding them to their alma maters, Reilly had always had the pick of juniors from overseas, almost every one of whom proceeded to take their FRCS successfully. On arriving in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Reilly expected to have to storm the Establishment in its ivory tower, waving a flaming sword, but found instead a friendly welcome from a remarkably well-informed and dedicated body of men. When a vacancy occurred for a College representative on the General Medical Council, it seemed to the Council that in spite of his previous activities he would be a suitable choice. The poacher turned gamekeeper. He retired in 1978, having reached the age of 65, thanks to the skill of his medical and surgical colleagues. He underwent, in all, 17 surgical operations himself, many of them major, on most parts of the body, except the cranium. It was believed by some that this was a regrettable oversight. He himself believed that his experiences as a patient helped him to help others. In his retirement, he devoted himself to his lifetime pursuit, the enjoyment of idleness, interrupted by sporadic attempts to write his magnum opus. He had four children, Susan, David, Christopher and Timothy, two of them medical. He had the pleasure of introducing his eldest son to the President on the occasion of the FRCS diploma ceremony. His son had passed first time. He died on 3 January 2000. He had indicated that he hoped to live at least until 1 January 2000, in order to have the pedantic pleasure of pointing out to the ignorant that the 21st century would not begin until 1 January 2001.
Resource Identifier RCS: E008869
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
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